CAP Tool 14. Microproject Planning

Objective:

To revise and finalise microproject activity plans with interest groups and undertake more detailed planning regarding resource requirements, sources of inputs and management plans. By the end of this exercise, it should be possible for a group to decide if they need a grant and how much they should apply for.

Method:

A DA or local facilitator or technical adviser meets with the interest group in the village of their choice and assists them with the detailed microproject planning.

How to facilitate:

Following the instructions in CAP Tool 10, revise or prepare new microproject activity plans as required. Then move on to more detailed planning.

A. Community Microprojects

The important thing in this type of microproject is organisation of the people who should be contributing to and benefiting from the initiative and organisation of resources for the development phase. Thereafter a plan must be made for operating and maintaining whatever facility has been created. Two forms have been developed to help with these activities.

1. Time Plan for Input Requirements: Development Phase

i. To use this form first work out the most suitable planning period for the project. Will it take one month, three months, six months or some other time period to complete? Will it be affected by the seasons, e.g., there is no point in starting a time plan for a water harvesting in May if there is no possibility the work will commence until after the rains are finished?

ii. The time plan sheet has four main sections. It can be used to cover one month, e.g., June week 1, June week 2, June week 3, etc. or it can be used to cover two months, e.g., June weeks 1 and 2, June weeks 3 and 4, July weeks 1 and 2, etc. It can also be used to cover four months, e.g., June, July, August and September. It can even be used for non-consecutive weeks or months. So the important thing is to work out with the community when they intend to do things and label the sections accordingly.

iii. Then help the community to list the inputs they will need for their activities in the weeks or months that have been identified. All types of inputs should be listed in the ITEM column, e.g., tools, notebooks, sand, labour, cement, etc. together with the quantity if needed. Remember these are the physical inputs required, not activities such as training. Manual labour is an input. Then a discussion is needed to determine if items can be supplied in-kind by the people in the community, e.g., sand. If so, no cash is required and the middle column should be left blank. A “C” for community can be put in the third column.

iv. If cash is required to purchase the item, then the amount should be estimated and entered in the second column. Leave the third column alone for the time being. So if you are discussing a well building project, and shovels are listed in the ITEM column, the first thing to do is establish whether people already have shovels that can be used. If they have not, then shovels will have to be purchased and the cost must be entered in column 2.

v. The community group needs to work its way across all the time periods, using a second sheet if necessary to cover the total period over which the action plan will be implemented.

vi. When that stage is completed, someone can add up the total cash required to buy inputs in each time period. It should vary - sometimes more, sometimes less, maybe none at all.

vii. The advantage of creating this time plan is that people can see that money is not needed all at once but in different weeks and months. So it is reasonable to discuss the possibility of finding some cash at different stages in the project implementation. If only 500 Birr is needed in a particular time period and there are 50 households participating in the action plan, then they may feel they can all contribute 10 Birr that week or month. Then no external funding is required. If 1,000 Birr is required, then if people can raise 500 Birr they will require grant funds to cover the shortfall of 500 Birr.

This is the type of conversation that is required. Divide the amounts up over time and over the number of participating households and it may be possible for people to finance more than they think.

viii. As discussion takes place, decisions should be recorded in the SOURCE column as to whether the community can find some or all of the cash required. Then it should be possible to complete the bottom lines for each time period, i.e.

a. Cash from community
b. Grant required

ix. The data on this sheet will form the basis of any grant application to the Community Development Fund. It will be possible to see what contributions the community are making both in cash and in kind towards their project from the time plan and it will be possible to judge the quality of their planning and see when grant funds should be released if approved.

COMMUNITY MICROPROJECT

TIME PLAN FOR INPUT REQUIREMENTS: DEVELOPMENT PHASE

2. Community Microproject Maintenance Plan

1. Using this form, people can develop a viable maintenance plan for those community microprojects which lead to the creation of community assets which will need maintaining.

2. The worksheet can cover a period of six months or twelve months by combining two months in each column.

3. The maintenance plan should begin from the month in which the construction phase is expected to be completed and the resource will be in use.

4. As the form indicates, people should first list the tasks that will need to be done every month or two months to keep the facility in good condition. This might include cleaning and chlorinating a well, greasing the windlass, repairing cement or brickwork, maintaining a fence around a spring, weeding the community nursery and so on.

