ALEJO COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROJECT
(ALEJO CSP)
STRATEGIG PLAN 2011-2016
ALEJO Community Support Project
P.O.Box 430024, Mufulira, Zambia
Room 2, Mwele business Centre
Freedomway/Accra road
Email:
Tell: 260-967-835-692,260-965-613-133
‘TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ACRONYMS……………….………………………………………. 3 AKNOWLEDGMENT………………………………………………. 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………. 5
INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………. 6
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN……………………………………….. 6
NATIONAL OVERVIEW………………………………………….. 7
DISTRICT OVERVIEW……………………………………………. 9
VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS…………………………. 9
ORGANISATIONAL CORE VALUES…………………………… 10
ACHEIVEMENTS…………………………………………………. 10
TARGET GROUPS……………………………………………….. 11
CORE COMPETENCIES (THEMATIC)…………………………. 12
MAIN GOAL OBJECTIVE………………………………………… 12
OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVE…………………………………….. 13
ORGANISATIONAL (SWOT) ANALYSIS………………………. 14
ACRONYMS
ACC- ANTI CORRUPTION COMMISSION
ART- ANTI-RETROVIRAL THERAPY
ARV- ANTI -RETROVIRAL
AIDS- ACQUIRED IMMUNODIFICIENNCY SYNDROME
C.B.O- COMMUNITY BASED ORGANISATION
CHEP- COOPERBELT HEALTH EDUCATION PROJECT
CHIN- CHILDREN IN NEED NETWORK
CLCC- CHILD LABOUR COMMUNITY COMMITTEES
CRC-CHILD RIGHTS CLUBS
CRIN – CHILDREN RIGHTS INFORMATION NETWORK
CP –CEREBRAL PALSY
C.P.I- CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
DDCC-DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT COORDINATING COMMTTTEE
- DISTRICT CHILD LABOUR COMMITTEES
DPO-DISTRICT PLANING OFFICER
DEC-DRUG ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION
F.G.D- FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION
SNDP-SIXTH NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
G.D.P- GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
HIV- HUMAN IMMUNE VIRUS
HIPC- HIGHLY INDEBTED POOR COUNTRIES
IDE- INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES
I.E.C- INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION
IGAs- INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
ILO/IPEC- INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION/ INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON THE ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOUR
J.C.T.R- JESUIT CENTER FOR THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
M&E- MONITORING AND EVALUATION
MDGS- MELLINUIM DEVELOMENT GOALS
NGO- NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION
NGOCC-NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION’S COORDINATING COUNCIL
OVC- ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN
PF-Patriotic Front
PEST- POLITICAL, ECONOMICAL, SOCIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL
RDC- RESIDENT DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
STI- SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS
SWOT- STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPRTUNITIES AND THREATS
VCT- VOLUNTARY COUNSELING AND TESTING
V SO-VOLUTARY SERVICES ORGANISATION
WWSF-WOMEN WORLD SUMMIT FOUNDATION
ZNAN-ZAMBIA NATIONAL AIDS NETWORK
AKNOWLEDGMENT
The ALEJO CSP strategic plan is a critical policy document that aims at providing direction to the activities of the organization.
The development of this five-year strategic plan for ALEJO Community Support Project involved a participatory and consultative process. It represents the roadmap for ALEJO CSP to achieve its vision and mission statements. Hence, the need to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts and hard work exhibited by ALEJO CSP staffs, the Board, community members and stakeholders for their contributions during the process of developing this first ever ALEJO CSP’s strategic plan, special thanks goes to Mufulira District Agriculture Co-ordinator through the DACOs Office for information gathered from them through there agriculture extension officers, also to Humanitarian Charitable ONE Trust of United Kingdom for their technical advice and information sharing. Furthermore we thank the volunteers who helped in gathering information from the community, the Board members and community members.
We are hopeful and confident that if all go as planned, and assuming the desired level of resources, we will put significance landmarks as far as issues of community development are concerned
Thank you,
......
