Applied Rural Livelihoods

While these livelihood approaches hold immense potential in enriching our understanding of livelihoods, ironically they have received less attention from policy makers, donors, and development professionals. Bridging the gap between theory and practice will also make the participants field-ready and enable them to add value to the institutions they join right away. Course offerings on rural livelihoods are also yet to figure in the popular online learning platforms. Hence, development students and practitioners are left to sift through a myriad of articles to inform their practice.

In this course we analyze the six rural livelihood approaches namely sustainable livelihoods approach, commons and livelihoods, livelihood trajectories, rights-based approach, graduation approach, and livelihood resilience. In doing so we broaden the scope of the term rural livelihoods to include access to assets, infrastructure, goods and services, strengthening governance, breaking down structural barriers, enabling rights, fulfilling obligations, promoting equitable access to opportunities and freedoms, reducing vulnerability, and safeguarding from shocks and stresses.
The learning outcomes of the course are to:
• Understand the evolution of rural livelihood thinking and its relevance to SDGs.
• Analyze the six livelihood approaches namely DFID sustainable livelihoods approach, commons and livelihoods, livelihood trajectories, rights-based approach, graduation approach and livelihood resilience.
• Enrich development practice by applying and mainstreaming these approaches in real-life situations.

This is a professional course and the knowledge and skills gained can help drive impact at work and also grow your career. You can become field-ready, as this course is tailored to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Young professionals can thus add value to their organizations right away. Several exercises and examples have been included to make the course user-friendly and interesting with lasting learning outcomes.

Module 1: Introduction
Week 1: Introduction and onboarding
Week 2: Evolution of ‘rural livelihood’ thinking
Week 3: The structural transformation
Week 4: Continued relevance of rural livelihoods
Module 2: Assessing the present state of knowledge
Week 5: Sustainable livelihoods approach
Week 6: Participatory rural appraisal tools
Week 7: Commons and rural livelihoods
Week 8: Livelihood trajectories
Week 9: Rights-based approach to livelihoods
Week 10: Graduation approach
Week 11: Livelihood resilience
Week 12: Synthesis of the approaches
Week 13: Synthesis of the approaches
Module 3: Strengthening the knowledge action pathway
Week 14: Applying in existing practice
Week 15: Mainstreaming in existing practice
Week 16: Summing up and way forward

The course will be primarily taught by Dr. Sandeep Tambe, Professor at IIFM. The other multi-disciplinary faculty at IIFM and guest faculty comprising of experts may also be involved in the course to share their rich expertise and experience.

Dr. Sandeep Tambe (stambe@iifmbhopal.edu.in)
• Two decades of experience in managing rural development programmes and in the research and teaching of rural livelihoods
• Selected as the top 25 persons of the year by the Forbes India magazine in 2010
• Conferred the T.N. Khoshoo Memorial Award in 2012
• The livelihood programmes managed by him won the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in 2013 and the National Award for sustainable livelihoods from the Ministry of Rural Development in 2015.
• Conferred state Award for meritorious service by Sikkim government in 2014
• Selected as the Best Faculty at IIFM in 2017
• Published 21 research papers and 5 books

The course will be run in online mode with live lectures delivered through google classroom platform. Reading material and assignments will also be made available through this platform. These classes will be provided live so that participants can interact with the teacher and class discussions are possible. For those who miss a live class, class recording will also be made available.

The course will be run in online mode with live lectures delivered through an online classroom platform. The participants will be able to interact with the teacher and class discussions are possible. Reading material and assignments will also be made available through this platform. For those who miss a live class, class recording will also be made available. Weekly assignments will be provided to enable the participants to apply the concepts learned in class to real-life situations. Select assignments will then be discussed in the next class to strengthen the learning outcomes. So all in all the teaching-learning process will be very intense and focused. It will promote synchronous learning, unlike the routine online courses where recorded lessons are offered.

The course is approved by the Indian Institute of Forest Management, which is an autonomous educational institute of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.

Yes, on successful completion of the course you will receive a verified certificate from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.

Duration: 04th Dec 2021 to 27th Mar 2022 (16 weeks)
Teaching: 2 hour class per weekend, total 16 classes
Participant effort: 5 hours per week (which includes 2 hours of classes, and 3 hours for studying the reading material and assignment work)

By applying online at: https://erp.iifmbhopal.edu.in/iifmapp/web_login_arul

13th Sept, 2021 (Monday). Due to limited seats, participants will be selected on first-come first-served basis. For those who cannot be accommodated, the total course fees will be refunded.

15th November, 2021 (Monday). Only after filling up the registration form and making the online payment of the course fees of Rs 12,000/- the registration will be considered as complete

The total course fees of Rs 12,000/- has to paid online in advance through the enrollment portal.

Sponsored candidates who are nominated by their institutions need to pay the full fees in advance. However for individual applicants we have now permitted the payment in two installments. This has been done to accommodate the queries requesting for allowing the payment of course fees in installments. Accordingly, in order to make the course offering more inclusive and student-friendly, the following change in the payment mode is now approved:
- 1st installment of Rs 6000/- to be paid at the time of registration, i.e. before 15th Nov, 2021
- 2nd installment of Rs 6000/- to be paid within 2 months i.e before 31st Jan 2022
This decision has been made taking into account the convenience of the student community. Those wanting to pay the total course fees in one installment of Rs 12,000/- can still be able to do so. It will take a few days for this change to be reflected on our enrollment website. A first-come-first-served basis will be used to enroll the participants.

Graduation certificate, Photograph (jpeg format) and Signature (jpeg format)

Shortlisted candidates will be informed over email by 25th November, 2021.

On 4th December, 2021

Cancellation requests received before 25th Nov, 2021 will be processed for refund, barring a Rs 1000/- processing fees.

We will be glad to assist you in your enrollment and course related queries. You are most welcome to contact us over phone be 11.00 AM and 5.00 PM on weekdays. Alternatively, you can reach out to the enrollment team any time through email.
Please feel free to contact us at: Email: arul@iifmbhopal.edu.in
Phone: Manager Academics 0755- 2763466 (direct)
Web: www.iifm.ac.in/arul
Postal: Indian Institute of Forest Management, Nehru Nagar, P.O. 357, Bhopal, PIN 462003, Madhya Pradesh