Community Empowerment Facility Profile

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BACKGROUND

Kenya does not have a clearly defined or codified National Land Policy and hence important issues such as land administration, access to land, land and use planning, restitution and historical injustices, institutional framework, land information management systems, environmental concerns, conflict/dispute resolution, public land allocations and the informal sector are currently inadequately addressed.

The projects target especially the cultivators who has been benefiting from cultivating forest land through a forest management practice known as Shamba System. This system has gone through a series of changes that threaten the livelihood of the target groups. Some of the changes include moving from residential cultivation where the cultivators were allowed to live and cultivate in the forest to Non Residential Cultivation (NRC) where they moved out of forest but allowed to cultivate.

The government decided to stop the Shamba system and gave cultivators notice to vacate the forest by March 2004. The decision has negatively affected most of the forest users and especially their livelihood. All the forest users have been affected by the decision and hence a need to intervene by engaging the government through the Forest Department into a dialogue to re-consider the decision and adopt a forest management system that would incorporate community participation.

This Project is intended to enhance the institutional capacity of MACOFA and its member community based organizations in engaging the government for the co-management of natural resources in the MAU forest complex.

MACOFA (Mau Community Forest Association) is a local organization comprising 20 Community Based Organisations (CBOs). Administratively, Mau forest complex touches six districts that include Nakuru, Kericho, Koibatek, Narok, Transmara and Kajiado. These CBOS have come together and identified sustainable forest resource management and sustainable development as their main focus. MACOFA is an affiliate of NACOFA (The National Alliance of Community Forest Associations) and is registered with the registrar of societies as an association mandated to protect, manage, and conserve forest resources.

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GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The project purpose is to foster a facilitation process that would help communities to develop strategies in articulating their burning issues regarding access to and management of forest resources.

To achieve the purpose, the project proposes to mobilize, inform and educate the beneficiaries through meetings and workshops. The other logical step would be to facilitate the formation of structures that would facilitate implementation of identified actions. The structures include forming Community Resource Management Units (CREMU) and Regional Management Units (REMU) within Mau Forest Complex. These structures would provide a platform for negotiating and advocating for their rights.

Strategic goal

The strategic goal of the project is to restore and sustain biological, aesthetic, economic and cultural values of the Mau Forest Complex

The Specific objectives are:

• To organize communities at the local level by capacitating them to be able to take a lead for all local initiatives on managing resources.

• To help marginalized people to participate in controlling and benefiting from natural resources, as well as to influence decisions on variety of policies and laws concerning natural resources.

The expected results are:

• Organized communities who are able to lead in local initiatives on resource management

• Communities participate in controlling and benefiting from natural resources and influence policies and laws governing resources.

Primary project intervention and activities

The intervention is meant to allow:

• Planning and implementation of community based forest resource management.

• Integration of both social and government institutions and structures by considering the traditional practices and values of local people while taking into account local government structures.

Working with both sets of institutions the communities will be able to formulate reasonable and sustainable strategies for improving resource management for current and future generation.

The activities to be carried out are:

•  Mobilization meetings

•  District intensive workshops

•  Delegate Council Workshop

•  Negotiate partnership with Forest Department

•  Monitoring and evaluation

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Beneficiaries include forest cultivators, honey gatherers, herbal medicine collectors, grazers, wood gatherers, eco tourist groups and tree nursery developers. Of more particular focus are the forest cultivators, honey gatherers and grazers. These are the most vulnerable groups as far as access to forest resources is concerned.

Effort will be made to allow the marginalized to be involved and participate in the project.

The Mau Forest Complex boundaries are adjacent to several communities which comprise about 250 000 households in total (the average number of people per household in Kenya is about 6).

IMPLEMENTATION

Organization, methodology and implementation procedures

Organization: initial contact with the target people will be through letters, subsequently meetings would be conducted to discuss the project in detail and expound the key components for clarification, later major district workshops would follow where representatives of the target groups would meet at district level for an intensive workshop where the project purpose will be discussed and threats, and opportunities in forest resource access and management be discussed as well as action steps developed to realize the project goal.

Mobilization meetings : as discussed above after the initial contacts will be through letters, the groups that would respond and show interest in the project would then meet at agreed convenient venues where details on the project will be discussed. During the meetings participants will discuss the need for a coordinated effort in forest resource access and management, origin of MACOFA and its mission including its structures. In addition there will be elaboration on existing policy framework and opportunities available to the local communities to participate in managing and utilizing the forest resources in partnership with the Forest Department. Afterwards the participants will be requested to share the meeting experiences with the other members of their groups and other groups that are not represented. They would then organize local meetings to select the delegates that will participate in the district intensive workshops.

District Intensive workshops: for ease of logistics there will be two intensive workshops at district level and therefore twelve such workshops in total would be conducted. The workshops will discuss in details the provisions in the existing policies and strategies needed to establish resource management partnership with the government through the Forest Department where the local communities will be able to benefit with the forest resources and services under the partnership.

Resource people will be invited to give inputs on the policy provisions and strategies that could be used to engage the government in the negotiations. Analysis of the structures that require to be put in place in order to realize the project goal would be done and the role of workshop participants in facilitating the actions outlined.

The district workshop participants will be expected to later implement the action steps that would culminate in the formation of Community Resource Management Units (CREMU) and the Regional Management Units (REMU). The role of each of the two structures will be discussed during the workshop to enable the participants facilitate their formation with ease.

The participants will also discuss the importance of having a Delegate Council Workshop that will formally elect the MACOFA Board. The criteria and selection process of the delegates for the council workshop will be agreed to ensure the correct people are seconded.

