| In 1999, ICA
Kenya had recently completed two 3-year integrated development
assistance programs, and proceeded to have dialogue with leaders
in nearby high poverty areas to inquire about their interest
in inviting ICA Kenya to do a needs assessment in their location.
The leadership of Kitui responded with enthusiasm, and ICA staff,
along with an independent consultant, completed a preliminary
needs assessment. Then ICA Kenya approached ICA Japan, and together
a proposal was built to submit to JICA as a candidate for their
new Partnership Project.
After JICA accepted the proposal, a mission
team composed of JICA, ICA Japan, and ICA Kenya visited several
villages and lead workshops to learn their current interests
and to inform them that their request to be assisted by the
Partnership Project could begin as soon as the Kenyan government
gave its approval. In all, over 500 people participated in these
workshops, and many officers of the national government were
consulted, and gave their official consent.
The workshops and needs assessment revealed
an overwhelming passion to respond to basic human needs, with
a very high priority on getting access to year around water.
Other widely mentioned needs were for leadership training, health
education, agriculture and agroforestry technology, and income
generation.
Early in the first year of the project,
30 villages were selected, the needs assessment updated, and
long-range planning was done in each village using the Strategic
Planning Method of ICA's Technology of Participation. This was
followed with group and leadership training, with a dual concern
for both accomplishing the project objectives and establishing
a strong context for self-development and sustainability.
In the first two years, there was an intense
delivery of the above mentioned basic needs. At the end of the
second year, about 75 local leaders came together to exchange
their learnings, and to re-focus their attention towards the
long-range sustainability of the area in a mode of self-development.
A key input was the results of a two-month evaluation which
focused on what depth changes had taken place in the community,
and what needed to happen in year 3 to ensure the mind change
to where participants are able to lead their own development
and obtain the necessary resources and government involvement.
Project year three built upon the systems
put in place for the creation of basic needs, and looked to
ensuring the sustainability of what was put in place following
the completion of the third year in early 2004. Several leadership
learning sessions were held to strengthen participants pro-active
leadership ability, and to shift the paradigm to confidence
in the self-initiated self-development as a way of life and
a life-long journey.
Were five years available, a longer time
would have been spent in year 1 for leadership development;
however with the three-year constraint and the high sense of
urgency to satisfy basic human needs, we feel that the present
development approach excellently matched the reality that all
were facing.
Following the three year Partnership
Project sponsored by JICA, there will be staff retained to follow
through on the income generation and credit systems, and to
continue to support the emerged active leadership. With a new
government in place in Kenya, it will be a time to actively
partner with the local government as a leader in facilitated
and catalyzed development, and fulfilling their responsibility
to provide adequate resources to local citizens. |
