ANNEX 6: UK Aid Match annual reporting template for unrestricted funding

Appeal Title:UK Aid Match: Climate Resilient Livelihood for Pastoral Communities

Period Covered:April 13 -March 14 (Year 1)

Prepared By:Program Management Team

Date of Issue:15th April, 2014

Section A. Evidence of Performance

The project implementation progress is summarised in the table below. An assessment made against the overall implementation plan reveals that the action implementation is on track despite late commencement. The period April 2013 to March 2014 was a year of action with several milestones and evaluations successfully accomplished. Baseline and first semester impact evaluations were conducted during this period. The project has continuously monitored the external environment in the context of the potential threats to the project. So far, the interim data indicates that the project purpose shall be achieved on time and within the available budget.

Summary of progress against log frame

Programme Structure / Indicators of Achievement / Progress During Period / Assumptions/Risks / Plans for Next Period
Outcome
9,085 Households from the marginalised communities in three districts in Kenya have increased resilience in the face of climatic variability /
  1. Household Dietary diversity improved by at least 20% among project beneficiary households.
/ Discussions with beneficiaries established that, the project has contributed to food diversification at the household level through the crop harvest and increased income levels through livestock products and cash grants from cash for work activities[A1].
Under this outcome the project targeted 1900 households in year 1 (Milestone 1). However the project reached 1546 households in milestone 1. This is due to the fact that the project started late by 3 months and also the interruption by the inter clan conflicts affected the timely implementation of some activities. / 1,883 households so far reached. The remaining 7,202 beneficiaries will be supported through crop farming, livestock, cash for work and petty trade.
  1. At least 25% of targeted community households are involved in drought management mitigation actions.
/ Project has built capacities of the communities in disaster risk reduction. CMDRR action plans were formulated and implementation is underway[A2].
Under this outcome indicator milestone one was 960 beneficiaries, however the reached households were 337 beneficiaries. This is due to the fact that the project started late by 3 months and also the interruption by the inter clan conflicts affected the timely implementation of some activities. Some activities like cash for could only use a few beneficiaries due to the size of labour required to rehabilitate community assets identified. / The project will continueproviding technical support during implementation of these action plans. The project will also target more communities for the same to ensure resilience.
Output 1:
Target communities supported with adaptive livelihood interventions / Indicator 1.1:
At least 25% of Agro pastoralist (farmers) increases their access to alternative sources of food production. /
  • 640 farmers (420 Men and 220 Women)out of 2,000 were targeted in the first year. All these farmers were provided with technical and material support on crop production.
  • So far, 70% of them have harvested their produce with surplus sold to the Ministry of Agriculture as grain reserve for the county.
/
  • Therewill be no major insecurity and all project sites will be accessible
/
  • Targeting and support for year 2 beneficiaries,
  • Beneficiary selection for green house technology,

Indicator 1.2
At least 140 households increase their household food production by adopting Green house Agriculture as an alternative source of livelihoods. /
  • Feasibility assessment done prior with four (4) sites identified as appropriate for green house technology. Technical considerations were water salinity and soil pH.
  • 80 Households (14 Men and 66 Women) selected in the four (4) sites.[IL3]
/
  • Procurement and installation of green houses
  • Capacity building training for farmers

Indicator 1.3:
20% of targeted farmers reports increased duration of food storage beyond 4 months after harvest. /
  • 3 site’s have been selectedfor storage facilities and feasibility assessments are taking place. The storage facilities will benefit 300 farmers.[IL4]
  • Procurement processes have already commenced.
/
  • Construction of cereal stores
  • Continuous onsite monitoring

