Director,
T.E.(Terry)
Manning,
Schoener 50,
1771 ED
Wieringerwerf,
The Netherlands.
Tel:
0031-227-604128
Homepage:
http://www.flowman.nl
E-mail:
(nameatendofline)@xs4all.nl : bakensverzet
Incorporating
innovative social, financial, economic, local administrative and productive
structures, numerous renewable energy applications, with an important role for
women in poverty alleviation in rural and poor urban environments.
"Money is not
the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that bars them"
Gesell, Silvio The
Natural Economic Order
Revised English
edition, Peter Owen, London 1958, page 228
Edition 12: 01
November 2006
1.
Short description of the proposed
action.
This innovative sustainable integrated development project is called “New Horizons for (name of project
area)”. It is submitted under the section (name the section – an example might
be “Co-financing of civil society and
decentralised cooperation initiatives” ) of the (reference of the international
aid fund or facility in question).
The project refers to (the name of the project
area) in the (region of the project area) in (country), with (50.000) habitants
living in (200) villages (include description as required) covering a surface
of (1000) km2. A new vision of the relationships between the social, financial
and productive structures necessary for integrated development makes it
possible to offer an entire range of sustainable services to all of the
inhabitants, without exclusion, living in the project area at a cost lower than
that of a conventional drinking water supply project. The project is prepared
in cooperation with the inhabitants themselves, who play an active role in its
execution. They take part in the organisation of activities. They run and
maintain all of the structures set up, which they own. An important role is
reserved for women. The total value of the project is (Euro 5.000.000), which
is about (Euro 100) per inhabitant. The contribution of the (name of the Fund)
is (Euro 3.707.150) (74,143 %). The contribution of the local population is
(Euro 1.249.350) (24,987%). This contribution takes the form of (426.500 days)
(3.412.000 hours) of work carried out
for the project under the framework of local money systems set up in the
project area as an integral part of the project. This work is carried out
during the first two, executive, years of the project during which all of the
project structures are set up. The work of the local inhabitants is valued on
the basis of a nominal rate of exchange of (Euro 3) for each eight-hour working
day. All of the transactions carried out by the local populations for the
project under the local money systems set up are fully documented and
justified. Those doing the work receive real credits for their work, which are
used for the purchase of products and services originating in the project area.
The debits covering the credits for project work are charged to the local money
accounts of all the adults living in the
project area.
2.1 Needs and constraints.
This proposal refers to decisions taken in
connection with ( example : Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000
with a purpose of reducing the part of the world population without sustainable
access to clean drinking water by 50% by 2015) and the decisions taken during
(example: the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in
Johannesburg in 2002 with a purpose of reducing the part of the world
population without sustainable access to sustainable sanitation by 50% and
promoting efficient integrated structures for the management of water
resources.)
(Name of country hosting the proposed project)
is recognised as being one of the poorest countries in the world. The number of
people there with access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities is
very low, particularly in rural areas, where the proportion of people with
access to clean drinking water is less than (10%), and that with access to
sanitation facilities is less than (2%).
(Give
a short paragraph of not more than 10 lines, describing the National Plan for
Access to Clean Drinking Water and Sanitation in:
(The
host country)
(The
region where the project area is situated)
(The
project area)
It is clear from the foregoing analysis, that
so long as traditional concepts of development are followed, the task of
supplying clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to the people in the
project area and of promoting their general development so as to ensure them a
good quality of life is a very difficult, if not impossible one. New integrated
development concepts are needed to ensure that the people enjoy a complete
range of services essential to a good quality of life. A powerful local general
mobilisation of the people in the project area is needed. The formal money cost
of the mobilisation must be very low.
The project (New Horizons for (name of project
area)) will have a pilot function. Acceptance of the concepts applied in the
project as basis for a strategic plan for sustainable integrated development at
national level in (name of host country) would involve setting up about
(number, being the population of the host country divided by 50.000) . The
importance of this first project in
(name of country) is then evident. If successful, poverty could be eliminated
in (the host country) within a few years, in any case by 2015.
2.2 Poor and vulnerable
populations.
The proposal is based on the improvement of the
quality of life of all of the inhabitants in the project area, without
exclusion, and in particular of that of women, children, and the poorest. The
people themselves, and in particular the women, are mobilised to create
thousands (about four thousand) of sustainable jobs. They set a full range of
local social, financial and productive structures up. The project is therefore
not limited to drinking water supply and sanitation. It also covers, by way of
example, structures for hygiene education for women and in schools, autonomous
recycling at local level of organic and non-organic wastes, local money systems, interest-free
micro-credit structures productivity development, structures for the local
production of most of the items necessary for the basic services in question,
communication systems, lighting for study purposes, local production of high
efficiency stoves to eliminate smoke and health hazards in and around users’
homes, and the production of mini-briquettes for use with the stoves, and
structures at household level for the harvesting of rainwater. The drinking
water structures are the ones requiring the highest formal currency investment,
as they contain elements which are not susceptible to local manufacture under
the structures set up by the project.
