MCC aims to strengthen the ability of disadvantaged people to make a viable living. A secure livelihood depends on a combination of factors such as personal skills and knowledge, physical assets and social networks, as well as on functioning government institutions, policies and laws.
People use a dynamic and diverse range of strategies to make a living, depending on gender, experience and context, often combining both subsistence and commercial activities. MCC will seek to understand the strategies which disadvantaged people in rural and urban communities use to survive, and to empower them in securing their livelihoods. This will include influencing the policies and structures that prevent disadvantaged people from securing a living.
Capacity-building
MCC wants to enhance the range and strength of the strategies which disadvantaged people can use to make a living by working in all the diverse areas of the socio-economic context and at all levels. For example, we will work in agriculture, community-based initiatives, business development, access to credit, and the management of land and water resource s, so that productivity and livelihoods are sustainable. We will increase access to vocational training and enhance its quality and relevance, so that trainees can gain material benefit and take advantage of available employment opportunities.
Enterprise development
MCC will strengthen the productivity and competitiveness of non-governmental, private-sector or producer-based organisations where this will create employment for disadvantaged people. MCC will support partner organisations that promote e mployees’ rights and the social responsibility of employers.
Resource conservation
MCC will promote the rights of disadvantaged groups to the resources upon which they rely, and encourage the sustainable use of those resources. MCC will work with partners to identify and address the causes of environmental degradation. In some cases, this is caused by disadvantaged people’s own activities but often results from the activities of more powerful groups. Where it is not possible to address the causes of environmental degradation, MCC will work with partners to minimise the damage caused and devise other, more sustainable, ways of securing livelihoods. MCC wil support conservation and environmental education only where these are likely to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged people.