HOLP Final Report Assesses Impact on Orphans

IMPACT ASSESSMENT

OF

HOMA BAY ORPHAN LIVELIHOOD
PROJECT

Final Report

Submitted by :

ETC East Africa Ltd
ABC Place, Waiyaki Way,
P.O. Box 76378, Nairobi, Kenya.
East Africa Ltd Phone: +254 (0)20 4 445 421/2/3 Fax: 254 (0)20 4 445 424
Email :office@etc-eastafrica.org.

Acknowledgements
The ‘Impact Assessment of Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project “HOLP”’ was commissioned by Heifer International
Kenya (HIK) and carried out by ETC East Africa Ltd.
th st
The study was conducted by Bell Okello and Evelyn Otieno, and carried out between April 15 and May 21 2008
first with preparatory activities in Nairobi followed by field work in Southern Nyanza.
The consultants wish to express their gratitude to all those who contributed to making the study a success, resulting
in the production of this report. First, the consultants heartily thank the beneficiaries who willingly volunteered
information and participated in the interviews and focus group discussions. Special thanks go to Alex Kirui, the
Country Director of Heifer International Kenya, and his headquarters based team, Crispin Mwatate, Deputy Country
Director, Dr, Reuben Koech, the monitoring and evaluation coordinator, Dr Julius Owade, the regional coordinator
and his entire team, heads of departments in Migori, Homa Bay and Suba Districts, CARD, ICIPE, PLAN Kenya,
WVK, CCF, OIP, among others. The consultants are deeply indebted to the team of committed enumerators who
diligently administered questions in the project area under trying conditions.
The consultants bear responsibility of the contents of this report.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE................................................................................................................................. vi
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 1
1.1. Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project (HOLP) ............................................................. 1
1.2. Objectives of HOLP ..................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Project Context and Rationale ..................................................................................... 2
1.4. Objectives of the Impact Assessment .......................................................................... 2
1.5. Approach and Methodology ......................................................................................... 2
2. FINDINGS OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT ...................................................................... 3
2.1 General Findings on Project Implementation ............................................................... 3
2.1.1 Project Activities .................................................................................................... 3
2.1.2 Population ............................................................................................................. 4
2.1.3 Dairy goat farming ................................................................................................. 5
2.1.4 Kitchen gardens .................................................................................................... 9
2.1.5 Strengthening capacity of OVC caregiver community groups ...............................10
2.1.6 Psychosocial and medical care.............................................................................11
2.1.7 Capacity building of partner organisations ............................................................11
2.2 Impact of the Project...................................................................................................11
2.2.1 Impact on OVCs ...................................................................................................11
2.2.2 Impact on OVC caregivers and family members...................................................14
2.2.3 Impact on the wider community ............................................................................15
3. CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNT..........................................................................17
3.1 Assessment of HOLP Partners ...................................................................................17
3.2 Lessons Learnt and Challenges Faced by the Project ................................................18
4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................21
4.1 Conclusions................................................................................................................21
4.2 Recommendations......................................................................................................23
4.2.1 Recommendations to improve implementation and enhance impact:....................23
4.2.2 Recommendations on deepening project impact – from beneficiaries, actors and 25
stakeholders ......................................................................................................................25
APPENDICES...........................................................................................................................26
Appendix 1: Terms of Reference .........................................................................................26
Appendix 2: Approach and Methodology.............................................................................30
Appendix 3: Questionnaire ..................................................................................................34

Impact Assessment of Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project - May 20th 2008 – Zero draft
iii
Submitted by ETC East Africa Ltd to Heifer International Kenya

Appendix 4: Checklist for Focus Group Discussions............................................................40
Appendix 5: Checklist for Discussions With OVCs ..............................................................42
Appendix 6: List of Focus Group Discussion Members........................................................43
Appendix 7: Organisations and Staff Members Interviewed.................................................49
Appendix 8: Analyses of Partner Organisations...................................................................51
Appendix 9: Derived Project Logframe ................................................................................52
Appendix 10: HIK/HOLP Feedback Workshop Participants .................................................55
Appendix 11: Assorted Tables With Additional Data on the Project .....................................57
Appendix 12: Bibliography...................................................................................................64

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ADPP Animal Draft Power Programme
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
AMREF African Medical Research Foundation
CAHW Community Animal Health Worker
CARD Community Action for Rural Development
CBO Community Based Organisation
CBS Central Bureau of Statistics
CIFF Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
CMAD Community Mobilisation Against Desertification
CORP Community Own Resource Person
DCO District Children Officer
DDO District Development Officer
DLPO District Livestock Production Officer
DVO District Veterinary Officer
ECF East Coast Fever
ERS Economic Recovery Strategy for Employment and Wealth Creation
FFS Farmer Field School
FGD Focus Group Discussion
FMD Foot and Mouth Disease
GoK Government of Kenya
HIK Heifer International Kenya
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HOLP Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project
HPI Heifer Project International
ICIPE International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology
IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
JAM Justice and Mercy (Oyugis)
KES Kenya Shilling
KIOF Kenya Institute of Organic Farming
LABALU Lake Basin Land Use Programme
LoA Letter of Agreement
MoLD Ministry of Livestock Development
MTR Mid Term Review
NAAC National Aids Control Council
NDGFA Nyanza Dairy Goat Farmers’ Association
NGO Non Governmental Organisation
NSA Non State Actor
OIP Oyugis Integrated Project
OVC Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
OVI Objectively Verifiable Indicator
PBA Pure Breed Alpine
PBS Pure Breed Sannen
PCM Project Cycle Management
PLWA People Living With AIDS
POG Passing on the Gift
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
SELLO Strengths, Emerging Lessons, Limitations and Opportunities
SOFO Successes, Obstacles, Failures and Opportunities
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

