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Community Action 2015
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News and Events
8-14 January, 2005 17- 25 November, 2004 25 September - 2 October, 2004 June 2004
April 2004 -CBI Brownbag Series: "Community Action, Water Governance and the MDGs" February 2004 - Japan assists communities affected by Chernobyl nuclear accident January 2004 - Sri Lanka women revive reed traditions and reach Equator Prize finals December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 - Communication and Networking: A tool for exchanging experiences for local communities
September 2003 Japan assists communities affected by Chernobyl nuclear accident 23 February 2004 Japan is providing US$1.2 million through the UN Trust Fund for Human Security to help 70 towns in Ukraine upgrade public facilities such as schools and medical centres. The project also includes establishment of small economic projects, with business training for 500 entrepreneurs, and helping 30 communities set up radiation safety programmes. More Information… Ezequiel Vitonás y Nelson Lemus, delegados del Proyecto Nasa de los indígenas paeces, que se llevó uno de los 7 galardones del Premio Ecuatorial edición 2004, en Kuala Lumpur, Malasia, recibieron ayer en Bogotá, un emotivo homenaje por parte del PNUD. Junto con ellos, Maritza del Carmen Parra y Sergio Arango, representantes de la Red de Mujeres Productoras y Comercializadoras de Quibdó, uno de los 26 finalistas. Alfredo Witschi-Cestari, representante residente del PNUD en Colombia, afirmó: “Tenemos aquí a dos comunidades que han agregado la excelencia al trabajo y por eso fueron reconocidas. Tenemos en este país gente que está rodeada por los elementos del conflicto, afectada por la pobreza, la marginación, la inequidad, y también por el olvido. Pero en lugar de sentarse a ver cómo hacerle frente a la vida, encuentran soluciones que son ejemplo para Colombia y el mundo”. Más Información... President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took an important step to conserve the unique Caatinga forest in drought-prone northeast Brazil through a US$27 million initiative he launched earlier this month. The project will also improve livelihoods in the region, one of the country's poorest, with a population of 18.5 million. "The main issue is our capacity to reconcile development, social justice and progress on the environment," said President Lula. "Precious ecosystems, such as the Caatinga, have been weakened by unsustainable pressure." Wood still provides nearly one-third of the region's energy, he noted. More Info...
Activities at the "Community Kampung," an innovative space for dialogue among grassroots groups — including finalists for the Equator Prize 2004 awarded today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — highlighted the key role of communities in conserving biodiversity and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The UNDP Equator Initiative organized the Community Kampung ("village" in Malay) on 10 - 18 February for representatives of 26 community groups from 24 countries to share their unique knowledge with each other and government and civil society delegations attending the Seventh Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. More Info... Mt. Kenya communities play key role in return of endangered bongo antelopes Eighteen mountain bongo antelopes, a critically endangered species, arrived safely in Mt. Kenya National Park last month from the United States via a special plane through an unprecedented international partnership that hinges on local communities. The wild bongo population was decimated by unrestricted hunting and poaching and lions, and the last sighting was nine years ago. The goal is to re-establish the bongos, bred in captivity in the US, in their species' native habitat, now a World Heritage Site. More Info...
Farmers and livestock owners in Oku village in Cameroon's North West Province have overcome local conflicts and joined forces to improve production and protect an area in the endangered Kilum mountain forest. The Itoh Community Graziers Common Initiative Group is one of 26 finalists nominated from among 340 community projects for the Equator Prize 2004, to be awarded on 19 February to six outstanding community efforts to improve livelihoods and conserve bio-diversity in tropical Sri Lanka women revive reed traditions and reach Equator Prize finals More than 60 women in Horana, a village 40 kilometers south of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, are broadening the diversity of plant and animal life and providing raw material for traditional weaving by reintroducing reeds and rushes in small rice paddies. The Committee for People's Rights, a civil society group, began the initiative five years ago with support from the UNDP Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme. Now the project has made it as one of 26 finalists for the Equator Prize 2004 that on 19 February will honour six outstanding community efforts to improve livelihoods and conserve biodiversity in tropical countries. More Info...
