Green Livelihoods Program – Draft Project Framework

As Chennai Resilience Centre enters into the implementation phase of the city’s Resilience Strategy, it recognizes the immense potential of fostering a Green Livelihoods Program centred around urban horticulture/farming that will allow Chennai to directly address multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

At the same time, such a program will be perfectly aligned with the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM)’s emphasis on capacity building and training, employment through skills training and placement, and self-employment program. NULM’s “Innovative and Special Projects” also present an opportunity to foster a Green Livelihood Program through public, private, and community partnerships and create sustainable and scalable livelihood opportunities covering a combination of relevant issues. For instance, it can help with organisation of the urban poor (into SHGs running urban farms, cooperatives selling fresh and processed produce), formulation and implementation of innovative skill development programme (on organic farming, food processing, marketing/branding etc), and provision of support infrastructure (in the form of urban farms, composting units, food processing units, retail shops, equipment manufacturing etc).

Here, CRC presents a draft project framework to highlight the rationale/potential, multiple components, and likely impact of a Green Livelihood Program.