FID Sierra Leone Stands Out as an Organisation of Choice in its Community
Ibrahim K. Kawa is the Programme Manager at the Foundation for Integrated Development-Sierra Leone (FID/SL), which focuses on community development, environmental rights and protection, livelihoods, and agricultural support.
Kawa and his colleagues acknowledged the support received from the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) under the two-year project funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).
The two-year project was designed to respond to the capacity needs of each of the five organisations in Sierra Leone. This was realised through the following carefully designed phases of the programme; (1) training, (2) mentoring and (3) onsite coaching.
FID/SL’s participation in the project has contributed to enhance their ability to achieve their mission.
“Going through the training was a blessing not only to me, but to the organisation, as the participation of staff in programme designing, coordination and implementation has improved and has become a norm in the organisation, and this is helping a lot”, said Kawa.
Before the support, project design and writing were only the responsibility of the Programme Manager, with little or no support from field and other management staff.
The Programme Manager is pleased that the capacity strengthening support has also contributed to an effective coordination of the organisation’s operations. Specifically, the one-man planning, and coordination of projects and operations has given way for a more collective effort with clear delineation and delegation of roles and responsibilities.
Particularly, there is a clear shift of approach with respect to project planning as the process has become more participatory (a bottom- up approach).
Staff of FID/SL celebrate the fact that the support helped the organisation to develop their ability to rapidly address certain constraints in some of the communities they work in. In fact, during the outbreak of COVID-19, FID/SL was able to curb the situation and advocate on behalf of the communities to the relevant authorities. The organisation also supported these vulnerable communities with COVID-19 relief items such as, hand washing and sanitation materials in record time. This has made FID/SL to emerge into a reference organisation in its community.
“The communities were so proud that they have an organisation like FID/SL to take their concerns and voices to the right places, and they saw the response,” Kawa said.
