Who benefits?
Breakdown by age of beneficiaries
| Children 0-19 | Women 20-49 | Men 20- 49 | Elderly 50+ |
| 46% | 20% | 20% | 14% |
The projects actions target poor and vulnerable families. Women participate significantly in the project’s activities, and 40% of the beneficiary families involved in house strengthening has been headed by women, and participate directly and efficiently in the animation and communication activities. Many are proud of what they have achieved and share their experience.
The family group is central to the implementation of a family based vulnerability reduction process.
Family groups for damage prevention
The community and potential beneficiary families in a village collectively
select the families who are directly helped by the project. Everyone participates
in decisions about which families should have priority for support, to get
a subsidy and possibly access to the commune house strengthening credit fund.
Once the group is formed they provide support in the management of credit for house strengthening, and they participate in assessing what work needs to be done. Through experience gained with the project, these families become a focal point for sharing information and their experience. A group leader represents the views of the family group at commune level.
The project works with the selected families to show how existing buildings can be strengthened simply and efficiently in a manner that is sympathetic to local tastes and visual preferences. Respect of local styles is important in developing local acceptance of techniques that can be used. Families always contribute both in kind and financially to the cost of strengthening.
The case of Madam Phan Thi Yêm is quite typical.
Formal record of voting results - for detail click on
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Selection of beneficiary families
A community decision process
The example of Quang Tho Commune
May 2003
General organisation of the process and criteria for the selection of beneficiary
families
The selection of beneficiary families in each hamlet or small village is a
very important stage in the strengthening process.
a) Overall process: from the selection of the families to house strengthening work
- The Hamlet ("Xom" 20-25 families) or group of hamlets ("Cum" = on average 3 Xom, i.e. 50-60 families) is selected by the Commune;
- Meetings in the hamlet organised by the Commune Prevention Committee (+ DW team), with all the families and explanation of the programme and of the family selection criteria;
- Requests to participate come from families; important opinions are voiced by community elders and village cadres; there is a lot of discussion;
- List of priority families drawn up (5 to 10 or more) by all families;
- The group then considers the situation of each family/each house and accepts or rejects the request;
- A decision on the work to be carried out and the subsidy is taken.
b) Family selection criteria
The selection process is based on simple criteria:
- Need for house strengthening (thus the house - structure, walls, etc. - exists but is weak; no total reconstruction is undertaken except under exceptional circumstances);
- Direct or indirect ability (on the part of the family) to carry out the improvement project;
- Ability to pay for part of the work (cash or credit) and to repay the loan element if applicable;
- Priority given to women-headed families;
- "Poor" families have priority (but not those with the flimsiest house-shelters that will need total rebulding);
- Families selected on the basis of no risk of leading to conflicts in the hamlet or the village;
- Beneficiaries should have a spirit of solidarity and willing to spread the word about the DW project;
- For each family, the amount project budget will not exceed 4 M Dongs maximum (of which 50% maximum subsidy), and of this, the family is expected to cover up to 50% of the costs.
In 2003 in each project commune this process took place in May 2003, based on the above principles, but the process varied a bit depending on the context and on the willingness of the local leaders to make the selection process truly participative. DW has worked to ensure that choices were fair and democratic, and this has been interesting in the different ways groups made their choices.
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