Adaptation to Climate Change for Co-existence with the Semi-Arid
To promote the development of family farming, taking as a starting point local knowledge which enable farmers to immerse into the reality they belong, and to get to know the potential and limits of the region as a support for creation and innovation of social technologies that make possible to the families to better adapt to the local reality, in better coexistence conditions with the semiarid reality, generating sustainable living.
About You
About You
First Name
Jose
Last Name
Dias
Facebook Profile
http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/profile.php?id=1262477833
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Centro de Educação Popular e Formação Social - CEPFS
Organization Website
Organization Phone
55 83 3472-2449 83 3472-2276
Organization Address
Rua Felizardo Nunes de Sousa, 07
Organization Country
Brazil
Country where this project is creating social impact
Brazil
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Adaptation to Climate Change for Co-existence with the Semi-Arid
What change do you want to bring to the world?
To promote the development of family farming, taking as a starting point local knowledge which enable farmers to immerse into the reality they belong, and to get to know the potential and limits of the region as a support for creation and innovation of social technologies that make possible to the families to better adapt to the local reality, in better coexistence conditions with the semiarid reality, generating sustainable living.
What are the primary activities of your project?
The organization has, through its trajectory, developed an extensive menu of social technologies for human development. Its focus is on efficiency of natural resource management, in small farms, with its activities focused on family farming. Its work combines training and social mobilization (community organization and engagement) with the production and dissemination of innovative and low cost solution in areas such as water management and eco-friendly agriculture. The CEPFS has an experimental area where social technologies are developed, always with the full participation of families who will benefit from the knowledge gathering. Then it takes the developed technologies for communities and works to adaptation and implementation along with local stakeholders. In a crucial step towards sustainability, CEPFS advises the communities’ organizational bodies in the implementation of collective governance mechanisms are the prime example are rotating solidary funds. The CEPFS serves nowadays 5,670 family farmers in 39 communities from the cities of Teixeira, Matura, Desterro, Cacimbas and Princesa Isabel, in Paraíba. The CEPFS thus has a diverse portfolio of developed solutions, which were widespread and improved in the communities from the territories where it works and which can integrate longer-term strategies for local development in other territories, not just in Paraiba, but throughout the Northern East Semiarid, in other parts of Brazil and the World.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
The methodological focus provokes in the participants a proactive approach, aiming to increase representation in public policy and investment programs through the development of political skills and leadership training in rural communities, combining training activities with structuring actions on the family farming properties. Boarded water tanks are designed considering specific physical and climatic conditions of the territories, pumping systems adequate to include the whole family in the management structures (pump hoop-trampoline), systems for capturing rainwater on roadsides, paved tanks, systems to increase irrigation efficiency, systems for qualification of drinking water and devices for reducing wasteful water use in production (tanks with buoy systems for washing the roof). Families’ technical training for technologies implementation and management. This means producing and disseminating feasible and effective technologies and strategies for coexistence with the environmental reality of the Semiarid, creating opportunities and providing solutions to the region challenges so that local people can improve without having to migrate to other territories. Social business is not just the financial return. There is an appreciation, above all, of the human.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
The State of Paraíba is one of the poorest in the Northeast and in recent decades has undergone through a rapid urbanization and an intense migration from rural to urban areas. (71% of the population lives in urban areas and 29% in rural). Agriculture has suffered crises and challenges beyond those imposed by the semi-arid climate, for example, the crisis in the production of sisal and cotton due to the widespread use of synthetics and also the incidence of pests (Marx Prestes Barbosa).
The Paraiban Semiarid has 170 cities and a land area of 48,785.33 km2 (accounting for 86.22% of the territory of the State) and a population of 1,971,298 inhabitants (representing 57.24% of the state population). According to UNICEF report (2005), 70% of children in Paraíba live with families qich monthly income is of R$ 150.00 ($100). Studies show that the desertification process in the state can cover about 70% of its territory. 49% of rural population uses wood for cooking and 70% of men and women farmers do not believe in the forecasts.
