Establishment of Livelihood Support Institutions in Africa

The Livelihood School is engaged in the processes of establishing livelihood support institutions like the School  in African countries, viz Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Mozambique. Considering the reasonable success of the School in India, the Ford Foundation made a request to the School and awarded a contract to take up this task in partnership with its partner organizations in these countries. Ford Foundation has been a supporter of the Livelihood School, from its very beginning and thought its replication in Africa would be useful to provide necessary support services for organizations engaged in livelihood support/promotion in Africa.

The School organized a week long exposure visit to its programs in India for a team with the representatives of Ford Foundation and its partners in East Africa and South Africa. The team could take a close look at the knowledge processes and outputs, and interact with the client/partner organizations of the School. In this April the School teams undertook a Scoping Study in the four countries. The study established the Scope for setting up of Livelihood Schools  in all the countries. The study besides indicating the nature and functions of the proposed institutions provided a few options in terms of the structure and positioning. A consultative workshop on the way-forward considering the report and observations of the Scoping Study.

A Livelihood School (or equivalent) would be set up to provide necessary knowledge support services for organizations engaged in livelihood support/ promotion in Africa.  However, it was felt that it would be better to start four Livelihood Schools in the four countries which can be federated into a larger East and South Africa Livelihood School, instead of starting one Pan-Africa or an East and South Africa Livelihood School. Each of the Schools would be ‘Nested’ by an organization in each of the countries, for a period of about three years, like what BASIX did with the Livelihood School (India).  The nesting organizations will be chosen through a consultative process by a group of relevant organizations in each country. A task group was constituted with representatives from each of the countries and the Livelihood School in India.

• Country Level deliberation will be organized in each of the countries.
• Plan for support from the Ford Foundation and/or any other donor, will be prepared by the end of July 2011 by the Task Group.