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Local Stakeholder Consultation – A Great Success!
Friday 28th May 2010
We at co2blance believe that without the acceptance of the community and the active participation and assistance of the local community members, the project will never be successful. These communities are complex systems arranged in a social structure according to relationships that have developed long before we decided to work there.
We need to respect this and take this into consideration before beginning our work within these communities - we need be sure that the community is aware of what we intend to do. We do this by hosting a Local Stakeholder Consultation where we invite the community to hear about our project.
We invite the local Area Chief, the village elders and the local beneficiaries to a central place within the village. We introduce ourselves and co2balance to the people in the audience. We explain who we are and what we aim to achieve. We take the community through a non-technical summary of the project. A full description of the project process and project stages is given. We introduce the concept of Climate Change and its effects on the environment. We begin an interactive discussion on the effects of their current cooking practices on their health, lifestyles and environment. We introduce the idea of the new Improved Rocket Stove and discuss its design and how it works. We then open the floor to questions from the audience.
We invite them to share their comments on the project design, project implementation and project impacts. We encourage them to give us feedback – weather it is positive or negative. We document all the Stakeholder comments and ask everyone to fill out a feedback form as an additional record of their responses to the project.
We conduct a thorough analysis of the stakeholder comments and evaluation forms and where possible modify and adjust the project to meet their area specific needs.
We have just hosted an incredibly successful Local Stakeholder Consultation meeting in the Abedaires (Central Province of Kenya). It was a rainy day and the meeting was held in a field next to the Abedaires forest. Despite the miserable weather, we had about 80 people attend and share their feelings about the project. From looking at those in attendance, it was clear that the group was a well represented one. We had everyone from the Area Chief, to School Principals, CBO leaders, Village elders and local beneficiaries.
The response was entirely positive and the community is eager for us to begin constructing stoves in the selected villages of Kinale, Kamai and Kemende.
We are just as eager to begin working within this community, and we know that because the community has accepted the project and offered their support – this will be another successful projected to add to our list.