Nepal’s Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (DFID)

DFID funded support to Nepal’s Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP) 2002- 2013

What role did CIDT play?

The Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP) was a long term bilateral aid programme funded by DFID. Following an international competitive bidding process CIDT was awarded a five-year DFID contract (2008-2013) worth £14.7 million to provide technical, management and financial advisory services for phase two of this programme

Building the team

An innovative partnership was established between the Nepalese LFP programme management and CIDT, which employed a Nepalese programme manager – Vijay Shrestha – and recruited a British technical adviser – Peter Branney – to support him.

Head of Centre Philip Dearden gave time to programme direction and a team of national specialist staff were employed to work with district forestry staff and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Complementing the 130 full-time Nepalese staff, CIDT provided 120 person months of technical support for community forestry, rural livelihoods and enterprise development activities.

Find out more

• Visit the Rupantaran website.
• Visit the Multi Stakeholder Forestry Programme website.
• Contact CIDT Programme Manager Philip N. Dearden.

Related News

• Celebrating 30 years of work in Nepal and 10 years of LFP
• CIDT celebrate honour for LFP Manager Vijay Shrestha

Our Approach

CIDT’s conceptual approach to the LFP was one of building institutional capacity for forest livelihoods. This was started by assessing stakeholder needs, which informed the design of 14 specifically tailored, capacity building and mentoring programmes for over 150 government forestry staff and community groups. These were conducted between 2008 and 2013 to support evolving needs in forest governance and climate change, leadership and management, strategic visioning and poverty reduction.

National staff take the lead

Active programme and financial management support and the overall institutional strengthening approach allowed national staff to remain in the forefront, with the Centre steering to ensure maximum programme efficiency. The Centre ensured effective knowledge transfer at appropriate junctures via technical assistance, and maintained the focus of the LFP firmly on maximising the benefits for the poor and vulnerable. Quarterly support visits helped assure for both quality and performance.

Lesson Learning

CIDT staff and CIDT associates were also involved in facilitating a series of annual lesson learning events and assisting with documenting the many lessons learned from LFP.

Livelihoods and Forestry Programme videos

The following videos give an insight into Nepal and the local people, including the benefits that the LFP programme has bought to the region.

What did the Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP) achieve?

The DFID Project Completion Report states that: this ten year development programme successfully generated employment for over 2.8 million working days annually (of whom 85% were poor or excluded people) and helped lift over 1.3 million people out of poverty in Nepal

In order to ensure long term sustainability at the close of the LFP, the Centre helped establish the first not-for-profit social enterprise in Nepal – Rupantaran, which means “transformation” in Nepali. Today Rupantaran employs many former LFP staff and manages a variety of programmes and consultancy contracts

CIDT’s technical adviser led the design of a ten-year £40 million follow-on programme, jointly funded by Switzerland, the UK and Finland. The Multi Stakeholder Forestry Programme (MSFP) is now being delivered by six large civil society organisations across Nepal, most of which employ LFP staff trained by CIDT.