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HOW TO WRITE AN
INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR THE AREA YOU LIVE OR WORK IN |
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(CLIQUEZ ICI POUR LA VERSION EN FRANÇAIS)
Edition 10: 26 March, 2009
CREATIVE PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
TO POVERTY REDUCTION
This innovative website provides simple,
down-to-earth practical solutions to
poverty- and development-related problems. It sets out step by step how the
solutions are put into effect. By following the steps, users can draft their
own advanced ecological sustainable integrated development projects and apply
for their seed financing. Social, financial, productive and service structures
are set up in a critical order of sequence and carefully integrated with each
other. That way, cooperative, interest-free, inflation-free local economic
environments are formed in project areas.
Local initiative and true competition are then free to flourish there.
CONVERSION
OF TRADITIONAL PROJECT STRUCTURES INTO FULLY SUSTAINABLE ONES
Many
existing development projects have already failed or risk failure because they
are not fully sustainable over a longer term. This is often because an
appropriate framework of enabling social, financial, and productive structures
under which management and maintenance costs and long-term replacements of
capital goods can be carried out is missing.
The
social, financial, productive and service structures foreseen in the Model can
be built around structures set up under traditional projects to create cooperative, interest-free, inflation-free
local economic environments in the project areas. This way several thousand
employment opportunities can be created in each project area and large amounts
of on-going formal money costs saved.
On-going financial leakage from project areas, typical of traditional development projects,
is blocked. The small amount of formal money reaching the project areas is,
wherever possible, retained and continually recycled there.
A LEADING RESOURCE ON A
Most internet search engines (including Google
®, Alltheweb ®, and Live ® and meta-search
instruments) rank this website as one of the world’s leading resources on
sustainable integrated development for the world’s poorest. Top rankings cover
a wide range of subjects, often out of tens of millions of hits. Special
reference is made to search results for
the innovative structural and economic solutions to development issues
presented. The Alltheweb ® results indicate the
website may be considered the world leader in the field.
Google ® search results produced on 21 March
2008.
All the web ® search results produced on
30 and 31 March, 2008.
STRUCTURES
A short summary of the project structures is set out in section 05.06
Summary of the project structures of the Model. For more detail see 4.09 Institutional structures. Each project area forms a local economy
system with between 50.000-70.000 inhabitants. Each local economy system is
designed to be large enough to offer wide possibilities of specialisation of
productive activities, yet small enough for each individual to be able to
comprehend, associate with, and participate in all of the project structures.
The project areas interact with each other to form a patchwork quilt of local
economy systems which together make up a powerful national economy.
For a general overview of a typical project application under the Model see : 05.02 logical framework.
BUDGET
A typical project budget for an area with
50.000 inhabitants is €5.000.000,
or €100 for each inhabitant. Of
this, 25% is contributed directly by the people themselves. This is done by way
of conversion into Euros of the costs of goods supplied and work done by the
local inhabitants for the execution of the project under the 05.21
interest-free cooperative local money structures set up in an early phase of
the project. This contribution usually amounts to 425.000 days of 8 hours’
work. Allowing for a rate of conversion of Euro 3 for each day of work, the
amount contributed by the people is €1.250.000, or roughly 25% of the total project costs. This means
the amount made available by third parties by way of gift or by way of
interest-free ten year loan is 75% of the total project costs being about €3.750.000
in all or €75 for each inhabitant. Exactly how this money is split up amongst
the various project structures is set out in detail in 07.10 the balance sheet. Some
35-40%
is used for the drinking water structures, to cover the cost of drilling
boreholes (where necessary), pumps, solar panels and other equipment. About
15-20 % is used for interest-free loans to enable local people to set up
production facilities to make items necessary for the execution of the project
structures. There are no costs involved in the drafting of the project
documents and applications for their seed financing, as these are done under
the Model. This means that the cost of foreign consultants for pilot projects
in each country is limited to 10% (about € 350.000) of the formal money part of
the project budget. The execution of
each project includes the training of people to lead the execution of similar
projects in adjacent areas, so that the system is sustainably
self-propagating.
As is shown in the table 07.40 Income families contribute €0,60 per person or about €3 per family of five each month
into the project’s Cooperative Local Development Fund. The
budgeted net annual income of Euro 290.500 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.
For more details refer to the sections 07.20 Short analysis, 07.30 Systematic out-go, 07.50 Observations, 07.60 Funds available for micro-credits.
Projects, at least in theory, can qualify for Carbon Emission Reduction
Certificates under the Kyoto Treaty. Within the framework of self-financing
integrated development projects there is a market for 20.000 – 30.000 high
efficiency cookers in at least 10.000 families. Assuming a fuel saving of 6.5
kg/day of fuel in each family, savings amount to 65 tons of wood per day or
23725 tons per year. Converted into tons of CO2, that is 18705 tons of CO2 per
year. Assuming a market value of Euro 24 per ton of
CO2, this amounts to a credit of nearly €450.000 per project per year to which
other cost and time savings can be added. Over ten years this alone would be
enough to finance the project. As described in 09.33 CER certificates Kyoto Treaty : programme of activities as a single CDM project
activity some timid steps are being taken to help groups of smaller projects
participate in emission rights trading.
Carefully managed high application and compliance costs have so far kept
them out.
