MADE Nepal believes in holistic community development through social mobilization for intervening the following thematic areas

This is the top most component of the MADE-Nepal to address the economic development of the people. Subsistence producers and small farm wage laborers in the rural areas of low-income districts constitute over two thirds of the national poor and food insecure populations. In addition to various idiosyncratic risks, the subsistence farmers confront various structural and transitory environmental and institutional stresses and shocks that frequently make them vulnerable to falling below subsistence thresholds. Arguably, the most significant gains in national poverty reduction can be achieved by interventions targeted at rural livelihoods to address these vulnerabilities. The understanding of local livelihood context, the sources and nature of risks and the coping behavior of the communities and their efficiencies is important for the success of anti-poverty policies because vulnerability is highly contextual to political, social, economic and historical realities of specific places. In this context, MADE-Nepal addresses the role of livelihood diversification on the well-being of subsistence farmers in Nepal. So, diversification of livelihoods is a commonly applied strategy of the MADE Nepal for coping with economic and environmental shocks and instrumental in poverty reduction. Livelihood promotion of the local communities through agriculture, livestock, forestry and off farm enterprises are the general sector adopted by the MADE Nepal.

The policy objective of anticipating and reducing risk is called disaster risk reduction (DRR). Although often used interchangeably with DRR, disaster risk management (DRM) can be thought of as the implementation of DRR, since it describes the actions that aim to achieve the objective of reducing risk. Disaster risk is an indicator of poor development, so reducing disaster risk requires integrating DRR policy and DRM practice into sustainable development goals. Nepal is prone to various types of natural disasters due to her rugged and fragile geophysical structure, very high peaks, high angle of slopes, complex geology, variable climatic conditions, active tectonic processes, unplanned settlement, increasing population, weak economic condition and low literacy rate. Apart from the above reasons, the lack of coordination among agencies related to disaster management, no clear-cut job description of those agencies, resource constraint, the lack of technical manpower, the lack of public awareness, very remote, rural and difficult geo-physical situation of the country, absence of modern technology and so on are other factors are the other major obstacles to cope with the natural disasters in Nepal. In view of this situation, MADE Nepal intervenes its disaster related activities in the affected area in the close coordination with different stakeholders through relief, preparedness, recovery and rehabilitation. In addition to this, DRR advocacy is another tool to address the policy issues by the organization. The system of hazard mapping, vulnerability assessment and risk analysis, developing early warning system, support in making DDRMP and VDRMP, community awareness on DRR, etc will be the major activities under this component.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world in terms of generating employment. Governments of developed or developing countries of the modern world have realized the significance of tourism and are giving top priority to this industry. Tourism has wider implication encompassing not only the economic benefits, but social, cultural and educational benefits as well. Tourism for Nepal no doubt is the only industry, which carries enormous feasibility. Nepal is the mystic land with its opulence in bio diversity is now the most favorite destination among the travelers. Nepal is decorated with the grandeur of nature and fortune despite its small size. Tourism in Nepal holds great potential to establish itself as a means of significant economic activity because of the country’s inherent characteristics such as geographical diversity, unparallel natural beauty, enormous biological resources, distinct cultural heritage, live culture, religious tolerance, and splendid hospitalities and so forth. The small investments in amendments of existing culture and tourism sectors can make great contribution to the nation in earning foreign currencies, enhancing employment opportunities and economic development. The development and expansion of tourism creates new rural employment opportunities in enhancing the living conditions of rural households. In this context, MADE Nepal highlights the ecotourism among other tourism sectors as the best alternative for enhancing economic growth and reducing rural-urban poverty in a sustained manner as more than 85 % of the total land is situated in rural areas with ecological diversities. Both domestic and foreign tourists are the attraction center and emphasized by the organization through establishing home stays in strategic locations to generate the highest number of employment opportunities as it has the highest ratio of investment to employment.

Education can make citizens aware, conscious, intelligent, creative, responsible, independent and hard working. Such human qualities can utilize the means and resources of the country for development. Such quality human resources can bring about positive social changes and promote economic development of a country. The countries of the world are categorized into two groups: developed and developing, based on the level of development. The most important measuring rod for development is ‘Education’. Thus, the development of any country depends upon infrastructure like education. Formal education through enhancing school’s teaching-learning environment and non-formal education through reflect class and adult learning center establishment are the general component under this thematic area. Support in School improvement plan (SIP), scholarship program and early childhood development support are the basic activities in the rural school. Similarly, case wise reflect classes and women literacy are the activities for non-formal education support. Basically, MADE-Nepal prioritizes the activities related to quality education in the community schools through community mobilization, School management committee, Parent-Teachers Association and Child club capacity building.

Through kitchen garden and home garden activities implementation, family nutrition program will be promoted. Similarly, compost making, botanical pesticides preparation and construction of drinking water schemes will be the added program for this.

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Inequality and exclusion results in unequal power relation with the marginalization of one section of the population and denial of rights and access to enabling opportunities. MADE- Nepal thus will strive toward reaching equality between women and men and just practices for the socially excluded population based on caste, ethnicity, geography and origin. Building leadership and breaking a culture of silence will be of importance for this engagement. Initiatives like internship programme and affirmative action during recruitment and career development will support the goal of proportionate representation of women and marginalized groups in both the programme and within the organization. Dedicated programme efforts for women and Dalits will emphasize on the need to address existing inequality, injustice, discrimination and structural poverty based on gender and caste with religious and cultural values. For this it is also important to strategically involve men and non-disadvantaged as a means to an end. Cross cutting efforts will address the burden of unpaid care work for effective representation of women and transform traditional occupations with the integration of new technologies especially for Dalit community. MADE Nepal will be sensitive and conscious in its effort to promote and ensure gender equality and social inclusion. It will monitor programmes, investments and benefit flows assessed by the socio-economic and cultural cohort.

The impact of climate change and environment negatively affects communities, natural resources, local economies and development interventions. Thus, MADE-Nepal with its dedicated interventions to dig deeper on the issue will implement pilot initiatives to establish a culture of safety and bring resilient systemic changes in the field. The organization will implement reconstruction and rehabilitation activities after the earthquake in selected areas, where it had a project presence before. For this it will collaborate with specialist organizations, who have a particular experience in humanitarian aid situations. Cross cutting interventions will support mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and environmental issues in all programmes with the aim to develop adaptive measures related to livelihoods, agriculture production, green jobs, natural resources management and also in relation with equitable access to resources.

Policy advocacy for right based issues of Dalit, women and other marginalized community through networking and alliance building among stakeholders will be done. Based upon the clear guideline, MADE-Nepal implements its issue based activities in the community where awareness and services accessibility are beyond their imagination. Media engagement, policy dialogue, meeting, campaigning are some of the tools of the policy advocacy of the organization.

Transparency, participation and downward accountability are ensured in all operations of both the programme and organizational processes of MADE-Nepal. The organization applies different tools and processes to ensure effective governance, e.g. participatory planning, public audit, public hearing, transparency board and public review with communities. The organization also understands that the lack of effective governance will give space for corruption and unjust, unequal rule of law hampering the entire development interventions. It also realizes that the unheard voices are to be included and meaningfully represented in all local planning and decision making processes directly and indirectly. MADE-Nepal thus will ensure good governance in its programme with both dedicated and cross cutting outcome indicators and thrives to engage improved governance practices within the organizational management and development efforts.