End of project report will record all the lessons that are learnt over the implementation process. The project implementers are involving the ministry from the very outset with a view to using the ministry?s co-ordinating role to reach a much wider audience of actors in the field. This will enhance effective communication and replication of results to those actors working with the MAFFS. Moreover, GreenAfrica?s annual report and bi-annual newsletter will also bear a section that highlights the major activities, outcomes and impacts of this project. The newsletter and report will be widely distributed in the country to partners, CSOs, CBO and other communities groups and members. At the district level, the District Council with its various organizations will also be engaged by the implementers for communication and replication of results.
The project choice of activities fully takes into consideration the particular interests and circumstances of women and ensures that they stand to benefit as much as their male counterparts. All activities proposed have been found to be approved by women and to have no negative implications for women at the planning stage. For example, the often practiced livelihood activity of rearing of goats and sheep was excluded from project activities following reservations on the part of women farmers. Women farmers raised concerns that such small ruminants such as goat and sheep pose a threat to backyard gardening which is an important subsistence activity of women. The project will ensure that data on benefits derived from project will be disaggregated to determine impact on women separately from impact from men. Among the indicators demonstrating achievements and impact of project are that of increasing the income of women in target communities. Vegetable cultivation will be almost exclusively women driven while all other livelihood activities will be as much to the benefit of women as for men. Feedback from monitoring and evaluation of the project will seek to assess the extent to which women are directly impacted by project activities.
Notable Community Participation
The project is designed such that community participation is indispensable at every level of implementation. Firstly, the activities for livelihood have been identified in consultation with the communities in question. In 2011, the district development plan included needs that are reflected the the livelihood activities of the project. Makpele Chiefdom is not part the Kenema District and was therefore not included in the plan. However, in 2012 GreenAfrica and the GRNP collaborated to consult with forest edge communities in the seven Gola chiefdoms. The livelihood projects proposed here were the most prominent on the communities list of priorities.
The project design and implementation plan requires that community members drive the livelihood activities themselves. Management of poultry units, of fish ponds, vegetable plots will all be by community members who would be taught as they go on. This approach ensures that they can go on afterwards knowingly and confident. The project?s provision of financial and material support will be discontinued once initial turnover cycle is complete. Communities from that point on have to fund activities using the income generated from the activity.
The project will utilize the empowerment monitoring and evaluation approach. This will involve joint monitoring and evaluation in collaboration with beneficiary community members. Some capacity for this will be required on the part of the beneficiaries and the project will provide some technical support for such capacity. At the very outset the community members and implementing organization will settle on how to measure the indicators and how appropriate they are for reflecting achievement of objectives. There will be monthly meetings (in addition to other activity specific meetings) held between the community members and implementing organization. The process will inform the quarterly reports that GreenAfrica makes on the implementation.
Capacity - Building Component
The project is designed to instruct by demonstration and through active involvement of the local rural farmers in project activities, training workshops and farmer to farmer exchanges between communities, thereby enhancing locals? access to knowledge on the interrelated activities of natural resource management, innovative climate-smart livelihood activities and agro forestry. In addition to learning by doing, the electronic media will be extensively utilised to disseminate information with a district wide coverage using the language of the project locality as the medium of instruction and communication to local people. Among the project activities is environmental education in local communities including schools where technical support to teaching staff will ensure that environmental education is effectively taught for periods far exceeding the project period.
The project implementers, GreenAfrica, will continually exchange information with partner organizations working in the field of environment and agriculture including the line Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security with whom certain reports on the project will be shared. A number of forums in the Kenema and Pujehun Districts including the District Council co-ordinated forums will benefit from feedback and reports coming from the project implementers. GreenAfrica?s bi-annual newsletter will partly cover the GEF-SGP project.
