PALM CORPS EFSVL Project PALM CORPs in a consortia with Vision for Humanity (ViFoH) and People Empowering People(PEP) have teamed together to implement a project called community initiative for emergency food security and vulnerable livelihoods for refugees and host communities in Odobu Zone, Rhino Camp refugee settlement.  The consortia members are all seasoned around EFSVL and many other components.The consortia will engage in the following activities to implement the project:

Activity 0.1: Inception meetings

The Consortium partners will secure stakeholder participation and buy-in through an inception meeting. 25 stakeholders including district and subcounty local governments, RWC, LCs, OPM, UHNCR, WFP and other implementing partners in the Livelihoods sectors will be invited. The inception meeting will be half-day events were the project design and results will be discussed and views of the stakeholders will be solicitated. The meeting will be held in Rhinocamp refugee settlement

Activity 0.2: Participatory Rapid Labor Market Scan

The project will adopt a market-led informal skills development targeting vulnerable women, youths, the Elderly and disable persons. The labor market scan will therefore provide basis for informal skills selection and development needs and target population. Data will be collected through a survey approach using well designed data collection tools by project staff with technical backstopping by M<(>&<)>E and management.

Activity 0.3: Community entry meetings- and beneficiary selection

Three community meetings will be held. The first meeting is intended to create awareness on the project and secure feedback to refine implementation strategies as well as disseminate selection criteria. The entire community in the project area will be mobilized to participate in the meeting.
Second meeting will involve selection and verification of the proposed beneficiaries with full community and local leaders# participation.
The third meeting is to share broad project implementation plan and level expectation of the selected beneficiaries

Activity 0.4: End of project meeting

Theproject will organize a project close-out meeting that will involve 50 stakeholders and some selected beneficiaries to disseminate results and share the lessons learnt asdetailing the unexpected benefits and impacts. This information will be based on project reports and evaluation studies if commissioned by the donor.

Result 1.0: Improved Food Security and Nutrition
Activity 1.1: Conduct community awareness and sensitization
PALM and partners will conduct community meetings aimed at sharing project objectives, target beneficiaries, implementation strategies and clarify the roles of key stakeholders and garner their commitment in implementation.
Activity 1.2: Beneficiary identification and selection
The consortium will also identify and select the beneficiaries taking care of their vulnerability status in which the elderly, child headed families, people living with HIV/AIDs, single mothers, chronically ill will be selected using a selection criterion which will be developed. Local communities including RWCs and LCs will be fully involved in the process for transparency.

Activity 1.3: Form Groups for vegetable growing
Mixed groups will be formed to improve communication/relationship between the refugees and host community members which increases access to land by refugee. The selected beneficiaries(mixed shall be organized into groups of 20 members each for easy follow up and management of the beneficiaries. Thegroups will be formalized with a constitution which acts as a binding legal document and well-established leadership structure aimed to improve group cohesion and management of the members and promote sustainability of the group after the project. The leadership structure will comprise of the Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer.

Activity 1.4: Sensitive group members and select enterprise
Various enterprises (vegetables) will be selected to address the issues of food insecurity and poor nutritional status of the people. The selection process of these vegetables will be based on their ability to; be produced in off-season using simple irrigation, sustain consumption when produced off-season, address nutritional needs of the household.

Activity 1.5:Identify and prepare land for the vegetable gardens
The groups together with the field officer will identify and cultivate (both primary and secondary) land that is located near a permanent stream of water so that simple irrigation can be carried out toconduct off-season production of the vegetables in order tosustain consumption and food availability in off-season. To avoid destruction by stray animals, the demonstration gardens will be fenced using local materials; possibility of fencing with live fence will be explored.

Activity 1.6: Procure seeds and tools/equipment
Assorted seeds and tools (as described in budget-activity 5) will be procured using procurement policy of PALM Corps. The seeds and tools will be distributed to the groups and membersto use for demonstration as well as adopt the new skills they will acquire.

Activity 1.7: Develop training vegetable growing manual
A training manual will be developed to guide practical training on vegetable growing. PALM Corps has developed a manualfor kitchen gardening. This manual will be adapted with focus use of simple irrigation during off-season as well as preservation and packaging of vegetables (PHH)

Activity 1.6: Establish and manage nursery beds
Nursery beds will be established for vegetables that require nursery beds and proper management of these nursery beds will be conducted so as to produce high quality seedlings that have little or no susceptibility to pests and diseases.

Activity 1.7: Transplant /sow of thevegetables inthemain garden and management
The vegetables will be planted/ transplanted to the main field where they will be properly managed through crop protection measures employed such as the use of organic pesticides, intensive fencing to protect against strayanimalsand theft of the produce in the garden and good agronomic practices for soil and water conservation so as to obtain higher yields to address food insecurity and malnutrition.

