LIVELIHOOD GUIDELINE FOR KOPA PROJECT MANUAL

Part 1: The Guidelines

 

1. Background

These guidelines are for the use of Facilitation Team members working with the project “Improving livelihood and Household together with self-economic in kakuma and kalobeyei, Rift valley Region and Southern pokoti” (usenc.org).

The development objective of the project is to improve the self-economic and livelihood maintenances status of selected communities in all areas of the camp and host communities, namely kakuma 2 and  turkana town in lodward district. The project will apply a bottom-up, participatory community action planning process, in line with KENYA’s decentralization process, to ensure that locally appropriate micro-projects can be identified and implemented to improve the self-economic and vulnerability situations of the rural poor.

2. Community Action Planning

The diagram on the following page provides an overview of the Community Action Planning (KOPA) Process. The core components of the process are:

• Community Action planning workshops.
• Implementation of micro projects by groups in the community.
• Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation.

KOPA is an on-going process. KOPA workshops will be held in the 2 camps of the project Kakuma and kalobeyei throughout the life of the project. They will be organized on a quarterly basis and last for about two days. Participatory monitoring and evaluation is essential as part of the second and subsequent planning cycles. There may be more than one KOPA workshop per quarter in a kakuma, if that is necessary to achieve appropriate geographic coverage and participation of all residents in the area.

The KOPA process will bring along new responsibilities and roles for all those involved:

• People will no longer be “beneficiaries”, as they become active planners and owners of their own micro-projects;
• Subject Matter Specialists will act as technical advisors and facilitators of micro project planning groups;
• Committees at body of directors and cultural and church levels will be responsible for checking, approving and channeling micro-project proposals that require grant funding;
• Development Agents, Home Agents and trained community members will have important facilitation roles for group promotion.

COMMUNITY ACTION PLANNING PROCESS

KOPA will build on and support the capacity of existing and new small groups organizations, including service co-operatives and lobar sharing or other social support mechanisms. Kakuma/kalobrest of the different community groups and promote, advice and moniteyei level development committees may be developed to represent the inter micro project planning.

The overall speed of community action planning will be largely determined by the capacities of micro project groups to gradually assume a more active role in the KOPA process. The KOPA Process should promote mutual accountability between community, officials and existing committees at different levels.

3. The Community Action Planning Workshop

The major objectives of a KOPA workshop are:

• To provide an opportunity for different socio-economic groups to discuss and analyses their livelihoods, including problems, causes of problems, livelihood strategies and potentials that could help them solve problems.
• To undertake some initial planning steps for micro projects by identifying interest groups and who will be responsible for arranging follow-up activities.
• To build people’s capacity to participate more actively in development planning, relating to issues affecting their community as a whole and their individual livelihoods.

Community Participation

It is very important to encourage a wide participation of different community members in KOPA workshops. All residents of selected camp should be informed, well in advance, of the objectives of the KOPA process in general and the KOPA workshop in particular. People need to know that they are invited to get involved voluntarily and actively in planning and implementing projects to improve their lives, particularly regarding on self-economic growth and livelihood. It is particularly important to ensure the participation of female headed households, male headed households without oxen and landless young people as these were found to be among the most vulnerable and poorest households in the 2 camps.

Informing the Community

To ensure full participation in workshops, communities must be well informed about the project and the KOPA process. Organizers must use both the normal information channels that operate in the Camps, e.g. development agents, home agents, churches, as well as holding special Information Days to which everyone in the area is invited, before conducting KOPA workshops. It is also recommended that posters and leaflets explaining the project and KOPA are distributed in the area, e.g. in schools, shops, cooperatives and churches, for people to read or ask about.

Facilitation

The KOPA workshops will be facilitated by a KOPA Workshop facilitation team with one agent from the bank. This team will normally consist of educated people drawn from the community itself, together with representatives of kakuma and kalobeyei level institutions and sector offices. It might also include people from the regional level.

There should be a minimum of nine people in a team, at least two of whom should be women. If possible more women should be included. During the KOPA workshop, one team member will be the team leader and the other eight team members will rotate their roles and tasks as facilitators and note-takers. The team should be well organized and will be responsible for preparing the KOPA workshops, conducting information meetings before the KOPA workshop and facilitating the KOPA workshop itself. The team will also be responsible for documenting the KOPA Workshop results for further use by community groups and the community leaders of kakuma and kalobeyei levels committees.

