Boosting Community Based Organizations

Capacity building of Community Organisations

This project is based on the 3 phases of sahee's Community Based Organization (CBO) program (see Phase I and Phase II). The last half year of Phase III has been turned into a pilot project together with the local NGO Catalyze Swaziland. The aim was to evaluate the CBO program and Catalyze Swaziland as a potential new partner for a "new" CBO program. The results from the pilot project have shown significant progress in regard to the performance of the CBOs but has also crystallized gaps to be addressed.
The main lessons learned have been that traditional training programs fall short of achieving the desired impact because they typically focus on the coordination and delivery of the training, but neglecting two key aspects:
1. The relevance of the training. Training content and delivery is often standardized and not tailored to individual needs of groups.
2. While knowledge is gained during training, actual learning of new skills and adoption of practices happens after the training and that is when post training support becomes valuable.

Applying the lessons learned, this project is characterized by a careful selection process, individually tailored capacity building programs and close after training mentorship.
During the first year of this project, the major risks to sustainability of the six CBOs of the pilot phase are addressed. Another twelve groups will be selected in the following two years of the project. The selection process includes an individual assessment, analysis and mentorship plan per group .
The training given to each group will fall under two main themes, Planning for Growth (P4G) and Keys to Financial Success (K2FS). The expected results are the adoption of good governance and financial management practices.
Participating groups will have access to finance through a seed capital program for CBOs with viable income generating activities. Nine CBOs will receive seed capital including post funding mentorship.

Project site

Anywhere in Eswatini (Map)

Beneficiaries

18 Community Based Organizations (6 CBOs per year), around 720 persons, mostly women.

Project costs and assistance by sahee

The entire project costs are CHF 118’000.–. The project is fully financed by sahee.

Sahee stays in regular contact with the project leaders, monitors the activities and visits the project on site once a year.

Duration of assistance

1st of March 2019 to 28th of February 2022

Local counterpart

Catalyze Swaziland

Project site

catalyzeswaziland.org/