Donor Brief: 10Villages Community Priorities
The following working paper highlights the public goods and service priorities of community members in 10 villages in Kenya. The brief illustrates how listening to the people can shape the initial focus of an individual donor. It brings greater clarity to needs faced by urban and rural communities that receive less international attention.
Furthermore, the brief highlights the importance of data interpretation and the need to form a hopeful but critical perspective of surveys and research on development.
Donor Brief: 10Villages Community Priorities - Working Paper
Comments are invited and help shape the giving policies of international grantmakers. Post comments below or sent to: solutions+wp200901@covalentglobal.org.
[...] to learning more about the needs and circumstances facing each community, straight from the source. The results are just beginning to be released and are open for public comment. They are particularly relevant to individual donors, who typically [...]
Pingback by Covalent Global - News & Blog: News, updates, and opinions from Covalent Global Capital on May 21, 2009 at 3:07 pm
it quiet shocking the kind statistics that Kendu bay my home town are depicting there is much that is needed to improve the lively hood of my people am ready to team up with you in all the areas to bring a bout progress.
my congratulate you for all that your doing and effort to build up this sight for a viable connection
Evans Owiti
Comment by evans owiti on May 30, 2009 at 12:27 am
Great work, I must say. Unlike other funders, I see that you really want to do things differently in a more serious manner that seeks to help communities solve their problems. One thing though that has not been captured is the unfair distribution of state resources and its attendant negative ethnicity. I know for certain that this is an issue in the minds of almost all communities, the ten villages included. I beseech that this issue is given its due attention because Kenya can no longer move a head in development without first tackling this vice. This can be done by promotion of good governance and civic education. Otherwise the development infrastructure may be put up for the communities only to be burnt down in a repeat of what we witnessed during the post election violence. Two, youth unemployment, in my considered view, is a great challenge and it seems to have been underrated in the findings, yet it is such a priority in all communities. Your approach to funding is both practical and refreshing.
Comment by Hamilton Ole Parseina, Kajiado on June 3, 2009 at 1:56 am
@Hamilton Ole Parseina
Thank you for bringing up two very important points that I think should be discussed in greater depth. And among the many communities throughout Kenya.
I was also surprised that the Youth category was so low given that around 70% of Kenyans are under the age of 30. I think this category may be low because of the way we phrased the questions and what people typically think of as public goods and services. In that, those are things that benefit the community as a whole and do not target select groups, such as Youth. Furthermore, business is typically thought of as a private benefit for companies and enterprising individuals.
My view is that given the majority of Kenyans are Youth (i.e., under 35) it should be assumed this is the group that would naturally be involved in most community projects, such as Water & Sanitation projects.
Thank you again for your important points.
Comment by Jason Higbee on June 7, 2009 at 3:34 pm
[...] is not about crunching numbers. We survey and speak with people. Each person is important and holds interesting views that helps [...]
Pingback by Covalent Global - News & Blog: News, updates, and opinions from Covalent Global Capital on December 22, 2009 at 3:23 pm