To achieve the stated objectives, APD is conducting a series of activities including community mobilization, sensitization and stakeholders meetings, minor repairs of 5 existing water points, establishment and training of 25 self-help officials, training on monitoring and evaluation, recruitment of 5 water distributors by Midnimo self-help group, purchase and distribution of 2400 empty 20 litre Jerrican for water transportation and storage, one month water trucking, purchase of 5 water trucks by GIZ and handover them to  the MSHG officials by Ministry of Water, operationalization of water vending business and water treatment  at the water points.

The project activities started on 10^th Dec 2018 with the training of staff on Project Cycle Management, Monitoring, and Evaluation.The following activities were executed since the project inception:

ü  Training staff on Project Cycle Management, Monitoring, and Evaluation.

ü  Project Launch consultative meeting

ü  Establishment of 25 Midnimo self-help group officials

ü  Recruitment of 5 water distributors

ü  Training of the Midnimo self-help group officials (15)  on leadership dynamics

ü  Training of the Midnimo self-help group ( 25) on business and water management

ü  Training of 5 water distributors on record keeping

ü  Minor repairs of 5 existing water points (2 NRC and 3 ARC settlements)

Below is a comprehensive detail about each and every activity that was executed since the project was rolled out in Dec 2018.

1. Training staff on Project Cycle Management, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Following the signing of the grant agreement on 26^th November 2018, Agency for Peace and Development (APD) embarked on training its staff in Nairobi on Project Cycle Management. This was done in the second week of December 2018.  The objective of the training was to build staff capacity in project management cycle in order to endow them with the skill set needed to improve quality, design and implementation of projects to enable the organization to achieve set and expected program results.

The training covered the following topics; project management cycle, proposal development, constraints affecting projects, project charter, risk management, stakeholder management, monitoring and evaluation, work plan development and report writing.

The staffs’ competency and skills in project management have been developed as they were trained and equipped with the basic and fundamental knowledge about projects design, initiation, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and control and project closure.

1. Project Launch consultative meeting

Consultative meeting with different stakeholders was scheduled and conducted. Some of the stakeholders consulted and briefed about the project include relevant line ministries including Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water, local administration (the DC office), GIZ Kismayo Office, Inter SOM and some of other (water suppliers) and Midnimo settlement committee.

Subsequently, a project launch was conducted on 26^th December 2018 of which all the above-mentioned stakeholders were present. APD requested the Chairman of Midnimo settlement and his committees to invite community leaders and representatives. Some of the community reps present were elders, people with special need, religious leaders, youth and women.

Project briefing was done with the community members, this ranged from project objectives, activities and the anticipated impacts by APD.  During the meeting, the Midnimo residents welcomed the project wholeheartedly and conveyed their willingness to support and collaborate with the implementing partner, committees, the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and water. The participants have raised their concerns and needs as well gave out their recommendations. Some of the issues raised were the need to allocate more water points at the NRC settlements due to its population in comparison with ARC, repairing to start as soon as possible so that people access to water, repairing materials should be of good quality and the committee to be constituted soonest possible.

Residents aired their concern that water should not be rationed as done by some organizations, and this they said won’t suffice daily household water needs. The ministry representative present assured the community members of the availability of water shall only depend on their purchasing power hence they not worry.

During the project launch, it was shared that reassessment of to be rehabilitated 5 water points was carried out by the APD team and GIZ Engineer to get up to date information with regards to their situation. It was gathered that most of the piping was either not there or completely damaged. Therefore, it was recommended thorough ‘NOT MINOR’ rehabilitation with quality materials to ensure durability and sustainability.  It was emphasized that complete ownership of the assets should be demonstrated by every member of the community, where the MSHG will specifically responsible and accountable in the sustainability of the assets and operationalization of the water vending business and as such will be answerable to the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water.

1.  Establishment of 25 Midnimo self-help group

The formation of Midnimo Self Help Group and their selection criteria was emphasized during the project launch meeting.  The community reps were tasked to have a follow-up meeting with community members and present the list of the officials. Several long chains of successive meetings were conducted to establish the Midnimo Self Help Group. The first meeting with the newly formed Midnimo Self Help Group was conducted on 1^st January 2019 at Midnimo Hall, New Kismayo. The meeting was also attended by the local elders (Waax Gudomiyeed) and the line ministry representatives. The meeting was convened to create familiarity between MSHG officials, the implementing partner (APD) and the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water representatives. The newly formed self-help groups were briefed about their mandate.

The 2^nd brainstorming meeting with the MSHG took place on the same venue on the 7^th January 2019, the objective of the meeting was to divide the 25 members into a group of five according to their closest water point that they should represent.  It’s in this meeting, that each water point representative was documented.  This was followed by another meeting in which the Midnimo Self Help Group (MSHG) Officials and APD had discussions surrounding the importance of community resource management, their roles and voluntary work for the community without expecting any dues ‘Iska wax uqabso’. Likewise, the officials elected the officials (chairpersons, secretaries, and treasurers) for each of the 5 groups.

1. Recruitment of 5 water distributors

The MSHG had two meetings on the first week of February 2019 to oversee the recruitment of water distributors. Water distributors were recruited based on the set criterion including they must be a resident of Midnimo settlement, literate and must possess a driving license. Benchmarking on the criteria set, 5 water distributors were recruited by MSHG.

1. Capacity Building Activities

APD held 3 different training. The first training commenced on 6^th February 2019.  It was targeting the 15 officials (Chairperson, secretary, and treasurer) it lasted 3 days. The objective of this training was to equip the officials with leadership dynamics. The second training targeted all 25 members of MSHG and they were capacity built on business and water management. The duration for this second training was 5 days.  The third training was convened for the 5 water distributors with the objective of equipping them with record keeping skill set. The training took 5 days. The training realized its objective of training the MSHG officials and water distributors on their roles and responsibilities, water /business management, water treatments, record keeping entrepreneurship and hygiene.

1. Minor repairs of 5 existing water points

APD carried out a minor repair on the existing water points in the settlement (3 ARC and 2 NRC). The minor repair involved support structure of the tanks (slab), checking elevated tanks of 50m3 and plumping works.

• APD conducted community consultation, mobilization and several other meetings with the MSHG officials and the line ministries to ensure smooth project implementation.  This frequent community meeting and involvement of stakeholders in the actual project planning and implementation created communities ownership of the project and it shall ensure project sustainability upon APD’s exit.
• The Midnimo self-help group officials and water distributors have been trained and equipped with business record keeping and management skills in order to manage and enhance local community resource management.  It’s expected that after the end of the project period, the SHG will continue with water provision to the community by revolving the proceeds of the water sales at a subsidized cost.
• The rehabilitation of the water points has been done this will lead to the realization of Midnimo communities access to adequate safe and affordable water.