Promoting Economic Development for Equitable Growth, Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction at the Local Level
2009 Achievements
- A lot of effort took place in achieving the AWPs for all of the projects. The financial reports show that the projects managed to spend more than half of their budgets. However, there is a need to beef capacity of PMUs to disburse more in 2010. The projects have also done well in influencing government policy and increasing the amount of hectares of land that has been included into conservation areas. This has made a significant contribution to biodiversity management in South Africa. Simultaneously, an immense impact has been made in building capacity of agencies that are mandated to manage conservation areas. The stewardship component has also built immense momentum on the involvement of local communities in conservation management. A lot of tools have also been developed for assisting people who are dealing with conservation management.
- The projects have involved women from local communities in conservation management. Capacity building initiatives on conservation management have been used to improve the involvement of local women in natural resource management. Women in some of the projects have been targeted to benefit from sustainable harvesting of plants and flowers. There is still more that needs to be done to improve the involvement of women from former disadvantaged communities in conservation. The year 2010 will be used to improve in this area.
Programme expenditure in US$
| Year | Expenditure |
| 2004 | 2,532,589 |
| 2005 | 3,200,543 |
| 2006 | 1,474,348 |
| 2007 | 1,573,902 |
| 2008 | 2,380,815 |
| 2009 | 6,665,354 |
| Total | 17,827,550 |