CBI Brownbag Series: Community-Based Ecoagriculture Initiatives: Findings from the 2002 UNDP Equator Prize Nominations On the talk conducted by Christian Isely, he covered ecoagriculture as it is applied in the context of Scherr and McNeely's definitive work on the subject, Ecoagriculture: Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Specie where it is defined as an umbrella term for landscape scale land-use systems designed to produce both human food and ecosystem services, including habitat for wild biodiversity. The seven case studies in the report were highlighted in the presentation with two particular projects, CIPASLA-ASOBESURCA in Colombia and FITEMA in Madagascar, covered by short video clips taken from a BBC special program on the Equator Initiative. These cases coupled with data taken from the sample set revealed a number of notable findings. First off, the role of communities was revealed to be of tremendous importance both in project initiation and implementation with cultural legitimacy playing a very beneficial role. The strength of land tenure rights also proved to be pivotal in enabling communities to enact ecoagriculture strategies and practices. The need for national governments to create an environment conducive to local action was recognized as a necessary condition for community involvement. Direct lessons for ecoagriculture were also identified including the recognition of agricultural ecosystems and the symbiosis between natural and productive landscapes. The need for increased data collection was emphasized since present data favors certain types of production systems and strategies. In particular, the need for more research on failures was stated. In response, a template is being developed to standardize data collection and provide a means for the exchange of information. Christian then went on to explore ecoagriculture in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. It was determined that ecoagriculture strategies play a tremendous role in achieving some of the goals directly while playing a significant part in achieving the goal set as a whole. In reference to the strong role ecoagriculture plays in reducing poverty and enhancing biodiversity, Christian recommended the incorporation of ecoagriculture as an Equator Prize category and for further research using the 2004 nominations. If you would like to explore further Christian's findings, presentation and research, please click here for more information. To download the entire document of the above ecoagriculture research please click here. The 12 traditional chiefs of the Burkina Faso's Sahel region expressed their commitment bringing HIV/AIDS awareness to the people at an unprecedented gathering in the north-east provincial capital of Dori earlier this month. The Emir of Liptako, their paramount chief, led hundreds people in dance and cheers as he formally received a translation into the local language, Fulfulde, of the National Human Development Report 2001 on HIV/AIDS. Representatives of the National AIDS Council and UNAIDS took part in the ceremony. More Info... Local leaders in Mali, meeting at a recent workshop in Bamako, have agreed to set up committees to intensify the campaign against HIV/AIDS, improve networking among communities and promote prevention activities. Participants included members of the Alliance of Mayors and Local Elected Officials against HIV/AIDS, government officials and representatives from civil society groups, the media and United Nations agencies. They concurred that Mali needs to take stronger measures to counter the epidemic, improve cooperation among those carrying out anti-HIV/AIDS activities, and gather more data on its social and economic impact at the community level. More Info... For further information please contact Mahamadou Coulibaly , UNDP Mali, or Nicholas Gouede , UNDP Communications Office.
Inagural CBI Group/ NetAid Brown Bag Lunch This lunch was the first in a series of seminars on community based approaches to sustianable development and the MDGs. The series asks, what and how can we learn from community based initiatives? Speakers To download the LiFA presentation, please click here
This workshop took place in the framework of the Project: "Communication to Enhance Sustainable Development for Local Communities" Implemented by the Human Forum for Woman's Rights. The workshop was designed to provide a platform for debate on the different developmental projects funded by SGP-GEF in Jordan. The workshop agenda focused on strategies for formulating and implementing sustainable knowledge and communication plans in SGP projects in Jordan. The participants learned practical approaches for communication and networking, which are very important for a sustainable growth in their projects and organizations, through exchanging information and experiences with other projects. The workshop was organized by the Human Forum for Women's Rights - HFWR, a non-governmental organization active in Jordan, in cooperation with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature – RSCN, an environmental NGO in Jordan, financial support for preparation form the SGP-GEF in Jordan. The event was held in Dana – Tafial, Jordan on 23-25 September 2003, it was attended by twenty seven participants coming from twelve NGOs and CBOs all around Jordan. To download the entire report of this workshop, please click here. For further information about this workshops and meetings, please contact Amal Dababseh, Project Coordinator, at hfwr@nets.jo
