Lessons learnt on community participation final report

Abstract

The study was commissioned by Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP) and was conducted from June to July 2005. The main purpose of the study was to generate a comprehensive and analytical report on Lessons Learnt during the implementation of the project by respective LVEMP Components and project as a whole with respect to project’s Community Participation aspects. The generated lessons learnt on the aspects of the community participation are intended to; assist the coordination office to inform future interventions; inform the review of community involvement performance; and contribute to decision-making process. Several objectives addressing the following themes were set: Efforts to enhance community participation; Community participation outputs and outcomes; Sustainability of the project; Crosscutting issues; and Collaboration with other partners. Based on the information collected under these themes, lessons of experience and their underlying factors were drawn. The general Lessons on Community Participation have been drawn followed by Lessons by Components Approaches and Methodology In pursuing the assignment, data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Seven districts were purposively sampled for this study in order to capture the far located districts, and maximize heterogeneity of community participation activities. A total of 25 villages and 5 urban streets were sampled. Primary data were obtained from the interviews held with several stakeholders including Task Leaders and Coordinators of several Components of the project; some implementation committees, Community Participation Officer; Communities; Relevant Government Departments; and other relevant stakeholders such as Private Sector Organizations, and Non Governmental Organizations, with whom the LVEMP project interacted. Major Findings  The review of literature shows the mandate to pursue community participation to be grounded in the initially produced project documents, one of them being the Community Participation Guide for LVEMP that provides the objectives of community participation, major strategies for meeting project’s overall objective, approaches for community participation, and progress indicators for monitoring and evaluation of community participation activities.