2.3. Relationship of the
project with the goals and principles behind the tender.
The proposal responds to the goals of and the
principles behind the tender in a particularly innovative way. It provides for
the development of numerous permanent physical and sustainable social,
financial, and productive structures which all become the property of the
inhabitants themselves, in the management of which women play a dominating
role. The inhabitants participate in the
planning, execution and management of the project structures. They sustainably
organise, run, and maintain all of the structures set up at their own cost. The
monthly contribution (usually Euro 0,60-0,75 per person) paid by each family
into the Cooperative Local Development Fund covers the entire range of services
offered, and is affordable even to the poorest families, who benefit from a
three tiered social security system itself integrated into the project
structures. Sustainable hygiene education, drinking water, eco-sanitation
systems at household level and structures for the recycling of organic and
non-organic waste and for the elimination of smoke hazards inside users’ homes
improve the conditions of health in the project area, and in particular that of
women and children. Elimination of the use of wood for cooking leads to a
reduction in CO2 emissions and to the protection of forests and the environment
in general. The project sets up a complete, voluntary, cooperative,
interest-free, inflation-free local economic environment entirely managed by
the community itself.
2.4 Added value and
multiplying effects.
The proposed project is fully integrated in an
innovative way and represents a world-wide precedent. Poverty can be eliminated
in the project area over a period of 4-5 years at a cost of about (Euro 100)
per person through the supply of a full range of basic structures necessary to
a good quality of life, with the creation of several thousand individual and
cooperative jobs (in this case about 4.000) and local money systems enabling limitless exchanges of locally produced goods
and services in the project area. Each family receives on an average at least
Euro 1500 in interest-free micro-credits for productivity increase over each
period of 10 years. The success of this first project in (name of host country)
should lead to the formation of an integrated development strategy at national
level, and to pilot projects in other countries.
3.1 Appropriateness, practicability, and coherence of
the proposed activities.
The project sets a cooperative, non-profit,
interest-free, inflation-free economic environment up in the project area for
the benefit of all of the inhabitants there, where individual initiative and
true competition can flourish. It produces direct employment for about 10% of
the adult population and powerfully influences the economic development of the
remaining 90%. All of the social and economic structures and services set up
are sustainably created, run owned by and paid for by the people themselves
without the need for any financial assistance after their formation. These local economic and management
structures are set up during capacitation or organisation workshops run
following the concepts presented by the Brazilian sociologist Clodomir Santos
de Morais. The order in which these workshops are held is critical.
The new integrated sustainable development
principles applied in this project call for a pre-determined sequence of
activities offering an optimum guarantee to donors and funding organisations as
to how their funds are used. First, the social structures, being the health
clubs or the hygiene education structures (they constitute a platform for
women’s participation), the tank or local development commissions, the well or
intermediate level development commissions, and a central management structure
are set up. Secondly, the financial structures, being the local money systems
and the self-financing interest-free micro-credit systems are set up. Finally,
productive structures are set up for the local production, using the financial
systems created, of most of the articles necessary for the range of basic
services foreseen, such as the distributed drinking water and eco-sanitation
structures.
3.2 Participation of
partners and of the beneficiary population.
First, about (200) Health Clubs, each based on
(40) families (200-300 people) are set up. They form a platform for women, to
make sure they can organise themselves in groups and participate en bloc at local development meetings and to
play a dominant role in the various social, financial, service and productive
structures set up.
Once the Health Clubs are in operation, about
(200) tank or local development commissions are set up. They are based on the
same groups of (40) families (200-300 people). The commissions each have 3 - 5
members, all or at least most of whom are women. These commissions are the
heart of the project. They in turn elect about (35) intermediate of well
commissions, which in turn choose a central management unit.
Once the tank and well commissions and the
central management unit are in place, it is possible to set up the local money
systems which offer the inhabitants in the project area means for the transfer
of all locally produced and consumed goods and services. The art is at this
point to identify and use technologies enabling most of the goods and services
necessary to local development and a good quality of life in the project area
to be produced with 100% local value added. Such goods and services can then be
produced, installed, maintained and paid for under the framework of the local
money systems set up, without the need for any formal money at all. An example
applied in this project is the possibility to produce, install, manage, and
maintain a complete dry composting eco-sanitation structure throughout the
project area without the need for a cent of formal money. The costs of running
the local money systems are covered under the local money systems themselves.
