Escalation of Local Authorities and Community in Lower Wisab Towards Empowerment and ‎Sustainable Development: A Pilot Project.‎

Concept Note

Submitted to the European Union office , Sana'a  in relation to Restricted Call for Proposals2009/2010, 2009/2010 Budget lines 21.03.01 and 21.03.02

·                     Name of the Action: Escalation  of Local Authorities and Community in Lower Wisab Towards Empowerment and Sustainable Development: A Pilot Project.

·                     Location : Wisab Al-Safil (Lower Wisab) Province , Dhamar Governorate.

·                     Duration :  24 months

·                     Applicant : The Local Authority of Lower Wisab Province.

·                     Total  Budget: Euro …………………..

Document edited for ZWA, by Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, Thamar university, Mr. Ali Musi'd  Al-Ulwani, & Zaid M. M. Al-Saghir  

 Introduction :

Dhamar Government  is one  of the 21 Yemeni governorates according to the administration division of the Country . The governorate  locates in the middle highlands , and its capital Dhamar City is 100 kms southward of Sana'a, with a population over 1.5 million.  Development indicators  of  this  province  are  relatively  lower  if  compared with most of other governorates nationwide.  The governorate is sub-divided  into 12 provinces , and each has an elected  local Authority Council , and one of these is the  Lower Wisab's. The  area  of  the target  province,  is  832.6 sq. Kms., with 148, 762 inhabitants. This proposed action will be implemented in this district because it rates as the least developed in the governorate , nevertheless it has good social willingness and prospective local authority if being assisted and skilled to achieve developmental goals.

[1] Statement of the Problem :

A. Situational  reality

Developmental  problem of the province is of two folds : the far staying behind conditions , and lower capacities of the local authority to mobilize developmental plans. Regarding the first part of the problem , the province data show the following facts.

-  Only 0.02 of the total population of the province are privileged with pure drinking water , whereas 33 % depends on pool and embankment reservoir , and 76.98 % gets their water from wells and fens.

 - Public electricity is utilized by only 1.3% , whereas 11.2 % has private generators , and the remainder  87.75 % depends on primeval light and energy sources.

- Only 10.86 of the residential areas have school buildings whereas the remainder areas have no access to educational institutions  or can hardly run schools in spaces and under trees. Thus . Basic girls' education enrolls very limited numbers of them, evidently expressed  in  100-52 male-female ratio respectively. (Statistics of Office of Education , 2009).

- Isolation of inner parts of the province because of  rugged roads and hard topography,  which also make it very difficult for rural to utilize services, for instance transference of the sick takes about 8 to 11 hours to reach the nearest hospital.

- Spread of endemic diseases such as malaria , and anemia particularly among children, and women who suffer also very poor reproductive healthcare.

- Greater number of inhabitants who live vulnerably in very critical situations.

With regard to the other side of the problem, Local authority can hardly make  any change due to its very limited human and financial resources needed for playing developmental roles in the province. Some of the other problems encountering the local authority are these:

1. Lower competence to exploit resources and enablers of sustainable development.
2. Weakness of coordination and networking with community individuals and organized groups.
3. Lack of orientation towards achievement of social needs.
4. Limited efforts to adopt any policy aiming at development of social gender within definite plans and programs.

Of course , this action is not going to solve all of these problems, but will initiate and establish a lot of means that can help to overcome them. The project will be directly addressed to issues associated with capacities of  the local authority , database , social awareness and  participation , shared planning , financing difficulties, specification of needs and priorities, analytical studies ,  the institutional activities of Provincial Bureau of the Local Authority, coordination and networking , involvement of  NGOs in developmental actions, and gender equity.

[2]. Beneficiaries: Direct

The number of  148, 762.Total population of the province comprises the end beneficiaries of the action , whereas the groups which this action targets directly are as follows:

1. Members of the Local Councils elected in the target province of Lower Wisab, [31members].
2. Employees working in the Bureau of the Province , [15 personnel officials].
3. Members of the Developmental Committees who will be formed within the context of this action from representatives of locals, and NGOs , [312 male and female members].

 [3]. Relevance of the action  :

1.     Relevance With regard to nationwide Perspectives: Objectives and activities of the action are stated and derived with reference to these plans of action:

1. The National Strategy for Alleviation of Poverty.
2. The Republic of Yemen's Strategic Vision 2005 -2025 set in accordance with the millennium goals.
3. The five-Year Plan of Development .
4. The schematic  Strategy for strengthening Decentralization .