CO-ORDINATOR
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ALEJO Community Support Project (ALEJO CSP) Board and secretariat together with the community members has put up in place a five-year strategic plan. The plan is to run from January 2011 to December 2016 (inclusive).
The ALEJO CSP strategic plan is a critical guiding document that aims at providing strategic direction to the programs and activities of the organization. It describes the objectives, strategies and activities that aim at addressing identified prioritized strategic issues. The following are strategic objectives for this five-year strategic plan:
- To improve the socio-economic status of 8000 small scale farmers and business entrepreneurs in our catchment areas by year 2016.
- To strengthen and build capacity of 8000 small scale farmers & business entrepreneurs in our catchment areas through skills trainings by the year 2016.
- To enhance the production of IEC materials focused on small scale farmers and business entrepreneurs and distributed in our catchment areas by the year 2016.
- To facilitate and enhance the provision of development equipment & input support to our beneficiaries to build their potential, sense of dignity and self worth by the year 2016.
- To advocate and lobby for community programs and policies on reduction of negative traditional and cultural practices that promotes violation of women and children’s rights by the year 2015.
- To increase awareness in our catchment areas of Mufulira on the dangers and effects of stigma and discrimination of people infected or affected by HIV and AIDS by the year 2016.
- To scale up our programmes to 1 more district to make it operational by year 2016.
- To construct a centre that will constitute of offices for the institution, training skills and recreation facilities for our beneficiaries by 2016.
- To strengthen the mechanism to assist in fighting injustices surrounding the welfare of small scale business entrepreneurs such as corruption in road traffic, judiciary, land allocation and awarding of contracts by the year 2016.
The strategic plan will build upon the strengths of ALEJO CSP’s secretariat and the availability of its networks. However, In order to adequately execute this strategic plan, ALEJO CSP shall endeavour to urgently address its main weaknesses such as: inadequate financial resources that hinder the smooth implementation of the organizations programs.
ALEJO CSP envisions a society that values human dignity. It is the hope of ALEJO CSP that the goodwill from the government and donor community will continue so as to facilitate various processes that will ultimately lead to the execution of this five-year strategic plan.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.0 Organizational Overview
ALEJOCSP Community Support Project (ALEJO CSP) is a Non-governmental organization based in Mufulira district on the copper belt province of Zambia. Its office is located at Mwele Business Centre, Room 2, Freedomway/Accra Road, and Mufulira. ALEJO CSP was formed on the 10th June 2010 working in Mufulira communities as a community Based Organization (CBO) with a view of mitigating the effects of extreme poverty in the communities. The organization was registered as a Charitable Trust with the Registrar of Companies on 14th January 2011 with the registration number of 89578 and its serial number is 1233202. ALEJO Community Support Project (ALEJO CSP) being action oriented started to grow in number and the demand of its services to other communities increased.
The organization was formed specifically to work with different communities and other like-minded organizations to lobby/Advocate for better and more sustainable community programs with a bias on Livelihood, Democracy and Human Rights Projects. The organization since inception has lived up to its core-existence i.e. promoting programs on the reduction of extreme poverty in the communities and economic empowerment and raising awareness on the dangers, and effects of HIV/AIDS and other crosscutting issues such as Gender and Good Governance.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN
The environmental scan was conducted in order to locate the operating environment for ALEJO CSP. The scan analyses the key trends in the international and national spheres as these relate to the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental areas. The environmental scan helps to identify the dynamics or areas of concern which may require programmatic and institutional responses from ALEJO CSP particularly in addressing the concerns of extreme poverty levels in Zambia.
