Project History;

• The project is undertaken in a partnership with MISEREOR, Germany. 
• Started in 2008.
• The project works on phases; each phase works with six local Community Development Associations (CDAs), in six rural communities.  Three phases have already been implemented, and currently the project implements the fourth phase.  
• CDAs of the first CDAs transmitted their experience to another 19 CDAs. 
• As proved high efficiency, the project adopted the participatory approach throughout the four phases although the various titles.  Examples
• Enhancing Communal Participation for the first two phases, 
• Effective Civil Society Leads their Community members to Improve their Livelihoods for the third phase,
• Teaching the Small Farmers new Agricultural Techniques Increase Productivity and Improve their Livelihoods for the fourth phase.

Project Goal; a contribution is made towards sustainably improving the living conditions of rural communities in Minia Governorate, Upper Egypt.

Objectives 1; by the end of the funding period, participatory and needs-oriented development projects are carried out in six villages in the districts of Mallawi and Abu Korkas in Minia Governorate.

Objetive 2; by the end of the funding period, six CDAs have started/ resumed their work in the districts of Mallawi and Abu Korkas in Minia Governorate and have been empowered to strengthen the self-help capacities of the people in their communities.

Approach;  the project adopts the participatory approach in development, encourages the partner CDAs to involve the community targets in all steps from day one.  Examples; public seminars to orient the community, their role in the Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) to identify the common problems and needs, role of the community committees, role of youth, women, religious leaders, and the officials.  All the community targets have roles in the project implementation. Additionally, the project involves the community in the midterm and the final evaluation.

Superiority; 

• The project cooperates with newly registered CDAs. 
• The project enables the CDAs to increase participation and to involve the different targets of their communities.
• The project emphasizes on building the technical, administrative, and financial capacities of the partner CDAs to run their projects; enabling the CDAs to develop administrative and financial manuals, and to apply the procedures. 
• The project allocates sub-grants for the partner CDAs to implement projects responding to the highest priorities in their communities. Through this, the CDAs apply financial procedures including purchases, bookkeeping, filing, bank reconciliations, etc.
• The project does not impose specific scope for partner CDAs to work through, leaving this to each community based on their specific needs and priorities.  Accordingly, the CDAs responded for various common needs (Environmental, Educational, Economical, Heath, etc.).
• The partner CDAs worked on building awareness of their communities and enabled them to work in teams.  
• The local cadres implement their projects (planning, implementation, monitoring, and participating in the evaluation).  
• The project emphasizes gender equity, women involvement in all activities, and their participation in the decision making process.
• The project appraises the role of youth and their initiatives.
• The project enables the CDAs to conduct community dialogues, particularly with / between youth. 
• The project appraises the voluntary work, provides training for the volunteers, and encourages the CDAs to involve them in different activities.
• The CDAs and the communities are in charge of part of the project costs as local contributions.  This confirms their ownership of the project.  
• The above points enabled the partners CDAs to run sustainable and successful projects since 2008.  Number of the CDAs have been able to implement other projects in response to additional community priorities.  Many have also been able to cooperate with other partners.

• Gender Equity; women  are members on the board of directors, women lead activities, women participate in the decision making process, and to allocate part of the sub-grant for women to undertake their initiatives.
• Role of Youth; to give young people the opportunity to express themselves, to participate effectively in all procedures, and to allocate part of the sub-grant for the youth to undertake their initiatives.
• Community dialogue; the project encourages conducting community dialogues for vary purposes, including: accepting the other, the civil state, general needs of society, the positive role of each individual towards his / her community, etc.

International Evaluation; based on transparency and objectivity, St. Mark NGO is keen to hire external consultants to evaluate each phase.  In the third phase, MISEREOR supported St. Mark with an International consultant (Ms. Birgit Laue) from Germany who cooperated with Prof. Dr. Roshdy Fathy and worked together as a professional team.   The evaluation addressed all aspects of the project to measure relevance, effectiveness, sufficiency, and efficiency.  The consultants conducted interviews with the target groups, the fieldworkers, boards, the community committees, the government officials, and the local leaders within their communities.  Additionally, the team interviewed number of CDAs of the first and second phases.  The team applied various tools enabled them to measure, document difficulties, learned lessons, withdraw conclusions, and present valuable recommendations for all partners; for the CDAs, for St. Mark NGO, and for MISEREOR.  To read the report click here.  

Documentation; the project is keen to document the applied experiences.  A documentary film is produced for documenting each phase.  Additionally, the International Evaluation recommended to publish a booklet to document this experience.  St. Mark hired Prof. Dr. Tharwat Kamel to edit the book; "When People, Institutions, and the Society Change; Steps for Community Development in Minia Villages",

To read the book summary click here.

To read the book in Arabic click here. 

To watch the documentary film; Step Towards Change, click here.

To watch the documentary film; White Page, click here.

To watch the documentary film; , click here.

For photographs of field work click here.