Pilot Project for Poverty Alleviation
To be Implemented by Chakra Network – Sri Lanka
with Support from Berendina Development Services
1.0 Background
There have been different types of poverty alleviation programmes implemented by government as well as NGOs in Sri Lanka since early 80s. There has been some positive impact from these programmes on the economic and social development of the poor communities. However, majority of those programmes failed to make that impact sustainable, empowering communities and making them self reliant. As a result, no change could be seen in many communities, sometime after the programmes were terminated and their dependency on hand outs continued. At the same time these programmes have not been able to reach extreme poor and make an impact on their livelihood. As most of these programmes never undertook rigorous assessment of their impact and were happy with the performance of activities and outputs of those programme instead of effects and impacts they continued the programmes without learning from the mistakes and adopting corrective measures. The approaches and the way in which these programmes were implemented were responsible for their failure in the long run. In most of these poverty alleviation approaches the people never participated actively though they were supposed to be participatory; the people were not given the steering wheel and they became the passive spectators of their development rather than active participants.
Ideally, people should be responsible for their development. Why? The attitudes and behaviours within them have made them poor more than outside forces. Very often majority of poverty alleviation programme worked on the assumptions that they will act rationally. However research has shown that people do not behave rationally always. In view of the above experiences this pilot project aims to adopt a learning by doing approach in planning and implementing a programme of development and, at the same time, it aims to involve people themselves in deciding their development; starting with identifying and analysing their problems, environmental scanning to identify opportunities and constraints, identifying and assessing possible solutions, assessing required resources and services and planning and implementing a programme of action to achieve specified outputs and impacts. It will be a people centred approach based on the family with an external facilitator to facilitate their participation in the process.
2.0 The Project
2.1 Goal
Empowered, self-reliant families who have improved their living condition.
2.1.1 Specific Objective
1. Awareness of the families created and facilitated to understand the reasons for their present unsatisfactory conditions and need for change.
2. Families have understood their hidden potential and leakages from their economy and need for action
3. Family development plans are prepared with collective and individual family actions to achieve pre-determined targets, outputs and objectives.
4. Families facilitated to generate their own resources and get access to outside resources to implements planned actions.
5. Families work together where necessary to get access to existing service delivery system.
6. Participatory monitoring and evaluation system among the families established and made operational and facilitated
7. Undertake investigation of selected success and failures and document them to draw lessons and take corrective measures.
2.2 Methodology
Families will be empowered to be responsible individually and collectively for planning and achieving improved living conditions through sustainable development. An external facilitator will work with the families to achieve this through social mobilization.
2.2.1 Steps of the Methodology
1. Discuss the project with Berendina Development Services and seek their assistance to select suitable 2-3 villages adjoining to each other as a project area.
2. Get an understanding about the villages through secondary data and information obtained from key informants and identify suitable 2 or 3 youth to collect initial data about the families in the selected villages.
3. Educate them on the programme and guide them to collect information regarding families.
4. Using the information collected select most suitable 10-15 families for the programme.
5. Select and educate the best youth among them regarding the activities that need to be carried out with the families in the future.
6. Conduct awareness programme for the adults of the identified families on their present conditions, reasons for them to be in that condition and their role in planning and implementing a programme to achieve expected improvement.
7. Collect detail information regarding the existing situation of families through field assistant and analyse them with the respective families and prepare family development plans.
8. Based on these plans enlighten them on the potential for resource mobilization individually, collectively and from outside and discuss and programme with them the activities to be carried out.
9. Facilitate linkages with agencies to get services for the implementation of family development plans
10. Facilitate linkages with micro-finance organization to get access to credit. Berendina Microfinance could be linked in this case. Create awareness of the importance of saving and facilitate opening for them.
11. Establish and make operational a participatory results based monitoring system for the programme and use monitoring sessions as training sessions.
12. Conduct skills development programmes for selected families according to their needs
3.0 Cost Estimate
3.1 Personnel Costs
As this project requires a significant input of human resources, this a major cost component.
3.1.1 Allowance for chief motivator (Jayamuni)
3.1.1.1 48 days during first 6 months @ 3,500/- per day 168,000
3.1.1.2 36 days during second 6 months @ 3,500/- per day 126,000
3.1.1.3 48 days during second year @ 3,500/- per day 168,000 462,000
3.2 Field Assistant for 24 months @ 10,000/- a month 240,000 702,000
3.3 Board & lodging for Jayamuni 132 days @ Rs.1,500/- per day 198,000*
3.4 Travel for Jayamuni in the field area – 132 days @ 1,000/- per day 132,000*
3.5 _______________________________
3.2 Beneficiary Support
Support for beneficiaries will be mainly in terms of creating awareness, motivating them to analyse their situation, identify ways of improving their conditions and planning and mobilising resources to achieve that. However, they will need loan funds and some grant support to implement their plans.
3.2.1 Loan funds up to Rs.50,000/- to develop livelihoods for 15 families 750,000*
3.2.2 Skill training 75,000*
3.2.3 Grant support for improving housing, children’s
education, etc. @ 25,000/ a family 375,000
3.2.4 ______________________________________
3.3 Management Costs
Chakra Network Sri Lanka will undertake the coordination of the programme, supervise and monitor the implementation, seek funding support using the Adopt a Family strategy, maintain records, document and share lessons. Leelasena and Hiran Dias will provide their services free
3.3.1 Coordination and Record keeping @ Rs.6,000/- a month for 24 months 144,000
3.3.2 Four (04) Visits to field area to supervise implementation @ Rs.10,000/- a visit 40,000
3.3.3 Documentation and sharing 65,000
2,481,000
Note: Chakra Network Sri Lanka and Prof. Hiran. D. Dias are meeting Rs.700,000/- of the total cost. We request Berendina Development Services to undertake the costs marked with an asterisk (*); Major part of it will be repayable loans. Berendina has very generously agreed to do so. We NEED help with other costs.
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