Community Development

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT


TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OF THE SUPPORT TO THE PROMOTION OF WOMEN AFDB PROJECT
Project Description	NSCE had been selected by the Djiboutian Ministry of Women Promotion (MPF) to provide the technical assistance of the Support to the Promotion of Women Project, financed by the African Development Bank (1,065,000 US$ grant). The objective of the project was to implement the National Strategy for the Integration of Women into Development, elaborated to reduce inequity between men and women, enhance women’s rights, ant to empower Djibouti women in 4 priority areas: decision-making, health, education, economy. Project was divided in three components: · Training and capacity building. The objective was to train and build capacities of both the Ministry of Women Promotion and its partners_ either governmental partners or civil society, to enable them to initiate and implement projects in favour of women or promoting gender values, and to train them to gender issues.. · Activities of this component have included studies, organisational assessments, training needs assessment, as well as design, development organisation of training sessions. · Advocacy. The objective of Advocacy component was to promote gender mainstreaming, through the conception, organisation and implementation of advocacy campaign, media strategies, public workshops. In close cooperation with civil society, most of the issues related to gender inequities have been tackled during the campaigns: right of women to education, to health, fight against FGM, economic promotion of women, women’s rights and family rights. 3- Project Management. The objective of this component was to improve capacities of the Ministry of Women Promotion to manage projects effectively and efficiently, through the provision of Material and Human resources. NSCE main tasks: Empowering the Ministry and making its Project Management Unit able to assume efficiently its role of supervision of the planned activities and its role of coordination of the planned partnerships (with technical Ministries, with media, with civil society). Provision of a TA team comprising both long term and short term expertise in the following sectors. Design, conception and provision of training and capacity building session in PCM approach, gender, finance, Design and implementation of gender-awareness-sessions. Design, preparation, implementation and evaluation of an Advocacy Strategy Assistance to design and evaluate studies on Civil Society, National Strategy for women, informal education, Assistance to organise strategic workshops to mainstream gender Ensure systematic participation of stakeholders and key actors in the Ministry’s activity Assist the Ministry and its partners to implement small gender projects.
Period	July 2004 – December 2006
Donor	African Development Bank
Country	DJIBOUTI

PARTICIPATORY AND INTEGRATED SLUM UPGRADING IN ABU HELAL
Project Description	Recognizing that slum upgrading requires multi-facetted interventions, the United Nations in Egypt are joining forces to address the sub-standard living conditions of slum dwellers through a joint project. Six UN-agencies (Un-Habitat, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, ILO, UNIFEM) and UNAIDS Secretariat signed a joint project document with the Government of Egypt that is entitled “Integrated and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Egypt”. The project will support national efforts with respect to slum upgrading and adopt an integrated approach to address interlinked physical, socio-economic and environmental concerns. The project will stress stakeholder participation and will be implemented at the national and local level. At the national level, the project will support the development of integrated national policies for slum upgrading and prevention. At the local level, a pilot slum upgrading project will be implemented in the Abu-Helal neighborhood of Al Minya city with a view to improve the quality of life of its 6,000 slum inhabitants through strengthening local institutional and key stakeholders’ capacity to undertake compressive slum improvement using a participatory approach. UNDP has contracted North South Consultants Exchange (NSCE) to undertake this study. Undertake participatory information collection, feasibility studies and small scale demonstration project for slum upgrading in Abu Helal (El Minya city) with the aim of establishing implementation activities, namely : provide a complete urban and socio-economic profile of Abu-Helal; Provide an action oriented-profile that determine priority action areas for future intervention that will lead to improvement of the livelihood conditions of the slum dwellers of Abu Helal; Provide preliminary feasibility studies of priority slum upgrading pilot projects.
Period	Jul. 07 - Oct. 07
Donor	UNDP
Country	EGYPT

HUMAN RIGHTS, DEMOCRATIZATION, CIVIL SOCIETY

Project Description

The protection of human rights, together with the promotion of pluralistic democracy and effective guarantees for the rule of law and the fight against poverty, are among the European Union’s essential objectives.

Within the European Union, the European Parliament (EP) has a strong voice for human rights and democracy issues contributing to the formulation and implementation of policies. In 1994 the EP promoted the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), a programme specifically designed to promote Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law mainly through cooperation with civil society organizations but also in partnership with some key international organizations.

NSCE provides to the Project Management Unit (PMU) representing the Ministry of International Cooperation, a key expert to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the programme in coordination with the Steering Committee. The tasks will be fulfilled by setting up financial, operational and monitoring mechanisms and by liaising with the other stakeholders.

The key expert intervention focuses on two main strategic issues, the coordination at the highest political and executive levels and the financial and operational monitoring of the projects financed through the initiative (totally 5 million euros). The inputs gathered through the monitoring mechanism provide the decision makers with clear and concise reports and qualitative information.

The information provided supports the fulfillment of the programme purposes in the development and implementation of institutions, policies and strategies in line with the relevant Human Rights International instruments and standards in addition to increasing the capacity of the civil society.

Technical Assistance services will be provided to the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation, Monitoring, Evaluation, Training on grant and service contract management.

