The mission statement:
- The association is committed to the social and economic empowerment of rural women as well as the sustainable use of natural resources.
Overall objective:
- To enable present and future producers of crafts in Binga district to generate an income through the sales of crafts to the centre to the best advantage of the producers
Specific objectives:
- To facilitate and support the empowerment of producers.
- To develop and implement an effective craft marketing strategy.
- To develop and implement a resource management programme to ensure sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
- To facilitate Product Design and development with the artists and crafters in Binga as well as conducting Quality control workshops to enable Binga crafts compete with the world standards
Beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries or target group of the craft centre are basket makers who are organised into the clubs. All basket makers are women from the 40 clubs all over the district. The individual beneficiaries are about 1500 ? 2000 women.
Carvers and porters are also beneficiaries of the organisation.

Organization Activities.
- Ilala palm (Hyphaene petersiana) management and replenishment of ilala palms.
- Quality control workshops.
- Selling crafts.
- Product design and development.
- Marketing and market linkages between the beneficiaries and the markets, national, regional and international.
- Women empowerment or capacity building in managing their own clubs through training workshops.


d) (i) Briefly describe organizational structure, governance and administrative framework, including staff numbers, roles, etc. Provide an indication of the legal status with any supporting registration/legal documentation as annex. If none, provide an elaboration of its nature of existence. Provide recent audited financial statement if any.
Binga craft centre Organogram



Binga craft centre Trust is managed by an autonomous policy making Board which is the supreme board elected at an annual general Meeting by the delegates from beneficiaries who are affiliated to Binga craft centre trust. These are the representative of 2000 weavers and carvers.
The Board of management represents the interests of the entire organization ranging from the beneficiaries and from time to time engage with the beneficiaries through their clubs delegates. The board as well hires the top management and dismisses the senior management staff where need be.
The manger is the secretariat of the Board of Trustees. The manager represents the employees at Board meetings unless under special occasions where the Board decides to meet all the staff in a meeting. The manager is as mandated to hire junior staff on behalf of the Board except for senior staff which needs to be hired in the presence of the Board.
The board also authorises all major expenditures of the organization including all projects funds from either funding partners or from own sales and fund raising.
Binga craft centre Trust is registered under the Deed of Trust. Trust Registration number: MA 1043/2005 see attached annex, notarial deed of trust.
The centre has about 1500 female and 100 male direct beneficiaries throughout the district.
Indirect beneficiaries are about 1000 both male and female from the entire district.



ii) How many direct and indirect beneficiaries (gender segregated) are in the project

Number of Direct beneficiaries Number of indirect beneficiaries
Number of Men 100 Number of Women 1500 Number of Men 200 Number of Women 800


iii) How many members are in the project committee (gender segregated). List the names of project committee members and IDs

Board of Trustees members are as follows:
Name Surname Identity cards Number (IDC No?
Anna Mudimba ( MRS) 0-026485- B -6 Chairlady.
Servy Nyathi (MRS) 06 ? 028722 - H- 06 Vice Chairlady.
Violet Mudenda (MRS) 06- 025865 - C ? 06 Committee
Rosemary Muleya (MRS) 06 ? 013023 - T ? 06 Treasurer.
Maria Mweembe (MRS) 06 ? 012761 ? J ? 06 committee
Josephine Mugande (MS) 06 ? 0303834 ? D ? 06 committee
Maria Ngwenya (MS) 79 ? 045455 ? X ? 06 commitee
Esnart Mwiinde (MRS)


N/B : The manager is the secretary of the Board in accordance with the constitution of Binga craft centre Trust.

iv) If there is no project Committee in existence, indicate the management structure that will be in place for this project and what will be the role

iv) What is your Current Annual budget: The current Budget of the centre is US$90 800,00
v) Does the organization have a Constitution Certificate of Registration, please attach a copies.


vi) Has the organization received a previous grant from other sources? If Yes, indicate in the table provided below; If No, place N/A in the table below:

