Training and capacity building with women in the community

This building block focuses on empowering women in local communities through targeted training and capacity-building initiatives. The aim is to equip women with essential skills, knowledge, and resources to engage in sustainable practices, environmental conservation, and climate change mitigation. By fostering leadership and entrepreneurial abilities, women can play a pivotal role in driving positive change in their communities and contributing to broader socio-economic development.

  • Collaboration with local leaders and organisations for community engagement.
  • Access to resources, tools, and technology that enhance training programs.
  • Inclusion of gender-sensitive approaches in curriculum design.
  • Continuous mentorship and follow-up support for sustained impact.
  • Financial and institutional support from government and NGOs
  • Tailored training programs that address the specific needs and contexts of women are more effective.
  • Building trust and community ownership leads to greater participation.
  • Ongoing support is essential to ensure long-term success and capacity retention.
  • Encouraging peer-to-peer learning boosts confidence and leadership among participants.
Women at the forefront of Mangrove restoration to inspire more people to join mangrove conservation efforts.

Women face multifaceted challenges that hinder their active participation in climate change mitigation and environmental sustainability. These include limited access to financial capital and technology, heightened vulnerability to climate change impacts, limited education and awareness, gender-based discrimination, and restricted entry into leadership roles. Additionally, women's access to markets and capital is constrained by gender roles, insufficient skills, resources, and mobility.

Working together with coastal communities, fishermen and the Beach Management Unit (BMU) in Dar Es Salaam, also through our local partners, Aqua Farm Organization (AFO), Girls in Climate Change (GICC) and Tanzania Forestry Service.

Meeting with the local leaders to be able to work closely with the young women in the community. 

Carried out research on the challenges that were impacting the mangroves and issues causing the lack of conservation of the mangroves by the coastal communities. 

Ensured community ownership in this process, so that the women feel they are a part of the solution and are willing to volunteer in these conservation efforts. 

Women’s involvement in mangrove conservation is a vital tool for empowering women to feel they are part of the solution and can take on more leadership roles in environmental conservation.

Involving community members before project implementation is crucial, they feel more mob to be part of the process and adds value to project implementation

Conservation of endangered and rare wild animals and plants.

Carry out field species population monitoring surveys, artificial breeding, field reintroduction experiments, and environmental factor habitat surveys, etc.
 

2nd cohort of She Leaders of the She Leads Green Action program during mangrove restoration activity at Kunduchi.
Women at the forefront of Mangrove restoration to inspire more people to join mangrove conservation efforts.
Training and capacity building with women in the community
Institutional strengthening & sustainability

The ACReSAL project collaborates with three key ministries: Environment, Agriculture, and Water Resources. It operates across multiple institutional levels, including state, national, local, and community levels. This approach ensures that project implementers at all ministerial levels have their capacities strengthened, thereby sustaining the project's investments and efficient landscapes management.

  • Effective collaboration across the three Ministries and the Institutions that are implementing the project through regular stakeholder engagements.
  • Technical support from the World Bank, the team provide support across project activities and ensure impactful project implementation.

The synergy between the Ministries and institutions is key to producing results, because for impactful results for the project it is key that all Ministries must work closely together. The synergy has provided more innovative and collaborative ideas for effective project delivery.

Implementation and Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

Effective policy lobbying and advocacy must address the implementation of both existing and newly finalized policies to ensure they meet their intended goals. This involves continuous monitoring to track progress and assess the effectiveness of policy implementation. All partners involved in a program or policy must participate in this ongoing process to ensure alignment with objectives and adapt strategies as needed.

  • Regularly assess and compare the goals and objectives to evaluate progress and identify gaps. Research and analysis support this comparative review
  • Working through coalitions enhances policy advocacy efforts by uniting diverse voices, amplifying impact, and strengthening influence
  • Policy implementation is a lengthy process involving diverse stakeholders with varying priorities. Patience and persistence are crucial
  • Initially, we overlooked sectors like tourism that have significant stakes in natural resource management. Including all relevant sectors can reveal important interests and enhance advocacy
  • Engaging a wide range of stakeholders is essential. Excluding key players can hinder progress and make achieving objectives more challenging
Capacity building and awareness creation

The natural resource sector in Kenya is governed by a complex web of laws and policies that directly impact community lifestyles and livelihoods. However, many community members lack knowledge of these laws, leading to confusion, especially when different government departments enforce contradictory regulations. 

NACOFA has taken on the responsibility of informing and educating communities about the relevant laws that affect them. By doing so, NACOFA helps protect communities from unwarranted actions by government officers. An example is the development and implementation of Participatory Forest Management Plans (PFMPs) and Forest Management Agreements (FMAs). Despite these agreements being signed between KFS and various CFAs, there are instances where KFS fails to honor the commitments, making community awareness critical for accountability.