Once the LETS local money systems are in place,
a distinction can be made between what can be done under the local money
systems and what must be “imported” into the project area. For goods and
services needed for basic urgently needed services such as clean drinking water supply, use is
made of the project’s seed funds to cover the formal money (Euros) cost of
imported goods and services. For other initiatives cooperative interest-free
micro-credit structures are put in place. These recycle the users' monthly
contributions (usually between Euro 0,60 and Euro 0,75 per person) to the
Cooperative Local Development Fund interest-free for credits for sustainable
productivity purposes, for the purpose of purchasing goods for productivity
increase not locally produced. The micro-credit systems allow for at least Euro
1500 of interest-free micro-credit for each family during the first ten years
of the project. Probably more, as the Euro 1500 is conservatively based on an
average two-year pay back time. The Cooperative Local Development Fund is set
up as a project structure. It belongs to, and is run by the people themselves,
at the beginning with professional support through the project Coordinator..
The costs of running the micro-credit structures are covered under the local
money systems.
Once the cooperative micro-credit structures
and the LETS local money systems are in place, the production structures can be
set up, and in particular units for the production of articles from gypsum
composites. Amongst the priority items for manufacture in these factories are
products necessary for the water supply project such as water tanks, well
linings, water containers, etc. When
capacity is available they can start making the planned ecological sanitation
systems, and other necessary items such as high efficiency stoves, rainwater harvesting
systems, construction components. Since cheap gypsum or anhydrite deposits are
(usually) present in or near the project area (indicate where), no formal money
is needed either for the raw materials or for production, installation and
maintenance.
3.3 Sustainable impact.
Apart from structures basic to poverty
alleviation and an improved quality of life, such as hygiene education at home
and in the schools, water supply, sanitation in the homes at schools and in
clinics, solar lighting for study purposes, solar refrigeration for medicines
in clinics, improved cooking stoves etc,
no attempt is made in this
project to list all of the initiatives which could take place, as these are as
varied as the minds and wishes of the people.
However, any services the local people may
consider of special importance can always be included in the project and
itemised in the budget. Some examples are the setting up of a local radio
station, setting up local milk shops for the pasteurisation and distribution of
milk, the creation of cooperative storage facilities for food, especially for
food for local consumption, the creation of a seed bank and the draining and
re-structuring of market squares and public places. Many such poverty
alleviation initiatives may require some project-level formal money funds.
Other initiatives, for instance, creating sports clubs, theatre groups, local
consultants’ offices, or communications centres, plant nurseries, reforestation
etc would typically be done under a combination of the LETS local money systems
and the interest-free micro-credit systems.
The contributions made by users into
their Cooperative Local Development Fund is sufficient to finance and repay an
interest free formal currency loan for up to (Euro 3.750.000) over a period of
10 years, taking the various reserves and loan repayments into account. Should
payments out of reserves be higher than expected, the project administration
may choose to increase the monthly contribution of the families after four or
five years, as their standard of living improves. Interest-free loans for various project
structures transferred by the project to private persons or cooperatives are
paid back into the Cooperative Local Development Fund over a period of 3-5
years. These loans include those for the gypsum composites manufacturing units,
the briquette manufacturing units, public transport cooperatives (buses), and
the maintenance and installation cooperatives (vehicles). At the end of the ten
years' period, on repayment, where appropriate, of the ten year interest-free
loan, large capital reserves will again be built up during the following ten
years for use in Micro-credits and, subsequently, for the extension and renewal
of capital goods. In case of loan repayment after ten years, funds available
for interest-free micro-credits will be temporarily reduced to zero. Since the
families continue to make their monthly payments to the Cooperative Local
Development Fund, the capital in the Fund for micro-credits will gradually
build up again as it did during the first period of ten years. Where the
original seed funding was by way of grant, the large amount of capital in the
Fund at the close of the first period of ten years will continue to circulate
for micro-credit loans and accumulate.
