Project MILIP

Mugu ranks low in the Human Development Index (HDI) and development indicators, such as health, education, lifespan, child mortality, adult literacy, and food production in the country. The district has been affected by severe food crises, especially during the winter. Add a lack of roads, electricity, higher education opportunities, drinking water and health facilities and you know that life is tough in Mugu. The project has persistently pursued to improve the livelihood of the marginalized people through food security and improved health in the 3 Village Development Committees of Mugu’s Khatyad belt.

Food and economic independence
The focus is on improving the food and nutrition status of targeted communities. Furthermore, water, sanitation and hygiene components have also been included since 2010 to address the safety in these areas. Main objective of the project is to make the people of Mugu economically independent, to help them cater the food scarcity by providing them income generating opportunities. A total of 22,161 people of Mugu will eventually benefit from this project.

Self-help groups
Together with the International Nepal Fellowship, ICCO implements the project in accordance with the GAP model (Group Action Process). Added value of GAP is to organize people from marginalized communities into community based self-help groups. The idea is to strengthen their organizational capacities, to extend the organization into a village development committee and district levels and to link them with relevant stakeholders. Then the community people can take part in development issues that affect their everyday lives.

This project identifies opportunities to initiate a value chain of local products and to actively set them in motion. It is also an example of a shift in the intervention strategy of ICCO Nepal; from grants based on a co-investment model.