BACKGROUND

In spite of the training sessions organised by the SFLP, the RSU noticed that many National Coordination Units (NCUs) and Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) still find it difficult to assist the fisheries dependent communities to elaborate their "community projects".

As a result, many community project proposals do not make reference to:

• the participatory process involving communities in project identification;
• an assessment of the poverty level in the community concerned;
• the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) guiding principles (people centred, build on strengths, micro-macro linkages, sustainability, etc.);
• the holistic framework stressing the multi-sectoral aspects that may lead to one or more key interventions;
• the relevant Policies, Institutions and Processes (PIPs) at all levels as they influence fisheries livelihoods;
• the specific principle(s) of the CCRF as they would relate to the objective of the community project;
• clear ways of monitoring outcomes and measuring progress.

Moreover, it is often observed that the NCUs use the "community project application guidelines" as a recipe or a checklist. By so doing, they pay more attention to prescribing the project proposal than to the SLA principles and analytical framework involving a participatory process.

The SFLP considered it necessary to produce a "Guidelines" for NCU's and NGO partners to help improve their community project formulation skills, while at the same time highlighting the linkages between the field projects and policies, institutions and processes that affect fisheries communities’ livelihoods.

To ensure a participatory process and make the guide a field-working tool adapted to the needs of NCUs and NGOs, it was obvious that some resource persons from participating countries had to be involved in the process. Thus, the production of this guide was made possible with the support of the Regional Support Unit (RSU) of the SFLP, with inputs from NCUs of Benin, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Congo, and Côte d'Ivoire, as well as two Beninese NGOs ("Amitiés Ensoleillées" and Oxfam-Québec), and one Malian NGO "UK Save the Children".

This guide features the major lessons learnt from the two years' experience of the RSU in providing support to NCU's in the elaboration of community projects, and from the experience of resource persons from NCU's and NGOs from various countries on community project formulation.

THE PURPOSE OF THE GUIDELINES

The community project guidelines were formulated in such a way as to provide NCUs and NGOs with a field-tool describing and illustrating what should be the participatory process of identifying, formulating and implementing SFLP community projects.

It is basically an awareness and guiding tool showing "what to do, why and how to do it", and clearly explaining what is expected from a SFLP community project in terms of:  

ELEMENTS OF THE GUIDELINES

The guidelines focus on the process of identifying and formulating community projects. It will detail and illustrate with field examples the SL principles: people-centred, responsive and participatory, multi-level, conducted in partnership, sustainable, dynamic and holistic. Examples of, community "strengths" on which project interventions could be built, and how they can be identified were also provided.

It draws attention to the successive stages to be considered, and their linkages with policies, institutions and processes during the identification, formulation and implementation process of community projects.

The guide explains also how to avoid the submission of similar proposals for different communities within the same country, and recalls some basic principles of the participatory process, especially with regards to the multi-disciplinarity and the gender balance.

It also lays emphasis on how community projects should be designed in order to generate information that can influence policy framework (Poverty Reduction Programmes, National Policies on social activities, Fisheries plans, etc.), institutions (professional organisations, NGO's, fisheries committees, etc.) and processes (participatory decision-making and management system, etc.).

For the SFLP, community projects should expand beyond being a time sensitive support framework to a problem or specific community need. Community projects are implemented as entry points in the sector, which over time, will open up to other priority sectors for the communities, in response to the holistic approach recommended by the sustainable livelihoods approach.

The Guide is available in English, French and Portuguese.