The Community Economic Development Institute for Africa (CediA)

 

Name of Project – Cedia Project Start-up
Date of Grant – March 2012
Grant Amount - $3,785
Purpose of Grant – Web design and program start up

http://www.cedia-africa.org/

 

“CediA Africa is a non-governmental organization with the mission to promote and implement training, research, policy analysis, consultancy, and publications for people-centered community economic development throughout Africa, in partnership with civil society organizations, higher learning institutions, and government institutions

In the past couple of years, CediA Africa has endeavored to promote information on community economic development, train development practitioners, and conduct participatory research in the emerging counties in Kenya.

CediA Africa relies on the principles of equity, participation, community-building, cooperation and collaboration, self-reliance and community control, integration, interdependence, respect for ecological limit, capacity-building, diversity, and the use of appropriate indicators.

And these guiding principles find their application in addressing the primary needs of all community members, in developing strong and sustainable local market economy, in strengthening civil society and increasing civic participation, in creating and supporting opportunities for community learning, in strengthening natural eco-systems, and in strengthening the social and cultural economy.

To carry out our mission and goals, we work with a network of community economic development professionals in the region. These are women and men with a wide range of expertise who are graduates of the Southern New Hampshire University / Open University collaborative community economic development program in Tanzania.

To date our efforts have been concentrated on training, research, and publication of training guides. As a result, close to one-hundred practitioners were trained by CediA Africa, and about three-hundred stakeholders participated in Public Forum organized by Development Trust Innovation Africa using priority questionnaires designed by CediA Africa. Also produced were Community Economic Development Training Guides, and publications for Civic Education ahead of the March 2013 General Elections, Development priorities for Makueni and Busia counties in Eastern and Western Kenya respectively, and Agricultural Water Resource Management for Makueni County.