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
The project will organize the formation of village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) in the project area. VSLAs will serve to ensure that villagers have a sustainable means of accessing financing on terms that suit their rural and agrarian situation. The project will assist in the organization and registration of the VSLAs with the relevant bodies and the establishment of a bank account that will be serviced by the members. The funds that go into the accounts will be from the income derived from the above mentioned activities (IVS cultivation, poultry and fish farming, vegetable cultivation).
Policy Impact
The project will seek to achieve greater involvement of local people and potential partner organizations in the common and management of the GRNP as well as the Gola community forests. Involvement of partners in the management of community forests will bring expertise to give capacity to locals to do planning of their land use and to better organize the management of their natural resources. This process will be organized by the proponents of the project in collaboration the GRNP project and other partners. This is imperative as ?Across the River: A Trans-boundary Peace park? is phasing out by the middle of the current year and the need for attracting more partners to the area becomes even greater.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The project will support a total of eight poultry units, each with an average capacity for 120 birds. The units will be distributed over a total of eight villages/communities, including four from Tunkia Chiefdom and four from Makpele. Start up support per unit will comprise fifty birds including broilers for producing meat and layers for producing table eggs. A combined total of 400 birds will therefore be the start up number of birds, with the possibility of scaling up by 100% before the end of the project period. This, however, will be contingent upon market and local consumption demands and the general performance of this aspect of the project. The birds will be reared by intensive method to maximize productivity and performance as well as to limit their susceptibility to predators. There will be a maximum of one poultry units per village/community, each under the management of a female head of household. Expansion of the number of units is possible using the funds derived from the management of the start-up unit. Ownership of the project will be largely communal and the community contribution will include non-skilled labour and local materials required for the construction of the unit. However, management of each unit will be assigned to a female head of household who will then be entitled to a percentage of the income derived from the activity. Training of community members on intensive management including feed preparation and composition will be part of the project activity. This activity will commence during the first month of implementation. Construction of unit and baseline training will be during the first month. Deployment of birds will be in the second month and learning by doing will continue through the sixth month when material support to the activity will discontinue. The project should be able to sustain itself at that stage.
The project will support a total of two fish farms, one for farming tilapia and the other for catfish. The fish ponds will both be located in the Tunkia Chiefdom but in regions bordering Makpele and proximal to Barri. This will enhance the chances of the other two chiefdoms benefiting from the activity. The dimension of the ponds will be 65? by 40? each. The fish ponds/farms will be communally owned but group managed. The group responsible for management will be entitled to some of the income derived while an agreed percentage goes to supporting work related to conservation. Labour for the intense work of constructing the ponds will be paid but at rather moderate rates. Construction of the pond including planting of aquatic plants will be during the months of March and April. Fish fingerlings will be introduced into the pond between the months of April and May. Financial and material support to this activity will last through the first four months after the introduction of fingerlings. The activity should thereafter be able to sustain itself from the resources generated.
This activity will include identifying at least two perennial inland valley swamps and fully developing each with irrigation canals so that they are rendered cultivable throughout the year. Labour for swamp development activity will be hired at moderate rates from members of a youth club. Development work will commence in March and conclude in April. Cultivation of the developed swamp will commence as soon as development and preparation are complete. Labour for the cultivation of rice on the swamps shall be provided by youth clubs as part of community contribution to the project. Inputs of improved seeds and tools will be part of the support provided by the project. Organic manure from the poultry units will complement the fertilizers procured as part of the required inputs. Members of the youth clubs that work the swamps will however be entitled to a percentage of the harvest. The rest of the harvest will go into a seed bank from which community members can take loans while some of the proceeds are used to support environment related work in the community. In addition to the cultivation by youth clubs, plots on the swamp will be made available to households for their use to cultivate for a period agreed with the rest of the beneficiary community. Locals from a radius of seven miles from the swamp site will be eligible for cultivation of the plots on the swamp. In addition to rice, vegetables will the cultivated on raised beds and the bunds of the swamp. This activity will be supported by women farmers in clubs or ad hoc groups. They will be entitled to keep all of the proceeds derived from their harvest.