Main tasks:

The set up of a functional PMU is the main objective of the assignment. A functional PMU requires the definition of the operational modalities and the proper coordination of the activities financed through the grants in addition to the coordination with all involved stakeholders in the programme at the strategic level.
An automated financial and monitoring system will be one of the backbones of the system. It will provide the PMU with the operational tools for the monitoring of the programme.
M&E manual of procedures to be developed
Visibility strategy set in place in accordance with EU guidelines
Technical assistance to beneficiaries and monitoring of field activities.
The preparation of all required reports (overall work plan, annual work plans, progress reports, monitoring reports, visibility report)

Period

Apr. 07- Dec. 09

Donor

Country

EGYPT


MEDA PROGRAM
Project Description	The MEDA team assisted the EC Delegation in Cairo in the planning and implementation of the large MEDA programmes for Egypt under the EU-Mediterranean Partnership Agreement. Under a consortium arrangement led by AHT Group, it provided a technical unit composed of 10 experts to assist the commission of the European Union in Egypt in the identification, formulation, operationalization and monitoring of the EU assistance to the government of Egypt under the MEDA program and the old protocol. NSCE contribution was focused on the provision of technical assistance in the social development sectors such as health sector reform, education sector reform, Social Fund for Development and Culture and Media. Special attention was given to the introduction of a quality management system and the development of an operation system to facilitate efficient performance of the tasks in accordance with the high standards expected by the Client. The sectoral expertise includes: media, sociology, primary health care, basic education, public sector reform, private sector development, environment, economics, agro-economics, and public relations. In addition, cross-sectoral tasks like training, standardization of procedures, contract management advice, application of PCN standards etc. is provided.
Period	May 1998-Apr. 2001
Donor	Commission of the European Union
Country	EGYPT

TELAL ZEINHOM PARTICIPATORY URBAN UPGRADING PROJECT
Project Description	As a subcontractor to AHT International, NSCE was commissioned to manage the input of the local expertise in the areas of credit, social development, infrastructure, institutions, urban planning, training and project management to support the project feasibility study for Telal Zeinhoum Urban Upgrading Project. NSCE designed a project based on replicable solutions, financial sustainability, social stability, and participation. Our input focused as well on evaluation of the existing institutional, financial practices and constraints linked to the current housing development policies. Moreover NSCE played a major role in the development of a local dialogue with the key stakeholders, the governorate, the local organizations and the residents to identify innovative and sustainable solutions. NSCE was directly in charge of the design, implementation and analysis of a socio-economic survey to assess the capacity and the willingness of the residents to participate in the upgrading program and the payment of the proposed housing credit program and led the planning and implementation of the stakeholders consultation forum that brought together nearly a hundred participants including representatives of the governmental services, associations, donors and residents. In addition, NSCE’s team played a key role in identifying and securing the interest and commitment of the Housing Development Bank and in contributing and managing the proposed housing lending program.
Period	Aug. 1999 – Nov. 1999
Donor	KFW
Country	EGYPT

SINAI DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Project Description	NSCE conducted an appraisal and reviewed Sinai Development Project components related to the community development and women participation of the phase. The comprehensive project aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions of Sinai bedouins through supporting their settlement by providing soft loans, food aid, developing agricultural activities, training and introducing the establishment of basic social and public services. NSCE was responsible for the field of women development, the implementation of participatory rapid appraisal sessions with stakeholders (communities members, local and central authorities, NGOs, natural community leaders), institutional and project management, as well as, the impact of the project on women empowerment. As a result, gaps were identified and steps were formulated to improve the targeting capacity of the project service delivery and hence an effective gender mainstreaming approach was adopted.
Period	Nov. 1998 – Jan. 1999
Donor	World food program (WFP)
Country	EGYPT

PROMOTION FOR URBAN NGOs PROJECT
Project Description	Within the framework of Urban NGOs Project, NSCE tailored and developed specific training courses for the target organization’s local staff to introduce participatory planning renewal with low-income groups as an administrative outline in a slum area in Cairo. NSCE trained community volunteers in urban upgrading areas of Gezirat El Sheir to conduct socio-economic survey and collect data on issues related to wastewater, garbage and environmental hazards. The project that was supported by the UNDP LIFE program (Local Initiative Facility of Urban Environment) systematically prepared and applied the experience obtained with the establishment of local-local dialogue. NSCE developed and conducted training courses to improve measures and concepts in the field of self-help mobilization, coordination, dialogue procedures, and women's participation.
Period	1997 – 1998
Donor	GTZ
Country	EGYPT

RESOURCE MOBILIZATION WORKSHOP
Project Description	Based upon the needs assessment that was conducted to the all partner NGOs in World Education, Early Childhood Development, Eco Museum projects, it was important to implement a collective workshop for the members of these three different projects to exchange experience and share information. The objective of the workshop was to identify the role in resource mobilization play in community development. In addition, the workshop helped the partner organizations to identify the factors affecting their resources. The workshop ended up with formulating strategies to increase the in-house resources and to access more funding agencies.
Period	1998
Donor
Country	EGYPT

STUDY ON SITUATION ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATIONS
Project Description	“Empowering People with Disabilities (PWDs) through Community Development Associations” is a project inaugurated by MOSA and JICA in upper Egypt to promote integration of the PWD into the community by changing attitudes of people favorably towards PWDs and to provide them with the services they need. The researchers used focus group discussions, individual interviews and in-depth interviews with 4 Community Development associations in Beni Suef to assess the current capacity and the potential ability to manage the project and achieve sustainability, and revised secondary data resources to analyze the community profile with special focus on PWDs.
Period	December 2003 – March 2004
Donor	Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Country	EGYPT

STUDY ON SITUATION ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATIONS
Project Description	NSCE tackled the need to enhance the status of women by stimulating and upgrading their capacities and capabilities. It also stimulated the start up and development of small enterprises/business through a credit program, which was directly linked to the success of the borrowing entrepreneurs or enterprises. Consequently, NSCE delivered a training of trainers course following the SYB approach, which included the development of the women’s leadership capabilities, their self-confidence and entrepreneurial skills. The SYB approach leads to an effective economic empowerment process in which women learn how to identify ideas, test the market, prepare a feasibility study an negotiate a credit.
Period	From - to1998
Donor	Royal Netherlands Embassy
Country	EGYPT