Equator Prize 2004: Raising the Profile of Local Initiatives
Tools for Integrated Community Development
CBI Brownbag Series: “Community Action, Water Governance and the MDGs” The Community-Based Initiatives Group continued its brownbag lunch series with “Community Action, Water Governance and the MDGs”. This lunch was the third in a series of seminars on community based approaches to sustainable development and the MDGs. With an audience of approximately 30, including UN staff, NGO representatives, and members of the public, speakers presented material that highlighted local level action towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals for local water management, sanitation and human settlement issues. The event featured presentations by David Satterthwaite of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Francis Chachu Ganya of the Pastoralist Integrated Support Program (PISP) and Ron Sawyer from Sarar Transformacion. Dr. David Satterthwaite, a senior fellow with IIED’s Human Settlements Programme and a member of the teaching staff at the University College London and the London School of Economics, began the seminar with a focus on the vital role for local processes in delivering the MDG’s. He drew particular attention to the limitations of a top-down approach to development aid and stressed the need for a shift in donor focus. Most importantly, Satterthwaite called for the creation of innovative funding mechanisms capable of serving the many and diverse local actors and organizations that drive development on the ground. Francis Chachu Ganya director of the Pastoralist Integrated Support Program, followed Mr. Satterthwaite with a presentation on his organization’s work managing local water resources and providing drought relief in the Marsabit region of northern Kenya. PISP works with over 11,000 pastoral people in the region to reduce drought vulnerability through community water harvesting and to protect dryland biodiversity from over-grazing through the strategic management of herd movements around vulnerable water points. Chachu described the challenges one faces in providing adequate water resources in one of the driest and, seemingly, most inhospitable habitats on Earth. He then outlined PISP’s success in utilizing traditional water harvesting methods to overcome many of these challenges in order to aid the pastoral communities in water acquisition and conservation. Ron Sawyer, director of the international consulting group SARAR Transformación SC, based in Tepoztlán, Mexico rounded out the discussion with a presentation on local action to improve sanitation. Sawyer spoke specifically about the work his organization is currently doing in Mexico to implement the TepozEco urban ecosan pilot program and similar work performed in various communities throughout the world. These programs employ ecological dry sanitation systems which revolve around the installation of dry toilets. Sawyer emphasized the benefits of dry waste systems in their ability to conserve water resources while capturing and reusing nutrients in waste to improve soil quality.
Brown Bag Lunch Photo Journal
Dr. Vanaja Ramprasad from GREEN Foundation in India began the seminar with a focus on the vital role for local processes in delivering the MDG’s. Over its eleven-year history, GREEN Foundation has harnessed traditional knowledge of agricultural practices and seed diversity to create highly successful seed and gene banks throughout the state of Karnataka. Working primarily with a network of women's farming groups called sanghas, GREEN Foundation has improved food security through the creation of a farmer-based community seed supply system and through establishment of home gardens. Benny Roman of Torra Conservancy talked about the organization’s significant work in the Kunene region of northwest Namibia. Torra Conservancy has established sustainable hunting and ecotourism activities that have earned significant profits for the entire community. Together with the private sector, they have also founded Damaraland Camp, a luxury tented lodge that has received accolades as an outstanding ecotourism destination. Ezequiel Vitonás of Proyecto Nasa, rounded out the discussion with a presentation on local action to reduce poverty through conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Proyecto Nasa takes its roots in a vigorous community of Colombia's indigenous Paez people, working to incorporate holistic strategies for natural and cultural preservation into daily life. To achieve these goals, the project has launched a wide range of programmes designed to promote the overall health of the community and their natural environment. These activities include environmental education and the promotion of traditional medicinal and agroforestry techniques.
