Cheshire Project:
- Project name: Empowerment and Enabling Environment for children living with disability
- Project Location: Murang’a and Kirinyaga Counties
- Duration: No timeline
- Beneficiaries: Children and youngster from 0 – 25 years with special needs
- Donor: Liliane Fonds Foundation
- Implementing Agency: Cheshire Disability Services Kenya
- Rationale/Short description:
The program entails addressing the impairments of children living with disability to functional state and removing the barriers (social, communicative, attitudinal, and physical) in the environment to enable them realize their rights and have equal opportunities in life. Majority of them are placed in schools and rehabilitation centers. This project addresses the plight of 50 children and youngsters living with disability mainly in health, education, enabling environment and household economic strengthening. The project also focuses on the rehabilitation of children and youth with disabilities through collective surgeries, different kinds of therapies and provision of various assistive devices. The program also offers life skills training (vocational training) to youths with disability for economic empowerment. We work collaboratively with the county government and other stakeholders so as to enable the children and youngster to access services.
- Objectives:
- To uplift and empower children and youngsters with disabilities regardless of sex, race, colour and beliefs.
- To create an enabling environment for children and youngsters living with disability
- Components:
- Health,
- Education,
- Life skills and
- Household economic strengthening
- Outcomes:
- A sustained improvement in the enrolment, attendance and retention of 84 children living with disability in schools.
- Improved quality and accessibility of mainstream education for disabled children, resulting in improved learning outcomes including life skills, functional activities and relationships.
- Enhanced natural abilities in the natural environment for the children with disability
- Through initiating income- generating activities, parents were enabled to cover some of the costs of schooling.
- Children/youngsters with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities improve in terms of activities of daily living (ADLs), self-care, communication skills and cognitive achievements.
- Through home visits and enabling environment trainings, parents have accepted their children.
- Reduction in experiences of stigmatization, discrimination and abuse perpetrated by members of the community.
- Status of Implementation – Major activities and status what has been accomplished to date:
- Payment of school levies/fees for the children & youngsters
- Provision of medical interventions.
- Provision of assistive devices.
- Home visits and education follow up done by the 2 mediators and CDM Caritas staff.
- Trainings on Enabling Environment on health, education, livelihoods and social issues.
- Formation of Parents support group – 1 support group formed.
- Capacity building of Partner Organizations by Cheshire Disabilities Services Kenya
- Formation of 1 club for Aflatoun program at Nyakihai Primary School – Aflatoun Program entails instilling a savings culture to the Children and Child rights & Responsibilities. This is done by the Mediator.
- Household Economic Strengthening (HES) through initiation of income generating activities.
- Lessons learnt:
- Sharing responsibility for tasks to these children makes them become an active member of the family and have an increased sense of belonging.
- Taking a proactive partnership working approach is essential to the success projects. It has added value to delivery, ensured cost effective and efficient use of resources and added weight to advocacy and policy work.
- Parent Support Groups formed is an essential element of creating change at a family and community level. This group provides a mechanism for peer support, enabling parents to connect, share experiences and become advocates in their communities.
Kenya Sanitation And Hygiene Improvement Project (KSHIP):
Project name: Sanitation & Hygiene Improvement Programme in Gatanga Sub-County of Murang’a County
Project Location: Gatanga Sub-County
Duration: 4 years
Beneficiaries: Men, Women, children, youth, elderly, PWDs
Donor: Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council through the Global Sanitation Fund
Executing Agency: AMREF
Rationale/Short description:
Kenya Sanitation & Hygiene Improvement Program (KSHIP) in Murang’a County is implemented by Caritas Murang’a Department and the area that was prioritized is Gatanga sub county and narrowed down to lower Gatanga which houses Ithanga ward with 92 villages and a population of about 12,000. The project started in December 2015 with training for the implementers them 2016 the official work in the community level. Up to date 92 villages have been triggered, followed up all verified and 74 certified open defecation free and 18 are pending certification by 2019. The team moves to Kakuzi ward with a different approach after the real time learning from the village approach to the ward approach to assist in hastening the delivery of Kenya ODF by the year 2030 the overall target. The journey to delivery of the villages comprises of different components as in the pictorial.