  • CFAs trust NACOFA, and the strong relationships NACOFA has with KFS and the Ministry are crucial
  • Strong connections with civil society organizations help build broader relationships and ensure grassroots support for policy advocacy
  • Empowering communities to lead the policy process from a bottom-up approach is essential, ensuring continued pressure at the local level
  • Capacity building and awareness creation are continuous as new strategies emerge, new officers assume roles, and leadership changes occur within community groups like CFAs
  • When communities understand the benefits of the issues, they are more likely to support and engage in policy advocacy
  • Policy advocacy is long-term, requiring flexibility to adapt goals in response to changing government priorities while keeping the community's interests at the forefront
  • Successful advocacy requires engaging with the political climate effectively, with proper timing being crucial
  • Advocacy is time-consuming and expensive, needing significant financial support, expertise, and champions to push the agenda at all levels
  • The organization must foster trust among all stakeholders to achieve positive outcomes
Policy formulation and development process

Policy formulation and development is a complex, time-consuming process requiring support from communities, government, politicians, external partners, and the public, including investors and beneficiaries. It demands patience and flexibility, often facing resistance from those benefiting from current policies.

NACOFA's experiences highlight these challenges. Developing the Forest Act 2005 and revising it to the Forest Conservation and Management Act 2016 each took four years. The Forest Incentives and Benefit Sharing Regulations have been stalled for 14 years, and the Natural Resources and Benefit Sharing Bill has been in Parliament since 2014. These critical policies, essential for ensuring community benefits from conservation efforts, face significant delays due to competing interests.

NACOFA has learned that patience and adaptability are crucial in policy formulation. This process often begins with a community's need to address environmental challenges and aims to tackle root causes, ensuring a stable supply of environmental goods and services for future generations. It must align with current political directions, national and global commitments, and garner stakeholder support.

NACOFA has also faced challenges implementing Transition Implementation Plans (TIPs) at the county level, providing opportunities to address these issues through county-specific NRM bylaws, forest management plans, capacity building, and guidelines for conserving fragile ecosystems and developing nature-based enterprises.

  • Stakeholder buy-in is crucial for success, ensuring vested interest in the policy
  • Timing is vital for achieving long-term impact and success
  • Availability of resources, both financial and human, is essential
  • NACOFA's success is due to strong relationships with key stakeholders, including government agencies, CSOs, and community groups
  • Capacity for dialogue with politicians and policymakers is also critical
  • Community goodwill and support are indispensable
  • Developing a long-term advocacy strategy is essential for sustained impact
  • Donor and stakeholder fatigue can occur if the process takes too long, so it's important to maintain momentum and avoid burnout
  • Flexibility and adaptability must be integrated into the advocacy strategy
  • Being included in government technical working groups strengthens influence and viability in policy creation
  • Policy formulation is a lengthy, often tedious process that requires adaptability to changing governmental interests while maintaining a focus on the end goal
  • Funding and stakeholder support may wane over time, but the lead organization must persist, seeking additional support to achieve the final goal
  • Communities and partners may lose hope, but it's crucial for the leading organization to remain steadfast in its advocacy
Review current laws & policies and stakeholder mapping

Stakeholder mapping involves reviewing the diverse interests of stakeholders across various sectors at both local and national levels. This process should be as comprehensive as possible, mapping out existing influence and power structures to determine who to engage directly or indirectly. Prior to stakeholder mapping, a thorough analysis of existing policies is conducted to fully understand the issues and why they matter to the community. This understanding then informs the stakeholder mapping activity, making it clearer who to engage with.

  • A clear understanding of relevant laws and policies related to the issue
  • Identification of specific policy gaps that need addressing
  • Accurate identification of target government organizations and officers
  • Proper selection of partners and civil society organizations
  • Ensuring community support and representation in the process
  • Understanding stakeholder interests and the impact of legal changes on those interests is crucial for effective engagement
  • It’s important to identify ongoing processes related to specific laws and policies to ensure inclusive and thorough mapping
  • Consolidating efforts through coalitions is essential to avoid parallel efforts and enhance impact
  • National coalitions can align efforts for greater policy influence
  • Building and strengthening networks should be prioritized over individual program objectives to achieve broader policy goals
Participatory research to identify local environmental challenges

The first step involves identifying local environmental challenges at the community level, such as water shortages, diminishing grazing areas, food scarcity, soil erosion, landslides, or flooding. NACOFA gathers community input on possible solutions and explores the links between these challenges and forest or environmental degradation.

Next, NACOFA studies the existing laws and policies that could address these issues, identifying any gaps, or determining if enhanced implementation or enforcement is needed. This process allows NACOFA to pinpoint the responsible government institutions, key officials, CSOs, partners, and community groups to collaborate with.

  • Clear understanding of the local or national issue and its impact on people and the environment.
  • Centering community and environmental well-being in the research approach.
  • Engaging with local leaders to ensure full community participation.
  • Collaborating with research organizations to align with current research policies.
  • This approach fosters informed policy development that centers on community needs.
  • Broad stakeholder engagement is crucial for policy advocacy success and enhances government accountability in service delivery.
  • Community ownership of the process is vital, leading to higher participation and long-term success.