 

The Vision                                                                          

The long term vision underpinning the KOPA process is that eventually community groups might also directly plan micro projects and, if needed, seek technical or financial assistance through the UNITED SAFE ENVIRONMENT CREATORS/KOPA Committee to the Coordinating Committee, without having to wait for the next organized KOPA workshop to initiate the planning process. This is especially true of income-generating activities which are ultimately individual or small group initiatives and micro projects are more about obtaining the necessary knowledge and skills.

Summary of the key principles of KOPA workshops:

Different groups of people with similar livelihoods analyze their livelihoods, potentials, and problems and identify projects to improve their situations. Facilitators are listening instead of teaching! People themselves are the experts on their own life! Finding out about the livelihood strategies of the poor will help to recognize the potentials of the poor and help to let them develop micro-projects which build on these existing strategies. Facilitators, subject matter specialists, Development Agents, Government officials, NGOs, etc., must have a good attitude in terms of behavior, respect, patience, and willingness to learn and reflect on their roles. It is continuous learning for everybody! Good visualization on big sheets of paper is important to ensure that everybody can follow the discussions. Use simple language and make use of pictures and symbols which are understood by the illiterate participants. Pin boards, big sheets of paper and markers are essential materials for all   KOPA Workshops. Facilitators hand over to the participants as much responsibility as possible. Involve participants when writing on charts and drawing pictures. Avoid finding out more than needed for successful planning! Micro project interest groups, within every socioeconomic group, can plan micro-projects to improve their own lives. Other interest groups may plan micro-projects which will benefit the whole community or specific vulnerable groups (e.g. infants, children, teenage girls, women of reproductive age, pregnant women). Encourage participants to start planning more simple micro-projects first, before moving to very complex and more difficult types of micro-projects. Facilitators need to be very well trained in KOPA Workshop Methodology. A good documentation is essential! The KOPA Workshop charts are left within the community for their further use and the facilitators make copies on the documentation sheets for their own planning needs at the small group of 10 participants.

Toolbox: Tools and examples are provided in Part 2 of these guidelines to help you prepare and run a KOPA workshop.

4. Micro project Planning

The main result of a Community Action Planning workshop should be the decision to solve one or more of the community’s problems through the preparation of micro projects. A micro project is simply a specific activity designed to solve a specific problem, e.g., spring protection to provide clean drinking water, latrine building to improve sanitation and Soap fabrication to improve self-economy, vegetable production to improve nutrition, tree planting to improve safe environment etc. Micro projects differ, however, in how they may be planned, implemented and funded and different procedures will be applied to different categories of project.

Micro project planning involves working out resource requirements and time bound action plans. Plans will be started in the KOPA Workshop but continued by interest groups with the help of individual experts or members of facilitation teams. If the group is able to provide all the resources needed and only require technical advice, they can proceed directly to implement the micro project. If extra funds are required, the UNITED SAFE ENVIRONMENT CREATORS for Community Development Fund is available to provide grants for some types of micro projects. Grants could be available from other sources to finance projects which do not meet the USEC criteria. Grants are available for income-generating activities, institutions for loans or buy inputs on credit from the local cooperatives to finance income-generating enterprises or they could start a savings and credit group.

There are three categories of micro project.

Category 1 Community Micro projects

A Community Micro project is one which, when completed, benefits more than a single household. A community micro project creates the community owned property which must be maintained by all those who benefit from it. To plan and implement this type of micro project, a management committee must be nominated from within the community to organize the people involved.

Examples of community micro projects:

1. Improving community water supplies – spring protection, well construction, pond construction and other types of water harvesting for communal purposes including water for human consumption, for watering livestock and for crop irrigation.
2. Improving health facilities and availability of medicines, birth delivery kits, resources for HIV/AIDS prevention, dietary supplements.
3. Improving sanitation – communal latrines and rubbish disposal sites.
4. Reducing soil erosion by community action.
5. Community tree planting for fuel wood and/or erosion control in our semi desert area
6. Community nursery for tree seedlings.
7. Community cattle crush.
8. Establishment of a new cooperative shop to supply farm inputs and other essential goods.
9. Establishment of a savings and credit group, expected to involve one among bank agents to come and inform on savings and credit functions

Category 2 Household Micro projects

A household micro project is one which benefits an individual household. Any property created belongs to the individual household and is maintained by them. Planning and implementing this type of micro project is, therefore, a matter for an individual household and does not require community organization. However, there is a role for a community group in household micro projects which is explained below in relation to the two types of household micro project that have been identified.

Type An Improving living conditions

Type A household micro projects are intended to improve living conditions for an individual family in ways that can contribute to better health and better economy. Examples of this type of micro project include:

1. Individual latrines.
   2. Household water harvesting schemes.
   3. Individual fuel wood plots.
   4. Fuel saving stoves.
   5. Soap.