Indicator 1.4:
165 Women are capacity built and are able to effectively establish and manage income generating activities. /
  • 120 beneficiaries organised into 8 small scale trader women groupsin 8 locations.
  • All the 8groupswere provided with capacity building on entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
  • The disbursement of micro credit facility to the 120 beneficiaries is near completion the groups are expected to receive the funds before the end of April, 2014[IL5].
  • The 120 beneficiaries comprise of 111 women and 9 men, since according the constitution of the women self-help groups there is a provision for the participation of men in the group up to 20%.
/
  • The will be no major insecurity and all projects sites will be accessible.
/
  • Targeting of 3 more groups for microfinance support
  • Loan disbursement and recovery
  • Routine Monitoring and supervision of the clients business activities

Output 2:
Households engaged in cash programming interventions / Indicator 2.1:
At least 6 Community infrastructure/Assets rehabilitated and maintained by involving 3,000 Households in cash for work activity. /
  • Two (2) community infrastructures (Water pan) rehabilitated and maintained in Wajir and Mandera.
  • 240 direct vulnerable households (153 Men and 87 Women)involved in de-silting and fencing of water pans in Mandera and Wajir respectively.
/ 660 beneficiaries not reached in year 1 alongside targets for year 2 will be targeted in the second year of the project implementation.
Output 3
Livestock support services provided to drought affected households / Indicator 3.1:
20% increase in Livestock health service delivery (DVOs provided with equipment to enable them deliver services effectively) /
  • The project has continuously supported veterinary outreach services thereby contributing to expanded service delivery in the remote hard to reach areas.
  • Supported 2 livestock disease surveillance sessions[A6],
  • Supported 2 mass campaigns for livestock treatment, vaccination and de-worming.
  • 106,579 animals were vaccinated from opportunistic diseases during the exercise in the targeted areas[IL7].
  • Courtesy of the project support, preliminary data indicates improved animal health and productivity as reported by the benefiting pastoralists. The level of achievement against the indicator is to be determined by annual evaluation.
/
  • The will be no major insecurity and all projects sites will be accessible.
  • No mass movement of the population and livestock.
/ Respond to request for logistical and technical support for animal disease surveillance services by the veterinary department
Indicator 3.2:
25% increase in the number of Households supported by mass vaccination, deworming and treatment and are reporting reduction in common diseases outbreak in the targeted areas.
(Target = 3,600 households) /
  • 786households (Men – 655 and Women 131, equivalent of 22% targeted HH’s) benefited from the intervention with 106,579 livestock species vaccinated from opportunistic diseases in thetargeted areas.
/
  • Minimal livestock migration risking trans-boundary diseases.
  • All livestock species treated and vaccinated can be tracked of changes post vaccination

Output 4
Capacity improved to manage disasters at community level through CMDRR / Indicator 4.1:At least 180 local government staff and community leaders capacity built on CMDRR and early warning systems and able to come up with DRR plans that address the needs of the community /
  • 97 community members (74 men and 23 women) from 3 locations capacity built on CMDRR and early warning systems.
/
  • The will be no major insecurity and all projects sites will be accessible.
/
  • 83 more to benefit from CMDRR capacity building

Indicator 4.2:
6 villages with active disaster response committees and action plans. /
  • 3 village action plans were developed on monitoring disaster warning signs and response.
  • 3 community disaster committees were formed and functional links with other DRR actor and relevant government agencies developed for future support and coordination in the event to disaster occurrences.
/
  • The will be no major insecurity and all projects sites will be accessible.

Output 5
Staff capacity built on DRR and CCA programming and mainstreaming / Indicator 5.1:
20 IRK staff from country and field offices trained on DRR /
  • The project was to support the training of 20 IRK staff on DRR; however 10 staff were trained on DRR during the same period during the East Africa region staff capacity building organized by the Regional Office.[IL8]
/ Capacity building for staff under the UKAM for the second year.
Indicator 5.2:
DRR and CCA mainstreaming strategy developed and adopted by IRK /
  • Strategy to be developed during the staff DRR training in year 2.
/ The strategy to be developed in the second year after the capacity building for staff.

