Friends of Yala Swamp

1)    Build collaborative action to secure equitable access to natural resources and enhance stakeholder participation in environmental governance

1. Mapping & enumeration of region/issues and Baseline Survey-undertake social mapping of the region to clearly identify the issues affecting the communities and prioritize them according to community needs; Enumeration of the actual numbers of people affected by natural resource based conflicts and the specific issues affecting the community;
2. Issue based community forums/groups: help the communities organize themselves into issue based forums and build credible, sustainable, community-driven structures;
3. Community umbrella network: the project will assist the communities in the three districts to build a community driven umbrella network that is vibrant and self sustaining, to provide them a platform to exchange ideas and experiences particularly on issues of economic development, alternative livelihoods and natural resource management.
4. Exchange visits: facilitate exchange visits to areas where communities have established institutions promoting democratic governance of natural resources that are benefiting and improving the lives of whole communities.
5. Multi stakeholder meetings: The other activity that will build collaboration and consensus will be multi stakeholder meetings bringing together investors, government agencies at the local/county & district level and community representatives. The purpose of these meetings will be to foster dialogue and enhance democratic governance of environmental/natural resources management, equitable access and utilization of natural resources.

2)    Build capacity of stakeholders for effective participation in policy and legislative reform processes

1. Community Trainers and Mobilisers: the project will recruit Community Mobilizers take up the mandate of mobilizing the community for meetings and other input to enable the communities to better organize themselves.
2. Training guide and resource kit development: A training guide and training kits will be developed which will be used train Community Mobilizers who will, in turn, conduct community trainings for community groups.
3. Public Participation in MOU negotiations: the project will build the capacity of representative of the community to participate in the on going negotiations of the MOU between Dominion Farms and the County Councils of Siaya and Bondo.
4. Stakeholder training in natural resource governance: Trainings will be conducted to build capacities of community, non-state actors, private sector, government departments dealing with natural resources at the district level together with the county council and other bodies such as the District Development committee and District Environment Committee.
5. Environmental audits and scientific research: This project will conduct independent environmental audit and scientific research (Bucket Brigade training) to ascertain if the complaints by the community are actually a result of the Farm’s activities. This is intended to ensure compliance with established environmental standards.
6. Alternative utilization & management of natural resources: A socio-economic survey of current resource utilisation activities will be undertaken to enhance the livelihoods of communities, through identified new ways of equitable and sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
7. Enhancing Institutional Capacities: Each of the 12 members of FOYS brings to the coalition specialized skills and experience in various fields including human rights work, advocacy, environmental justice campaigns, natural resource management, public interest litigation, policy and legislative campaigns and effective community-based capacity building programmes and processes. The project will seek to enhance networking, synergy building and skills transfer across the coalition but will also build individual organisations’ technical capacities and experience. To accomplish this, various activities will be undertaken.

3)    Review, Advocate for and lobby for implementation of laws/policies emanating from the new constitution that give voice and strengthen the rights of the local communities in natural resource management.

1. Wetland management plan: The project will build the capacity of community members and assist them to lead in the development of a management plan for the Yala swamp to ensure that utilization of the resource takes into consideration not only the economic aspirations of government and communities but also the ecological and environmental services that the Swamp provides. This will involve all stakeholders.
2. Popular versions of Publications: The project will simplify, or where necessary translate, existing documents including natural resource management laws and policies and other relevant documents and disseminate them to the community to enhance learning and understanding by the community of their rights and responsibilities.
3. Shadow review of current legislation: There will be a research to review current legislation with the aim of highlighting conflicts and areas that require amendments for the overall benefit of communities that directly depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. This research will then form a basis for lobbying for legislative amendments.
4. New land policy and new constitution: This project will facilitate community participation at the grassroot level in the three districts to voice their expectations of the new legislation. The project will also undertake an analytical research on expected legislation that will operationalize the two documents and will present parallel drafts that will incorporate the community voices.
5. Wetlands Policy: Kenyans have been advocating for wetlands policy for close to ten years. This project will contribute towards effort by the communities and civil society organizations that have been involved in this campaign. The project will utilize forums organized with government agencies both at the sub-national level and the national level
6. Media Advocacy: The project will facilitate incorporation of programmes including discussion sessions, training programmes and other forums which will deal with issues of economic empowerment, conservation and sustainable utilisation of natural resources and environmental and policy discourse among other issues of concern. The established multi-media resource centre will be used for the creation of documentaries which will be used for advocacy and educating the communities using the modern technology on how to improve the governance of natural resources.
7. Issue based campaign weeks: To strengthen and further ingrain efforts undertaken by the project to build the capacity of community members on the various issues, campaign weeks will be designed through the village networks of the community mobilizers focusing on specific issues.
8. Papers and Videos: The project will engage research on the various issues affecting the communities and these will form the basis of media discussions and inform the campaigns. These papers will also be a key component that will inform other actions including stakeholder forums at the sub national and national levels. The project will also develop video documentaries to highlight issues and concerns of the communities on natural resource use and management.