At least 25 stakeholders groups will form one CREMU. Formation of CREMU will be guided by the ecological zones that the stakeholders come from and would cover an area that would enable committees to be meeting to brainstorm and agree on the way forward within their mandate.

CREMU will liaise closely with local leaders who make decisions on development priorities like chiefs and their assistants, councillors, government extension officers, members of local development and environment committees, and other local stakeholders

The role of CREMU will be to sell the project concept locally and popularize it. This will be important in soliciting community and local leaders support for the project. they will also ensure they are represented in local decision making structures to be able to influence decisions in favour of project initiative. The structure will also facilitate information flow from and to MACOFA Management Committee to individual members groups.

Issues to do with the resource management will be discussed at the CREMU level and forwarded to the MACOFA secretariat and REMU for further deliberation and feedback.

The Regional resource Management Unit (REMU) will be designed along local administrative boundaries and will be providing technical professional services and facilitate negotiations at higher level from district and above. The composition of REMU would entail representatives of other actors concerned with resource management and government department including Forest Department, lands and settlements, Kenya wildlife service, local authorities etc. REMU would facilitate understanding of the various provisions in existing policies, lay down strategies realise the project goal. Consultative meetings will be organised to discuss negotiation strategies and formulate action steps needed. Deliberations made at local level by CREMU would identify local needs to facilitate implementation of the project ad raise issues that require elaboration and advice that would be forwarded to REMU where feedback would be delivered promptly. REMU will work closely with MACOFA Management Committee in order to implement their roles.

Delegates Council Workshop: the delegate council workshop will get the participants from those elected in CREMU. The purpose of the workshop will be to get representatives from the whole MACOFA constituency (six districts) and formally elect the Board that will run MACOFA.

The overall MACOFA direction would be discussed, determined and priority operations set. This would elaborate the project deliverables and the best ways of achieving them.

Project monitoring, reviews and evaluation would be looked at with a view of setting concrete actions for the various MACOFA structures.

Negotiate for partnership with Forest Department: a conscious effort will be made to engage the government into negotiations from onset of the project. Relevant government officers would be informed and engaged in the process to allow them support the initiative. Although the partnership is intended to cover the whole Mau Forest Complex, it will start being implemented as the Community Resource Management Units (CREMU) get formed and eventually cover the project area.

Institutional and management capacity

Ideally, MACOFA operation structure is expected to have a Management Board with the administrative arrangement organised in a Secretariat, three Regional Management Units, Community Resource Management Units, Community Groups and Individual Farmers (households).

Currently, MACOFA is operating with a Board composed of representatives from two districts (Nakuru & Kericho), one Regional Management Unit and a Secretariat. The other districts need to be represented in the Board, as well as two more Regional Management Units, Community Resource Management Units formed, and individual groups recruited in order to operate as intended or outlined above (hence the need for institutional building).

The operations of the Association are managed from its headquarters at the COFEG (Community Food and Environment Group) in the town of Molo .

The existing MACOFA operation structures would be able to implement the proposed project in order to realize Community Empowerment and Institutional Building . The current Board comprises experienced people on the project intervention field and would provide the overall management of the project.

Community Resource Management Units committees will be equipped with skills on conflict management so that they are able to contain situations promptly as they arise. A collaborative effort will also be natured between CREMU and Government structures mandated to resolve conflict.

Economic and financial analysis

The project concern is to ensure that target people access the forest resources and mechanisms are put in place to ensure community participation in the resource management. The intervention therefore looks at the lifeline of the communities in terms of economic development. The intervention will help generate wealth for the target as well as the country. The finances requested is meant to jump start the process and improve livelihood.

Potential for replication, scaling up and mainstreaming

Nationally there is a dire need to facilitate communities depending on forest resources to access the same under agreed mechanisms with the government. The potential for replicating this initiative is enormous and it could be scaled up and mainstreamed by all forest associations in the country. Mau Community Forest Association (MACOFA) is an affiliate of NACOFA (The National Alliance of Community forest Associations). It is therefore easy to sell the concept to other associations through NACOFA.

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MONITORING, EVALUATION, LESSONS LEARNED AND GENERATION OF KNOWLEDGE

Monitoring plan, schedule and indicators for measuring results and impact

Progress monitoring meetings would be organized at agreed intervals over the project period. The learning and changes brought about would be captured against the projected outputs indicators and necessary adjustments made to ensure smooth implementation.

The project shall provide a participatory continuous project monitoring and evaluation as part of the project administration. This will include half-yearly progress reports to be presented to project participants at respective meetings for appraisal and evaluation.

Reports, interviews and discussions with target groups and records for the various activities and data of the projects would among the monitoring tools to be used.

A mid-term and project end evaluations by external evaluators is incorporated in the project design. The reports will be submitted to the donor at the time of evaluation and the donor may at any time carry out its own evaluation.

Measures to monitor and stamp out poaching of forest resources will be considered to avoid potential conflict among stakeholders.

Self-monitoring by the community and peer monitoring

After the formation of Community Resource Management Units (CREMU), individual groups who form the membership of each CREMU would be facilitated to put in place self monitoring mechanisms according to the plan of action.

Method for collecting and analysing experience and lessons learned

During progress monitoring meetings, the experiences and lessons learned would be documented and analysis made with a view of getting a package of experiences that we could share with relevant organizations and institutions. Issues of importance would then be identified and disseminated to relevant stakeholders.

Plan for sharing the knowledge generated by the project with the Land Coalition and its partners worldwide

As mentioned above experiences and knowledge generated by the project would be shared locally, and the Land Coalition and its partners world wide. This will be in form of reports, and documentaries where possible as well as articles if need be.

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OUTCOMES