Name of Project Name of Funder Amount of Grant (US$) Year
Women empowerment , crafts Development and Natural resources management Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust $100 000,00 2008 ? 2012
Basket Case 1 ( Product design and development) The New Basket Workshop (TNBW) a South African NGO Not sure all funds were administered in South Africa 2008
Creative Zimbabwe Artists / Designers Residency Programme British Council, a consortium programme funded by European Union $11 300,00 2014
Binga craft centre ilala palm plantation project for women Basket weavers Embassy of the Royal Kingdom of Netherlands $17 067,00 2018 -2019

(Please add rows to the table as required

e) Describe previous experience relevant to the proposed project, including activities related to global environmental issues; or experience with projects that focus on sustainable development at community level.

Previous experience relevant to the proposed project, including activities related to global environmental issues; or experience with projects that focus on sustainable development at community level.
Binga craft centre has a wide experience in working with the various projects mentioned above. The first and long serving funder the Danish Organization for International Development MS ? Zimbabwe or Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke as it is called in the Danish language did set the standards on the quality control of Binga baskets and all literature for ilala planting was set by the funding partner in collaboration with the beneficiaries. It was through the initial stage with MS ? Zimbabwe that both the funding partner and the beneficiaries learnt that all stakeholders must be involved when implementing any project in the community. One interesting lesson was that the ilala planting project was sited in ward 16, the community sited an ilala woodlot at the banks of Lungwalala river, little did Binga craft centre and the community knew that the Ministry of Agriculture by then was planning to close a dam at Lungwalala river and the area where they had panted ilala would be covered by water. So the ilala palms germinated and later were all covered by the waters though it was over two kilometres distance away from dam wall. In short the lesson learnt is that, it is not advisable to do any development project especially in communal areas without involving all stakeholders in order to take an informed decision.
On the other hand, the funding partners should also seriously take advice from the implementing partners. Our other experience was when we were implementing the project of ?Binga craft centre ilala palm plantation project for women Basket weavers? The funder released the project funds too late for the ilala planting activity. The implementing partner (Binga craft centre) had advised that funds were supposed to be released in October 2018 for planting to be done in November 2018 to take advantage of all the 2018/2019 rainy season, Instead funds were disbursed to Binga craft centre in February 2019. To make matters worse the season had poor rains and this gave poor germination percentage. If the funding partner had adhered to the advice from the implementing partner, the germination percentage would have been fairy better maybe at 60-70% instead of the 40% experienced. However every project has its unique lessons and experience.
Also basing on previous projects experiences, it is possible to make high quality crafts work that can match the international quality standard and gain a world market shares markets like International Folk Art Market ( IFAM) in New Mexico , Ambiente Frankfurt Market in German just to mention but a few. In short term quality control workshops can improve quality sales of baskets and other crafts when it is given some form of support. From the previous projects Binga craft centre was able to produce crafts which were exhibited at Santa Fe Folk Art Market in New Mexico in 2014, Frankfurt Ambiente in 2015, Morocco in 2017 and Design Indaba in South Africa.

After 2017, the centre had not gone to any other international exhibition. However there were plans to attend the Birmingham Sumer exhibition market in 2020 but was disturbed by the outbreak of corona virus causing covid19 pandemic. Since that time up to now the marketing is just facebook and WhatsApp contacts.

The crafts are also being exhibited by some middleman in various markets. However quality control workshops are on-going and need to be always done for the benefit of new learners and for refresher courses to the experienced. Ilala plantations are also supposed to be expansive to meet the future demands of crafts.



f) Please indicate the organization?s prior engagement with GEF SGP (e.g. grantee, partner, etc), i.e Has the organization received a previous grant from the GEF Small Grants Programme? (Yes) (No). If Yes, complete the table below. If NO, insert N/A in the table.