Commentary on Performance

  1. Progress against outcome. Please list or provide links to any supporting information.

Outcome: 9,085 households from marginalised communities in three districts in Kenya have increased resilience in the face of climatic variability

The CRLPC project has promoted climate adaptive livelihood options to vulnerable communities in North Eastern Kenya. So far 1,786 households have been supported in various innovative livelihood opportunities. These beneficiaries were provided with both technical skills and appropriate farm inputs for agro-farming enterprise and skills for micro enterprise development.

Indicator 1: Households with improved and diversified diet

640 farmers have reported good harvest for maize, water melon, kales, tomatoes and onions. This harvest resulted to improved food accessibility at household level. Again 70% of the farmers sold off the surplus to the county government as grain reserve for Mandera County. Regarding livestock health initiatives, the project activities are concentrated in areas that the county government is not able to reach. The project has had a close working relationship with the County government through the office of county veterinary services which is in charge of the County livestock production and development programmes. Currently, 786 household have benefited with the support of this project benefiting pastoralist have reported improved animal health and productivity. The benefiting pastoralists have also been linked to markets and are now able to sell their surplus to buy other basic household necessities. The project still has the capacity to enhance expanded livestock disease surveillance, vaccination and treatment in hard to reach areas.Moreover, 120 vulnerable women have now the well needed knowledge and skills to effectively run the micro enterprises.

Indicator 2: Community engagement in drought management and mitigation

Capacity building of community leaders on DRR/ CCA is rated to be highly relevant by the communities due their vulnerability to disasters in the region. Through IRK, this intervention has improved the capacity of the community on self-reflection especially on disaster vulnerability, capacity assessment and response mechanism.IR in partnership with National Drought Management Authority facilitated the community representatives in three communities in owning and leading disaster risk reduction; this was done through formation of disaster response committees and also ensuring that the disaster response action plans are in place. [IL9]All these committees have operational plans to monitor early warning signs and appropriatelyresponding to hazards.Moreover, the project is implemented in coordination with the relevant stakeholders. As such there is a high level of ownership of project and associated results by the beneficiary communities. This is a significant opportunity for continuity of the benefits of the project.

  1. Progress against outputs. Please list or provide links to any supporting information.

Output indicator 1.1: Agro pastoralist farmers access alternative sources of food production[A10]

Milestone 1 (March, 2014)

  • 600 farmers (Male- 400, Female- 200)

1.1.1 Mobilization and registration of farmers' groups in the project areas

  • Site identification and beneficiary selectionwere successfully done through participatory approach.Nine (9) sites and 640 farmers were selected as shown on the table below. The beneficiary selection was done through community gatherings in all the targeted locations. During these meetings, selection criteria were shared and agreed up on which was applied during the selection process by the communities. Follow meetings were conducted to validate the beneficiary lists from all the communities.
  • The farmers were provided with technical support in group formation and registration.

Sub county / Location / Group name / Male / Female / Total
Mandera North / Bella / Bella Farmers Group / 44 / 16 / 60
Hareri / Hareri Farmers’ Cooperative / 135 / 65 / 200
Qumbiso / Qumbiso Farmers’ Cooperative / 52 / 18 / 70
Rhamu / Rhamu Farmers’ Cooperative / 41 / 44 / 85
Yabicho / Yabicho Farmers’ Cooperative / 46 / 14 / 60
Shantoley / Shantoley Farmers’ Cooperative / 51 / 34 / 85
Kalicha / Kalicha Farmers Group / 48 / 2 / 50
Lafey / Sala 2 / Sala Farmers Group / 16 / 14 / 30
Total locations/ beneficiaries / 8 / 420 / 220 / 640

Facilitate the signing of MoUs with farmers

Several round table meetings were held with different farmer group in order to agree on the implementation framework. There was a general consensus to have in place memoranda of understanding. Signing of MoUs was done with all the farmer groups. During the signing sessions the farmers were made to understand the details about the document and their responsibilities and that of IRK well expounded before the signing discussed and agreed upon.The farmers are responsible for farm labour, land, maintenance of pump sets among others. Farmers were made to understand the Goals and Objectives of the project and IRKs commitment to address immediate causes of food insecurity and on that basis build on systems and structures through the project[A11].