Activity 1.8: Train groups on organic pesticide preparation, GAP, Capacity building
Modular Capacity building trainings will be conducted for the groups to increase their understanding on Vegetable production and Post-Harvest Handling of the selected vegetables which is a pre-requisite for the sustainability of the intervention.The modules include; Training in Nursery bed establishment and management, GAP for soil and water conservation, organic pesticide production and management, conduct training in simple irrigation to carryout off-season production, post-harvest handlingandvalue-addition.

ResultArea 2.0: Enhanced informal skills and gender mainstreaming and protection.
Activity 2.1: Identify beneficiaries and levelling expectations based on market scan.
Use of participatory approaches for beneficiary mobilization, identification <(>&<)> enterprise selection. This is to ensure transparent selection process, minimize conflicts, increase acceptance <(>&<)> ownership of the project and smooth integration of the beneficiaries into the wider community.

Activity 2.2: Enterprise specific informal skills training.
In market specific trades such as baking <(>&<)>confectionery, knitting, hand (local) crafts, liquid <(>&<)> bar soap making, jelly making, tie <(>&<)> dye, hair dressing among others), Peace building <(>&<)> conflict management, Gender perspectives,basic career guidance, life skills, DRR. This will be a curriculum-based training organized into skilling and apprenticeship sessions trying as much toidentify and use local artisans or knowledge experts.

Activity 2.3: Procure and distribute enterprise kits (Starter kits for different trades)
Cash transfer modalities will be adopted during the procurement <(>&<)> distribution of starter kits. Based on the skills trades selected, group approach and co-financing may be adopted for enterprises whose starter kits are expensive and cannot be sufficiently supported by the budget. These kits are expected to jumpstart the beneficiaries into development of livelihood enterprises out of the developed skills.

Activity 2.4 Ongoing support (coaching <(>&<)> mentoring)
Skills development facilitators shall at the time of kit distribution provide hands on coaching to the beneficiaries to launch conversion of skills into enterprises. Routine mentoring shall be carried out to iron out operational challenges, gain confidence<(>&<)>offer technical on job backstopping to enable beneficiaries sail smoothly with their enterprises.

Activity 2.5: Rural community dialogues and advocacy
Targeted community led dialogue sessions shall be carried out on different themes inthe widercommunities the beneficiaries are integrated into. It is anticipated that this will enable peaceful co-existence between refugees <(>&<)> host communities, increase access to land for refugees in the host communities, reduce risk of violent conflicts, gender integration and general protection of the beneficiaries <(>&<)> wider community.

Result Area 3.0: Improved business and financial management skills
Activity 3.1: Conduct trainings in basic financialliteracy
Trainings in basic financial literacy will encompass among others; planning for old age, personal financial management, loans, insurance, simple book keeping and records management. This is to facilitate the culture of savings and investments among participants and groups. Each of the trainings will last for5 days and will have at least 28 people. In total at least 140 people (male and female) would have their skills and knowledge on Book keeping and how to manage group records strengthened. Each group will give skills in group formation and given timetoelect their leadership. It is expected that the participants will be selected according tovillages for easy group management and enterprise management.

Activity 3.2 Value addition training and marketing
PALM Corps will have groups to engage insmall scale cultivation and this will require that the groups get to understand the importance of value addition to whatever they will be able to produce in order to earn more money. PEP will therefore organize three-day training for this group onvalue additionskills as well as marketing strategies. Each of the trainings will have at least 28 people based on the assessment results. It is estimated that at least 140 people will benefit from this intervention.

Activity 3.3: Conduct trainings ingroup dynamics and smallbusiness development services.
The PALM Corps will form 3 groups (60 people) to engage in vegetable growing and Vision For Humanity will select about 80 people for informal skills support. To facilitate group cohesion, toleranceto individualdifferencesand business management skills; PEP will take these groups of people through 1day training on group dynamics and business development services. In total 140 people (male and female) will be trained. After the training the participants that would have formedgroups like the vegetable growing groups will be provided with saving boxes with the relevant record books (accounts books and membership register books) as startup kits.

Activity 3.4 Coaching and mentoring on Financial Management and records keeping
Financial management and coaching supports beneficiaries to make the learners gain experience in records management including financial book keeping. The participants may not quite easily enhance their skills in financial literacyhowever, through routinecoaching and mentoring the skills will be developed further as it involves hands on support. The activity will target 5 group leaders (Chairperson and the Vice, Secretary and the Vice, Treasurer) from each group. This activity will take 15daysto accomplishwithin the six months.