The principles of sustainable integrated
development on which this project is based are such that all, or at least a
part of users’ monthly contributions to the Cooperative Local
Development Fund can be covered by savings in their current expenditure which
are a direct consequence of the use of
the project structures set up. For instance, users no longer need to make
formal money payments for drinking water, for wood for cooking, or for rubbish
collection. Some sustainable applications under the project reduce CO2
emissions. The main one is through the use of locally-produced high efficiency
cooking stoves, others are the substitution of the use of kerosene lamps by
solar home systems, and of some pumping systems by solar or advanced hand-pump
technologies, and the reduction of the use of non-rechargeable batteries. They
therefore qualify under the Kyoto treaty for the issue of CER certificates,
which can be traded to industrialised countries. The value of these
certificates will contribute to covering the cost of the projects and may, over
time, cover all their costs, enabling the seed capital to be recycled for other
poverty alleviation initiatives.
4.1. Applicant’s experience.
(Applicant must adapt this section to meet the
specific requirements of the project application. The following is intended to
give an outline of the type of short description commonly required. Space for
detailed information is included in other funding application documents).
Applicant has been active since (years) in
rural development initiatives in rural (or other) areas in (host country).
(Make special reference where applicable to
experience in the project area). Applicant is a member of (list of
Associations and Federations of which applicant is a member) and is currently
active in (areas where applicant is active, with special reference to the
project area). Applicant’s partners include ( list of international, national
and local partner organisations). In
(year) applicant (received, was recognised for) (list of awards, recognitions
at international and national level). Applicant is specialised in (carefully
describe areas of specialisation, with special reference to integrated
development, hygiene education, drinking water supply and sanitation, rights of
women, micro-credit development, and environmental protection.) The new
concepts presented in this project enable applicant to make a high quality
contribution to the quality of life of all of the inhabitants without exclusion
in the project area in all of the named
sectors, in particular hygiene education, drinking water supply, and sanitation
through the formation of a full range of social, financial, service and
productive structures there. The project calls for a good existing relationship
with the people in the project area, where, because of the poverty of the
people, few national and international aid structures are present . (Describe
how the applicant enjoys such a relationship).
4.2.Technical expertise
sufficient to carry the project out.
Local people running the social, financial and
productive structures and services set
up under the project are themselves responsible for most of the project
activities. A single project coordinator with a general consultant for
integrated development of the type foreseen and three specialists over a period
of 6-12 months are sufficient for the formal execution of the project. In view
of the depth at which water is expected to be found in the project area, the
services of a drilling company (are, are not) required. The project coordinator
and his assistants are “the government” of the project. The applicant has the
role of “parliament” and is responsible for on-going monitoring of the project
activities. Applicant is qualified to do this through its office (where?) , (a
general manager, a qualified economist, a civil engineer, a sociologist, a
secretariat and an independent auditor. )(Applicant also has a local office in
the project area, with (personnel)).
Applicant is able to supply financial guarantees through (name of
leading bank). For specified services (name them) applicant can call upon the
advice of (names of associates listed under point 4.1). Applicant possesses its
own all-weather means of transport to carry out independent spot checks on
project activities anywhere in the project area without the use of project
structures.
The nominated project coordinator is (name, main qualification and
details from his curriculum). (List experience specific to his responsibilities
as project coordinator.) He knows the
project area well, and is well known to and respected by the population in the
project area. He is co-author of this project. He has contributed to the
drafting of the project without remuneration in the sole interests of the
beneficiary population. He has expressed his willingness to act as Project
Coordinator for the (maximum daily pro-diem payment foreseen by the European
Union for European expatriate staff) in (host country).
The named consultant (Terrence Edward MANNING) is (director of the Dutch
NGO Stichting Bakens Verzet.) He is the author of the innovative Model on the
basis of which this project has been drafted. (Stichting Bakens Verzet is
responsible for the promotion of the Model for sustainable integrated
development in question, which it has
placed in the public domain. Stichting Bakens Verzet, through its director Mr Manning, has also
cooperated in the drafting of this project, in the sole interests of the local
population and without remuneration, as a voluntary contribution to the
development of the project area. The NGO Stichting Bakens Verzet has agreed to
make Mr. Manning available to act as general consultant to the project
coordinator for the executive management of the project for the maximum daily
pro-diem payment foreseen by the European Union for European expatriate staff
in (host country). The dedication of the
NGO Stichting Bakens Verzet to the preparation of this project and Mr Manning’s
unique personal knowledge of the innovative development principles in question
make him particularly suitable for this position.) One of the secondary project
goals is the training of younger people to repeat this experience in other areas in (the host
country) and in other countries. For
this purpose, interested parties, especially parties originating in the project
area, are invited to participate in the Moraisian workshops and in the
activities of the project to gain the experience necessary to ensure ever-widening
repeatability of this project initiative.
Forward:
Detailed description of the project for funding purposes.
Menu of files
for funding purposes.
Typical
list of graphs and drawings.
List of maps.
Documents
for funding applications.