Facilitate capacity building of farmers

Training of farmers on Good Agronomic Practices was done in all the targeted locations benefiting640 (Disaggregated into 433 men and 207 women)farmers. The training covered very many areas that were discovered beneficial to the farmers to help them develop good agricultural skills for effective practice. The facilitators taught on the good practices to apply for the different crops during planting (what space and how many seeds per hole), weeding and harvesting. The farmers were also given the knowledge of planting patterns e.g. which crop to grow where and mix cropping pattern. Farmers were also advised on the best planting period based on the meteorological information for the region. Training for these farmers were conducted in the second Quarter of Y1 implementation of the project activities (Between October and November) moreover, all the farmers were provided with certified seeds and fuel subsidy.

Provide support supervision of farm activities

Both in-house and joint support supervision with Ministry of Agriculture officers were conducted. These visits were aimed at providing on-site technical support as well as proving an opportunity to document important characteristics of the agro-enterprise. During this period, the farmers had the following limitations: inadequate pump-sets, defective irrigation canals and water pipes for irrigation. Nevertheless, the capacity building trainings and material support highly motivated them thus deriving innovative ways of handling the gaps.

It is worth noting that farmers with immense hard work realized good yields from their farms. The harvested produce are consumed at the household while the surplus sold to the local market and some to Mandera County Government as grain reserve for the county. On average harvested over 6 bags (50 kgs) maize from his/her 1 piece acre of land cultivated. Out of which 4 bags are sold for cash to access with other livelihoods assets and the rest for household consumption. Moreover, the farms by products were fed to livestock, further boosting their productivity.

Output indicator 1.2: Households adopt green house agriculture as an alternative source of livelihoods

Milestone 1 (March, 2014)

  • 40 Households(Male- 20, Female- 20)

Based on lessons learnt from other agencies that implemented similar technology in the region, it was wise for the project to conduct pre-feasibility assessment in order to establish viable sites. The technical consideration was on water salinity and the soil PH. The assessment reports established not only the sites for piloting but also, that the green houses must be customised to withstand the hash climatic condition of the region. So far, 80 beneficiaries were selected from 3 locations to benefit from this pilot activity. Supplier identification has started. The procurement, installation and beneficiary capacity building on greenhouse farming will be done in first quarter of year two.

The activity delayed since the project team had to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of the activity with the government line ministries which was not anticipated in the beginning. The log frame adjusted to reflect the changes since milestone one will be added to milestone 2. [IL12]

Output indicator 1.3: Targeted farmers store food for four months or more after harvesting

Milestone 1 (March, 2014)

  • 2 stores (200 farmers)

Siting and beneficiary selection completed. The criteria used for site selection was on the basis of the production capacity of the location and individual farmers. Bills of quantity are being prepared in readiness for tendering and contracting purposes. The actual construction is scheduled to start in April 2014.

This[IL13] activity delayed due to projects funds transfer delay and also the anticipation that the budget could be reviewed since going by the appropriate size of a storage facility, the activity was slightly under budgeted. However based on the available budget, stores of the same value will be constructed in year 2. This log frame reviewed to reflect the adjustment.

Output indicator 1.4: Women’s capacity built to establish and manage income generating activities

Milestone 1 (March, 2014)

  • 60 Women

Mobilization and organizing micro credit beneficiaries:

120beneficiaries mostly women from eight small holder groups were identified and selected through a well-structured, mutually agreed, and inclusive and vulnerable sensitive criteria. They were then sensitized and made aware of the project purpose and their participation. The beneficiaries include all classification of the vulnerable women groups. The group’s entrepreneurial history and their knowledge on microcredit were also extensively assessed.