Project Detail

Publication of a Community Focussed Newsletter on GEFSGP

The project involves the publication of three issues of the Newsletter over one year aimed at rural communities throughout the country. The purpose of the project is to make information available particularly to those comunities who have embarked on projects funded under SGP through sharing of experiences. The Newsletter is also targeted towards policy makers as the information will be useful in terms of raising awareness on what is happening on the environmental scene on addressing issues of global concern.The project will also address the problem of limited and often inappropriate information on the environment and on sustainable development in general and funding -such as the SGP-in particular.

project objectives
-to develp a body of iformation on general environmentand global environmebt facility small grants programme specific information
-to provide an accessible source of information for rural cmmunities and organisations working with communities
-to facilitate the generation of information from the rural communities for on ward sharing with other communities across Zimbabwe
-to strengthen the work of the GEFSGP office in Zimbabwe
-toproduce 3 issues of the rural magazine "ITS OURS/ NDEZVEDU/NGOKWETHU " in 3 main languages.

Specific results
-at least 5 community members trained and writing stories for the newsletter
-communities implementing SGP projects developed into distriution zones for the newsletter
-five thousand copies per issue of the newsletter produced
-3 issues of the special feature newsletter produced
-at least 70 % of SGP projects successfully implemented
-at least 20 new applications for funding are received by the end of the project.

activities
-hold two workshops in Matebeleland and mashonalandto train selected community members in compiling articles for the newsletter
-prepare technical material on the focal areas of the SGP for inclusion in the newsletter
- prepare articles accepted for publication
-publish the newletter county wide through approved dstribution centres
-distibute the newsletter country wide through approved distribution centres.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

African Pride

Country:

Zimbabwe

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

Phase 2

Grant Amount:

US$ 49,426.37

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 5,000.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 1,000.00

Project Number:

ZIM/01/08

Start Date:

11/2001

End Date:

12/2002

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Different articles will be featured in the Newsletter focussing on environmental global challenges together with livelihoods. Communities will share on how they are sustainably managing their resources e.g. wetlands to improve their livelihoods and standard of living so that tehy ahve a holistic approach in terms of managing their environment.

Gender Focus

In all the project activities, both women and men are going to be actively involved. During the training on news gatherers, there is need to ensure that there is an equal representation of both men and women. During project implementation there will also be need to hear the views of how both men and women are benefitting from the newsletter and whether their needs are being addressed and captured. This will also be extended to the youths (both boy and girl child) who will also need too suggest what they need to be featured in the newsletter.

Capacity - Building Component

One of the major activities will be the training of selected community members in the area of news gathering and compilation of articles. Two workshops are going to be conducted to capacitte the community representatives in preparing articles for publication. This will strengthen their skills in networking and information gathering and publication.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

One of the major problems identified are that rural communities in Zimbabwe are disadvantaged than their urban counterparts especially in the area of information since it takes time to filter down to the rural areas. In addition, much of the information is passed through electronic media (radios, TVs, internet) which they do not have. Therefore, the newsletter will go a long way in bridging this gap and raising awareness on the global environment since it will be distributed to all centres no matter how marginalised in the rural areas which include schools, rural district councils, local NGOs, CBOs, etc. Unlike the electronic media with limited coverage, the Newsletter will be able to filter to ecery corner and will enhance public awareness on the global environment.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

The magazine will tap information not from technocrats or officers as is usually the case but from local people at grassroots. Emphasis will also be placed on sourcing information from the elderly who have had many experiences especially in the area of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) which will be useful to share with other groups.

Notable Community Participation

The publication has a rural focus and communities will play a pivotal role in compilation of stories, provision of photographs and there are the distribution centres for the newsletters. The project will work cloely with all social groups in a community in a bid to harness ideas and thoughts that people have concerning the environment.

Project Results

brief description of project objectives
1. to develop a body of information on envrionmental issues with particulra reference to the GEFSGP program focal areas
2. to provide an accessible source of information fr rural communities and organisations working with the communities on what is being done to address environmental degradation in Zimbabwe
3. to facilitate the generation of information from the rural communties for onward sharing with other communtiies across Zimbabwe and cultivate a reading habit
4. to increase the visiblity of GEFSGP nationwide
5. to rpoduce three issues of the magazine Its ours/ndezvedu/ ngokwethu.
6. to stregthen the work of rural writers through training so that more information can be gathered for the use of rural communtities in local languages.

Were these ojectives met?
- 20 community memebers were trained and these contributed to the published aticles.
- the target of 3000 per issue was achieved albeit the unprecedented rise in production costs
-all three issues of thespecial feature newsletter were produced as planned
-at least 60% of SGP projects were successfully reported on
-the publications and newsletter improved the knowledge of the communityand raised awareness
-the publications did improve the culture of reading among the stakeholders and a need to research more on the areas of environment
-1000 copies of the SGP notebook for development practioners and comunity based organisations were made
-1000 copies of the 10 year review document of GEFSGP work in Zimababwe were published

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