Capacity
Building of Four NGOs for Community-Based Management of Veld Resources, Botswana
a.k.a. The "4 NGOs Project" a DANCED-funded
initiative
Major parts of the natural woodlands in Botswana are communal land, and group
formation in communities is a necessity for sustainable management of the
natural resources in such areas. One way of initiating and sustaining such
developments is to support NGOs working with the communities. In Botswana,
NGOs are one of the most effective vehicles for empowering local communities
to manage communal land sustainably. The four NGOs presented below are the
major NGOs involved in the sector. All four of these NGOs are implementing
partners in the project with VPR&D being the Executing Agency for the
project.
The four NGOs are:
-
Veld Products
Research & D (VPR&D), located in Gabane, a village twenty kilometres
south-west of Gaborone where it has its main research site and nursery
facilities.
-
Thusano Lefatsheng
Trust (TL), a not-for-profit trust with production facilities, offices and
accommodation located in the vicinity of Kumakwane, a village 12 kilometres
west of Gabane.
-
Forestry Association
of Botswana (FAB), with its head office and seedling "showroom" is in Gaborone
and its main nurseries in Kumakwane.
-
Permaculture
Trust of Botswana (PTB), located in Serowe, a large village of 32,000 people,
300 kilometres north of Gaborone.
The 4 NGOs project is a
new initiative that commenced in June 1998 and will run for five years. The
development goal to which the project will contribute in the long term is:
"Rural communities throughout Botswana manage veld products sustainably."
The project is contributing to the achievement of the development goal through
the fulfilment of the following immediate objectives: The capacity of four
NGOs to work with communities for sustainable management of veld products
in a complementary manner strengthened by year 2002.
The implementation of the project is based upon the existing organisational
structure of the four NGOs. However, the project improves the organisational
structure by including a co-ordinating forum (the PMG) among the NGOs. This
structure functions to create confidence, exchange information and join forces
among the NGOs where it makes sense for the individual NGO and, by the end
of the project, the NGOs will have tried in practise to provide complementary
input (for the benefit of the communities) and to provide joint input for
advocacy and policy development e.g. the Forest Policy. By strengthening
the core competence of these NGOs the project will enhance the sustainability
of the organisations. |
