- Live Life Donors Club
It endorses an integrated approach towards development that includes better and improved physical infrastructure in the villages, along with building community spirit.
Most of rural communities in our country are suffer numerous deprivation that impact the quality of life of their inhabitants. Poor infrastructure, degraded local natural resources and inadequate linkage to markets combine to create poverty trap which village economies usually find difficult to escape.
While there are probably no simple interventions, that could enable the rural communities to break out of a systemic traps of poverty and deprivation, it is possible to devise relatively simple packages of processes and practices that promote triple bottom wellbeing for a small initial investment. Such packages and practices can set the rural economy onto a new trajectory of socio-economic development that sustains itself into the future. Integrated Village Development Programme targets issues related to the economy, environment and society systemically, as a whole, helping communities realise the benefit of integrated development. The programme inspires ownership amongst the villagers, designs rational environmental management systems, promotes diversified and dynamic local economies and fosters social harmony. It also ensures people’s participation which guarantees prioritisation of issues by the community and responsiveness of village level interventions.
THE VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT MODEL
Our Village Development Model aims to increase the standard of living in poor rural communities in a holistic way, through multiple interventions addressing the different areas of the person’s life, including their education, health, shelter, and basic needs. The model’s strength lies in its core philosophy of local empowerment and ownership, ensuring that communities play an active role in their own development and are able to sustain themselves and contribute to the further development of their own communities and that of their neighbors.
A new component of this model is the use of local volunteers, who bring project-specific expertise to the projects and who in turn also learn a range of new skills and competencies, and who will be more inclined to continue giving back to the community in their personal capacity in the future.
Key projects include the installation of water filters and modular solar units, basic repairs to homes, improvements to school learning equipment and innovative educational projects, health-focused workshops and provision of supplies, and business and vocational training and coaching. SFF adds a range of other projects based on the results of its baseline survey and consultations with the village and we understand that each context is unique and requires a nuanced approach.
Our projects are delivered through SFF staff, local community members and experts, and locally recruited volunteers, and overseen through the creation of a local committee and project-specific sub-committees.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
The overall goal of our Village Development work is that people in poor rural villages have access to their most basic needs, improved education and health, and a means of sustaining their livelihoods and increasing their standard of living. More specifically, they have:
Sustainable Livelihoods Programme is a part of the “Integrated Village Development Program” including microfinance, eco-tourism, animal husbandry, or the possible opening of training centers for entrepreneurship and vocational studies for youth. The aim is to help villagers to generate income for themselves and to contribute to the further development of their community. SFF continues to be involved in the village with a mix of education and health-focused projects using primarily local people. The village committees continue to identify opportunities for further development using funds gathered through the new enterprises. They also assist SFF with its work in adjacent villages. In this way, communities become empowered and self-sustained and are able to share their benefit with their neighbors.
IMPLEMENTING THE VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT MODEL
The success of working in rural villages is contingent upon having a sound understanding of the root causes of issues and how they manifest in the community, the local context and how to operate within it, and the strength already existing in the community that can be leveraged. We do this by working initially with a trusted local partner with local expertise on these issues. Therefore, our very first step is:
We meet with local people, local and provincial government, community leaders, and potential project partners in order to understand the need and where we fit into the solution, identify potential villages to work in, and find a good partner who shared our vision and will facilitate our entry into the village. Finding a good local partner is key to the success and longevity of our work. Often, we initiate smaller educational focussed projects in order to start to build our understanding and develop a presence.
The next step is to facilitate a village meeting where we introduce SFF and the projects we would like to propose. The purpose of this is to find local members who are willing to be involved in the planning and implementation and to gain permission to conduct a survey.
SFF conducts a door-to-door survey in each household in the village in order to gather a baseline measurement of the current standard of living which we can compare to our results at the end of our programme and identify the size of the need as well as any other needs we should consider. The survey is conducted by local community members and students under the guidance of an experienced researcher. We conduct pre-training to ensure the survey is administered correctly. Survey results are presented back to the village for verification.
The analyzed data helps us to determine which households are most in need and which particular projects are of benefit and are feasible in this particular village. These plans are rendered into a programme logic and associated budgets and monitoring frameworks are drawn up. Indicators of success are collaboratively set to ensure that projects meet will in fact meet the identified need. This constitutes a broader level of planning; actual implementation is decided upon by the villagers themselves at a later stage.
SFF costs out each project according to the need and the unique challenges posed by that particular village and develops budgets and financial management processes to ensure good transparency and accountability and to ensure projects can be completed.
A sub-committee is formed to manage each project. The sub-committee comprises villagers who had demonstrated their interest and commitment at earlier meetings and who together are a good representation of the needs of the village, and local SFF representatives who are recruited for their expertise in a particular project area. Local involvement is important for the sustainability of projects and creates accountability and ownership of projects.
Projects are implemented by respective sub-committee and monitored by SFF. Local villagers play a large role in the implementation and are required to assist wherever they are able. We think of projects as a collaboration where both parties play an important role in the achievement of shared goals. Our locally recruited SFF representatives are key to the implementation phase and serve both as subject experts and project managers. They are part of the sub-committees and work closely with them.
After the completion of projects, projects are signed off at a public meeting, and expenditure is shown. This is to ensure all parties are satisfied with the results and to ensure financial transparency. An evaluation is conducted to determine the success of the projects against the initial indicators and baseline measures. These are professionally conducted and the results are made publicly available. Evaluations actively inform how we work with the next village.
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