 B. Relevance With regard to governorate/province  Perspectives: All activities of the action will  match with provisions of Low No.4, 2000 and its executive boards on Local Authority particularly articles on its developmental interventions and roles . It will also address directly the particular administrative and developmental issues of the target province . Certainly , the direct  beneficiaries are the exact groups of the development partners and decision makers.

C. Relevance with regard to Local Community : The action will undertake developmental and empowerment activities with reference to results  revealed by surveys of needs and priorities as they are expressed by local residents in the target area.

D. Relevance with regard to Priorities: Components of this action have been planned to result the following : (1) Development of human resources  in capacities of planning, execution, control, follow-up, and assessment of sub-actions ,(2) Connection of the local authority with social service work according to a well designed plan of action . (3) Formulation of a database that can be connected to a local or national network to be utilized by local authority , NGOs, and other partners and participants , and (4) Conduct of a series of awareness campaigns among community members to be organized by the community committees that will be composed within this action. Content of awareness will be focused on ownership of projects, self-dependency, empowerment, and futuristic development.

[4]. Objectives , General goal and operant objectives :

The general goal of this action is to  strengthen  capacities of the Local Authorities in Lower Wisab Province in order to enable the authority playing efficient and effective roles in realization of persistent and comprehensive development in cooperation with the local communities . This general goal can be expressed in the following operant objectives:

1.     Building capacities of the local authority in planning and  implementing local persisting developmental projects with support and collaboration of NGOs and local communities.

2.     Enabling local authority towards designing and execution  of projects associated with  rural development, combating poverty, and empowerment of Youth, to be achieved  through utilization of local enablers , social participation, and mobilization of potential resources.

3.     Enabling community members in analysis and evaluation of their local conditions towards adaptation of internal initiatives based on a sequential learning process designed to promote the skills of the locals who are not going only to facilitate authority with information, but also  apply their knowledge in developmental acts along with practices of self-control  and shared accountability.

4.     Reinforcement of collaborative developmental efforts between local authority and local , national and international organizations.

[5]. Outcomes :

At completion of the action , these results are strongly expected:

1. Abilities and skills of the local authority have been  significantly  developed.
2.  local authorities turned having strong effective intervention in developmental actions.
3. Local authority of the province has become well aware and skilled in dealing with enablers, and empowerment requirements.
4. Qualities of planning and implementation processes of persistent developmental actions have apparently become more realistic and workable.
5. Partners in development have better access to networking, joint-programming, coordination, and ability to utilize and develop local resources.
6. Local communities have good abilities to analyze and evaluate own conditions towards making change by self-efforts.
7. Education, health , transportation, rural production, and other developmental facet are set in progressive motion.
8. Local NGOs have become better empowered and more engaged  in developmental actions.

[6]. Components:

The action will undertake sex sets of activities under these major components :

1. Organizational Component : Formation of a special administrative  professional group to undertake detailed planning of activities, monitoring , follow-up, facilitation, and assessment of activities associated with the action. 
2. Documentary  Component: Development of data, information , and studies on the status quo of the local authority , and  the developmental needs of the target province. Reports on village and provincial developmental, surveys , and database on developmental  issues of the province are also included in  this component.
3. Training Component : Training of the following groups:

-        personnel of the local authority , permanent officials, and leaders of NGOs (46 trainees) who will be trained for 15 days in planning, organization, implementation, supervision, up-following, and evaluation.

-         Members of the elected community committees who will be trained in empowerment and developmental enablers within the context of  skill acquisition .

-        The local authority members who will be trained in developmental enablers in a special session lasts for 12 days. Training will encompass themes of planning of local development projects, legislations on local governance and decentralization, and development of relationships and ties with community members.

-        The local authority and the leaders of the community committees in a unified training program on strategic planning.

-        The local authority and selected personnel leaders in a unified training  program on writing proposal  of developmental actions.

4. Component of Local Committees: Formation of 52 elected permanent committees for development , each is composed of 6 members (3 malesand3females) .total number of all members will be 312 , and will be responsible about developmental issues and empowerment in their villages.
5. Survey: Execution of the developmental survey for specification of needs and discovery of resources and local  opportunities inside the target province .
6. The conference Component : a special conference will be held and attended by delegates of local , regional, and international donors.

[7]. Participants and their roles:

The table below shows  the  identities , and roles of the Six  main partners/participants in the action.

