The Lake Victoria Initiative

• Initiated in 1999. • A time frame of 20 years is envisaged.• Objective: to contribute to poverty

reduction within a framework of sustainable development

• a regional Approach• Strategic Partnership agreement signed in

2001 twn EAC, Sweden, France, Norway, WB,EADB.

Lake Victoria Strategy - the areas of intervention

• Capacity development for sustainable development

• Empowerment of Communities & individuals• Sound environment and sustainable use of natural

resources • Combating HIV/AIDS• Private sector development for economic growth

Special emphasis to be given to multidimensional programs and projects - promote the three dimensions of sustainable development

Capacity development for sustainable development

• Support to organisations within the EAC structure

• Support to regional co-operation• Support to civil society organisations• Support to local authorities• Knowledge development of the links between

poverty reduction and sustainable development

Capacity building strategies

• Technical assistance Mainly for project management expertise. short term and not build dependence.

• Use of local/regional consultants to beef up slim staffing

• Tailored courses. Courses tailored to suit the local environment with participants working on local case studies.

• Research responding to local needs and problems encourage partnering across countries and across disciplines.

Capacity building strategies

Exchange of experiences/sharing of best practices thru• Partnerships (north-south) - Swedish NGOs partnering

with east African NGOs. mixed results. • Study tours, between organizations with similar

mandates. Visits always based on ToR that identify the possible learning areas, which experiences are relevant. Good results.

• Regional networks and collaboration between different bodies positive peer pressure, also serves to ensure non duplication of interventions.

Experiences

• institutional set up and institution building important. No parallel structures

• Human resource development concurrent with institutional development.

• Should respond to need (enable individuals to perform their jobs better) and be based on a capacity needs analysis/plan.

Experiences

• importance of clear definition the capacity building objectives- insufficient definition and preparations result in ambiguous results

• Ownership - both the processes and products must be owned – No donor labels

Challenges

• The understanding of partnership vis-a-vis the donor-recipient relations.

• Long chain of channeling the support • High/distorted expectations of the partners

when you talk about capacity building. • How to balance institutional strengthening,

capacity building and direct activities as appropriate.

Maximising benefits

• Critical is to address the underlying causes of poverty such as poor governance, unsupportive policies and lack of participation.

• Institutional achorage

• Involvement + enhanced collaboration (CSOs, Govt, PS)

• Decision making at lowest appropriate level

• Thank you