Abstract:
Abstract:
Community Empowerment and Networking Program is an innovative
approach to community development that seeks to optimize utilization of local
resources and opportunities, without restriction to any specific sectors. The
program was developed to effectively produce positive socioeconomic impact
within target communities by maximizing synergistic effects from appropriate
coordination of three functions of African Institute for Capacity Development
(AICAD), namely Research and Development, Training and Extension,
Information Network and Documentation. During the process of program
development, exhaustive reference was made to experiences from various
community development programs around the world.
The program targets community groups which have common interest
with regard to community development, poverty reduction, and improvement of
livelihoods. The purpose of the program is “to empower target communities to
take an initiative in community-driven development activities towards poverty
reduction”. The overall goal is “to improve the social and economic livelihoods of
the target communities”. If successful, the model will be expanded to embrace
more regions in East Africa and elsewhere. The program was initiated in
selected regions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in March 2006. These are
referred to as “Model Regions”. The east side of Mt. Kenya including Embu,
Mbeere and Tharaka districts is the model region in Kenya, while the model regions in Tanzania and Uganda are Kibaha and Mityana districts, respectively.
The areas of intervention and target community groups will be identified
on the basis of results of field reconnaissance in the model regions. In order to
benefit the target communities, appropriate approaches for intervenention in the
target community groups will be identified through participatory methods. The
basic approaches include “community mobilization and participation”, “transfer of
appropriate knowledge and technologies to the communities”, “addressing
problems which hinder the communities from development”, “generating ideas
for community development”, “planning and implementation of community
development activities by communities”, “networking the participating
communities for information sharing”. Other approaches could also be
considered when and where required. In order to keep abreast with the needs of
the communities, mechanisms for receiving inquiries and inputs from the
communities will be established. The data accumulated through this program
such as needs, problems and opportunities within the communities, as well as
the ways of coping with them, will be stored in a database, regardless of their
perceived success or failure. The information will be utilized in future when
dealing with other similar cases.
Specific activities in the program such as participatory community
surveys, needs analysis, research implementation, training, extension, and
community development, will be implemented and facilitated with the help of
AICAD’s partners. These include universities, Non Governmental Organizations
(NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), national and international
research/training institutes, central and local governments, and private
organizations/enterprises. AICAD will take the role of coordination and
management of the whole program. Community coordinators will be identified
from local human resources in the model regions as a channel of communication
between communities and AICAD. In order to ensure the sustainability of the
community development activities, local human resources such as extension
workers and active farmers will be fully utilized.