Project goal

To alleviate poverty in Wakiso district by enhancing household income generation through promotion of cottage industries

Project objectives

  1. To mobilize communities to form local groups of 15 members each, of whom 60% of the membership must be females
  2. To promote the development of business skills among the communities in the district
  3. To facilitate the local groups to be formally registered as Community Based Organizations
  4. To administer a revolving small grants scheme to support cottage industries operated by members of the local groups
  5. To facilitate the local groups to build strong input supplier and market linkages in the value chains
  6. To facilitate the scaling up of the project to other parts of Uganda through knowledge diffusion

Direct beneficiaries

Membership of the local groups in the district

Final beneficiaries

  • Families of the direct beneficiaries
  • Communities among which the direct beneficiaries live
  • The Local Government authorities

Project implementation approach

Local authorities will be briefed about the project details. Communities will be mobilized to form local groups of 15 people of similar cottage industry interests. The groups will then be facilitated to become formally registered as CBOs. They will be trained in business skills and thereafter be prompted to prepare grant proposals using the format designed by the project, and thereafter submit them for evaluation. A three member evaluation team will be constituted by one representative of the implementing NGO, one representative of the funding entity and one other person mutually agreed upon by the NGO and the Funder.

The evaluation criteria for the grant proposals will include the following:

  • Evidence that the proposal is focused on community led approaches
  • Innovativeness with regard to appropriate technology and monitoring methodologies
  • Potential scalability of the innovation
  • Preliminary work done by the applying local group
  • A realistic budget clearly indicating how the support from the revolving small grant scheme will be used
  • Cost sharing or co-financing arrangements by the applicant including financial and or in kind contributions

The local groups of the approved proposals will be provided with small grants of up to USD 1,500 per group, to enable them finance their cottage industries. They will be required to sign a memorandum of understanding to that effect. At an appropriate stage the local groups will be required to pay back the small grants so that they can be issued to subsequent local groups. The project will be prepared for scaling up through holding knowledge diffusion workshops so that other stakeholders in community development can access the lessons learnt and innovations made in the project’s piloting stage.

Expected results  

The overall result of the project will be a situation whereby the people in Wakiso district are poverty free. Specifically the project will result in the following:

  • Improved business knowledge and skills
  • Increased employment levels
  • Improved income generation
  • Increased income levels among the communities in the district

Sustainability strategies

Project sustainability is expected to arise out of the following aspects:

  • The income obtained from sale of cottage products will be used to finance subsequent operations of the cottage businesses
  • The grant amounts collected back will be used to financially support cottage industries of subsequent applying local groups
  • The instituted strong input supplier and market linkages will ensure sustained value chains in cottage business operation

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