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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Programme Objectives

The objective of DFID-CSP is to provide immediate support for men, women and children affected by exclusion, poverty and conflic. This helps them to achieve their livelihoods and human development priorities.

Target Groups

Poor, marginalized and conflict affected communities and groups (displaced people, widows, orphans, elderly, disabled people etc.) are core target groups of CSP.

Core Support Sectors

CSP provides funding in five core sectors, namely Income Generating Activities, Food Security, Small Rural Community Infrastructures (drinking water, irrigation, foot bridges, trail etc.), Education (especially for conflict affected children) and Health.

Programme Coverage

After the implementation of DFID Community Support Strategy, DFID-CSP Nepalgunj is considering the proposals from 8 district of CSP core support districts i.e. Baitadi, Kailali, Surkhet, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Jumla, Mugu and Rukum of Mid and Far Western Region.

working area

Working Approaches

District Programme Officers in CSP Core Support Districts supports and facilitate communities in idenfication of problems/priorities, development of proposals and project implementation as well as monitoring. CSP funds directly to community based organizations (CBOs) and community-based networks (e.g. user groups, mother groups, clubs etc).

Guiding Principles

Participation: CSP promotes the participation of all stakeholders, especially the beneficiaries (communities), in the process of project identification, planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation. This is crucial for successful implementation of projects at the community level.
Community led initiatives: CSP supports activities that are identified and implemented by the rural communities, as this builds the confidence and capacity of the community to solve community level problems on their own.
Inclusive and Equitable: Intervention should be as equitable as possible, ideally benefiting the whole community, and aim to reduce tensions within a society. However to reach particularly disadvantaged and excluded groups, CSP supports specially focused types of interventions.
Transparency: Transparency improves the understanding among the stakeholders and beneficiaries, helps to create a working environment for project implementation, ensures the equitable distribution of benefits, and prevents corruption. The CSP promotes public auditing methods that are relevant and pragmatic at community level.
Sustainability: After the completion of the project and withdrawal of CSP support, benefits need to be maintained or increased by developing pragmatic maintenance strategies.
Innovativeness: CSP promotes interventions that deal with community development issues in novel ways; have a clear benefit over traditional or existing approaches.
Complementarity: CSP support should serve as a complementary activity to the already existing program and help contribute towards a synergetic impact.

Implementation Strategy

Proposal submission: The proposals submitted to CSP should come from the communities, either independently or with the facilitation of DPOs, NGOs or other partner organisations, and should address the communities' priorities as determined by the whole community. Proposals from focus districts are submitted to the DPO, in other districts they are submitted to CSP in Nepalgunj.

Proposal assessment: The proposals will be assessed by CSP using a set of standard criteria based on our programme objectives, target groups, core support sectors and guiding principles. However there is flexibility in this assessment to take account of the specific situation and circumstances of a community. DPOs make an initial assessment of proposals submitted to them. If it is a large scale, expensive, technical, complicated or contentious proposal (or there are other factors which the DPO requires advice), the DPO will pass it to CSP in Nepalgunj for further assessment. If necessary the proposals are assessed by a technical professional.

Implementation: CSP does not directly implement activities. Communities are responsible for the implementation of their own projects. The project is managed by a Project Management Committee. Committees must be representative of the ethnic/caste and gender diversity of the community, and members of all groups and political parties should be welcome to participate. In focus districts, DPOs support communities in project implementation. In the other districts, CSP works directly with communities or works through the facilitating organisation (NGO) which perform a similar role of the DPOs.

Community contributions: Community contributions in any form (financial, labour, time etc) are essential in the implementation of identified community projects, to increase ownership accountability, and sustainability. CSP encourages communities to access resources from DDC and VDC wherever possible.

Monitoring: The community Project Management Committee oversees the project and monitors progress, submitting regular reports to the DPOs or CSP. CSP also requires that project activities are made transparent to the whole community through public auditing procedures and that a notice board is erected in the community with updated information on the project and expenditure. CSP, DPOs and consultants provide additional monitoring through project visits.

Project Evaluation: On completion of the project, the community, or other facilitating organisation (NGO), evaluates the success and impact of the project and submits a Project Completion Report. Public auditing is mandatory on the completion of the project. CSP reserves the right to include any project of it funding in an external evaluations.

Proposal Assessment Criteria

The following criteria will be used by the CSP programme staff to assess every project proposal submitted for CSP funding.
Does the project address the programme objective?
Does the project target the poorest and most disadvantaged groups within the community as the beneficiaries?
Does the project fit into the defined core support sectors?
Does the proposal ensure the full participation of the whole community in problem identification, project planning, its implementation and evaluation?
Does proposal ensure the communities' contribution (cash, kind, labour etc.) in the project? At least 10% of the total project cost should be contributed by the local communities.
Will the decrease the inequality and tension within the community?
Does the project follow the "do no harm" principles?
Does the proposal ensure that more than 85% of the total budget directly reaches to the communities?
How is the CBO/NGO proposing to prevent corruption and ensure that the funds are not misused?
How and to whom will project information be communicated?
Will the project benefits be sustained, or preferably expanded to the wider community, even after the withdrawal of programme support?
Is it an innovative idea/approach/intervention?
Is the project complementary to the existing development activities, producing a synergy effect?
What will be the project period? Project duration should not be more than 2 years' period. Priority will be given to shorter, immediate impact projects.
Is there confirmation of the contributions of the collaborating partners?