The Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) approached the Department for International Development (DFID; UK Government) to be a partner in the scaling-up of watershed activity by providing financial support for capacity building, livelihood support and convergence of other schemes and services, through the Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project.

DFID is already working on several programmes (click here for further details) in Andhra Pradesh but APRLP was the first major rural initiative in the state.

APRLP aims to reduce poverty through the strategy of building effective and sustainable rural livelihoods in 5 of the state's drought prone districts (Anantapur, Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, and Prakasam), taking watersheds as an initial entry point.  The project's broader goal is that more effective and sustainable approaches are adopted by government agencies and other stakeholders to eliminate poverty in drought-prone areas of AP.

The sustainable rural livelihood strategy (SRL) is based on an analysis of the capital assets (physical, social, human, natural and financial) from which the rural poor derive their livelihoods.  The approach also takes into consideration the vulnerability context and the policy and institutional environment. 

The project will enable GoAP to carry out interventions which build on people's strengths and will include activities which are off-farm and non-farm as well as those which are land-based.