Like in all communities, there is obvious distinction between the social gender roles of women and men as well as boys and girls. It is important that our project addresses this issue and ensure that both men and women benefit from the project. SDI conducted a gender analysis to identify the specific needs and priorities of women and men in the community. Most domestic chores and farming activities are carried out by women. Food crop production is generally reserved for women and girls while men are in charge of cash crops. The project deliberately ensures that the training activities will disaggregate by gender to ensure effective representation of women, men, boys and girls. We promote women?s participation in decision making at the family and community level by giving women training and resources to increase economic opportunities. Women are equally encouraged to be more involved in the management and exploitation of natural resources. Men and boys on the other hand benefit from more inclusive and equitable community.
Some of the planned activities to encourage participation of the indigenous people include use of local language as well as community consultation with indigenous people especially during the focus group discussions so as to take their views and opinions into account. Another means of fostering greater participation of the indigenous people is by valuing or promoting traditional knowledge sharing to ensure project success. This could be an important aspect of natural resource management and soil conservation/enrichment. Generally the key is to respect their culture and traditions and ways of life. They are also consulted in the project design and take into account their needs, aspirations and perspectives or world views.
Capacity - Building Component
The identified capacity needs identified during project identification for the target community include:
? Environmental awareness and natural resource management
? Agriculture and livestock production
? Sustainable soil management
? Group dynamics
? Steady income generating activities
? Small business development and management
? Effective participation in project activities
? Monitoring and evaluation
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The project envisages agricultural development and training of beneficiaries in income generating activities like small livestock and poultry production as well as mushroom production. These two activities will provide a stead disposable income stream or socio-economic livelihood activities for the project beneficiaries. The project equally envisages conservation and sustainable natural resource management to promote alternative livelihood strategies especially from non timber forest products
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
The project equally envisages conducting workshops and training sessions. These could be used to disseminate or share knowledge and build capacities amongst project team members and stakeholders. Visibility or publicity materials like posters, banners, bards and Tee shirts are also a means that the project will use to publicize the project as well as sell the image of SDI. This could be used to document project activities, results and lessons learned and disseminate them to a wider audience. The project also engages stakeholders in regular monitoring and review sessions to share knowledge and gather feedback from beneficiaries. Additionally, the project management envisages engaging with the media to inform the public about project activities
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
The project has identified the target audience or key stakeholders who need to be informed of the project and its objectives. We shall develop key messages by creating clear and concise messages to communicate project benefits. We shall also select the most appropriate channels to reach target audience such as social media, radio or community meetings. The creation of visually appealing and informative materials such as brochures and posters, videos and roll ups. We shall also seek to engage with beneficiaries by fostering two way communications through feedback, questions and suggestions.
The project envisages a stakeholder orientation workshop as well as visibility or knowledge management activities like the production of posters, roll ups, boards, banners as well as T-shirts which will all carry the logo of SDI and GEF SGP. Additionally, during the life of the project, activities will be highlighted in the group?s Facebook account as well as print media
Notable Community Participation
The youth have been involved in the project identification phase of the project. They will be intricately involved in the capacity building or training activities. From this perspective, they will be involved in awareness creation following training. They are also involved in economic empowerment or the income generation activities. They will equally participate in the focus group discussions with their peers and will be actively involved in the KAP survey as well as in the practical farming activities. Their feedback will equally be sought during the periodic monitoring and review sessions to know how they perceive the project and how project activities can be adjusted to take their views into account. This involvement can help create a culture of sustainability and empowers them to become agents of change in their communities.
Project Results
* KAP survey including questionnaire development, score of instruments, analysis of results and validating the instrument, indicators and baseline data.
This activity was nuanced towards a more quantitative enquiry to gather the respondent?s knowledge about particular subject, their attitudes towards it and their actual practices or behaviors as well as the actors and factors responsible for these behaviors. A total of 150 respondents were surveyed with 80% being women and girls, 15% youth and 5% men.
As a result of carrying out this survey, the project team had Better understand of gender roles in the community with respect to natural resource management, gender roles and relevant factors influencing behavior of the target group or beneficiaries as well as a better understanding of baseline situation and the validity of selected indicators. In terms of lessons learned, women and youth as the major managers of natural resources need to be specifically targeted otherwise gender relations will always play against them in indigenous communities.
* Conduct of three community focus group discussions (FGD) with Men, youth, women and PWD to gather in-depth qualitative information and insights from the various social categories.
During the reporting period each of the FGD consisted of between 10 participants who shared their thoughts and opinions on a wide range of issues concerning, environment, natural resource management, indigenous knowledge, gender and power relations. FGD provide a platform for various social categories to voice their concerns and needs, leading to increased participation and inclusion in project activities. FGD allows project management to understand challenges faced by different social categories and to tailor solutions accordingly.
FGD can help in the preservation of cultural heritage as well as strengthen social bonds in the community. Conducting FGD can raise awareness about environmental issues different social categories leading to increased understanding and concern for the environment as well as lead to more informed and inclusive decision making resulting in environmentally sustainable project planning and implementation.
With respect to the major lesson learned, when we organize separate FGD for women, men and youth we are able to get more insights into their needs and challenges as specific social categories than would be the case if we conducted mixed or joint FGD involving all the three because of structured customary gender disparities.
