Objective:
Before conducting CAP workshops, residents of the kushets/gotts to be visited need to be informed about the upcoming event and should understand the objectives of the workshop. All interested residents should be made aware of their opportunities to get involved in community action planning and that they can form interest groups to plan and implement microprojects.
Method:
1. To ensure that all residents of a kushet/gott know about the community action planning process and the CAP Workshops, an Information Meeting should be held with all interested residents of the kushet/gott.
2. Choose a suitable venue that is central for most residents in the kushet/gott. A place that is regularly used for meetings and is well-known to the residents will be ideal.
3. Choose the most suitable time for both women and men.
4. Prepare posters and simple leaflets that can be used to spread information about the CAP process.
5. Write down the names of all the community leaders who live in the area, as well as all community based organisations, residents’ associations, institutions, churches, schools, relevant committees and all other relevant interest groups and stakeholders you are aware of. Discuss which institutions and individuals need to be informed to ensure that female headed households, landless youth and oxenless households in particular are informed about the workshop.
6. Prepare all the information you want to give to the communities during the information meeting on flip chart paper or other big sheets of paper. Write clearly and in big letters. Use Diagrams, pictures and symbols to make the presentation as understandable as possible, in particular people who can’t read and write should be able to follow. Use simple wording that can be understood by everybody. Use different colours pens to make important aspects more visible. Use examples, pictures and symbols that can be easily understood.
7. Consider what other locally common and successful ways can be used to inform the residents about the CAP Workshops.
8. At the end of the information meeting, leave the posters and simple leaflets behind to be distributed to schools, cooperatives, churches and any other community meeting point. This will help to spread information about the CAP process to those not at the information meeting.
9. It will be very important to repeat this introduction and explanation about the CAP process and microprojects at the start of the actual CAP workshop itself to remind people and clarify things for anybody who did not attend the information meeting. It is particularly important at this stage to make clear the three main types of microprojects that can be supported by this Project. Encouragement should be provided towards identifying community microprojects that can benefit many people in the area and the team leader should make sure that people do not have false expectations about income-generating microprojects. This Project will not be supplying inputs directly to households but enabling them to plan and manage their small enterprises better and helping them to develop their local cooperatives.
Suggested information to be provided during information meetings:
Details about the members of the Facilitation Team and its tasks.
