TDA-IME Project Final Report June, 2013 the most desirable outcome was for the project to help build trust between local government agencies and the local communities (project beneficiaries). In some projects, most notably in Thailand, creating solidarity among several involved communities helped attract greater government support. All of the above experiences and lessons learned agree well with the general guidance on the best approaches to achieve poverty reduction provided by various donor organizations and NGOs. The DFID guidelines (see text box below) are still among the most appropriate as an approach to improving the livelihoods of poor coastal dwellers. People-centered Approach to Poverty Reduction (DFID, 1999) The livelihoods approach puts people at the centre of development. This focus on people is equally important at higher levels (when thinking about the achievement of objectives such as poverty reduction, economic reform or sustainable development) as it is at the micro or community level (where in many cases it is already well entrenched). At a practical level, this means that the approach: • starts with an analysis of people’s livelihoods and how these have been changing over time; • fully involves people and respects their views; • focuses on the impact of different policy and institutional arrangements upon people/households and upon the dimensions of poverty they define (rather than on resources or overall output per se); • stresses the importance of influencing these policies and institutional arrangements so they promote the agenda of the poor (a key step is political participation by poor people themselves); • works to support people to achieve their own livelihood goals (though taking into account considerations regarding sustainability). Sustainable poverty reduction will be achieved only if external support (i.e. support from outside the household) works with people in a way that is congruent with their current livelihood strategies, social environments and ability to adapt. People – rather than the resources they use or the governments that serve them – are the priority concern. Adhering to this principle may well translate into providing support to resource management or good governance (for example). But it is the underlying motivation of supporting people’s livelihoods that should determine the shape of the support and provide the basis for evaluating its success. Awareness, Education and Communication This section deals with the transfer of data, information, ideas, opinions and experiences between individuals and institutions within society; between organizations; and between countries. Because the terminology is often used imprecisely, the following definitions (see text box below) are provided (based on MFF, 2011). In addition, local knowledge (or traditional wisdom) is defined as knowledge, ideas and beliefs accumulated in the community, derived from people’s experiences and their adaption of external knowledge, used to live in harmony with the existing area and resources, and transferred from generation to generation (Tanawat and Boonplod, 2012). Some of the key underlying causes of mangrove loss and degradation relate to low awareness of the environmental and economic services that mangroves provide, compounded by poor communication between the holders of scientific knowledge, policymakers, the private sector and traditional coastal resource users. These diverse stakeholders require different forms of data and information, and they obtain their information and communicate in quite different ways. Scientists communicate their research findings, including highly technical data, in academic journals that are not usually accessed by nonscientists, or at scientific conferences. Policy-makers and the private sector use other formal, 79 but distinct, communication channels.
Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis of Indochina Mangrove Ecosystems
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