Project News

During the previous phase of the Project, O&OD team introduced a guideline for Community Planning Process (CPP) based on the philosophy and Improved O&OD. 10 pilot villages of Improved O&OD have been conducting CPP according to this guideline for the past 5 years^[1].

This year, O&OD team, together with the experienced Ward Facilitators ^[2] (WFs), reviewed the 5 years of experiences on CPP, and further improved the procedure of CPP.

1st Workshop for Improving CPP, conducted on June 21, 2016, at the O&OD meeting room, in which the past experiences in conducting CPP and the points to improve were discussed with WFs.

2nd Workshop on Improved CPP, conducted on August 15, 2016, at the Treasurer Building, Dodoma, in which the improved procedure of CPP was introduced to all WFs and District Taskforce^[3] (DTF) of 10 target LGAs.

First of all, a new session was added in CPP to discuss and review the community initiatives^[4] that the community actually worked on during the past one year. The aim is to promote experience-based learning of the community people, through them reviewing their own actions, and discussing what were the things that they have done successfully which can be utilized for their next actions, as well as the challenges and the ideas on how to overcome them.

Secondly, at the end of the CPP, when the village compiles the Community Development Plan, another new session was added in order for the community to decide which community initiative(s) they will focus on for the coming year, and to create detailed action plan for each prioritized community initiative. This is because through reviewing the past experiences of CPP, it became apparent that good-performing villages or WFs had become capable of coming up with realistic targets and action plans, considering the available internal resources as well as their own capability. In order for all target villages to follow this good example, enabling the community people implement the Community Development Plan with feasibility taken into account, it was decided that such discussions should be included in the procedure of CPP.

In 2016, improved procedure of CPP was conducted at as many as 45 villages of the 10 target LGAs. O&OD team participated in the CPP of a total of 11 villages, in order to observe the actual practices on the ground.

For Nakafulu Village of Ulanga District, it was the 6th year of CPP. In Nakafulu, CPP was not facilitated by the WFs anymore, but the community was able to facilitate the discussion on their own using the community facilitators, who are selected among the villagers. Led by their own community facilitators, the community people of Nakafulu completed 3 days of active discussions, with cheerful singing and dancing during intervals.

On the first day of CPP in Nakafulu, the participants reviewed their community initiatives for the past one year and confirmed the following achievements, which impressed the O&OD team:

• ・Completion of 16 school latrines
• ・Completion of 3 new water wells and rehabilitation of 3 old wells
• ・Addition of 60 new desks in the school classroom
• ・Rehabilitation of roads in 3 hamlets (1.4 kilometers in total)
• ・Progress in the construction of teachers' house
• ・Increase in the number of production groups (from 5 to 12)

Etc.

It was the 2nd year of CPP for the 6 pilot villages of Hai, Siha and Same Districts, our newest target LGAs in Kilimanjaro. In order to support the less-experienced WFs, from October 3 to 7, 2016, O&OD team participated in their CPP together with the Senior Facilitators^[5].

The picture is from Chekimaji Village, Rundugai Ward, Hai District.

WFs in Lugulu village, Lugulu ward, Same District receive advice from Senior Facilitators.

Village technician expalains how to go about the construction of school as community action plan.

The picture is from Lugulu village, Lugulu ward, Same District.

In 2017, O&OD team, together with WFs, will conduct a thorough review of the CPP in 2016, and finalize the revised guidelines on CPP.