Projects

	Table of Contents
p. 8 of 27 BACK | NEXT Home Frequently Asked Questions Project Background Project Components Subproject Review Livelihood Social Services Community Infrastructure Physical Infrastructure Fiduciary Governance Project Documents Complaint Handling Mechanism and Anticorruption ETESP and the Environment Articles Multimedia Links Contact Us

Livelihood Component of ETESP

The livelihoods sector review for Aceh and Nias was conducted during September and October 2006. A technical review team composed of Satkers, ETESP consultants and BRR personnel reviewed a future for rural areas in Aceh and Nias, not just rehabilitation and reconstruction, but creating a viable, prosperous livelihoods sector, where all families can enjoy their lives free from poverty.

Subcomponents include:

• Agriculture
• Fisheries
• Microenterprises

Read the summary of the livelihoods sector review [ PDF: 35 KB | 4 pages ].

Bina Swadaya - a national non-government organization (NGO) - has been engaged to enhance community consultation and participation in the implementation of the agriculture and fisheries subcomponents and also for the irrigation component. Bina Swadaya's Final Report.

Agriculture

The tsunami disaster washed out a fourth of the cash crop areas and rice fields, taking along with it the livelihoods of about 320,000 farmers and employees and leaving in its wake damages estimated at more than Rp.2 trillion (US$ 200 milion).

To enable farming communities to plan and implement their own recovery, ETESP carried out a pilot program focused on 10 villages in 5 sub-districts of Aceh Besar that developed group-based micro-projects for food crops, livestock, horticulture and tree crops, and mini-proposals for funding.

ETESP's agriculture component aims to restore crop and estate crops on about 30,000 hectares; provide inputs and equipment, and rehabilitate agriculture support services for main food and estate crops.

Read the briefing document on the agriculture component [ PDF: 20KB | 5 pages ].

Fisheries

Fisheries (including aquaculture) was the most severely affected among the economic sectors by both the December tsunami and the March earthquake in NAD and Nias. A high proportion of boats was damaged, destroyed or lost, almost all fishery infrastructure destroyed and aquaculture ponds and cages damaged across a wide swathe of coastline.

With fishery an important economic activity in an estimated 600-700 tsunami and earthquake affected villages in NAD and Nias, and over 100,000 people directly employed in the fisheries sector, the ETESP Fisheries component provides a leading and vitally important contribution to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of this important livelihood and economic sector for NAD and Nias.

ETESP's fisheries component aims to rehabilitate about 3,000 hectares (ha) of fish ponds, build fishing boats and support livelihoods of coastal people through community grants, fisher and farmer training, strengthening of restoration of coastal ecosystems and rebuilding of small-scale fisheries infrastructure. Furthermore, provincial and district fishery services are being restored and strengthened.

• Read the speech.
• Read the briefing document on the fisheries component [ PDF: 277 KB | 5 pages ].
• Visit the Aceh fisheries website*.
• Visit http://www.panglima.net*, a fishermen's website developed under ETESP's program of community-based sonar mapping of the sea bed of the coastal waters of north and northwest Aceh. It host information related to, among other things, local fishermen associations, boats, species, catch data, and current fish prices.

Small and Microenterprise

Aceh's economy has been dominated by family-owned firms, many of them small and most operating outside the formal economy. Most Acehnese households have relied either on agriculture or fishing as the main source of income. A survey estimated that Aceh had around 190,000 micro and small enterprises, each employing an average of 1.8 people. About 80,000 of these businesses, or about 140,000 jobs, are estimated to have been lost due to the disaster.

Micro and small enterprises did not enjoy broad access to financial services prior to the disaster, though some institutional providers of microfinance were operating prior to the tsunami, notably, about 20 village banks, of which at least nine have survived the disaster and resumed limited operations. There has, however, never been a strong institutional foundation for microfinance in Aceh.

To help rebuild livelihoods in the province, ADB and the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, BRR, established the $8.5 million Microfinance Innovation Fund (MIF). A major portion of this fund would be used to capitalize licensed financial institutions to enable them to extend microfinance to the poor in Aceh and Nias.

To jump start the recovery of livelihoods and restart micro enterprises during the early phase of the reconstruction process, ADB signed a $1 million agreement with MercyCorps, an American NGO, in September 2005 to channel small grants to groups and associations of Tsunami victims. MercyCorps disbursed these grants in 45 villages in Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar abd Aceh Barat. For more details, see MercyCorps' Final Report [ PDF: 2,561KB | 40 pages ].

Learn how microfinance is helping rebuild livelihoods.