Income-Generating Activities - Action Against Hunger

Field handbook • Scientific and Technical Department
• Economic or financial
Even if it sounds redundant, interventions in the field of income generation have
to be studied from an economic point of view. It is necessary to evaluate the investments
and the potential profits of the activities. Activities should never be
proposed if their income earning potential has not previously been analyzed.
The economic yield or financial results must cover the running costs of the IGA,
while leaving the beneficiary population with an income.
• Technical
Income generation depends on certain technical processes that must be suited
to the reality of the zone. In the same way extensive sheep breeding would not
be promoted in a livestock programme if there is a problem with deforestation,
neither would a project promote a product for which no comparative advantage
exists for local production (for example, a product that arrives to the local market
from other zones with a price that local producers cannot offer because of
higher production costs), or services for which there is no demand.
The proposed techniques should be within reach of the population from the point
of view of training and education as well as in terms of the necessary inputs to
put these techniques into practice. The availability of all the inputs as well as
the vulnerable population’s access to them must be verified. In the case of working
with refugees or displaced people, the ability to replicate the activity in
their zones of origin must be taken into account.
III.II. Complimentarities with other programmes
The income generating activities can and should be complimentary with other programmes,
thus reducing the risks of duplication 11 , encouraging transversality 12 and
possibly increasing the impact.
Example 8: Complimentary factors between IGA and water and sanitation activities
in Indonesia
Indonesia was one of the countries most affected by the tsunami of December
2004. After a rapid assessment in the tusnami affected zones, ACF began an emergency
intervention and later a rehabilitation project.
11
Duplicating the same activities and efforts with the other actors in the zone.
12
The organisation specializes in four areas: nutrition, health, water and sanitation, and food security.
INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES: A KEY CONCEPT IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SECURTIY
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