Message from the Chief Executive Officer
It is a startling irony that while the bulk of the challenges concentrate in the rural, hard-to-reach communities facing the worst forms of man induced deprivations – no access to health facilities, poorly funded educational institutions, high mortality and morbidity rates, lack of communication infrastructure, high prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS, poor or traditional reproductive health care services etc, the focus of most governments and its sundry development partners tends to concentrate on the urban and semi-urban centers in virtually all developing countries around the world.
In every developing country, particularly in Africa, rural populations face persistent neglect by their own government and then of course, international organizations working in the development field. Unfortunately, this is the context in which the Real People are facing the Real Challenges. The consequences of this unending neglect result in unplanned families, rural – urban migration, high rate of school drop - outs, street kids, increase in crime rates, infant mortality, HIV and AIDS transmissions etc.
It is our view that in order to break this vicious circle of one crisis leading to another, it is important for all stakeholders to devote resources to address livelihoods and sustainability issues particularly as it concerns rural populations.
It was for these reasons that Multi Sector Projects Foundation, MPF, was established to concentrate on the challenging issues of livelihoods and sustainability particularly with regards to rural hard – to – reach communities. It is also important to note that very few local or international organizations offer to concentrate interventions in the rural areas, particularly in dealing with issues of sustainability and livelihoods perhaps as a result of the challenges of working in this field.
The rural populations are negatively impacted both by their ignorance and neglect by their own government. In spite of this, the rural traders need life skills education to enable them keep records of their business activities, micro credits to invest and increase the volume of businesses, the rural health worker (modern or traditional) needs information on how to prevent HIV/AIDS and how to recognize danger signals and then the need for referrals, needs capacity building to be able to utilize modern kits in delivery when assisting pregnant women etc.
Over the years, we have found our Foundation’s initiatives on Enterprise Development, Life Skills Education for Rural women, Micro Credit programs, Skills Acquisition for rural out – of – school youth create job opportunities for income generation, increasing house hold incomes and creating employment for direct dependents of beneficiaries.
Additionally, we have mobilized highly traditional communities to change community attitudes to specific groups such as widows and related issues of Wife and Property inheritance, stigmatization of post - widowhood children, stigmatization of twin children etc. Apart from changing community attitudes in a positive direction in favor of these specific groups, our Foundation’s initiatives have greatly mobilized such groups, particularly widows and their vulnerable children into an active network that offers them the opportunity to serve as Primary Change Agents (PCAs), driving their program of change, advocating for an enabling environment for their group.
In peculiar context with traditional barriers to discussing specific issues such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Wife inheritance, property inheritance, rejection of post - widowhood children by the deceased families, stigmatization of twin children and their families by the community etc, our Foundation’s initiatives with the endorsement of Traditional Leaders/Rulers introduced innovative research method known as the Nucleated Village Group Discussions (NVGD) to create a platform for every segment of the community to come together to discuss these issues freely, collectively so as to initiate a consensual program of change to be driven by the community leaders.
The work of our Foundation would not have been possible without the support of Donors, Individuals, Foundations, Governments, Private organizations etc. This offers me the opportunity to thank our various supporters and also to remind all stakeholders that the challenges ahead are much more. Just as the rural communities serve as the factories producing the many developmental challenges facing the cities and now at a global scale including terrorism, HIV/AIDS, depleting resources, pressure on infrastructure etc, the need for more organizations to design programs that address livelihoods and sustainability issues and donors to commit more support for these issues become much more important than ever. In view of the above, it is imperative to build the capacity of the rural population to enable them tap into available resources through farm and non-farm activities. It might be one of the strategies to addressing the global food crisis in addition to other challenges.
Thank You
Tony Asangaeneng
Chief Executive Officer