Every year through the community total led sanitation (CLTS), all Global days have been celebrated ranging from Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) day, global hand washing day, world toilet day and this is where the community gets a chance to learn on real time through gallery walks, poems and drama. The key stakeholders are involved within the County and some of the collaborators are MOH, Ministry of Gender and sports, CBOs CSO, the Ministry of Interior which is key during implementation through their structures, religious leaders, schools and other institutions and partners who work in the community. The children’s department also has been instrumental in the implementation through the OVC minimum standards and the sanitary pads docket is getting some boost on empowering the community, the ACC Ithanga Mr. Onchari taking lead and being a champion on both CLTS and MHM, The religious leaders also taking lead to affirm the bible reading in Deuteronomy 23; 12-14 and thanks to our own Fr Nyagah and Fr.Gathomo, Education department in the Diocese for being champions for CLTS.
Objectives:
- Increased the number of people who change from open defecation to safe defecation; promote hand washing with soap and adopt appropriate hygiene practices;
- Increase access to sanitation and adoption of hygiene behavior among the most vulnerable groups.
- Building capacity of health officers, technicians and community health volunteers in both Government and Civil society to improve their skills in sanitation technology;
- Ensuring improved access to sanitation products for the community; raising the profile of sanitation to the national and county leaders in the devolved Government and establishing a communication mechanism at National and County levels;
- Documenting and sharing experiences and learning themes within and between counties and strengthening coordination mechanisms at national and county level.
Components:
- Sanitation and hygiene promotion
- -Equity and inclusion
- -Capacity development and sanitation Marketing
- -Advocacy and communication
- -Evidence based documentation and learning
- -Strengthening national and sub national coordination mechanism.
Outcomes:
- Reach 1.92 million people , who will be sensitized on improved sanitation and hygiene practices
- Move 755,400 people from open defecation to basic latrines
- Move an estimated 377,700 people with basic latrines onto improved sanitation
- Identify and provide sanitation access to 55.000 vulnerable people
- Help 200 villages to become open defecation free (ODF)
- Achieve on 80% coverage target (improved and unimproved) in the selected sub-counties.
- Improve capacity of 500 officers from both government and the private sector within the selected sub-counties through trainings.
Status of Implementation – Major activities and status what has been accomplished to date
- Triggered 92 villages
- Verified 92 villages
- Certified 74 villages
- 11 officers trained as master certifiers and verifiers
- VSC trained – 460 natural leaders
- County entry meetings conducted (MCA+CEC Health)
- Trained 30 Follow up Madona (FUM) TOTs and 2 FUM master TOTs
- 5 MHM TOTs
Lessons learnt:
- Proper triggering is equivalent to quick delivery
- Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a movement and all stakeholders should be on board
- Integration of activities and team work brings about value for money and diverse knowledge
- Exchange programmes, documentation and innovations bring about real time learning.
TNC-SYNGENTA Project:
Project Title:
Finding Scalable Models for Sustainable Agriculture Intensification in Upper Tana River Catchment, Kenya
Project Location:
The project is taking place in two regions of Murang’a County:-
- Old area: Nginda and Kambiti where the TNC Water Fund team has already invested in water pans, terracing, and other erosion control measures)
- New area: Kangema and Kigumo Sub-counties.
Project duration
October 2018 – May 2020.
Project Beneficiaries
Men, women and youth farmers from the two regions i.e. old and new areas
Implementing agency
CARITAS –Farms selection in old and new areas, farmer’s mobilization, training of horticulture farmers on the agronomic interventions in old TNC areas in Maragua, mobilizing farmers to do water pans for water
Harvesting and planting agro-forestry trees in new areas. Training farmers to implement soil testing, agronomic and IPM recommendations, linking farmers with quality input suppliers and horticulture crops buying companies.
