Project News

DTF of Chalinze preparing presentation together with O&OD team

At the pilot villages of Improved O&OD, Ward Facilitators^[1] (WFs) are continuously conducting facilitation^[2], and the communities are sustaining their activeness in community initiatives (CIs)^[3]. In the neighboring villages also, after observing the good practices of the pilot villages, people are starting to organize themselves to initiate self-help efforts. Through this phenomenon, we have confirmed the potential of such "horizontal-learning" in bringing about positive changes to the community people through learning from other village's experiences.

O&OD team aims to utilize "horizontal learning" in promoting facilitation and community initiatives in all Wards and Villages in target LGA by sharing the experiences of the pilot villages to all villages in the target LGAs.

From August to September 2016, O&OD team assisted District Taskforce^[4] (DTF) of 6 target LGAs to conduct Experience Sharing Workshop. Ward Executive Officers (WEOs) and Extension Officers from all Wards participated in the workshop, in which DTF and WFs made a series of presentations to share the experience of pilot villages in succeeding in CIs and of WFs' facilitation.

A DTF member giving a presentation during Experience Sharing Workshop in Morogoro District Council.

WFs explained the importance of supporting and promoting CIs with their own words based on their experience. The participants developed an interest in facilitating their communities after listening to their colleague's enthusiastic presentations on their success in facilitation and the subsequent positive changes that the pilot villages experienced. It is expected that they will utilize this know-how to improve facilitating in their own villages.

However, the effectiveness in encouraging facilitation in all Wards cannot be expected without sufficient support and monitoring by the District Level to the Ward Level. Therefore DTF's monitoring on the facilitation at the Ward Level is crucial. O&OD team will continue to monitor and supervise DTF's activities so as to assure positive changes through this experience sharing exercise.