Public outreach events will be intensified including radio discussions, newspaper articles, and an online database will be established to share results and best practices. Public awareness raising will be undertaken through live radio discussion programmes with a phone-in segment, in various local languages and community meetings. It is expected that through such programmes, project outcomes, lessons learnt, success stories and case studies will be shared with the wider community.

The beneficiaries especially women, and those with disabilities will get priority in the livelihood/income generating component of the project. Primarily, women will be provided with capacity building to establish cooperatives. The income-generating potential offered by marketing the briquettes and solar cookers will empower women, youth and persons with disabilities to become economically independent. The importance of economic empowerment will be paramount during the project implementation. As the individual is able to contribute to the household income, his/her self-esteem is regained and the decision-making powers are altered. Economic empowerment is hence a prerequisite for actual equality. After the first year, revenue generated from the sale of solar cookers and rice briquette will be used to enhance project continuation. Revenue generated from the sales will be used to sustain the enterprise, expand the venture to other areas and salary for workers. More importantly, as this is a community venture, a special bank account will be established solely to fund viable community initiatives that would be of immense benefit to the entire community. For instance, funds from the ?special? account will be used to provide amenities needed by the community such as building public toilets, rehabilitating community centres, clinics etc. This account will be managed by the Project Management Committee comprising, chief, women leaders, and youth representative.

The project includes public information and awareness raising activities. In order to promote knowledge management and replication of best practices in other parts of the country and the sub region in general, public education events will be organized where ?Environmental Ambassadors? involved in the project will train other communities on lessons learnt and processes involved in fabricating rice briquettes and solar cooker using locally available materials. A handbook/guide will be developed upon completion of the project to share results and best practices in other communities and the sub-region. All staff and advisers will be encouraged to allocate some of their time to contribute to knowledge management activities. An online database will be established in order to document good practices which can be adopted by other provinces and the country. Lessons learnt including successes and challenges from the project will also be shared with other like-minded NGOs, District Council and other development partners nationally various various NGO networks. Social media will also be used to disseminate information on various environmental NGO focus groups.

The project team will ensure that the stakeholder list is inclusive and comprises all underrepresented groups including indigenous people, women, youth, persons with disabilities and smallholder farmers. An advisory committee comprising women, youth, persons with disabilities in the community and the village chief/designate will be formed and will be responsible for actively monitoring project activities

The project will be impactful at various levels. At the national level, the project will complement GoSL and international NGOs such as the UNDP plans to combat widespread deforestation exacerbated by the country?s dependence on fuelwood for domestic uses. The project will advance environmental sustainability by preventing deforestation through the reduction in the use of charcoal and fuelwood, and the reforestation approach taken by planting viable fruit trees would help restore areas that have already been cleared.

The project will incorporate the empowerment of women, in particular women from socially and economically disadvantaged groups, youth as well as people living with disabilities, by accommodating their needs in order to actively participate in project implementation. The project team will ensure that there is a balanced representation of male and female community members in all aspects of the project implementation.