Cross Border Community Resilience (CBCR)
Background
The Cross-Border Community Resilience (CBCR) Activity was a regional program funded by USAID and designed to enhance resilience and thus reduce the need for humanitarian assistance among communities in the cross-border clusters of Karamoja, Moyale and Mandera. Focusing on communities that live across the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Somalia, the activity aimed to empower local entities, including communities, civil society, private sector and governments, to chart their own pathways for addressing conflict, improving livelihoods and/or reducing the risks of shocks and stresses. CBCR worked to foster local ownership of development investments by supporting local leadership in work planning, implementation, monitoring and learning
While the Activity was implemented by prime contractor, Chemonics International, and subcontractor, ACDI/VOCA, CBCR was centered around locally led development. Working through local development organizations (LDOs) based within the target clusters, CBCR team mapped formal and informal organizations and then competitively selected backbone organizations within each cluster who then co-created implementation plans with communities to address root causes and identify solutions to improve livelihoods and increase resilience. CBCR was implemented under the East Africa Feed-the-Future and the USAID Resilience Challenge Fund. In addition to supporting Local Development Organization’s (LDOs) to drive activities, CBCR’s team capacitated LDO’s to successfully apply and manage USAID funds under USAID’s Regional Resilience Fund and other resources for Cross-border Communities. CBCR also supported LDOs in collaborating across borders with local governments to create and facilitate public-private partnerships, programming and learning.
Budget: USD 245,496
Project Period: June 2023 – April 2024
Donor: USAID
Implementing Partners: Governments, Community Organizations, Local Development organization
ICALD’s Role was to:
- support locally-led, locally-driven, locally-managed programming.
- ensure that CBCR was supporting local partners to build their countries’ capacities and commitments including development outcomes, combined with capacity strengthening and learning with local partners and leaders.
- play a key role in co-convening and co-facilitating the co-creation process across the three project clusters (Karamoja, Moyale, and Mandera).
- help facilitate the backbone local development organization (LDO) driven co-creation process, sharing new and existing good practices for resilience interventions.
- share progress reports and priority intervention areas such as natural resources and environmental management, market access, trade, financial services, and enhanced production and livelihood diversification.
- produce synthesized information and priorities based on co-creation objectives and targets at the end of the co-creation processes, with support from backbone LDOs.
- be a key partner for policy dialogue and regional policy harmonization interventions on sharing resources and climate adaptation, and along with CBCR will build on success from previous investments where cross-border policies for resource sharing and other interventions were agreed and documented.
- build in pause and reflect sessions within each backbone Local Development Organization to engage cluster LDOs and community leaders for feedback on interventions of past months and discuss plans for coming months.
- to give feedback to implementing partners, other NGOs, government official and community leader including bi-lateral missions, from the pause and reflect sessions.
Project Objective
With the aim to reduce the need for humanitarian assistance among communities in the cross-border clusters, CBCR aimed to contribute to the resilience of cross-border communities in the target Clusters.
Specific Objectives were:
- To build capacity for locally led and managed programming
- To strengthen social cohesion as a foundation for resilience programming
- To expand conflict-sensitive and inclusive livelihood & employment opportunities in cross-border areas
- To improve conflict-sensitive management and equitable sharing of natural resources in cross-border areas
- To enhance collaboration and learning across all activities and investments inclusive of cluster stakeholders
Expected Output/Outcome
- Increased capacity of Local Development Organizations in organizational and programmatic areas in MEL, public-private partnerships and other areas as needed and indicated by assessments.
- Strengthened abilities of local organizations to engage media and stimulate community dialogue.
- Safer, healthier, and more productive pathways to adulthood for adolescent girls.
- Increased density and diversity of social and economic networks and expanded civic participation and leadership of young men and women.
- Increased trust and cooperation between community groups and business and government leaders in economic relationships.
- Increased investment opportunities for local private entrepreneurs, including women and youth engaged in diverse small and micro-enterprises.
- Expanded public-private partnerships that lead to investment opportunities for a broad-base of entrepreneurs, including women, youth and other traditionally excluded groups and in water infrastructure, fodder production, rangeland management, and eco-tourism/wildlife conservation.
- Improved policies at the border that ease the movement of goods and people across borders, e.g., harmonizing seed trade regulations, animal health policies, taxation and trade incentives for livestock, trade and SPS standards.
- Strengthened capacity of local development organizations and governments to design, negotiate, and support resource-sharing and climate adaptation interventions across borders and formal agreements between communities and governments that facilitate the sharing of resources and climate adaptation across borders, and increased adoption of rangeland management and other NRM practices.
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Contact
Dr. Osman Babikir
Head, Research, Policy & Knowledge Management
IGAD Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development
Tel: +254 737 777742
Mobile: +254 718 471397
Email: [email protected]
Kabete Vetlabs, Kapenguria Road, Off Waiyaki Way,
P.O. Box 47824-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
