Yunnan & Guizhou Regional Program

Summary

HPI China's first program in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, a microcredit pig-raising project, began in October 1999 in Lancang County , Yunnan . Since then, the HPI Yunnan-Guizhou program has already spreaded to six project sites scattered in five Yunnan counties, Lancang County, Deqin County, Shangri-la County, Lijiang Yulong County, and Songming County, as well as Xingyi City in Guizhou Province. Programs in operation include: Lancang Microcredit Pig Raising Project, Mekong River Watershed Model Project, Tibetan Area Animal Raising Holistic Development Project, San Zhuanwan Cattle Project, Majun Village Miao Ethnic Group Village Livestock Development Project, Xinyi Leprosy Project, and Yunnan Ethnic Group Community Holistic Development Project. By December 31, 2004, the number of recipient households totaled 1,877, with recipient households comprising a number of ethnic groups including Han, Lahu , Wa , Hani, Tibetan, Lisu, Pumi, Naxi and Miao.

Yunnan-Guizhou Program Characteristics

Holistic Community Development
The Yunnan-Guizhou program is based on livestock development and the simultaneous preservation of natural resources. The program carries out holistic community development, providing every kind of service to improve the standard of living among project participants on many levels. Holistic community development primarily consists of: solving the problem of access to drinking water for people and animals, paying attention to attitudes about gender equity, capacity-building among women, community team-building, focusing on community health and hygiene, fostering skilled animal raising leaders, developing a community program management system, developing and managing a program information delivery system, developing a livestock product market, and protecting minority cultures and the environment. The ultimate aim of holistic community development is to increase community capacity for self-reliance and to ensure the sustainability of the program.

High Household Participation
From the initial community survey and project plan to project monitoring and assessment, households actively participate throughout, offering their own ideas and suggestions about project development. Recipient households are the core of project development and only with their involvement in the project implementation process will the project have the ability to truly succeed in accomplishing its objective.

Capacity-Building
The program especially emphasizes training in capacity-building for recipient households. Through participating in this type of program management training, households have a greater capacity to discover and solve problems; through technical training and organizational development training, households develop stronger skills in animal-raising and have a greater capacity to sustain the program.

Emphasis on Sustainability
Giving a person a fish is not as good as teaching them how to fish for themselves. Project sustainability comes from two aspects: the first is, after "passing on the gift," recipient households develop the capacity to increase their incomes through animal-raising; the other aspect is, through community organization-building, the program fosters community leaders and community-level veterinarians to formulate program management guidelines . After the program ends, a community organization or association can carry on the project management, helping others who are still in need of help.

Environmental Awareness
By holding trainings on the relationship between natural resource management and environmental protection, the program raises the consciousness of recipient households about the responsibility of good environmental stewardship, as well as economic development.