The primary role for a community group in relation to planning this type of micro project is to identify and select those households which would benefit from labor-saving interventions or access to a latrine or water harvesting equipment but who are unable to undertake or finance the projects without help. The group or committee will have to agree to the qualifying criteria as well as the actual selection of households benefiting from this micro project. Group representatives may then apply for a grant from the KOPA project in order to help these most vulnerable households.

Type B Improving incomes

Type B household micro projects are intended to improve the income-generating ability of individual households. A wide range of business and non-business options are possible in the project area. Households will be expected to take part in technical and business training and implement improvements to current enterprises or introduce new ones. The role of the community group will be to ensure that this technical and business training is available and that members of vulnerable households are able to participate in the training.

People will also need access to the inputs they require to implement their enterprise plans and may need to obtain these on loan. Thus the community group will need to ensure that appropriate inputs are available and can be purchased on a loan basis if required. This may involve encouraging the existing local arrangement of the group management committee to undertake training to improve their business planning. If this is done, a grant may be requested from the Community Development Fund to enable the group society to purchase and sell on cash or credit terms the required materials.

The community group should also ensure that target groups of vulnerable households are not excluded from cooperative services by their inability to pay back the amount of money take and purchase share capital. Existing local group arrangement committee receiving working capital from the KOPA PROJECT will be expected to provide deferred share payment schemes, which enable poor people to pay in installments. Another alternative is for cooperatives to accept joint membership from small groups, which may be particularly helpful to women. Development Agents should ensure that vulnerable households are confident and able to take part and express their views in meetings of society members.

A working capital grant to a cooperative group will remain as equity within the cooperative, as long as credit sales are fully recovered. The capital will thus “revolve” and will be available for the purchase of further stocks of inputs. If the membership of a cooperative grows and the input supply business is well managed, the second request for additional working capital from the KOPA project can be considered.

A cooperative obviously can stock livestock to sell. Therefore, to make capital available for livestock purchases, there will be two options:

1. A cooperative may apply for a loan fund, provided the appropriate application, approval, disbursement, recovery and accounting procedures are in place. This fund can then be used to extend loans for livestock and potentially other activities as well but this one will be commencing in simple future.
2. A group of householders can organize themselves as a savings and credit group and once they have established workable procedures they can apply for a grant to increase their funds and enable them to extend loans for livestock purchases. This would be considered a Category 1 micro project.

Group Enterprises

It may be valuable for small groups of people, particularly women, to work together on an enterprise with a view to sharing any profit made between them. A group enterprise must be planned just like an individual business. It has to be profitable or it will fail. Market research must be carried out and costs and returns estimated to establish the feasibility of the enterprise.

Advantages of running an enterprise as a group is:

• Group members can share their skills, time and resources together to make something work.
• Work can be divided amongst the group members, making the best of the time everybody has available.
• It is easier for groups to get assistance from outside – training, grants, loans, advice from rural development agencies, etc.
• Groups give members more self-confidence, especially women.
• Decisions taken in a group are often better and more realistic than those made by individuals.

However, problems can arise in group enterprises:

• Deciding who will do what is not easy – it can cause arguments.
• Decision-making in groups takes longer and people do not always agree.
• One or more group members may contribute less than others in time or money but still want an equal share of profits.
• Nobody likes sharing losses.

Credit

Individual households may consider that they need credit in order to implement their income-generating plans. This decision should only be reached after careful financial planning and consideration of the possibility for self-financing.

The options for obtaining credit will be to approach a local microfinance institution for a loan or to buy inputs from a local cooperative on a credit basis. In either case, the householder will have to comply with the rules and conditions set by the institution concerned. Guidance and assistance with filling application forms can be given by development agents and other UNI.TED SAFE ENVIRONMENT staffs

The decision of a cooperative society as to whether a member should be able to purchase inputs on credit or not and the interest rate policy and repayment terms that will be applied, will be the independent decision of the group. The role of the community and the Development Workers will be to ensure that vulnerable households have been given sufficient support to produce practical and viable plans for enterprise development so that they do qualify for the credit.

Toolbox

Tools and examples are provided in Part 2 of these guidelines to help technical advisers assist communities with micro project planning and teach households about business and cash flow planning.

5. Community Development Fund

Applications

Once planning processes have been completed and a community group has decided to ask for support from the UNITED SAFE ENVIRONMENT CREATORS Community Development Fund, an application form must be completed and submitted to the KOPA PROJECT / Development Committee.