CEPFS programmes are focused on family farmers. Most have small plots of land ranging from 02 to 08 ha and family income hoopund R$ 90.00 per month. Products from agriculture mostly are intended for the family own consumption, when there is harvesting, and only a small part, called the surplus, is sold to cover some other families’needs. Water for human consumption and house using is women’ responsibility and, during drought periods, they go from 08 to 10 km in order to get water, generally of poor quality.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
As the son of family farmers which has no access to credit and deprived of financial resources, the founder experienced the sad situation in which families lived in the Semiarid due to weakness in the properties infrastructure to adapt to climate change. However, he also had the opportunity to live and be part of solidarity expressions practiced by families as thanks to friends’ help he managed to complete a Higher Education course, something that at the time, it was almost impossible for farmers’ children. He joined other students from a student union and founded and organization to promote the farmers, starting from local knowledge gathering, to create and innovate social technologies that would allow families to better adapt to the local reality, with better conditions of coexistence with the semiarid reality, creating sustainable living. In 2007 he went through a selection process and, in July 2008, he joined the network of Ashoka social entrepreneurs in order to give greater visibility to what he was developing and continuing the improvement of local potentials taking the local knowledge gathering as a starting point as a support for development of social technologies that can change the local and global social reality in sustainable way.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
5670 people with the capacity to store approximately 15,120,000 litres of drinking water by building 945 cisterns; construction of 199 tanks with direct support of the Solidary Rotating Funds, enabling the storage of 3,184,000 litres of drinking water; Mobilization and training of 505 men and 386 women in the control of governmental policies; creation of 23 community seed banks with storage capacity of 25,922 tonnes; Encouraging reforestation and restoration of environmentally degraded areas through the production of 6,500 seedlings (fruit and forest); Construction of 37 tanks with a social technology buoy system to wash the roof, an experience that improves the drinking water for human consumption; Implementation of 02 processing units of native fruit, through the extraction of pulp, benefiting 10 families and a total of 60 people - 25% average increase in family income benefit directly, 100% of recipient families are adopting new management practices for natural resources from the educational process driven by social technology, reduction of waste of fruit in 100% of families benefited directly with social technology. Today only the damaged fruit is lost (pecked by birds) or cannot be harvested, an increase in income of 25 families of beneficiary communities and surrounding areas through the purchase of their products (fruit). The project worked directly in the year 2010 with 1,642 people, members of family farmers. Since its beginning, the project has benefited 47,819 people in 05 cities: Teixeira, Matura, Desterro, Cacimbas and Princess Elizabeth. There are 39 communities with about 1,200 families, all working with the dynamics of the Solidary Rotating Fund.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Innovative technologies already developed, such as the buoy system to wash the roof, the water pump, hoop-pump water trampoline and trampoline have in the geographic area of the organization a broad population to benefit from them. They are social technologies that can be attached to cisterns that families already have to facilitate the process of managing rainwater for human consumption. To expand into new sectors, the strategy is to share as much as possible what is already being developed to create new opportunities with new audiences and also attract new funding partners.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The main barriers are financial in nature; communications to give visibility to the experience and workforce training for the development of innovative social technologies in large scale. However, it is noticeable that the biggest barrier is financial, because the others can be mitigated by obtaining support for communications development, mobilization and people engagement for the development of social technologies. For such a portfolio is being planned showcasing the experience and marketing it to civil society, government and business community to raise awareness and attract new funding partners.
