Project Detail

Reducing the proliferation of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) through Support to Bankable waste management and Micro Enterprise development in 20 communities in the Malema, Guara and Nomo chiefdoms

project is designed to be implemented as a pilot in twenty (20) Gola Forest edge communities in Malama (Kailahun) and Guara & Nomo (Kenema). These communities have been assessed during our baseline survey of the Gola Rainforest leakage belt which was supported by Environment and Social Officers in the two districts. A major concern noted from the communities is the high rate of chemical utilization in agricultural productivity and illicit mining occurring around their safe heavens; the Leakage Belt. These human activities have constantly endangered their lives caused by water pollution as they depend on downstream water supply for domestic purposes. The goal of this project is to ensure that the community health care facilities including Community Health Centres (CHCs) and Peripheral Health Unit (PHUc) and their communities in the three chiefdoms live environmentally safe and secured lives. VOICE will train 150 community volunteers on the use and maintenance of waste disposals systems, train another 150 blue flag volunteers and construct 6 medical waste disposal points within 12 months.

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

VOLUNTEERS INITIATIVES FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT SIERRA LEONE

Country:

Sierra Leone

Area Of Work:

Chemicals

Operational Phase:

OP6 - Y2 (Jul 16-Jun 17)

Grant Amount:

US$ 31,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 2,928.94

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 4,506.07

Project Number:

SLE/SGP/OP6/Y2/CORE/CH/23/02/2017/13

Start Date:

4/2017

End Date:

3/2018

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Gender Focus

Decision making bodies will ensure the participation of women and youths who are pivotal to implementation. Volunteers will be recruited based on community recommendations to aid project planners and field staff in both organizing activities and understanding the relationships and synergies between activities and outcomes. We will raise awareness of male and female on gender transformative programme and approaches. Women are seriously affected by poor waste management. The project shall engage men to lend support to their wives and other female counterparts in the mitigation of POP

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

During the baseline assessment, 10 community members actively participated and they have better understanding about the issues to be addressed. These people will form the core volunteers during the implementation and would benefit from stipends, training and knowledge transfer. They are expected to in-turn serve as trainers for other communities to benefit from the initiative.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

Special preference will be given to indigenous people and women with disabilities. VOICE will promote the capacity of the most vulnerable groups especially women to take a lead in deciding what, who, where, how and when to implement project activities. Sign language interpreters from the communities will be asked to provide services to their family members during meetings.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

The community volunteers will be entitled to capacity building training. The knowledge gained will be shared through exchange visits and these people will stay in the various communities when the project ends. Other community members and decision makers will be supported with tools to help them identify issues and develop actions to address them. Communities would benefit most from the demonstration of POP and waste management efforts. The lessons learnt can greatly improve their livelihood. By learning these lessons and sharing them, the knowledge will remain in the community and multiplier effect will be enhanced. On the project level, major lessons learned will be transferred to the individuals, existing organizations (CHCs & PHUs) and organizations formed in the communities during implementation. The project will invest incapacity building training, public education campaigns and research to collect, analyze and disseminate results to inform the donor

Policy Impact

The project will promote the formulation and implementation of by-laws at the community level.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The successes of this intervention will firstly be complied into Success Stories with visual aids and disseminated to the communities and District Councils. The lessons learnt will be shared and additional training, workshops and web-based learning organized for dissemination mechanisms to reach a wider audience. Live testimonies from beneficiaries will be broadcast on the media i.e. TV, radio and the web to facilitate public understanding of the project. Exchange visits will be organized and scale up plan develop into project proposals for the next call by GEF SGP

Notable Community Participation

VOICE engaged the youths, women and community leaders during the needs assessment and identification structures in the community. This has fostered better understanding and prioritization of the community needs. The project engaged different youth groups through focus group discussions and community mapping. VOICE carried out capacity assessment of their human, social, natural, physical and economical capabilities. This has helped the organization to identify the strength of the community which will be an asset during the implementation of the project and the use of available community resources

Capacity - Building Component

VOICE has a verse experience in waste managment and youth capacity building. The organization participated in Surge Programme with sponsorship from Restless Development and UNICEF. VOICE is well known in its operational areas for coordinating youth activities especially young women into active community groups. It has successfully formed and assisted 22 farmer based organizations (FBOs) to access inputs from the Ministry of Agricultural and IFAD. The groups organised by VOICE have successfully implemented small scale organic farming and engaged in savings and loan activities with 4 community banks in Kailahun and Kenema.

+ View more

Indicators

Empowerment

Number of CBOs / NGOs participated / involved in SGP project 15

Livehood

Total monetary value (US dollars) of ecosystem goods sustainably produced and providing benefit to project participants and/or community as a whole (in the biodiversity, international waters, and land degradation focal areas as appropriate) 1500

Biophysical

Number of innovations or new technologies developed / applied 2

Back to search results

Countries

Regions

Project Snapshot

SGP Country office contact

Address