Who benefits?

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. See download (pdf)

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