1.1 National Overview
Given the structural adjustments and policy changes that Zambia adopted in the recent past, the economy has been experiencing a modest recovery with positive increases in real incomes since 1999, and an average positive growth of 1.4 percent. The country’s general macroeconomic environment has improved, particularly in 2005, though the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for the year showed a decline by 0.3 percent points from the 2004 growth rate of 5.4 percent. The slowdown in GDP growth has been attributed to reduced growth in the major sectors of manufacturing, agriculture and mining. The annual inflation rates have been reducing tremendously, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recording the annual rate of inflation at 8.0 percent as at August 2006. Compared with the same period last year, the annual rate of inflation declined by 11.3 percent points from 19.3 percent in August 2005. These inflationary changes have mostly been attributed to the appreciation of the Kwacha against all major currencies, which has assisted in mitigating the impact of the rise of food and oil prices. Equally, interest rates and domestic borrowing slightly reduced in 2005 by 2.2 percent points to 27.5 percent and 0.1 percent points to 1.8 percent respectively. Further, the external debt shock declined from US$7.1 billion at end -year 2004 to US$4.6 billion in 2005, with ascension of the Highly Indebted Poor Country’s (HIPC) Completion Point as the contributing factor. However, despite trade balance being positive, the net services and income accounts deteriorated, resulting in a widening of the current account deficit to 11.9 percent of GDP in 2005 from 10.7 percent in 2004.
Despite achieving a relatively stable macroeconomic environment through the neo-liberal policy framework since 1992, Zambia has failed to effectively reduce the endemic poverty levels. Particularly the modest recovery which has been obtaining is far much below the 5-7% necessary to reduce poverty significantly. This has been the case because the economic growth has drastically failed to create employment opportunities for the majority of the Zambians. Consequently, an estimated 8 million people in Zambia live in abject poverty, with the Living Conditions Monitoring Survey: 2004 indicating 68% levels of the population being below the poverty line out of which 80% are women.
The situation has been exacerbated by the ever-increasing cost of basic needs. For instance, the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) (2005) illustrate that the total cost of food and non-food basic needs for a family of six in Lusaka stood at K1, 361, 770 in July 2005, while salaries of most civil servants remain way below K1, 000, 000. As such, in its Policy Brief (2005), JCTR argues that the comparison of these figures of cost of living- excluding transport, education, health, personal care, etc. – with net incomes of most households reveals the extent to which most Zambian households have to struggle to meet their essential needs for decent human survival Therefore, signs of distress or low welfare in the form of malnutrition, disease, illiteracy, ragged clothing and dirty conditions are everywhere to be seen.
Equally, incidences of HIV/AIDS, which can be attributed to poverty, and whose prevalent rate among the sexually active age group is 16%, has made it difficult to adequately reduce poverty levels. Besides contributing to food insecurity at household level, particularly female headed households, the problem of women as victims of HIV/AIDS epidemic also has important repercussions such as burden of care for the sick and the fact that when women themselves are sick, they have no body to look after them. Further, HIV/AIDS does not only cause poverty at household level, but also poses serious challenges to the economic recovery as it is killing people in the most productive sector of the labour force. In addition, with AIDS expenditures rising, HIV/AIDS will inexorably consume more resources than other diseases. Women, especially the female-headed households, have shared the burden of the increased poverty levels more disproportionately than the men. The dominance of women among the poor has resulted in the feminization of poverty, and very high effective dependency ratios among women. In addition, women dominate the coping strategies that have been devised over the last decade or so, which have been necessitated by macroeconomic changes and the impact if HIV/AIDS. As such, they do not have enough time to participate in decision making at almost all levels.
1.2 District Overview
Poverty is a major problem facing the world. However, the third world and especially the sub-Saharan region has continued to experience high poverty levels. This is attributed to a number of factors some of which include inadequate resources to go round, poor economic policies, natural calamities and disasters, the advent of HIV/AIDS and its’ off shoots including drought related problems.
Mufulira District comprises a total population of over 162,664 people representing both men and women. 1/3 of this population lives in peri-urban areas while the rest lives in
the urban areas. Although poverty levels do exist in the urban set up, it is highly pronounced in the peri- urban areas where most the people struggle to have food and basic services. [E.g. Basic Education, Health Services, Water and Sanitation].
2.0 ALEJO CSP VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS
ALEJO CSP’s vision and mission statements have been designed to focus on the approaches that the organization will use in addressing the identified strategic issues.