The responsibility of this committee will be to check:

1. That appropriate micro project planning forms have been satisfactorily completed by the community group;
2. That sufficient technical advice has been obtained by the group;
3. That the micro project meets a priority need related to vulnerable self-economy growth or youth occupation identified during a KOPA workshop;
4. Those vulnerable households have been identified and will benefit from the impact of the micro project;
5. That an adequate community contribution is being made.

An adequate contribution has been specified in the project document as 10% of total micro project costs. However, it is often quite meaningless to apply figures to materials or labor provided in kind. Therefore, the judgment of “adequate” should be based on the following questions:

• How much time has the community group already devoted to planning activities?
• Are the action plans that have been prepared sufficiently comprehensive and detailed?
• Has the community taken full responsibility for the planning and future implementation of the micro project?
• Have all the people expected to benefit from the micro project participated in the planning?
• Are the community proposing to make physical contributions in the form of lobar or materials?
• Are the community proposing to make cash contributions?
• Has the community proposed a maintenance plan for which they will take responsibility?

The committee has the right to refer back to the applicant group and request amendments or further information before completing the recommendation section and forwarding the application to the LIVELIHOOD management. So technical advisers should make sure the micro project planning is done well and the criteria of adequate contribution are met.

Approval

Applications will be checked by the LIVELIHOOD MANAGMENT Technical Committee and submitted to the BODY OF DIRECTORS Steering Committee for approval or rejection. The BODY OF DIRECTORS Steering Committee will then notify the LIVELIHOOD MANAGEMENT of all micro project approvals and rejections. The UNITED SAFE ENVIRONMENT will prepare grant agreement forms.

The will advise the relevant UNITED SAFE ENVIRONMENT CREATORS Committees of decisions and forward completed grant agreement forms to them to obtain the appropriate signatures.

Disbursement

Disbursement of grants from the KOPA PROJECT will take place once the Agreement has been signed between the LIVELIHOOD MANAGEMENT and the community representatives. Where it is possible for community group representatives or LIVELIHOOD MANAGERS to purchase materials and arrange the transport needed to bring the items to the project sites, the grant will be disbursed in cash to the person responsible. A receipt for the cash must be signed and filed at the USEC.

Where it is not possible for community representatives to take responsibility for purchasing any required inputs themselves, the relevant sector office will make arrangements to obtain and disburse the inputs in kind with funding transferred from the KOPA according to UNHCR and guidelines.

The LIVELIHOOD MANAGEMENT is fully responsible for accounting for all funds allocated to the GROUP selected account and for collecting receipts from the Groups Committee to substantiate the proper use of cash disbursed to community groups or cooperatives.

6. Implementation

Implementation is the responsibility of the community groups or nominating committees and individual households as set out in the Micro project Activity Plans. Therefore, it is essential that adequate support is given to groups to enable them to work effectively together and that good leadership is established.

The nature of different micro projects will require different attitudes and approaches to be developed within groups. Community micro projects may involve large numbers of people working together for a relatively short period of time. Important features here will be good leadership and coordination skills. The effort may be needed to keep people involved and making a fair contribution during the development phase and the maintenance phase. The delegation of responsibilities, e.g., for purchasing inputs or keeping records, may be essential.

Micro projects involving improving the living conditions of the poorest households need influential individuals and community leaders that are sensitive to the problems of these households and can ensure that help and support can be directed to them with the support of other, less vulnerable households. The micro project committee and representatives will, together with influential individuals and community leaders, need to mobilize the targeted householders to help themselves as far as possible but also to enlist help from others where that is required. As the relatively better off households will not benefit from this type of projects, it will be important to be aware of potential conflicts and address them at an early stage, e.g. through seeking approval of the micro project from the wider community.

Implementing income-generating projects will depend on the motivation and enthusiasm of individuals. Group learning activities relating to enterprise development, market research, cash flow planning, improved agricultural practices, etc. will be important but such groups are of a short term nature. If a group of people decides to run a joint enterprise, this involves very particular skills.

Overall the process of implementation requires discipline to get jobs were done; the ability to anticipate and solve problems and the ability to keep adequate records and monitor progress.

7. Monitoring and Evaluation

Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) are important to improve the processes and methods used, as well as the effectiveness and ultimate impact of micro-projects themselves. Before conducting a new round of KOPA workshops a participatory M&E system, involving meetings or “learning workshops” at different levels, needs to be put in place. Within the UNITED SAFE ENVIRONMENT, this should include the micro project interest groups, any community committees that exist and the livelihood and groups management committees. Meetings should also take place within regional institutions, the project management unit and cultural Project Steering Committee. At all levels, it is important to ensure that joint observation and reflection will lead to corrective actions for future micro project planning and implementation.