3. SVI History & Approach
Origins, organization structure, and philosophy of intervention
4. Introduction
» 1969 - Funded by a group of
volounteers
» 1972 - Recognized as NGO by the
Italian Ministery of Foreign Affaris
» Projects in Africa and South America
» Cross-cultural awareness programs
in Italian Schools
» 200 volunteers for 15 programs over
40 years of actvities
5. Projects
» Bottom-up Approach
» Integrated
» Appropriate Technologies
Sustainable Approach
» Equipes formed by three
volunteers
» Programmes total average
duration: 10 – 15 years
8. Zambiainfigures
0
0.5
1
2012Europe Italy SSA Zambia
Dimension 752,614 sq km
Population 14,222,233
GDP - per capita (PPP) 1,700 $
Rate of urbanization 3,2%
Life expectancy at birth 52.57 yrs
2012 – Human Development Index
Demographic - Geographic – Economic Data
Population Distribution
Rural
65%
Urban
35%
Source: UNDP – HDR 2013
Source: CIA – The World Factbook
Source: Rep. of Zambia - Living Conditions survey report 2010
10. Project: origins & background
» Project Area: Mumena and Matebo
Chiefdoms (Kaonde tribe territory)
» Precence of a Refugee Settlement in
the area
» Refugees support to Zambian local
communities for development
activities
» Total beneficiaries: 50,000 people in
40 communities
11. Phase I: Assessment of the needs…
Research
Planning
ActionEvaluation
Learning
Action
Reaserach
Process
…something people do, not something done ‘for’ or ‘to’ them
12. Phase II: Long-term intervention and self-sustainability
Improvement of the living
conditions of the population
Ensuring access to
clean water Strengthening of
agro-zootechnical
techniques
Supporting
microcredit and
income generating
activities
Improving of the
housing trough
tiles making
training
14. References
• Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook Website . Zambia. Retrieved on April, 4, 2013
from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/za.html
• Chambers, R. (1997). Whose reality counts? Putting the first last.
• International Fund for Agricultural Development .The Rural Poverty Portal. Retrieved on April,
2, 2013. http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/zambia
• Republic of Zambia Central Statistical Office. (2011). Living conditions monitoring survey
report 2006 and 2010. Retrieved on April, 4, 2013 from http://www.zamstats.gov.zm
• United Nation Development Program. (2013). Human Development Report 2013. The Rise of
the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. Explanatory note on 2013 HDR composite
indices. Retrieved on April 5, 2013, from
http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/explanations/ZMB.pdf
• United Nation High Commission for Refugees. (2005). 2005 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook.
Retrieved on April, 4, 2013 from http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a02afce6.html
Editor's Notes
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Maurizio Pedercini and welcome to my presentation
Today I’m going to talk about the international Voluntary Service association and how it’s implementing a social development project in Zambia.
Before starting my presentation let me first say few words about my own background.
Starting from 2004 I’ve been volunteering for the association called SVI - Servizio Volontario Internazionale. In 2006 I took part in the implementation of a social development project targeting rural communities in the North Western Province of Zambia. For three years, my family and I lived and worked with the people in the villages of this area.
I’ve divided my presentation into 3 sections.
First, I’ll begin by giving you an overview of our activities and approach.
Secondly I’ll focus on Zambia’s geographical and economical context.
And after that I’d like to drive you through the main objectives and results of the cooperation in Zambia.
Let’s take a look at each of these issues.
First SVI is a non-profit Association based in Brescia.
Our mission is to promote projects of international cooperation in developing countries to improve the people’s standard of living. In addition to this, it also promotes programmes in Italy for the sensitization on solidarity among peoples from the south and the north of the world.
The birth of the SVI finds its roots in the late 60s when a group of Italian friends returned from a visit in Burundi.
Shocked by the extreme poverty and moved by the desire of building a better world they started with a particular form of support to the poor people: the International Volunteering.
Sharing the problems with the poor communities and trying to give an answer together is considered more efficient and helpful than sending funds for assistance.
In the light of its effective approach SVI was acknowledged as an institutional partner for the realization of development projects by the Italian government in 1972.
The distinctive feature of each intervention is the presence of the voluntary workers for a minimum period of three years. The volunteers are trained in Italy on a two year course
Our main pillars are three: the projects are defined by the communities themselves, they involve all the basic dimensions and needs of the people’s life, and they are based on the valorization of resources available in the area of intervention.
Every single culture in the world has a proverb that reminds us that nothing is worth it if you haven’t worked hard for it. Differently from what can be observed with methods “out of context”, Every culture is provided by tools, knowledge and resources to achieve a good quality of life. Programmes which introduce drastical changes different from the traditional habits, necessarily starts from the assumption that the knowledge of the people they want to help is useless or not sufficiently valid. This may generate dependancy and loss of self-esteem.
The voluntary workers’ task is to help the people to develop their capacity of identifying the problems, the relative causes and solutions, not simply to replace them when making decisions.
Turning to the geographical context of the project, I will spend now just a few words for a brief description of the country
Zambia is more than twice the size of Italy, but the population is only a little higher than the one in Lombardy. There are 72 different languages and tribes but 7 are the main spoken ones. It is very rich in mineral resources and has some of the largest copper and cobalt deposits in the world.
Despite the recent turnaround in the economy due to the copper-mining industry, where the GDP growth has been more than 5 percent every year since 2005, almost three quarters of Zambians live below the poverty line
Historical, geographical and social factors are at the roots of severe poverty in large parts of Zambia. The poverty rate is more concentrated in the rural and remote areas where about three quarter of the people are extremely poor.
In rural areas the agricultural activities is the main source of income of the majority of the people
The project is situated in the North-Western Province of Zambia, which is one of the most remote and least developed parts of the country.
This is the traditional Kaonde Tribe territories. A big refugee Settlement is located in the area, hosting people from the DRC, Angola, Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi. The camp was created in 1971 and is managed by the UNHCR. It’s about the size of the province of Milan and it hosts almost 14,000 people.
The project started when some of the Rwandan and Burundian refugees reached Zambia, after escaping from their country during the Great Lake Region conflicts in the 90s.
Since 1999 we have supported the Rwandan population of refugees in financing various activities such as: the realization of water wells and agro-zootechnical microcredit. As a result of this support, a cooperative was founded and it became a model for the Zambian population living outside the refugee camp.
Consequently the local leaders requested the refugees to start a development programme outside the camp.
In the light of this we, SVI, answered positively by starting a partnership project with the local stakeholders.
The first phase of the project consisted of the assessment of the needs with the communities and in the prioritization of the activities.
Together with this appraisal we also started the implementation of some activities. The aim was to combine simultaneously the action, so the changing of the reality, with the research, or else the understanding of the context. This allowed people to be actively engaged and to really participate in the planning of the project. The action-research, which is how we call this process is “something people do, not something done ‘for’ or ‘to’ them’” (Kemmis, 2001)
Secondly we defined a long-term intervention acting on four main sectors:
to contribute to the reduction of waterborne diseases through the realization of water wells and hygiene education.
To improve the agro-zootechnincal skills with training, microcredit and the introduction of diversified cultivation.
to support the income generating activities with entrepreneurship training and microcredit funds.
To improve the habitat with the production of clay roofing-tiles and bricks
At the current stage, after 5 years, about 3000 people have access to clean water, more than 500 farmers have been trained and sustained with microcredits, and 10 new cooperatives have been founded and work in close relationship with each other.
The project will continue for the next 6 years toward the self-sustainability objective. At this stage. paradoxically, the main and the first task of the international volunteer, and I’d say the most challenging one, is to become useless to the area and to the project itself.
