International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Climate change poses urgent risks, especially for vulnerable communities. Social protection programs, traditionally focused on poverty alleviation, now play a crucial role in building climate resilience.

People migrating to escape slow onset climate disasters like drought are two and a half times more likely to experience trafficking or modern slavery than those people fleeing rapid onset disasters like floods or cyclones, according to new research conducted in two states in India by IIED.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is one of the largest social protection programmes in the world, providing guarantee of income to some 55 million people every year.

This paper from the gatekeeper series of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) describes the potential of an innovative rice cultivation practice-the system of rice intensification (SRI)—for allowing Indian rice farmers to not only enhance rice production and their net incomes, but also to solve the water crisis.

It investigates the difficulties they face and emphasizes the need for better integration of groundwater in the planning and management of urban water resources.

The report presents field experiences and lessons in developing Incentive-based Mechanisms (IBMs) for watershed protection services and improved livelihoods at micro and macro-scales, derived from an action-learning project in India at three locations in the states of Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP).

An inter-village transaction was facilitated at one site (the Kuhan micro-catchment in HP), while at the second site (Suan micro-catchment in HP) a transaction failed to materialize despite initial interest. At the third site in MP, there was interest in undertaking a transaction between the city of Bhopal and the catchment of its lake, the Bhoj Wetlands. 

The action research has yielded insights into the role of hydrological information, types of incentive mechanisms, the importance of institutions and the implementation of IBMs.

The study is based on a scoping study on ‘Developing Markets for Watershed Protection Services and Improved Livelihoods in India,’ which Winrock International India (WII), New Delhi, undertook as part of a larger international study being carried out by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London.