Angola study recommends shifting more power to local level Giving local communities more power, such as electing local officials and managing public services, is a priority for Angola, and a report recently published by UNDP makes wide-ranging recommendations on steps to promote such decentralization. Botswana communities rehabilitate arid rangeland, save livelihoods Standing atop a sand dune, Klaas Matthuis can see more dunes almost surrounding Struizendam, his village in Botswana on the border with South Africa. They are bare of vegetation except the one he stands on, which has large clumps of grass, trees and shrubs. Mr. Matthuis, vice-chairperson of a new community resource management committee, is showing visitors from Kenya, Mali, and the University of Oslo in Norway the dune that has been stabilized by fencing out goats and cattle and planting various indigenous species. People in most remote villages in Mr. Matthius dreams of seeing the sand dunes stabilized so they no longer threaten to engulf houses. Through a regional project to restore indigenous vegetation implemented by UNDP and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with support from other partners, he and his neighbours are beginning to turn that dream into reality. One of the committee's first priorities was to help the community to draw up an action plan to reverse environmental losses and improve livelihoods. The project covers steps to conserve the whole spectrum of local resources, including wildlife and products such as firewood; grass for grazing and thatching; medicinal plants like devil's claw (sengaparile), sold to European markets, particularly Germany, to make medication to control high blood pressure; a caterpillar known as phane, a local delicacy sold widely in the region; and the morula tree (sclerocarya birrea) whose nuts are used for oil and sweets, fruit for jam and beverages. Thirteen other villages hard-hit by environmental degradation — five in the southern tip of Kgalagadi, six in northern Kweneng, and three in Boteti — have recently completed similar plans. In addition, villages in two areas in Kenya and two sites in northern Mali are following a similar strategy. All the local plans benefit from indigenous knowledge and traditional land management systems. They include fencing off parts of communal grazing areas to heal the land and control sand dunes. A key element is for community members to take the lead role in conserving biological diversity and bettering income-earning opportunities. The Global Environment Facility is provding US$8.7 million for the five-year pilot initiative through UNDP and UNEP, and another $3.5 million comes from German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the University of Oslo, and the governments of Botswana, Kenya and Mali. "The project is tremendously important because if it can demonstrate that community management of rangelands is viable, the approaches developed have the potential to transform the way in which rangeland resources are managed in the three countries and beyond," said Dr. Michael Taylor, UNDP project team leader, seconded to the Ministry of Agriculture. "Approaches that safeguard the interests and options of the poorest members of society, who often depend greatly on rangeland resources for their livelihoods, are particularly vital," he said. The Ministry of Agriculture has wholeheartedly put its weight behind the initiative, he added, and this is evidence of the Government's concern and commitment to poverty reduction and sound environmental management. The project focuses on giving communities greater power to manage local natural resources. However, people cannot manage resources effectively unless the Government gives them the mandate and authority to do so. Another element of the initiative is therefore research and advice to the Government on policy development to change this. For further information please contact , UNDP Botswana, or , UNDP-GEF Nairobi, or , UNDP Communications Office.
CBI Brownbag Series: “Policy Innovations For Decentralization Reforms: Local Governments In Local Development and Poverty Reduction” The Community-Based Initiatives Group continued its brownbag series with “Policy Innovations For Decentralization Reforms: Local Governments In Local Development and Poverty Reduction”. This discussion was the fifth in a series of seminars on community based approaches to sustainable development. With an audience of approximately 30 people, UN Staff and Government Representatives discussed pilot programs that highlight the role of local government in development and poverty reduction. The event featured presentations by Angelo Bonfiglioli, UNCDF Senior Technical Advisor, Local Development Unit, Azizir Rama Siddique, UNDP/UNCDF Bangladesh, Willie Samute, Ministry of Local Government Malawi and Mohammed Ag Erlaf, Director National Agency for Local Government Investments. Angelo Bonfiglioli began the seminar with a focus on UNCDF’ s pilot approach to local governance, an innovative strategic tool called “Local Development Program” (LDP), designed to support local development, within the context of poverty reduction. Angelo also raised the issue of the challenges and major risks faced by LDPs, such as inequity and growing regional disparities and lower quality of public services. Azizir Rama Siddique talked about UNCDF’s project in Bangladesh, the Sirajganj Local Government Development Fund Project, implemented by the Local Government Division Ministry of LGRD and funded by UNCDF and UNDP. Azizir gave an overview of the project’s major innovations, such as participatory decision making and monitoring, women empowerment, local resources mobilization as well as transparency and accountability. Willie Samute presented the Local Governance & Development Management Programme (LGDMP) in Malawi. The program’s objective is to contribute towards the alleviation of poverty in Malawi, by improving governance through improved broader citizen participation in decision making and enhanced performance of central and local government. Mohammed Ag Erlaf rounded out the discussion with a presentation on UNCDF’s support to local governments in Mopti and Timbuktu regions, Mali, with the technical support of Direction Nationale des Collectivites Territoriales (DNCT) and the financial support of Agence Nationale d’Investissment des Collectivites Territoriales (ANICT). Mohammed also referred to the contextual constraints, such as slow transfer of sectoral responsibilities to local governments, low implementation rate of income generating infrastructure and weak control of local management procedures by local stakeholders. To download the presentations please click here.. |
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