v

PREFACE
This report presents the findings of the impact of the Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project (HOLP),
implemented by Heifer International Kenya (HIK) in five districts of southern Nyanza, Kenya. The
impact assessment was carried out between April 25th and May 15th 2008. Four key chapters make
up the report with chapter one introducing the project context and the assignment. The second
chapter presents the impact of the project, while chapter three discusses the challenges and lessons
learnt. In chapter four, the report gives the conclusions and recommendations of the assessment.
Appendices are provided at the end of the report containing important data on various issues
including the approach, tools, and findings (already discussed in chapter two and three).

vi

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project (HOLP)
Heifer International – Kenya (HIK) formulated the Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project (HOLP)
in response to requests from locally based organisations, particularly St Francis Sisters’
Congregation of the Catholic Diocese of Homa Bay and Lake Basin Land Use Programme
(LABALU). According to these organisations, the project area was suffering a high prevalence
rate of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and significantly, the impact of the two dynamics left a huge burden
of Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) to relatives and well wishers still alive. Social
surveys conducted at household levels show that these OVCs live with caregivers who are
equally challenged, from HIV/AIDS or poverty, and quite often both. Most of the caregivers are
relatives of the OVCs, although many are either very old or very young people, because the
majority of those who have died as a result of HIV/AIDS are in the age group 20-45 years.
1.2. Objectives of HOLP
According to the revised project proposal1 HOLP was formulated and designed with the goal of
providing orphans and their families in Homa Bay with a means to self-reliance and alternatives
to engaging in high risk behaviour. The objective of the project is to “increase the incomes and
food security of the project orphan families”. Specifically, the project aims to:
• Train 800 orphans and caregivers on sustainable dairy goat farming, record keeping,
HPI cornerstones, gender and leadership skills;
• Purchase and distribute 800 dairy goats to 800 orphans and their families, who will in
turn pass on 800 dairy goats to other 800 orphans
• Link the orphans and their families to other partners for HIV/AIDS related support and
mentoring the orphans so that they mature into responsible adults.
The hierarchy of project objectives has been reviewed as follows:
Goal: To contribute to improved livelihoods of OVCs and their host families/care
givers
Purpose/Objective: To equip OVCs and their care givers/host families with tools and resources to
develop economically viable agricultural enterprises and enhance their
access to life necessities
Outputs/Results:
• OVCs and their care givers provided with dairy goats and requisite skills for their husbandry
• Organic farming in kitchen gardens for nutritious foods for home use and sale promoted
• Capacity of community groups of OVC caregivers strengthened
• OVCs and their caregivers provided with medical and psychosocial support
• Capacities of local partner organisations enhanced

HIK implemented the project in partnership with three local NGOs/CBOs, Animal Draft Power
Programme for organic farming, Lake Basin Land Use Programme (LABALU) for community
mobilisation and capacity building of community groups, and St. Francis Sisters’ Congregation
for psychosocial and medical care between January 2005 and December 2007.

1
Homa Bay Orphans Livelihood Project – By Julius Owade; HIK

1

1.3. Project Context and Rationale
Rising poverty levels and the HIV/AIDS scourge have dominated dynamics in Kenya’s socio-
economic map over the last two decades (1990s and 2000s). Within the country, no region has
been as hard hit as the southern Nyanza with respect to poverty and HIV/AIDS. Whereas
poverty levels in the country are estimated to be about 54 percent, these districts record levels
of over 60percent. HIV/AIDS infections and impact in this region significantly correlate with the
poverty figures, where the region records incidences of over 25 percent, while the national
averages are now down to six percent. According to District Development Plans for the area,
HIV/AIDS prevalence rates range from 24 percent in Homa Bay to 34 percent in Suba, although
statistics released by National Aids Control Council (NACC) for 2006 show a much lower
prevalence of 7.3 percent in Rachuonyo to 21 percent in Homa Bay.
Many studies have demonstrated the relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty in the project
area (e.g. see IFAD reports on the identification and formulation of Southern Nyanza
Community Development Project 2003). The Government of Kenya (GoK) and Non-State Actors
(NSA), especially Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based
Organisations (CBOs) have over the last ten years made concerted efforts to fight both poverty
and HIV/AIDS in the area. Most GoK led interventions are constrained by the on-going
institutional reforms of the ministries, which are now tending towards facilitation (of actors) and
less implementation (activities and projects), thereby leaving a huge implementation gap. Many
NGOs and CBOs have moved into the southern Nyanza Districts to compliment GoK efforts and
help mitigate the situation. The massive need for support and assistance to the twin problems of
the effects of high poverty and HIV/AIDS levels has provided NSAs with opportunities to try out
more people-oriented and impact-driven innovations (social experimentation and engineering)
that are now slowly bearing fruits.
1.4. Objectives of the Impact Assessment
The Terms of Reference (ToR) has stated that the objective of the impact assessment is to
determine the impact of Phase 1 of HOLP, assess the effectiveness of the partners and propose
ways and means of enhancing impact, improving efficiency and effectiveness of a planned
second phase.
The objective as stated in the ToR (Appendix 1) has been recast into the following specific
objectives:
• Assess and determine the impact of the project on key socio-economic indicators of the
orphaned and vulnerable children and their caregivers.
• Assess the impact of the project activities on the environment.
• Examine the effectiveness of the partnerships between HIK and locally based
implementation partners (ADPP, LABALU, St. Francis Sisters Congregation) and
collaborating ministries.
• Make recommendations that would be used in future for similar projects targeting
Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs).
1.5. Approach and Methodology
The impact assessment was carried out in participatory manner, with a review of relevant
project documentation preceding fieldwork that employed standard data gathering tools like
closed questionnaires, checklists for focus group discussions and key informant interviews, and
field observations (Appendix 2 -10). Appendix 11 provides additional data from the survey and
the Bibliography is presented in Appendix 12.

