Environmental Research,Mapping and Information systems in Africa has been spearheading a series of initiatives aimed at sharing lessons learned, seal loopholes on identified gaps and building on institutional and methodological synergies in various areas.
The development of a Training Resource Kit was achieved after a contractual project on Western Kenya community Driven Development and Flood Mitigation (WKCDD) & FMP.
The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to empower local communities to engage in sustainable wealth creating activities, lower incidences of poverty and reduce the vulnerability of the poor to adverse outcomes associated with recurrent flooding and build institutional capacity to manage Natural Resources.
This is done through proper management of the flood waters that have been wrecking havoc to the communities in the floodplains, though construction of flood protection structures as well as the rehabilitation and management of the catchment areas.
ERMIS Africa carried a Participatory Integrated Community Development (PICD) training for two groups i.e. Lead Mobile Advisory Teams (Lead MATs) and Members of Sub-County Steering Groups (SCSGs).
The participants sat through theoretical presentations/lectures on various subjects that included:- entrepreneurship skills, value chain mechanism, participatory impact monitoring, social accountability and conflict resolution & peace building. The theoretical presentations were combined with interactive discussions
and brainstorming sessions where the participants asked questions or discussed concepts and their experiences in its application or lack thereof in their areas.
The facilitators used Role Plays,Working Groups and Plenary Sessions to take the participants through the PICD process. The participants would be introduced to the various concepts and tools in the PICD process including how they are used and their importance and then given practical tasks (mainly involving the application of a particular tool) that they would carry out in working groups. The group sessions were followed by a plenary session where each group presented their work.
The role plays were mainly used during training on the 2^nd phase of PICD (Initiation/creation of awareness and attitude change) where participants acted out a story or scenario. This was then followed by discussion of the scenarios meant to help the participants draw lessons from the story/scenario and identify how or where the lessons may apply in the context of development projects. In these discussions the participants also shared examples or experiences of similar scenarios from their areas of jurisdiction.