Needs Assessment

We have been thinking about extending our programme into areas of the neighbouring territory. In May-July there was quite a lot of displacement in those villages, arising from various military groups that were looting some of the communities en route. Whilst it’s more peaceful now (i.e., the groups have moved onto a different area) the impact of that looting can still be seen.

I’ve been wanting to be involved in a Needs Assessment for a year or two. It’s always intrigued me about how you can quickly assess the situation in a new community in sufficient enough detail that you can then design (even in rough) a project.

The town that we were heading for was about 100km from our sub-base (itself 100 km from our office). Now in the UK, you can probably do 100km between major towns in about an hour. It took us 9 ½ hours. The situation with the bridges was nothing compared to other bridges that I’ve seen. There were four occasions when our cars fell down where it required significant effort to rescue them. We had two vehicles with us (really not possible with one!), two motorbikes and an 11 person team. The worse bridge required 1 jack, 1 winch, 15 people pushing and carrying and 1 ½ hours to free the vehicle - which first slipped between the logs on one side, and then on the other. I have to admit that my role (and Madelaine’s -the other female on the team) tended to be rather negligible – official photographer only. The guys seemed to quite enjoy this problem-solving team-building exercise, although it was rather stressful and tiring for the drivers.


Approaching the bridge with caution...


No good! Fallen through the logs, having to winch up and put another log in place. Some of our staff get into the river to help.


Precision driving

At another bridge, there was not physically enough space for the vehicle to pass so we had to wait whilst they dug away at an embankment on one side, before laying logs to create the bridge, before rescuing our car that then got trapped within them. It was a rather long day. Then, when we arrived at the town we had to find some accommodation – the place that we were recommended was full – before meeting with OCHA (who co-ordinates humanitarian affairs), arranging a meeting with another NGO and briefing the team.

The next day, the team divided with some visiting some of the surrounding villages, others getting info from the local health services, others doing some technical assessment of the water situation and Benoit and myself visiting various other local stakeholders. We met with the office of the Administrator (first thing to do when arriving in a new place), 2 international NGOs, 2 local NGOs, UNOPS (responsible for logistics), MONUSCO (UN peacekeeping operation), surveyed the local market, chatted to the some of the leaders of the local Church and did a debrief of information with the team. Again, quite a full day from when we were woken at 5am (who does announcements over the public tannoy at that time?!) until we stopped working and fell into bed at 10.30pm.

The next day, we had to head back to our sub-base, stopping at a few villages en route. This time, I got involved with more of the community discussions – particularly with the women. I really enjoyed it, though at times I felt quite a sense of helplessness. Madelaine and myself asked the women what their priorities were in the village (which tend to be different from the men’s!) – in one of the villages this was for NFIs (Non-Food items, such as jerry cans for collecting water, cups, plates, blankets etc) as these had recently been stolen by one of the military groups. Some of the women were sharing about how the group had arrived at about 1am in the morning (when they had no chance of escaping into the forest), forced the women to cook for them before demanding to share their rooms. Early the next morning, the community were able to flee into the forest and hide. When they returned two weeks later, it was to find their houses burned and their belongings (including their seed for planting, their cooking equipment and their livestock) stolen. They have no money, no way of making more, no access to markets, no NGO has helped them and not even any seed to plant in order to grow next years crops. They’re living on ugali and sombe (mealie meal thing and cassava leaves) which is not the most nutritious food around. We saw a few kids who were definitely malnourished, and many others with extended stomachs. Earlier in the year, between January and June, there had been one or two other military groups in the area roaming the forests. This time, they were restricted to staying in their villages, fearing to go and work in their fields (1-3 hours walk away) due to risk of attack. This meant that they haven’t been able to grow their crops. In one of the villages, Apolina was telling us how she’d ended up with physical injuries after being raped – she hasn’t stopped bleeding since. Her husband has abandoned her and married another woman, and she’s been left to care for their children with no form of support. She asked us what we would recommend for her to do in her situation…. What could I say? There are no easy answers and little that I could do. Madelaine did find out more of her story and is going to see if another agency can help her. Whilst there is another organisation who helps women in her situation, they do not have the resources to stop at all the smaller villages along the way.


Talking with the women

On our return back to the base we started collating all the information that we had gathered. This was both by sector (water needs, food needs….) and by geographical area – there were differences due to the location of some of the villages. We identified the three biggest priorities as Water, Food Security/Revenue and NFIs. Health was also a priority but not one that we as an organisation can respond to. As we had a particular donor in mind, we then compared this to what this donor is willing to fund, which is specifically emergency situations. This ruled out one geographical area where the needs are ongoing rather than emergency (rather unfair for them, but we hope we might be able to get some other donor interested). We then ruled out another geographical area where another NGO is working, and another because it’s currently not logistically feasible for us. Again, it’s unfortunate that some of the most needy communities are neglected for the very same reason that they’re needy (that they’re too inaccessible); but when there are also huge needs in more accessible villages where we can help far more people far more quickly then the decision has to be made. To get any cement into the area involves flying it from Bukavu (meaning it’s costing $80 locally rather than $18), then a few hours drive via dodgy bridges and then to the more inaccessible villages it would be a few days walk. Some aren’t even accessible on motorbike.

Anyway, in looking at the needs we decided that we needed to do an integrated project with both food security, water protection and NFIs – the needs in all of the sectors were too acute to not address. We’ve written the concept note (forerunner to a proposal) to see if the donor would be interested in funding it…. Now we just have to wait and see…..