5. Then it will be possible to work out if anything needs to be bought in each time period in order to carry out the maintenance tasks, e.g., grease or paint or a brush or cement. Estimate the price of each item that must be bought and add up the total amount of cash required in each time period.

6. Then it is possible to add these totals together and work out how much cash is required for this whole maintenance plan. Dividing this amount by the total number of households benefiting from the project, gives the cash contribution that is required from each household in this period. This can then be converted to an amount per month.

7. Working out contributions in this way is far sounder than guessing at how much people should pay and it also teaches planning skills.

8. The remaining sections on the maintenance plan encourage the community to appoint a maintenance committee and also to work out a sensible method of looking after the contributions that will be collected from each household.

Other projects may need a different form of long term plan such as a management plan for a community nursery or fuel wood plot.

COMMUNITY MICROPROJECT:

MAINTENANCE / OPERATIONAL PLAN for the period from ______ to _______

List expected tasks in each month

List cash requirements for each month:

Total cash required for this period: _________ No. of households or members participating in project: _______

Cash contribution required from each person or household during this period: __________which equals _________________ per household per month

Agreed plan for collecting and managing contributions:

Maintenance committee members:

B. Type A Household Microprojects

No specific planning forms have been devised for this type of microproject. A notebook may be used by the group to record decisions and names of people involved, e.g. in the selection of households eligible for grant support and the selected householders themselves. If it is helpful, the time plan for input requirements can be used to work out which materials can be supplied locally and how much grant money is needed.

1. Define criteria for which types of households should benefit from this specific microproject. This is important to ensure that only the neediest households will receive this grant support for improved living conditions in the form of materials. For example the committee or interest group could suggest that all female headed households should be provided with fuel saving stoves. Another example would be that all households which meet a chosen poverty definition could be enabled to improve their access to water for household needs and home gardening by grant funding materials to set up individual water harvesting structures.

2. Get approval for the reasoning behind the selection criteria for households from the larger community. Establish how many households in the kushet / gott would eventually benefit from this micro-project.

3. Establish, as part of the detailed microproject plan, a process and mechanism for ensuring that all the households which qualify for this type of micro-project are informed about this opportunity.

4. Establish, as part of the detailed microproject plan, a process and mechanism to monitor that only those households which qualify according to the established selection criteria will benefit from this microproject.

5. Calculate the funds necessary to buy the items/material that are needed for each household that qualifies to benefit from this micro-project.

6. Establish how the items/material/training will be made accessible to the households, e.g. through the kebelle/tabia committee, the health sector office, the agricultural sector office, etc., and what would need to be done to organise this in detail.

7. Work out how any necessary awareness-raising and training activities which might be important elements of this micro-project will be provided.

8. Complete grant application and submit it for approval.

C. Type B Household Microprojects

Income generating microprojects involve a considerable amount of study and learning, particularly regarding enterprise choices, budgeting, identifying market opportunities, calculating financial requirements and repayment potential. They also involve working closely with cooperatives or developing savings and credit groups to ensure access to inputs and credit opportunities. No specific planning forms have been developed to work out these details. A notebook to record decisions, agreements, dates of events, etc. may be useful.

1. Ideally this learning approach would be based around a “farmer field school” style of development in which groups of people meet on a regular basis to discuss, experiment and practise skills that can be applied in their individual lives. The detailed planning of this type ofactivity, therefore, involves working out how to develop such an approach in collaboration with the relevant sector staff. Innovative local farmers could be asked to provide demonstrations and perhaps take a lead role in the “field schools”.

CAP Tools 17-24 are all concerned with helping households to evaluate their livelihood strategies and existing cash flows and plan new enterprises. One tool discusses running an enterprise as a group. These tools can be used in normal extension work, in farmer field school discussions or in interest group meetings and are important to the follow-up part of this type of microproject.

2. To develop links between farmers and cooperatives, it is a matter of arranging meetings and holding discussions on issues such as membership fees and what the cooperative should stock. These should be facilitated by someone familiar with the operation and rules of cooperatives.

3. When discussing the issue of finance, it is important to identify the different options of using microfinance institutions, cooperative or starting a savings and credit group. That last option would become a microproject in its own right. So the detailed planning step involves the group in deciding how they want to solve the problem of credit if their enterprise development plans require it.

4. The group may also have to address the issue of buying inputs which they could arrange to do on a joint basis with shared transport if applicable.