Jobs & livelihoods- 100 indigenous women were given monetary support to start Small Business Initiative at their home by utilising the available fish resources during and after the project period. They are linked to banks, cooperative societies for the sustainability of business. Gender equality 100 % of the beneficiaries are head load fish vending women. Gender equality was ensured by providing access to economic opportunities to them. Now about 100 women earn through small business initiatives and contributed to family.. Sustainable communities & Disaster Risk Reduction 1000 people were trained on the emergency relief services during disasters and were made to be aware of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Mitigation Measures. Climate action Trainings on impact of climate action on coastal community were organised for the local government, parish leaders and institutional partners. 600 people including leaders students were capacitated through the trainings.

RESILIENCE, ADAPTABILITY, AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Resilience • Large mangrove forest coverage is affected by sea-level rise & storm surges. It may damage the resilience to changes. To tackle this issue, rehabilitation and restoration has been planned and implemented in few estuaries in collaboration with local authorities. • Moreover, massive afforestation program has been planned in the region with appropriate coastal infrastructure. OCD has taken this threat to the government stakeholders and asking them to bring proper policy measures. Adaptability • Soft adaptation measures such as Disaster Risk Reduction education, Early warning systems, creation of Emergency Response Team, ensuring access to social security to women has been implemented in the coastal community to strengthen and capacitate of the women community. • Through these measures, the community would be aware of the adaptation techniques as well as they would take initiatives to protect the mangrove forest as much as possible.

REDUCED INEQUALITIES

• This project directly dealt with the underprivileged indigenous fisher-folk folk namely Mukkuvar community. • It includes traditionally marginalized groups such as youth, elders, women and other eco-groups of the countryside during the implementation process. • For knowledge development programs, youth and women were given priority and for the ecosystem based services such as employment generation, women particularly widows, survivors of disasters, elder women and single women, transgender were given importance. • Men folk were also engaged in the seed collection process for the afforestation of mangrove forest.

GENDER EQUALITY

• OCD is a women led organization working for the underprivileged fisherwomen folk. • They play major role in the implementation and scale up process. • In all training and empowerment initiatives, women were given preference. • Women were given opportunity in the various village level and district level committees in the decision making process. T • he empowered women themselves create Self Help Groups and promotes the idea of ocean conservation in the community. • Income Generation Programs (IGP) and Employment Generation Program(EGP) trainings were exclusively designed for women folk. • Zero Tolerant Policy in sexual exploitation was followed in all levels of the project implementation. • OCD proposes to join with women's colleges of the district for the further development of the mangroves promotion program. • Women enhanced their self-confidence, decision making capability, problem solving skills through the capacity building programs of the project. For eg, the members of District and Village level conservation & monitoring committees regularly visit these five estuaries and report to the implementing agency OCD.