2.1 Vision Statement
The long-term vision, which will better the lives of members of the community and to which ALEJO CSP will positively contribute over the next five years, is as follows:
2.2 Mission Statement
The mission statement for ALEJO CSP is as follows:
3.0 ORGANISATIONAL (CORE) VALUES
ALEJO CSP’s staff and members are committed to uphold the organizations shared values, which serves as a guide to the work of the organization and present the uniqueness of the organization. The following therefore are ALEJO CSP’s core values;
- Sharing Knowledge-
- Networking-
- Team work-ALEJO CSP shall endeavour to work as a team at all times to achieve its set goals.
- Integrity-
- Transparency and accountability- ALEJO CSP will carry out its programs and activities in an open and transparent manner.
- Human dignity-
- Dedication/Commitment-
- Discipline-
- Equality and Equity-
- Non-Partisan-
ACHEIVEMENTS
The organization has been able to carry out needs assessment to ascertain serious problems facing members of the community.
ALEJO CSP has been able to successfully implement projects on Civil Society Organisations’ Rights funded by CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation – 2009 NGOs ACT.
Provision of farming equipment to small scale farmers and training them.
Training of small scale business entrepreneurs and providing them with machinery such as carpentry tools and sewing machines.
The organization has facilitated the formation of community working groups.
The organisation has been able to partners with Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Lands and Natural resources and Mufulira Municipal Council to foster agriculture activities.
ALEJO CSP has managed to partner with international Organisations such as Global Water Partnership of Sweden, Humanitarian and Charitable ONE Trust of United Kingdom, Supply and Demand International of Netherlands.
The organization has secured stable funding partners.
6.0 TARGET GROUP
The target groups for this five-year strategic plan are: small scale farmers and small scale business entrepreneurs, local community groupings advancing sustainable development agendas, Civil Society Organisations in order to promote collaboration in communities. ALEJO CSP also targets youth/young people to promote understanding Human Rights and Responsibilities.
7.0 ALEJO CSP’s CORE COMPETENCIES (THEAMATIC AREAS)
Advocating for development to benefit the least developed populations through small scale farming and small scale entrepreneurship’.
Community sensitization/awareness raising in human rights and responsibilities
Human Rights awareness especially for the rights of the children and women
Fighting corruption in all our programs as a crosscutting issue.
Identification of community needs through community engagement.
Empowering communities with skills and appropriate links
Providing psychosocial information support for the community members
Networking and facilitating capacity building in the communities through
Community exchange visits.
Conducting networking meeting for community groups
Encouraging Community self-help support projects and resource mobilization
Training for stakeholders in advancing and lobbying
8.0 MAIN GOAL/OBJECTIVE
The main Goal/objective of ALEJO CSP in this five-year strategic period is as follows:
- To contribute to the development of communities and ensure that they have equal access to participate in the programmes that enhances their welfare and promotes sustainable development using the rights-based approach.
9.0 STRATEGIC PROGRAM AREAS
The main strategic issues identified as priority by the organization have been categorized into three main strategic areas. These strategic areas identified will provide direction for the organization in the next five years. The identified areas include:
- Poverty alleviation- in the area of poverty alleviation the focus is mainly on the community members who are usually the most affected by poverty. However, the strategies that will be used to intervene in the poverty alleviation will include community members’ empowerment and skills trainings. The organization will undertake the following activities, which will contribute to poverty alleviation in our catchment areas.
- Supply of Equipment - in the area of equipment supply focus is mainly on marginalised groups in the communities. The strategies that will be used will include sourcing of equipments from international partners, lobbying and promotion of marketing opportunities for the products of our members in the communities. Where possible, the organisation shall link the members to sponsors with funds for their projects.
- Health- in the areas of health, the focus is mainly on HIV/AIDS sensitization where ALEJO CSP shall support VCT and will advocate for people to go for tests.
- Conduct awareness- raising on the dangers and effects of stigma and discrimination of people affected or infected with HIV and AIDS through:
- Community meetings,
- Family counselling,
- Drama performances
- Focus group discussions.
9.0. Operational Objective