Project Number Project Title & Location Total Grant received Summary of achievements Gaps to be addressed by grant being applied

N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A

g) (Please add rows to the table as required












PART 2: PROJECT PROPOSAL

SECTION A: PROJECT FRAMEWORK

1. Project Summary
Please provide a brief summary of the project in one paragraph, including rationale and context, project objective and key expected results, include the target site and community(ies) involved.


Executive Summary
Binga craft centre is a community based organization trading as Binga Craft Centre Trust. The centre was mainly established to provide a market for crafts made in Binga district by local artists who are mainly women into basketry. The craft centre is managed by a Board of Trustees who are mainly the crafts people in Binga district. The Board is composed of 8 members who are the policy makers of the trust and this board is hundred percent women.
The organization has some structures in the community of weavers who do help in the smooth and transparent operation of the organization. Weavers are organized into weaving clubs which have their administration club committees. The committee consists of eight members per club. The eighth committee member has a title of the club delegate; this person represents her specific club to the delegates meeting for all weavers affiliated to Binga craft centre. The delegates meet with the Board of management to share experience in their clubs with the policy making board. It is in these meetings where club delegates as well air out their problems. One of the problems raised in these meetings is the need to replenish and regenerate the raw materials used to make excellent Binga Baskets. This is none other than the ilala palm (Hyphaene petersiana). These clubs are the owners of the ilala palm plantations. They will plant in the land they will acquire from the traditional leaders who are chiefs and kraal heads in their respective areas. It is not a problem in Binga to get the land because the district has vast land and people as well appreciate the basketry industry in the area. Given this note land is readily available.
This is also not a new project; some of the weavers with the help of the craft centre already have some established plantations which are 10 in totals that were funded by the founding donor for Binga craft centre; MS ? Zimbabwe, a Danish International organization before it closed operations in Zimbabwe. Some were established using the funds from the Embassy of the Royal Kingdom of Netherlands.
The Management at Binga craft centre will facilitate the bringing of relevant service providers or experts to work with weavers during planting and caring of the young and grown up palms throughout entire project period. These are from Forestry Commission, CAMMPFIRE from Binga Rural District Agricultural department, EMA and Agritex.

Above all the current manager for Binga craft centre was involved in establishing the existing plantations while he was still the training officer for weavers on Natural resources management programme.
These plantations are doing well. However we need more of the these plantations to boost on the supply of the much needed raw materials.
This will make it easy for the craft centre to supervise the project and see to it that it becomes a success story. However holistic management approach shall be applied in the project with the weavers, traditional leader and other developmental organs like ward conservation committees will take a leading role to manage the plantations.

About 1500 weavers will directly benefit on the project. This number in reality shall be more because ilala palm leaves have a multiple use within the communities. Some use the leaves to tie grass when thatching the roofs of huts in the rural areas.
The project will also impact high production of crafts because the producers of crafts will shorten the distance travelled now to get weaving materials. Now some travel 20 ? 30 km to cut ilala leaves for basketry production and this lessens productions hence large orders are not completed on time and finally the customers leave, making it vulnerable for women to exchange their craft with second hand clothes. The increased resource base through these plantations will solve a lot of issues.

Currently we have 10 successful ilala plantations in which the weavers are harvesting raw material to make their basket. One of such example is Manjolo and Kariyangwe basketry groups. Ilala plants take about 3 to 5 years to be ready for harvesting. However considering the hot climatic conditions of Binga district, the plantations can be ready within 3 year period since palms favor hot regions. Due to the above given climatic preference of the ilala palms, the palms must be planted in the beginning of the rainy season to take advantage of the entire rains of the given farming season. Once the ilala seeds germinate after about two months from planting, it would have sufficiently established to resist any anticipated drought. This means supplementary watering may not be necessary. Another critical point worth to mention is that ilala palms are planted in situ, there is no need of a nursery or seed bed to grow seedlings for transplanting. An ilala palm seed takes about 4 to 8 weeks establishing a tape root and into the ground before a shoot comes up within 9 to 12 weeks under optimum soil moisture content.