*Workshop on indigenous people and PLWD rights. This workshop was titled: Indigenous people and IDP rights using national and international legal instruments or framework
This component sought to appraise the constitutional and legal provision for the rights of IP and PLWD from the perspective of local and international legal instruments as well as identifying gaps between theory and practice. Rights awareness was assessed as well as understand if there are any structures in place to support rights claims. The workshop had 30 Participants number (5IP, 20 IDPs, and 5PWD) in general there were 20 women, 5 youth and 5 men. The workshop demonstrated that knowledge of their rights empowers indigenous communities to assert their rights to land, resources and self-determination leading to greater autonomy. Understanding their rights can lead indigenous communities and IDPs to engage in sustainable economic activities such as ecotourism, traditional crafts and sustainable resource management. Training can help strengthen the social fabric of indigenous communities and contribute to the preservation of their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge.
Additionally, indigenous people often have deep knowledge of their local ecosystem and traditional sustainable practices. Hence training them on their rights can empower them to protect and conserve natural resources, biodiversity and traditional lands. By understanding their rights, they can actively advocate for sustainable management practices. In terms of major lesson learned, empowering IDPs and indigenous population requires a coordinated multidimensional or holistic right and development based approach encompassing education, sensitization, health and economic incentives.
* Workshop was organized during the period under report entitled: Small livestock and poultry training workshop for sustainable livelihoods
Small livestock training workshop (poultry and pigs) appropriate breeds, breeding management, feed formulation and feeding, health and sanitation as well as breeding management, piglets, growers and marketing.
Small livestock training workshop for 35 participants consisting of 25 women, 6 boys and 4 men. The topic covered included (poultry and pigs) appropriate breeds, breeding management, feed formulation and feeding, health and sanitation as well as breeding management, piglets vs. growers and marketing. The objective being to enlighten participants on alternative livelihood strategies, green agriculture as well as introduce them to the concept of alternatives to slash and burn agriculture.
A major economic advantage of investing
Time and effort in the small livestock and poultry production is that production of poultry and pigs provides farmers with natural manure to use on their crops and avoids the use of chemical fertilizers which can be detrimental to the environment on a long-term basis. Thus, the promotion of green agriculture which is more sustainable for the environment.
A major lesson learned is that when community members have access to capital for business activities, they will be less likely to carry out activities that contribute to GHG emissions, such as deforestation and unsustainable management of natural resources. The major take home message or recommendation is that while combating climate change in a sustainable manner, economic empowerment initiatives should be promoted by municipal and administrative authorities and that actors in the rural development sector should lay emphasis on integrated approaches to natural resource management. Finally,
when women are financially independent the likelihood of irrational management of natural resources is unlikely to occur.
* The period under report also saw the organization of a workshop for 35 participants (15 IDPs, 10 female, 5 male and 5 PWD
The Mushroom training farming module included selecting variety, appropriate environment for mushroom farming, getting spawn for mushroom farms, substrate preparation, protection harvesting storage and marketing. Emphasis was put on practical experience and all the 35 participants actively took part in both the theoretical and practical training. A group farm was set up and beneficiaries or participating women were to take turns looking after the farm so as to enhance their capacities in mushroom production.
The main advantages of mushroom production are that mushroom production offers employment opportunities. Mushroom consumption enhances family nutrition by giving proteins and vitamins and mushroom production can be s steady source of income for the family and women and youth who would otherwise have been involved in irrational exploitation of natural resources as a survival strategy are assisted to undertake non- farm activities. This helps reduce the stress on the environment and the main lesson learned is that mushroom production requires less land and water compared to traditional agriculture making it thus a more sustainable option. Mushroom production promotes waste recycling such as straw, sawdust, rice bran and palm kernel cake. Mushrooms have the capacity to sequestrate carbon which helps to mitigate climate change. It is recommended that development actors promote nonfarm activities such as mushroom production amongst farmers as a means of income generation, carbon sequestration and waste recycling.
*The period under report saw the organization of a workshop for 30 participants (20 women, 5 men and 5 youth) entitled:
Climate smart conservation agriculture and agro forestry The module included training on conservation agriculture such as introduction of leguminous crops, use of organic manure, mixed and rotational cropping. The importance of improved yields and reduced production cost as well as aspects of proper land preparation was equally taught. However, practical demonstration was not possible because at the time of training, farms had already been prepared and planted for several months already.
The economic benefits were improved livelihoods by increasing land productivity leading to increased yields and diversified income sources for participating farmers as well as enhanced livelihoods and food security. Sustainable land management practices can make farming systems more resilient, hence reducing vulnerability. Finally, alternatives to slash and burn can lead to better health outcomes for farmers and their families. Additionally, Soil conservation: low external input technologies such as agroforestry and conservation agriculture help maintain soil fertility, reduces erosion and preserves the long-term productivity of land. Implementing sustainable land management practices can help protect biodiversity by maintaining natural habitats and reducing deforestation associated with slash and burn agriculture. Carbon sequestration is another environmental benefit of low external input alternatives to slash and burn.
* Orientation workshop with stakeholders was organized to educate the stakeholders on the goal. Objectives, activities and respective roles and expectations of the project as well as the implementation timeframe or roadmap. This involved 30 Participants consisting of 20 IDP?s 5 PWD and 5 IP.
This activity enabled stakeholder engagement by providing a platform for engaging a wide range of stakeholders. It also contributes towards enhancing capacity building assets such as skills development, knowledge transfer which can contribute to socio-economic development in the project area. The orientation workshop also promotes cultural understanding and respect by incorporating local customs and traditions into the project planning process.
Getting stakeholders involved in orientation workshop helps to provide clarity and focus on environmental issues. It also helps to clarify the roles that the different genders can play in ensuring sustainable exploitation of natural resources right from the start of the project and helps create a working coalition that targets environment and sustainable agriculture. The main lesson learned is that an orientation workshop helps educate stakeholders about environmental aspects of the project, raises awareness about potential impacts and promotes environmentally responsible practices. It equally helps to get inputs and insights from local knowledge leading to more effective environmental planning and mitigation measures.
