From September 9 – 11th 2017- Accord Social Investment Team carried out its Sustainable Livelihood Assessment (SLA) activity in its GMoU clusters in Brass in Bayelsa state. The Brass cluster consist of 8 communities. The eight communities in Brass cluster include:
- ODEAMA
- ELEPA
- KALAORUBO
- OPUORUBOU
- EWOAMA
- OKPOAMA
- TWON BRASS
- EBIDI
The objective of the SLA, which follows a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) format was to develop a Five Years Development Plan for beneficiary communities. The SLA activities in the cluster involved a joint town hall meeting with all the community stakeholders’ men, women, youths and the physically challenged. The processes involved dividing the stakeholders in the community into three groups, the men group, women groups, and youth group, with the aim of allowing them the safe space to identify their immediate need. This kind of community driven approach provides opportunities for everyone to participate or contribute in community development s initiatives. The activity indeed facilitated the message of “nobody should be left alone” approach commonly identified with most PRA approaches. The SLA activity equally enabled the team to identify important livelihood assets of the various cluster communities, vulnerability context, key thematic areas, opportunities and constraints leading to development of sector analysis, the community profiling aspect of the SLA enabled the team to identify project gaps and important community need that need attention.