Asia Network for sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB) has received the second prize in the Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project (MIDP) for 2008. The competition with the theme on Natural Resource Management and Development was organized by a Global Development Network (GDN) and the awards were granted to the institution whose project embodies a fresh approach to an important development need and holds great promise for benefiting the poor in developing and transition countries.
ANSAB’s “Biodiversity Conservation through a Community – based Enterprise Approach” was selected as the second best approach for natural resource management and development, from 180 proposals submitted from around the world. Three countries including Nepal, South Africa and Ecuador had been selected as the finalist for the award. Final evaluation for this global competition was made in the GDN’s 10th Annual Conference held in Kuwait form February 3-5, 09. In the finals, ANSAB presented its approach to the eminent panel of judges and audiences present in the conference. The major objective of ANSAB’s “Biodiversity Conservation through a Community- based Enterprise Approach” is to improve the resource management skills of local communities; to integrate villager's subsistence and commercial needs with biodiversity conservation; to assess policy reforms; to pilot forest management certification; and to implement economic interventions through value chain analysis in rural areas of Nepal.
Initial evaluations were carried out through rigorous proposal and onsite evaluation. Following an in-house assessment, two site visits were carried out by an external evaluators, who visited the community based enterprise in Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk districts of Nepal. Intensive discussions and interaction were carried out with the local communities; community forest user groups (CFUGs), local entrepreneurs, poor and disadvantaged groups, and related stakeholders during the onsite evaluations.
ANSAB is the first Nepali organization to grab the Japanese award for Most Innovative Development Project, so far. In an interview given in the GDN’s 10th Annual Conference, Mr. Bhishma P. Subedi, an executive director of ANSAB said that initially it was not easy for the local communities to have patience in the developmental approach. “But through a lot of demonstration effect and initial investment in terms of capacity building and empowerment, we were able to generate benefit for the local people” says Subedi. He further adds “Now within one year of the enterprise development, local communities are making profit in rural districts of Nepal”.
Video interview of Mr. Subedi:
Source: www.ansab.org, gdnet09.wordpress.com