The second main activity of this project is Quality control workshops to improve the quality of the baskets to meet the required international market standards. 10 Quality Control Workshops shall be conducted during the course of the project implementation. High quality products or crafts shall increase sales hence improving income levels for the crafters. This will in turn improve livelihood standards to the rural women in Binga district.

For the project to further improve women livelihood, further engagements with the beneficiaries identified a goat pass on projects for weavers to supplement basketry business. This need was identified after the Project Verification Visit by GEF staff. Weavers in two consulted groups resolved to have a programme whereby the women will be given at least 1 female goat starting with the desperately need beneficiaries. When the goat produces the first female goat must be given as a pass on to another member within the group who will also give another member until all the members of the groups who have been registered at the project inception have a goat to keep for their livelihood production.




2. Project Justification and Baseline
Please describe the following:
? The challenges/problems that the project intends to address in relation to global environmental and development issues.

Problem Analysis:

State the
Problem/Issue or Challenge
Project justification
Binga craft centre is committed to the social and economic empowerment of rural women as well as the sustainable use of natural resources. This is achieved through the sale of crafts at the craft shop. The products include basket weaving, beadwork, pottery and wood carving which are sold through Binga craft centre craft shop.
Currently the ilala palms are under pressure from the increased number of users, the demand for Binga baskets keeps on increasing on a yearly basis. There is a great need to expand the replenishment of the resources base (raw material) and in this case are mainly the ilala palms.
More weavers are joining the trade especially the young female artists. The new weavers need training for quality control. Where the quality is poor, the products are rejected by the market and in turn just waste the raw material and the time for the weavers who do a busy unprofitable activity. Production must go hand in hand with high quality to gain better sales and improve the livelihood of the communities using their locally available raw materials.
When people have increased income due to increased craft production, they are likely to be able to pay school fees for their children, hence as an educated society is an empowered society.
The project shall help establish four plantations of at list 20 hectares each plot with 24 000 ilala seeds to be planted in each plantation.
The level of success in the previous plantations has been at previous Ilala plantation projects have been at 80% which was a good outcome. Land is owned communal and the local leadership is very supportive to basketry industry for the women. The land for planting ilala palms is readily available from the local leaders mainly the kraal heads and chief.
All contacted groups have land to plant ilala palms. Some seeds shall be given to individuals to have their own trees in their homesteads.

Before planting takes place the weavers, traditional leaders and ward conservation committees shall be trained on the importance forestry, basic forestry conservation with emphasis on the ilala palm ( Hyphaene petersiana) and the bird plum ( Berchemia discolour) The former is used to make baskets while the latter is used to dye the leaves of former and make the baskets colourful.
The Berchemia discolour shall be considered to be planted within the same plantations in the second year or second phase of the project. The training workshops shall be five in total in five respective benefiting clubs. This will be accompanied by the practical planting within the short space of time after the workshops.
Quality control workshops are mainly production workshops where weavers will be teaching each on how to make better quality baskets and how to effectively make use of the natural dyes from local plant species residues like the dry bark from the bird plum (Berchemia discolor).
Binga craft centre has very old computers which are difficult to work with. The work also demands the need for a good office digital camera. The camera will be needed to take better images for products marketing purposes. The will mean the project will also buy these equipment for the use in the organization.

What are the causes of the problem/issue or challenge? Direct Causes Indirect Causes
1. Increased number of weavers in the district is depleting the resource base ie ilala population in the district.

2. For poor products quality, the new learners in the crafts industry need much training to improve products because they do not have best skills.

3. Financial challenge for Binga craft centre to effectively help weavers plant more ilala palms and also do extensive quality control workshops to improve population of ilala resource base and also improve products quality respectively.
Unstable economic status of the country , more people are resorting to the selling of crafts outside the country even professionals in other fields are now into crafts as a survival strategy hence putting more pressure on production and finally affecting the existing population of ilala palms.

