The Green Africa Villages Concept was officially launched by H.E. President Mwai Kibaki and has so far been adopted in over 190 constituencies in 42 counties in Kenya. The concept has also found its way into Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and other African countries.
See a Brief Introduction to Green Africa Foundation and Green Africa Villages
The Concept of Green Africa Villages is based on three pillars namely:
1.Treating people kindly through upholding ethics and training on life skills. Green Africa Villages are expected to uphold the following virtues:
a)Fairness
b)Good Governance
c)Accountability
d)Philathropism
e)Nurturing talents
f)Youth empowerment
g)Equity
2.Promoting good health, peace within communities and creating sustainable livelihoods. In this pillar, Green Africa Villages will be expected to promote the following:
a)Increasing life mortality
b)Physical exercises/ sports
c)Proper nutrition
d)Peace building/ cohesion initiatives
e)Conflict identification, definition and resolution
f)Promoting various forms of arts and craft
g)Entrepreneurial activities
h)Provision of educational and training materials
i)Counseling
3. The actual environmental conservation. This pillar advocates for the establishment and promotion of environmentally sound practices like:
a)WATER: Rain water harvesting, wise usage, waste water recycling, water re-using,
b)ENERGY: Use of renewable sources of energy, reduce overreliance on biomass fuel, use of energy generated from by products/wastes,
c)AIR: Reduce air pollution, increased afforestation,
d)SOIL: Crop rotation, fallow system, erosion control, conservation agriculture, use of organic fertilizers, water conservation practices, agroforestry, green house farming, alternative sources of livelihoods,
e)OTHERS: Exercising green tips at household and institutional level, sustainable resource usage, waste management practices, waste recycling and re-using.
A Green Africa Village therefore is a centre that implements the above mentioned pillars. The main core business of Green Africa Villages will be to offer trainings.
PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES
The programmes broad objective is to enhance community's sustainable livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, renewable energy production, creation of employment and use of modern scientific and technological innovations.
Specific objectives are:
a)To build the capacity of the community to mitigate the effects of climate change through practicing alternative forms of livelihoods.
b)To stimulate economic development and social justice through development of local entrepreneurship, youth employment and youth programs.
c)To promote environmental conservation practices among the community through afforestation and production and use of alternative energy.
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants must be fall in one of the following groups:
a)Learning Institutions: Schools, Colleges, Universities, NGO's, CBO's and Small Groups at the grassroots
b)Faith-Based Institutions: Churches, Mosques and other faith based organizations.
c)Music: Choirs, music Groups, etc
Applicants must form a Village Committee consisting of not less than five members, nominated/elected from the member's immediate community. The committee must be heterogeneous in terms of age, sex, economic ability, religion, etc
There must be an existing/envisioned Green Africa Village linkage to the outer community
Must have put in place strict financial management strategies
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Applicants will pay a visit to Kitui for a one day Training of the Trainers tour. Members will take care of their transport cost to Kitui Centre of Excellence. However, Green Africa Foundation will provide meals and refreshments after the training.
There will be monitoring, evaluation and auditing exercises to assess the impact of the members activities on the community and also to assess the attainment of programme objectives. The foundation has already set a standard that will be used in these assessments.
The Green Africa Villages will be clustered into 5 hierachial categories namely bronze, silver, gold, platinum and green, Green being the highest. Members will upgrade from one category to the next depending on the audit score.
ROLES
Green Africa Foundation
a)Provide technical experts in the field of agriculture, biotechnology, environmental science, forestry e.t.c Coordinate and link all the Green Villages through information sharing, exchange visits and community training.
b)Preliminary offer training to Village Committee to make them well equipped to kick start the road to a Green Africa in their respective villages.
c) Where practically possible, link the farmers' produce to local and regional market.
d) Provide the community with worker students, from Kenya and Japan on internship.
e)Community training and capacity building.
f)Project monitoring and evaluation.
g)Carbon trading.
Community
a)Project administration.
b)Provide land and manpower.
c)Provide initial capital to implement their activity/activities of choice.
d)Accommodate interns for a period not exceeding 2 months.
e)Provide a constant supply of water.
CORPORATES
a)Funding.
b)Provide credit facilities.
c)Events Sponsorship.
d)Provide Financial Services.
e)Products Branding.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES
a)Use their staff and resources to invest in the villages through their programs/projects, thereby improving the economic and social livelihoods of the community.
b)Link the villages to their partners and their partner's programs.
EVALUATIONS AND AUDITS
The foundation will contract an external institution to conduct audits/evaluations of this programme in all villages. There will be annual evaluations and audits that will be used:
a)To categorize villages in hierarchy.
b)To assess the environmental impact of village activities and processes.
c)To prioritize funding areas in a village.
d)To check on financial accountability
The outcomes for this evaluations and audits will be made available to the stakeholders and the general public for scrutiny. Reports will be shared mainly in the following ways:
a)Green Africa Foundation website www.greenafricafoundation.org
b)Available on hard copy at our headquarters in Nairobi
c)Sent to respective Green Africa Villages
d)Sent to our partners/donors in the sub-projects under this programme.