Tell us about your partnerships
They ensure that the processes are complementary. Every initiative should be considered as a procedure, and hardly a single organization, as much complete as the offered products are, can cover all the social demands, so there is need for complementarity. Another relevant point is the optimization of financial and human resources with a common vision that is to meet participants’ needs. For example, actions in the area of water resources, focused on servicing the needs of human consumption, even addressing the educational part in workshops or courses of water management, it is necessary that these contents are sustainable, can be worked continuously by segments: health, education, city, states and federal governments, spaces that dialogue, with the population, with children, youth, etc. As a result they can take a leading role in the education process so that the technologies can be owned by the beneficiary families as a component of local development. Another important example: the role that community associations have in the process of social mobilization of beneficiary families. If the organization had to develop all processes, the financial cost would be very high, making impossible the implementation of actions and ultimately reducing significantly the number of families benefited directly.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$100,000‐250,000
Explain your selections
The organization is still heavily dependent on financial support from external partners. Families, by paying back to the Rotating Solidary Funds, play an important role in the sustainability process. The resources handled by the Funds are managed by the communities themselves, so the resources in relation to the budget of the organization, are considered intermediate, i.e. are part of the project; they make possible that part of the actions are developed, but the management is done by the communities themselves. The systematic data in relation to this component shows that in the period 2003 to 2010 R$ 338,294.31 were dealt with, coming from 34 communities and 837 households participating. With this amount, seventy-seven types of needs received financial support in a flexible dynamic management that allows priorities to be elected by the fund payers or custodians. The other part to support the actions comes from international NGOs (Trócaire Ireland) and from foundations, also international, for example IAF Inter-American Foundation - U.S., Brazil Foundation with offices in Rio de Janeiro, but with funding raised in the United States.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
The search for new partners is a goal of the next three years. It is expected to win every year a new partner so that the end of the next three years we will have three new partners. With the government there is a great barrier in terms of legislation. Government legislation was designed for a government to government relationship, therefore, the relationship with civil society (third sector) is still complex. However it is evaluated as a potential partner, so that should be prioritized by the organization in terms of engagement for future partnerships. Another important segment for partnerships is private companies, although few initiatives have been developed, due to organizational boundaries in terms of a broker with expertise in the area. There is, however, an initiative aimed at planning a portfolio with summary of actions taken by the organization to be disseminated to private and civil society in order to attract new partners that can lead to the strengthening of financial experience allowing its expansion to other regions.
The main strategy will focus on dissemination of actions results and impacts already undertaken in order to mobilize new and important segments of cooperation for local development, noting that the experiences that have been developed are crucial for the adaptation of families in the semiarid region to climate change which could prevent the region to become an arid region.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of efficiency
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Lack of visibility and investment
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
The focus is the leadership role of experiment farmers, from the gathering of local knowledge as a tool for innovation in social technologies. The emphasis of local knowledge as instrument for achieving efficiency. A second focus is on the lack of training/qualification as an important component for the progress of important insights and innovations resulting from ongoing experiments. The meeting of local knowledge and its interaction with other knowledge and experience enables the deepening of solutions for the semiarid region. The lack of visibility and investment is evident from the exercise in the process of improving knowledge.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Multi-country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
To expand the experiences of buoys to wash the roof in the process of capturing rain water and water pump hoop-trampoline or trampoline, as tools to improve drinking water and facilitate the process of collecting water from cisterns without contamination by focusing directly on the health of families, from the perspective that these tools are absorbed by public policy, most likely to care for rural populations of the semiarid. It carriers on the initiative of the productive allotments as a way of improving production in the homes vicinity, improving food and nutritional security, generate income and balance in climate.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
The contribution from NGOs and non-profit organizations has been essential and allows the innovation to happen as a result of procedures for promotion of local knowledge through interaction with other knowledge. Moreover, Academia/University professors have made an important contribution in the process of dissemination of innovations through students exchange visits to learn about the experiences. There is exchange of information that promotes the improvement of the innovations and opens up dissemination channels for the experience within the university and to other communities and region starting from the product (new knowledge).
 | 52 weeks agoWagner Gomes said: Parabens Zé!!! O trabalho do CEPFS é uma referência para conviver com semiárido. about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 52 weeks agoNidhi Chaudhary said: Parabéns, José Dias, por ser um dos vencedores do prêmio por inscrição antecipada deste Desafio! Estamos honrados e emocionados em tê-lo ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
