Ending poverty by integrating water supply solutions with agriculture, sanitation and community leadership development in eastern Kenya.
Project implemented: July 2017 – June 2022 (Phase 2)
This 5-year project aims to improve livelihoods for 12,500 households in a semi-arid zone of Eastern Kenya.
Partnership in successful community-based aid projects such as this one improves Australia’s reputation in Africa.
ABM liaises with our Kenyan partner, ADSE, to ensure project design is based on strong community consultation and buy-in.
ADSE builds community-based organisations (CBOs) and assists them to organise project activities.
ABM provides ongoing support to ADSE through monitoring and evaluation visits and funding for training of program staff.
ADSE conducts regular reflection to address program challenges, identify new opportunities and adjust project design.
An evaluation of ADSE’s 2014-Dec 2017 program found that it boosted farmers’ incomes through improved water supply for irrigation, through new agricultural and post-harvest technologies, and through improved access to credit. For example, Damaris and Kimondiu Muasa transformed themselves from subsistence farmers to employers by borrowing money from the newly built savings and loans group and installing an irrigation system to take advantage of a newly built sand dam.
Women reported that the program, through various agriculture trainings and building savings and loans groups, gave them increased financial independence, increased confidence to participate in community forums, and a more harmonious home life. Some reported that their husbands had previously needed to move to Nairobi to find work but had, through the program, found that they could make a profit from staying with their family and farming their land.
The Wanzauni Livelihood Improvement Project is implemented by Anglican Development Services Eastern (ADSE) in partnership with local Kenyan communities and Anglican Board of Mission (ABM), Australia.
The project is implemented in Machakos and Makueni Counties and is aimed at reducing poverty. To achieve this, it adopts a multi-sectoral approach, addressing water and sanitation, agriculture (crops and livestock), capacity building of community-based organisations (CBOs), empowerment of women, and environmental conservation. HIV/AIDS, child protection, gender equality and disability inclusion are mainstreamed within the components of the project.
Community members in the project areas have been organized to form CBOs for ease of operation and to have a structure that will continue coordinating the project activities at the community level upon exit. The CBOs are used as a means to reach out to the larger community members since most of the projects, including water supply structures and demonstration of improved farming methodologies, benefit the whole community.
