Agriculture, Housing, Land, and Water Support: Kosovo Urban Agriculture Project

Deliverables:

The main aim of this project was to help slum dwellers in Kosovo secure ieght acres of land upon which they could create a food garden and begin to address issues of food insecuirty in their community. The land identified and allocated to the Kosovo savings scheme by the Ministry of Public Health and the Mathari Mental Hospital is providing produce, some of which is sold to the hospital and the settlement.

The Federation has supported the Kosovo savings scheme in the purchase of sixty-five (65) water pipes for irrigation of the farm land. This has been made possible through past initiatives by Muungano to engage a water service provider with respect to the provision of water services in the settlement.

The project also has a working partnership with IIED on the topic of food security. Through a study conducted by the Federation with support from Muungano Support Trust, key elements of food insecurity have been identified and with the already formed partnership, the study hopes to deliver findings and recommendations for the situation.

The project also saw three community forums being held in Mathare Valley held to address the subject of land, urban agriculture and food security. An exchange programme also manifested between the Kenyan and Ghanaian Federations on urban agriculture and food security. Four Ghanaian Federation members attended the exchange. This project has been a profound tool of mobilisation for the Federation as far as mobilisation of new members is concerned.

Community capacity:

There has been increased participation by community members at all tiers of community development and implementation. Both new and existing savings schemes have received training from the Federation, which is supported by Muungano Support Trust (MuST). This training has strengthened and mobilised savings schemes to drive the savings agenda, by engaging communities in purpose based savings. 

Scale:

The Kenyan alliance continues to scale up projects across Kenya's urban centres. The Alliance remains committed to achieving scale and doing so requires extending their interventions in several directions. Firstly, through scaling up the intensity of inclusion. That is, by extending options to all of those living within a designated area (not just savings scheme members). This has been partially secured through the upgrading approaches developed to date. Second, achieving scale in terms of spreading the proven options to new areas (neighbourhoods) throughout the country. This is currently happening.  Lastly, scale in terms of increasing the diversity of options that are available for (re)development thereby increasing the Federation's ability to reach out to groups with different needs and priorities.

Impact:

Through this project, the Kenyan Federation has been able to continue to build its capacity to engage with Government officials around prospective projects and policies. More savings schemes have been mobilised across Kenya and with even more members being trained for loan teams. In addition to this, projects such as the Mibuyu Saba Land & Housing Project, the Kondele Network Water Project and the Kosovo Urban Agriculture project (all of which received support from MuST through this project) have successfully been initiated, with three hundred and eighty (380) households allocated land under the Mibuyu Saba project. The Federation won a contract from the Kisumu Water & Sewerage Company (KIWASCO) as Master Operator for the newly constructed water line.

SDI Contributions:

SDI contributed US$40,000.

Resources Leveraged:

• The Federation was able to secure land tenure on one hundred (100) acres of land for communities in Kilifi (Mibuyu Saba) and Kiandutu settlements.

• The saving scheme has leveraged the land resource from the Ministry of Public Health for free to engage in urban agriculture as a way of addressing sanitation in the settlement.

• Through its own initiative and adequate availability of water in Kosovo, the Federation has invested in an irrigation system to enhance yield productivity.

• The Federation has received training and advice from the Ministry of Agriculture's Field Extension Services department to facilitate adequate use of the land for better quality productivity

Market Generated Returns:

None to date.

Costs recovered from community:

None to date.