S	Partner /Participant	Roles
1.	Local authority of Lower Wisab  Province as the applicant and leader of the action	-    planning for the project , and its execution processes (+ supervision, follow-up, creation of activities, reporting, allocation of the local fund , and  evaluation) -    Development of the frameworks and strategies on local development. -    Search for financing resources along with implementation process , and evaluation of sub-activities fall within this action. -    Adoption of enabling methodology , and initiation of joint-programs.
2	The European Union (EU)	- Allocation of Finance , and undertaking any further activities according to provisions of the contract .
3	Zahra Women Association (ZWA) as a prime partner	-    Sharing the main partners activities of planning , execution, supervision, follow-up, and evaluation of the activities. -    Providence of trainers , consultants , and specialist technicians. -    Search and contact with  possible financiers and donors for future projects. -    Providence technical expertise.
4	Local Communities (participants)	-       Initiation and adoption of self-development actions and specification of needs and priorities. -       Election of local developmental community committees. -       Allocation of  basic data and information . -       Sharing in evaluation process. -       Giving support of social leaders to success of the conference of donors.
5	Non Governmental Organization (NGOs) as participants	-       Contact with local communities and appraisal of the action to executive bodies. -       Sharing in planning, execution, supervision, and evaluation processes. -       Adoption of developmental actions to be implemented in the future , and seek for possible funds.
6	Programs and Projects financed by international organizations in the governorate	-       Cooperation , coordination, and exchange of information and expertise. -       Adoption of implementation some activities fall within the developmental projects suggested within this actions.

[8]. Methodology :

The action will be based on these managerial  acts:

1.      A well made plan of action that direct the work according to specific tasks and schedules, i.e. systematic timing and sequence.

2.      Division of labour to special ad hoc and permanent teams according to the nature of the activity

3.      assignment of tasks to the trained ones with special care to gain optimum efficiency and  effectiveness.

4.      Publication of a special booklet titled, 'The Directory of the Provincial Developmental work'.

     

[9]. Risk Management

The table below shows the expected risks and methodologies

Type of Risk	Risk	Solution
Economical	Finance deficit	Adequate planning to avoid any discrepancies   between fund and expenditure. All listed activities and beneficiaries will not be defected in whatever case .
Organizational	Withdrawal of partners or participants	Consolidation of agreements and guarantees of commitment
	Low motivation	Study of causes and treat immediately in collaboration with partners. Use of incentives
	Time delay	Controlling by techniques of time management
Social	Social resistance	Avoidance of any controversial activities that may not be conforming with the prevalent social culture.
Natural	Disasters, weather difficulties ,and  epidemics.	Issuing a plan of action to encounter and deal with such cases.
Political	lack of security, political intervention	Gaining protection of the project by signing agreement with governmental converned parts.

[10]. Advanced Guarantees of Implementation:

For gaining a good platform of  implementation , the action  will depend on these guarantees:

1.     signing agreements with the partners , participants , and governmental bodies to protect the actions.

2.     Designing plans of actions in workable manner , and definite procedures  other than theoretical  frames.

3.     Following the stated methodology with regard to teamwork, scheduling, and task description.

4.     Immediate intervention for corrections of emergent defaults .    

 [11]. Sustainability

The action in all has been designed as an ongoing course of actions , and it has abundant access to continue after the completion of the grounding period. Some of these are the following:

1.     The internal Capacity of the Local Authority including regular allocation of finance  , human power, and bureau of personnel will be put for the service of the action .

2.     A Five year plan parallel will be designed for medium range action and will be enforced from the second year of the action.

3.     NGOs are engaged as all-time participants and trained to play persisting roles .

4.     Local community committees will  be formed as permanent committees.

5.     The local authority of the province will establish a special department to continue and follow-up the action during and after the completion of the foundation period.

The planned conference will establish a follow-up committee for seeing implementation of its recommendations.

[12]. Evaluation and Assessment:

To measure the extent to which activities have achieved their goals , these techniques will be used:

1. Evaluation of the immediate and reflective impaction of the  training effect by means of anterior/posterior tests , and tracing of performance respectively.

2. Measurement of performance in relation to set criteria .

3. Field descriptive reporting.

4. Diagnosing meetings.

5. Surveys based on L.Likert type questionnaires.

 [13]. . Cost , in EURO 

Source	Total sum in EURO	%
EU grant
Applicant allocation
T o t a l		100