Project partners and Roles
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC) – Overall coordination of the project implementation in
- Close consultation with SFEA, SFSA and SEAL
- Syngenta Foundation East Africa (SFEA) -project management support
- Syngenta Foundation Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA0- project management support.
- Syngenta East Africa Limited (SEAL)- project management support and linkage of the project activities to their business in the project area.
- International Centre for Research & Agroforestry (ICRAF) and Crop Nutrition Laboratory services (CROPNUT)-soil testing, giving recommendations and training of farmers and extension officers.
- International Centre of Insects Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)/Real IPM- training of farmers on integrated pest management (IPM).
- Murang’a county government- Extension services support to CARITAS staff.
- Horticultural crops agribusiness companies – enhancing availability of reliable high-quality inputs to the farmers and enhancing market access.
- Financial services organizations in the region will be contacted to promote providing access to resources to the benefited smallholder farmers for the procurement of high-quality input
Project Objective
To test the viability of sustainable intensification that builds on a foundation of good soil management and health and uses improved inputs, seed, and cropping practices to increase productivity, incomes, and reduce environmental impacts.
Rationale
The project focuses in two areas:
“old areas”, this is the area where TNC has already worked via the water fund, existing work to stabilize soils through terracing, agroforestry, cover crops and have established off-season irrigation (via the water pans). Already, farmers have used the water pans to grow off-season horticulture crops that bring in additional income. Because soils are less liable to erode, additional benefits can be achieved by investing in soil testing and tailoring the use of soil amendments such as fertilizer and lime to each farm’s soil conditions and crops. The benefits of improved soil fertility can be further enhanced through agronomic advice that seeks to promote alternative rotations, high-quality inputs, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM), among other best practices.
“New” or “expansion” areas this is the area where TNC has not yet worked via the water fund, water pans will be installed to reduce erosion and catalyze the shift toward growing valuable off-season horticulture crops. Soil testing on a subset of farms will be used to provide some (more limited) agronomic advice to farmers as they transition to new crops. Agroforestry investments in riparian areas will reduce erosion and provide additional income streams (e.g. via fruit trees). These activities will provide the baseline conditions for farmers to expand soil testing and adopt the broader set of practices implemented in the old areas.
Project Components
- Baseline assessment
In the old areas the project will engage representative set of farms from the farms with developed water pans in alignment with other research and extension activities being undertaken by the UTNWF. In the new area we worked with local cooperatives to identify farmer participants. We aim to identify cropping systems and value chains where our approach will bring biggest benefits. The results from the baseline together with the results from the soil testing is used to design important interventions, determine specific metrics and methods to use and determine what else may be needed for scaling.
- Soil testing
This project seeks to catalyze farmers’ understanding for the need to invest in soil testing which will demonstrate the commercial benefits of soil health improvement interventions on yield and profitability that enhance crop nutrition. The results from soil diagnostics is used to provide both spatial decision-making support and indicate where to grow selected crops whilst also serving as a basis for improved input use and crop management protocols.
- Agronomic advice and extension
The project aims to develop appropriate crop management protocols to be tested on target farms with focus on integrated soil fertility management(ISFM),Promote use of soil amendment solutions for balanced plant nutrition and Providing agronomic recommendations on both new and existing crop varieties,
- Water pans and agro-forestry
In the new areas, the project will support rainwater harvesting via the installation of water pan polythene liners to reduce seepage of harvested water. The harvested rain water will be used to grow high value horticultural crops that currently cannot be grown. The core idea is that having rainwater available off-season enables a transition to a new model of farming that will be more efficient and profitable, while also having lower environmental impact.
