Restoration as a community-led project
At World Vision we have been working towards a more inclusive and community-led approach to landscape restoration and food systems. We believe that making these activities more community-led will ensure more diverse community perspectives are captured – including community members with disabilities. To support this we have developed guidance called ‘Growing Disability Inclusiveness in Agriculture’
What are you currently advocating for?
Broadly speaking we are advocating for a change in the way agriculture, environment and climate programmes are designed. We would like to see a shift away from top-down programs where a narrow set of restoration or agricultural activities are programmed. Our hope is that these projects will be more community-led and that the voices of women, people with disabilities, young people and other marginalised groups will be captured in the project design stage and throughout the lifecycle of the project. The Regreening Communities approach we have developed ensures that communities create their own vision and goal for how they want their environment to be in the future and that they collectively work to select the right solutions to achieve that goal. This means that people with disabilities can advocate and say whether a restoration or agricultural practice will or won’t work for them.
From your perspective, what is currently lacking to improve conditions for people with disabilities in agricultural supply chains?
We know that stigma and discrimination are still big factors resulting in the exclusion of people with disabilities from agricultural supply chains.
This could include inability to own land, an inaccessible route to get to the market to sell a product or exclusion from cooperative community structures. Many of our projects take a twin-track approach where we include specific activities that look at breaking stigma towards people with disability or providing mobility aids so they can attend community meetings.
One surprising discovery we found while putting together our guidance was that other organisations are discovering new methods for making an agricultural intervention more inclusive and/or accessible – but that the information isn’t being shared widely. This might be because that organisation is very small, or because there isn’t budget for translation or verification of methods. We believe more knowledge sharing needs to happen to ensure these innovative practices can reach more people.
Examples of some of the grassroots initiatives, that you are supporting.
In the Solomon Islands there is a small mangrove restoration project we are supporting. Within this group there are several members with disability engaging in the project - including. For years, he has witnessed the erosion of the shoreline, rising sea levels, and the decline of local biodiversity. Troubled by these changes, Ben began to wonder how he and his community could effectively combat these challenges. Fuelled by hope and determination, he set out on a mission to explore potential solutions that could restore their environment and improve resilience against climate change.
Ben and his group began their restoration work approximately four years ago with limited resources and without any support from organizations or local government. In 2023 World Vision offered their support with trainings that were accessible and encouraging an experimental approach to mangrove restoration – based on each person’s time, skills and availability. With the support of World Vision, Ben and his peers have had access to numerous trainings in mangrove restoration, conservation and related areas. Additionally, they have received the necessary resources to support and enable their work. As a result, their group has made significant strides, successfully covering a large area with newly planted mangroves.
"I have been invited to conduct a mangrove planting demonstration and speak at the Loina community near Sulagwalu. I now possess the confidence and skills to assist other vulnerable communities in engaging with Nature-based Solutions, thanks to the WVSI project team. This is a proud moment for me, especially as a person living with a disability." - Ben
Detailed insights are provided in the case study published in January 2025 on the work of Ben and his team to restore the mangroves on the Solomon Islands.
How do you foster collaboration among stakeholders?
Our Regreening Communities model features a root cause analysis activity which is often where community members see that their unique problems may have the same root cause. For example, in Kenya we have seen that pastoralists who are seeing a lack of grass and farmers who are seeing low crop yields are both impacted by vegetation loss and deforestation. Finding an issue is caused by the same problem, and working towards a united vision for the future, is one of the ways we foster collaboration among stakeholders.