PREPARATORY FORMALITIES
Several formalities need to be completed
before a project can proceed to an executive phase. They pass from initial
partnership declarations to the formation of a working group whose task it is
to set NGOs up for the execution of the project and for on-going management of the project
structures. The management NGO is transferred to the local population as soon
as the planned project social and financial structures are in operation.
Ownership of the structures set up by the project are transferred to the
management NGO as they become operational.
For more details refer to section 05.09 Illustration of the formal steps necessary to get
project execution started.
INTEREST-FREE COST-FREE MICRO-CREDIT SYSTEM
Interest-free, cost-free micro-finance provided through the 05.22
interest-free cooperative micro-credit structures in
each project area typically amounts to at least €1,500 for each family in each
period of ten years. This is an ultra-conservative evaluation based on an
average two years’ payback period.
Interest-free loans for various project structures transferred to private
persons or cooperatives are paid back into the Cooperative Local Development
Fund over a period of 3-5 years. They are taken into account in the
calculations above. 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). In case of loan repayment after ten years, funds available for
interest-free micro-credits will temporarily be 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 during the second period of ten years as it did during the first
period of ten years. Where the original seed funding is 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 to finance interest-free micro-credits. It can
also be used to finance extensions to project structures.
For details refer to the section 07.60 Funds available for micro-credits.
PROJECT FUNDING
Section 07.01
documents for funding applications includes complete information in a form
usually required by funding organisations for project financing purposes. Time
schedules for activities month by month and year by year are given. Charts
illustrating expenditure of all budget items are supplied on an item by item
and on a quarter by quarter basis. Expenditure charts on a month by month basis
are not considered necessary but can be developed on request should they be
needed.
BUILT-IN PROTECTION FOR
FUNDING PARTIES
Innovative means of protection of the investments
made by funding parties have been incorporated in the Model. Exposure of investors at any one point of
project execution is limited. This is made possible through the layering, or
sequential order of creation, of the
various project structures. Work on next following structures does not take
place until the preceding structures are in place and in operation.
The new capital content of project structures
tends to increase with progress in project execution. The first (the social and
financial) structures to be set up have relatively low formal money capital
content. The second (the productive) structures have an intermediate level of
capital content. The last (the service) structures, and especially the
distributed drinking water structures, have the highest level of capital
content. By the time the service structures are to be installed, most of the
work on them can be done under the local money system, operational costs and
formal money reserves for maintenance and long-term replacement are already being collected, and local
production of items necessary for the
service structures is already under way.
AUDIT AND PROTECTION FOR PROJECT BENEFICIARIES
Suggestions are
advanced for auditing
structures and indications over the on-going management of structures is
set out in section 4.21 the chain of responsibilities.
The effects of inflationary forces on the project are analysed in section 4.15 The
effects of inflation on the Cooperative Local Development Fund and gift content.
Proposals for loss or damage to project structures outside the control of the
beneficiaries are set out in 4.16
Project insurance and forfeit in the form of gift in case of loss of capital
structures.
INTEGRATION OF HEALTH AND EDUCATION SERVICES
Sections 05.62
Health aspects and 05.63 Education
describe how the project structures can be used to support advanced health and
education policies at local and national level.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Section 08.20
women’s rights sets out how women’s full participation in the projects is
guaranteed.
ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS
Section 08.30 ecological aspects sets out how
all project structures are energy-neutral and describes
the many project applications using advanced alternative energy technologies
and how conservation of natural resources in project areas is promoted.
AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTION AND FOOD SECURITY
Section 08.40
agricultural production and food security sets out how the project covers
management of communal lands, waste recycling structures including recycling of
urine, composted faeces, and other organic solids, food and water security in
times of drought and crisis, plant nurseries, cooperative seed banks, biomass
for the production of mini-briquettes for cooking, and the protection of water
sources and water conservation.
ON-GOING MANAGEMENT OF STRUCTURES
As
social, financial, productive and service structures are created during project
execution they are taken over by the three-tiered 05.07 Local Cooperative for the
on-going management of the project structures. The local cooperative is
100% sustainaibly
operated.
JOB CREATION
Each
project creates permanent sustainable employment for about 4.000 people, which
is about 10% of the adult population in the project area.
HOW TO USE THE MODEL
Instructions
on how to use the Model are to be found at the main menu of the Model.
MORE INFORMATION
: SOME USEFUL GROUPS OF FILES
The complete Model for
self-financing ecological integrated development projects.
Short introductions to projects and instructions on how to
get started.
Short
summaries, including an executive summary, with basic information on
projects. This group of files includes
instructions on how to get a project started.
Illustrations of project structures.
Charts,
drawings and diagrams illustrating the main features of projects.
Attachments to
project documents.
A list of documents with information supporting projects. The list
provides extra information on concepts and technologies used in the Model, such
as information on the work of the Brazilian sociologist Clodomir
Santos de Morais, local money systems, micro-credit
systems, some recommended appropriate technologies, and hygiene education
courses.
Articles published on specific aspects of
the Model.
The list includes articles on policy aspects, the use of alternative
energy, micro-credits, and drinking water supply.
Some draft
projects prepared in English and French using the principles introduced by the
Model.
Back to:
"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
“Poverty is created scarcity”
Wahu Kaara, point 8 of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, 58th
annual NGO Conference, United Nations,
"In the end, it's about love for mankind. Freedom begins with love.
Our challenge is to learn to love the world"
Nigerian writer Ben Okri, interview in Ode Magazine, Dec 2002-Jan 2003,
p.49
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