Good Practice
Improvements of livelihoods of vulnerable households in urban and peri-urban areas of Galkayo - Final evaluation
Good Practice Description
It is possibly convenient and time saving to overlook the capacity of stakeholders in a situation like Galkayo and treat them as passive partners. This was not the case in this project. Involvement of primary stakeholders was emphasized in the project right from the planning stage with input for stakeholders being brought on board the project design during and after the project launch. This forged a sense of ownership, improved accuracy in planning and made the implementation more efficient. Without a doubt the context of Galkayo required a lot of consensus building if the interventions were to succeed and be sustained. The design expected the local community and the governments to play a more active role in project implementation and eventual management of the intervention results. This could only be achieved with close consultation and participation of primary stakeholders.
Galkayo, like other towns in Somalia, continues to experience an influx of migrants in search of better livelihoods following the protracted war. Market systems had deteriorated over the years and could no longer attract investors. The capacity of local authorities was also too weak to support growth of local economy. This resulted in high levels of unemployment, in a town whose infrastructure could hardly support economic growth. Key among the catalysts to economic growth was development and rehabilitation of economic infrastructure such as roads and markets so as to facilitate the access to markets and social amenities. While it would have been possible to use equipment intensive approaches to implement the infrastructure works, the project sought use the employment intensive approach. This quickly led to creation of short term jobs. In so doing cash was injected into the economy through this went into addressing the household needs of the people. Overtime, money saved from these jobs was used by some to start small businesses, which led to more long term jobs for them or their kin. Workers also gained skills which they utilized to access job opportunities.
The applications seeks to make it possible for workers in the informal sector and indeed any other interested person to access labour laws and employment rights from their mobile phones. This is based don he understanding that an enabling environment is one that really the actors have access to information that is relevant to them. Awareness creation was noted to be an important ingredient to the eventual compliance with labour laws. The application will contribute to creation of awareness in addition being a quick and accessible reference for anyone which a pressing question or issues that touches on their employment rights. Given the mobile phone penetration in the country was high and that internet connectivity using mobile phones was on the increase, the application is expected to benefit virtually all interested workers across the country.
It is possibly convenient and time saving to overlook the capacity of stakeholders in a situation like Galkayo and treat them as passive partners. This was not the case in this project. Involvement of primary stakeholders was emphasized in the project right from the planning stage with input for stakeholders being brought on board the project design during and after the project launch. This forged a sense of ownership, improved accuracy in planning and made the implementation more efficient. Without a doubt the context of Galkayo required a lot of consensus building if the interventions were to succeed and be sustained. The design expected the local community and the governments to play a more active role in project implementation and eventual management of the intervention results. This could only be achieved with close consultation and participation of primary stakeholders.
Galkayo, like other towns in Somalia, continues to experience an influx of migrants in search of better livelihoods following the protracted war. Market systems had deteriorated over the years and could no longer attract investors. The capacity of local authorities was also too weak to support growth of local economy. This resulted in high levels of unemployment, in a town whose infrastructure could hardly support economic growth. Key among the catalysts to economic growth was development and rehabilitation of economic infrastructure such as roads and markets so as to facilitate the access to markets and social amenities. While it would have been possible to use equipment intensive approaches to implement the infrastructure works, the project sought use the employment intensive approach. This quickly led to creation of short term jobs. In so doing cash was injected into the economy through this went into addressing the household needs of the people. Overtime, money saved from these jobs was used by some to start small businesses, which led to more long term jobs for them or their kin. Workers also gained skills which they utilized to access job opportunities.
The applications seeks to make it possible for workers in the informal sector and indeed any other interested person to access labour laws and employment rights from their mobile phones. This is based don he understanding that an enabling environment is one that really the actors have access to information that is relevant to them. Awareness creation was noted to be an important ingredient to the eventual compliance with labour laws. The application will contribute to creation of awareness in addition being a quick and accessible reference for anyone which a pressing question or issues that touches on their employment rights. Given the mobile phone penetration in the country was high and that internet connectivity using mobile phones was on the increase, the application is expected to benefit virtually all interested workers across the country.