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The following discussion summarises the basic premises and key features of this new approach.

Despite policy pronouncements to the contrary, the commitment of most governments and public bureaucracies to creating the much discussed 'enabling environment' for the informal sector and the poor in general remains limited. Partnerships with the state are frequently possible but, ultimately, the poor and disadvantaged can only transform their livelihoods by directly challenging unequal and exploitative social relations. This requires concerted political action.

Promoting an effective process of skills development among the poor is fundamentally different from other groups in society. Conventional training inputs can, in fact, seriously undermine skill development among the poorest and most disadvantaged. In the main, training for the poorest groups must be for immediate specific work needs.

Lack of knowledge and skills is not, however, usually the most critical problem for the poor since most already have the necessary survival skills. The views of de Soto and his followers have been particularly influential. They argue forcefully that "the main constraint is not lack human capital but the impediments put in their way by state policies and practices"(Harper, 1996:107). An inability to access credit on reasonable terms is one of the most serious of these impediments. More traditional approaches have regarded training as a prerequisite in order to provide the poor with skills that can then be utilised through the provision of credit. The new approach, on the other hand, effectively reverses this traditional sequence of 'training and then credit'. Given that the key skills are already available, credit is the most critical input precisely because it "releases the potential contained in these (indigenous) skills" (Kabeer, 1994:230).

The poor do not need, therefore, to be 'trained' by outside instructors. They can manage their own process of skill development largely through their own efforts. Local people have developed a wide range of skills that enable them to develop effective coping strategies at both the household and community levels. "Poor rural women are experienced and knowledgeable managers of their local environments in need of material assistance from governments rather top-down 'education' instructions" (ibid:265). However, these indigenous knowledge and skills are rarely recognised and acknowledged by 'outsiders' who seek instead to introduce inappropriate technologies and other improvement strategies which are based on simplistic notions of top-down skills transfer using conventional training techniques.

In certain key respects, therefore, this new approach also draws heavily on farming system research methodologies which were first developed during the late 1970s. Proponents of FSR argue that most sustainable improvements in the incomes and productivity of small, resource poor farmers are incremental. The role of research and extension is to work closely with farmers, understand and respect their skills and knowledge and identify key constraints that can be addressed fairly quickly through mainly 'adaptive' research. Carefully targeted interventions (including training) should be made in support of these efforts at productivity improvement.

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING
PAPERS
43
Learning to change: Skills
development among the
economically vulnerable and
socially excluded in
developing countries
Paul Bennell
Employment and Training Department
International Labour Office Geneva
First published 1999

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