Project News

The target LGAs of the project are expected to promote Community Initiatives (CIs)^[1] through an added function of "facilitation." "Promote CIs" means to strengthen existing CIs, generate new CIs, adequately support them as well as sustain the activeness of communities, and facilitators become the key to such endeavor.

LGAs are to utilize the following 2 categories of facilitators:

1. Ward Facilitators (WFs): the ward extension officers selected by the LGA to receive Improved O&OD training. WFs' role is to continuously conduct "facilitation^[2]" at the community level.
2. Senior Facilitators (SFs): Good-performing WFs who have 2~3 years of field experience in Improved O&OD and have received SF training. They are selected and registered based on the set criteria. Their roles are to: (1) support capacity building of new/less-experienced WFs inside and outside their LGAs by providing continuous follow-up, and to (2) become the focal person of the replication of Improved O&OD within their LGA.

The project has been conducting a series of activities to strengthen the capacity of both SFs and WFs.

Group discussion during the Workshop

1. Experience Sharing Workshop

On 26 and 27 January, 2016 in Hai, the project conducted a 2-day Experience Sharing Workshop inviting 20 WFs from 6 target LGAs (Morogoro, Kilombero, Ulanga, Kisarawe, Bagamoyo and Kondoa) including SFs, the candidates of SF and other experienced facilitators. During the workshop, the facilitators shared and analysed their 2 to 6 years of experience in community facilitation from the beginning of the previous phase up to now, and developed a common understanding on how to successfully facilitate "Rapport Building" and "Awareness Building" in their communities through a series of group discussions, in order for the SFs to be able to provide effective inputs to less-experienced WFs.

SF facilitating during field follow-up in Mkurumuzi Village, Kondoa

2. Field Follow-up of WFs by SFs in Kilimanjaro and Kondoa

On January 28, 2016, teams consisted of SFs and candidates of SF visited 6 target villages of Hai, Siha and Same Districts to conduct field follow-up sessions. The objectives of this activity was to provide the new WFs of Kilimanjaro, who just started facilitation from the previous year, with practical advices on how to successfully facilitate community to promote Community Initiative, and also for SFs and candidates of SF to accumulate field experience on supporting new WFs.

In the sessions, the experienced facilitators facilitated WFs to review the progress of their community facilitation in the respective village and provided practical advices based on their own experiences. In addition, WFs, assisted by the experienced facilitators, facilitated community leaders to review the progress of Community Initiatives after the Community Planning Process in August 2015^[3], and to discuss the way forward.

On February 10, 2016, the same exact opportunity of field follow-up was provided to the WFs in Kondoa with two years of experience in community facilitation.

Exercise on how to analyze the community upon facilitation

3. Workshop with SFs

The project held a 3-day workshop in Dodoma from February 23 to 25, 2016 for 5 SFs from 5 target LGAs (Ulanga, Kilombero, Morogoro, Kisarawe and Bagamoyo). The purpose of the workshop was for the SFs to:

1. Understand the importance of CIs and facilitation
2. Discuss how to improve WF training
3. Build experience sharing platform

The workshop began by reviewing the background of Improved O&OD to reconfirm the importance of community facilitation. Participants then discussed how to analyze the community in order to facilitate the community in an appropriate manner, and how facilitation should be changed from community to community.

SFs using SNS as an experience sharing platform

As for the discussion on WF training^[4], participants reviewed the current training module and structure. They discussed the possibility to improve the respective session in order to make it more efficient and effective.

In another session, the participants discussed the necessity of sharing the experiences of their target villages to fellow and new facilitators in order to deliver the message on the importance of facilitation in community development. An idea of utilizing existing village mechanism (various meetings, etc.) was discussed, and the idea of using social network service (SNS) was put into practice. The participants set up the group account on "WhatsApp" (a popular SNS) for daily experience sharing.

Participants seemed to have gained confidence through various discussion and exercise, and to be ready for field practice. 5 SFs are expected to go back to the field to continue their facilitation with the lessons learnt in mind, to build further confidence, and to effectively deliver the message on the impact of Improved O&OD to various stakeholders.

4. M&E Workshop in Kondoa

The project held a 2-day follow-up workshop on M&E in Kondoa from March 16 to 17, 2016 to District Taskforce^[5] (DTF) members and WFs of Mnenia and Kikore Wards. The purpose of the workshop was to:

1. Introduce the revised design of O&OD Project Phase 2,
2. Consolidate the participants' understanding on the importance of CIs and Facilitation,
3. Build participants' basic understanding on the importance of M&E at the community level as a part of experience-based learning both for the community people and WFs.

After a series of presentations from the O&OD team concerning the above 3 points, a group work on how to conduct M&E on both individual CIs, as well as the positive changes at the village level, was conducted by WFs.

The WFs agreed to try out the M&E activities when they go back to their fields. O&OD team is planning on conducting the second M&E workshop in May 2016 to collect the WFs feedbacks, and to come up with a practical way-forward on how to effectively and feasibly conduct M&E exercises on the ground.