Unemployment forcing people to get into crafts production though has less or no skill so as to get cash by selling crafts.

Lack of stable sustainable market for the products to increase sales of crafts and enable the organization to fund its own activities.

(Increase the size of the table if you need more space)

? How the project relates and will be contributing to the SGP Country Programme Strategy
? How the project relates to other relevant programmes supported by government, GEF and other donors, and private sector.



3. Project Goal, Objectives, Activities, Outputs and Outcomes

Please describe the project framework and implementation plan by completing the table 1 below:
a) Overall Goal/Primary Objective: Capacity building of women through the sustainable use of natural resources.

b) Specific objectives:
- To facilitate and support the empowerment of producers.
- To develop and implement an effective craft marketing strategy.
- To develop and implement a resource management programme to ensure sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
- To facilitate Product Design and development with the artists and crafters in Binga as well as conducting Quality control workshops to enable Binga crafts compete with the world standards

c) Activities: List all activities to be implemented per objective
- Ilala palm (Hyphaene petersiana) management and replenishment of ilala palms.
- Quality control workshops.
- Selling crafts.
- Product design and development.
- Marketing and market linkages between the beneficiaries and the markets, national, regional and international.
- Women empowerment or capacity building in managing their own clubs through training workshops.

d) Project Outputs:

- Establish 6 x 20 hectares of ilala palm woodlots.
- Conduct 10 workshops on Ilala palm management.
- Conduct 10 quality control workshops in 5 clubs.
- Procurement of office equipment ( computers and digital camera)


e) Project Outcome: Please describe what will be produced as project results, in terms of changes in the institutional and behavioral capacities, changes in knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, policies, livelihoods and environmental conditions.

(For this section, please complete the Results Framework Table below)

Table 1 - Results Framework: (This is the most important part of the project proposal. Please take your time and use the guidelines provided)
GOAL
(Every project should
have one goal) OBJECTIVES ACTIVITIES
INDICATORS FOR PLANNED ACTIONS OUTPUTS OUTCOMES
Economic empowerment of rural women and sustainable holistic management of natural resources through the sale of quality art and craft products. (i) Establish 6 x 10 hectares of ilala palm woodlots -Conduct Ilala management workshops.
- Asking for Land for the plantations from local leadership.
-Ilala seeds procurements.
- Planting the 6 plantations of ilala woodlots

Baseline:
- No Village maps showing ilala woodlots fields and no ilala plantations established.
- Ilala seeds available to all need clubs.

Target
- 200 trained weavers in holistic ilala management.
- 10 workshops to be conducted on ilala management
- 6 x 10 hectares of ilala plots
- Village maps showing ilala woodlots fields
- 7.2 tons of Ilala seeds available for plantations.
- Village maps showing ilala woodlots fields -Workshops reports.
-6 Ilala plots
-7.2 tons of Ilala seeds available for plantations.
-Village maps showing ilala woodlots fields
-Number of planted seeds per woodlot Improved vegetative cover through production of ilala plants and availability of ilala among the weavers.
(ii) Conduct 10 workshops on Ilala palm management.
Training activity on importance of ilala management





Baseline:
No workshops conducted

Target:
200 trained weavers Workshop reports.
Production of a Training manual 200 trained in ilala conservation.
(iii)Conduct 10 quality control workshops in 5 clubs

Raw material preparation ie cutting ilala leaves and processing them ready for weaving.
.
Weaving activity and quality control. Baseline:
-No quality control workshops conducted

Target
10 quality control workshops in 5 clubs High quality products made. Increased sales due to high quality products
200 trained in quality control.
(iv)Procurement of office equipment, computers and digital camera



Procurement of computers, camera and the printer.



Baseline:
- Obsolete IT equipment

Target:
Computers, camera and the printer. Availability of new computers, printer and digital camera Improved service delivery.