Introduction
SWN was awarded theListening Project to advance the locally led development under USAID/ Nepal’s Local Work Project. The Listening Project seeks to impart additional capacity and skills at the local level through the Local Work initiative, a locally led program supporting the journeys of the underprivileged and marginalized to self-reliance.
SWN facilitated the project with a dedicated professional team ‘to listen’ for the potential Local Works identified by marginalized and vulnerable segment of communities as they express their views to ‘be heard’, a very important element in the listening loop.
Objective of the Assignment
The overall objective of the listening project was to better target and understand the needs of marginalized and vulnerable community members in the selected 10 municipalities. The specific objectives were to:
- Listen and document the voice of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups for the communities
- Identify local priorities and opportunities
- Identify two local actors in each municipalities
Key Activities and Service Provided by SWN
SWN applied a qualitative subject oriented process and activities targeting in the marginalized and vulnerable communities of the 10 targeted municipalities from all seven provinces to achieve the objectives. The key activities SWN carried out were
- Co-creation of listening framework with USAID/Nepal team.
- Developed criteria to identify the local level organizations with whom USAID may engage in potential future Local Works Interventions
- Provided orientation to the listening team members (local level consultants and USAID listening tour team members)
- Carried out social mapping to identify the marginalized and vulnerable groups
- Total of 268 listening exercises (FGDs 95, KII-82 and II-91) were carried out in the 10 municipalities to directly hear the voices of the MVGs and different stakeholders of the communities
- Provide logistic support to USAID team in carrying out listening exercise
- Presentation in Municipal and National level debriefing
- Carried out situational analysis, barriers, opportunities and suggested way forward.
- Evaluation of local actors and offer recommendations
- Prepared final listening tour report including major finding and suggested way forward in both Nepali and English languages
Outcome
- Local priorities and opportunities of marginalized and vulnerable communities are heard and documented
- Two local actors in each municipality were identified