- Final assessment
The baseline assessment will be repeated at the end of the project to collect data necessary for assessing the potential impact of the interventions. TNC’s science team will work with Field Office staff to analyze the resulting data and document findings in a report to be shared with SFEA, SEAL, SFSA, the Murang’a County Government, and the UT/NWF team.
Project Outcomes:
- Social-economic outcomes
Farms that are more productive, profitable, and have reduced environmental impact (e.g. due to more continuous living cover, soil carbon sequestration, reduced pesticide use).social- economic measures outcomes will be in terms of: Crop yield per farm, farmer profit margin, crop yield per unit of inputs, Number of farmers with demonstrated “commercial behavior” or mindset, Number of farmers with demonstrated “adaptive management”
- Environmental outcomes
Reduced sediment runoff due to additional sediment control practices (e.g. water harvesting pans, replacing riparian farming with habitat, etc.), with estimated benefits for aquatic biodiversity if stream quality improves enough.
Implementation status
- Inception workshop with TNC, SFEA, SEAL, SFSA contractors, etc.) to plan the work
- Identification and engaging target farms:
- 520 farms that have water pans for agronomic interventions and out of this identify 100 farms for soil sampling in old area.
- 300 farms in new area for Water pans and agroforestry inventions.
- Baseline assessment (consultant) in both old and new areas.
Lessons learnt:
- It is important for an organization to occasionally clean their data i.e. updating, correcting and consolidating data to ensure effectiveness.
- During mobilization it is very important to inform farmers intensively about the project and what it entails
TNC – UTNWF Project:
Project name: Conservation of Maragua River riparian system
Project location: Murang’a County
Duration: 2½ years
Beneficiaries: Men, Women, PWDs and Youth (farmers)
Implementing Agency: Caritas, The Nature Conservancy
Other Partners: IFAD, GEF, COUNTY GOVERNMENT, COCACOLA, KENGEN, FRIGOKEN, NAIROBI WATER, CIAT, PENTAIR, EABL
Rationale/short description:
The Importance of the Maragwa River in the supply of water and hydroelectric power in Kenya can never be overstated.
Managing dry land environments is one of the most challenging development problems today. Dry lands on the lower part of the diocese have fragile ecosystems and its people are extremely vulnerable to environmental and global change. The natural resource base on which the rural poor depend on for their livelihoods is rapidly degrading, with as much as 70% of all land degraded to some extent. Populations in this area face acute water shortages and there is a high risk of further rapid environmental degradation and spiraling poverty. Development interventions in the region have not had a high success rate due to lack of understanding on how to manage complex and fragile ecosystems, short term thinking and under investment in dry land development. This project provides an opportunity to implement, test and further develop integrated environmental conservation and land management interventions.
By improving human capacity to tackle environmental degradation in the area, the project will directly contribute to the global objectives on environmental convention that recognize the importance of addressing land degradation including Biodiversity convention and climate change.
Objectives:
- Reduce sedimentation in the rivers
- Increase flow of seasonal rivers
- Increase food security by 30%
- Improve livelihoods
- Soil and water conservation
Components:
- Water harvesting
- Soil conservation structures
- Efficient water usage
- Sustainable land management
- Income generating projects
- Monitoring
Outcomes:
- Increased food production leading to food security
- Increased flow of seasonal rivers
- Water availability for irrigation during dry seasons
- Increased levels of livelihood as a result of proper farm planning
Status of implementation:
Activities:
- Laying water pans and lining dam liners
- Laying terraces and grass strips
- Marking riparian and encouraging buffer zones
- Installation of drip kits
- Distributing agroforestry, promote indigenous vegetables
- Advising on agronomic practices
- Offer agricultural extension services to farmers
Achievements:
- 167751 agroforestry seedlings distributed
- 87150 fruit seedlings distributed
- 249 water pan excavated and lined
Lesson learnt:
- Farmers adopt to the project at different rates/pace
- Early purchase of seedlings before onset of rains
- Importance of using natural leaders to reach farmers