2

2. FINDINGS OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT
2.1 General Findings on Project Implementation
2.1.1 Project Activities
The project was commissioned in 2005 in Homa Bay and Migori Districts, with activities focusing
on HIV/AIDS OVC caregiver community groups in selected divisions. The main project activities
planned are summarised in Text Box 1.

Text Box 1: Summary of major project activities
1. Introduce and promote dairy goat production
1.1 Provide OVCs and their caregivers with dairy goats
1.2 Train OVCs and their caregivers on appropriate dairy goat husbandry
1.3 Promote production of appropriate dairy goat forages among OVC farm families
1.4 Promote consumption of dairy goat milk among OVCs and their families
1.5 Support the marketing of dairy goat milk within project area
2. Promote crop production through using organic farming in kitchen gardens
2.1 Provide OVCs and their caregivers with inputs for kitchen gardens
2.2 Train OVCs and their caregivers on sustainable and environmentally friendly integrated organic
farming for their kitchen garden
2.3 Encourage OVCs and their care-giving families to consume nutritious foods
2.4 Promote the marketing of organically produced nutritious foods to enhance incomes of OVCs and
their caregivers
3. Strengthen community caregiver groups
3.1 Build and strengthen capacities of community groups of OVC caregivers through training
3.2 Train community groups on enterprise development: record keeping, costing, marketing and
market linkages
4. Provide social support and medical care for HIV/AIDS affected and infected families
4.1 Support OVCs and their caregivers with psychosocial support
4.2 Facilitate OVCs and their caregivers to access medical care
4.3 Encourage and facilitate OVCs to attend school
5. Build capacities of partner organisations
5.1 Facilitate workshops and seminars to build capacity of participating partner organisations
5.2 Support participating partner organisations to access necessary equipment and facilities for the
work
5.3 Offer supervisory support to the partner organisations

All these project activities (See Text Box 1) were implemented, except for those on giving OVCs
and their families’ psychosocial support and medical care in the area of HIV/AIDS.

3

2.1.2 Population
A total of 482 respondents took part in the study with most respondents coming from Homa Bay
District. Female respondents comprised 35 percent of those interviewed (Table 1).
Table 1: Respondents by gender in each of the project districts
Homa Bay Migori Nyando Rachuonyo Rongo Suba Total
Males 120 101 16 57 25 39 358
Females 35 52 0 15 8 14 124
Total 155 153 16 72 33 53 482
The study also captured the number of respondents who were heads of the households. About
four percent (4%) of the respondents did not indicate whether or not they headed the
households they were responding on behalf of. However, 72% of those interviewed were the
heads of their households whereas 24% indicated that they were not (Table 2). At least 49% of
those who indicated that they were heads of households were females. From the data, the
youngest head of household was an 18 year old male from Kogutu Ngala group in Migori, who
was an OVC as well as a guardian to six of his siblings and a nephew, all between the ages of
nine and fifteen years.
Table 2: Number of respondents heading households
Yes 107 111 16 52 24 36 346
No 46 35 0 14 6 17 118
Unspecified 2 7 0 6 3 0 18
Total 155 153 16 72 33 53 482

The respondents ranged from 14 to 90 years of age (Table 3). The youngest were a fourteen
and fifteen year old males from Homa Bay and Migori District respectively. The oldest
respondent whose age recorded was a 90 year old widow from Homa Bay who lives alone.
Table 3: Respondents by age
<18 yrs 18-25 yrs 26-35 yrs 36-55 yrs >55 yrs Unspecified Total
Female 11 78 176 80 13 358
Male 2 10 25 55 29 3 124
Total 2 21 103 231 109 16 482

The survey captured a total of 2,354 orphans between the ages of 0- 24 years. The majority of
this population (53 percent) fell within the 11-24 age bracket followed by 27 percent between the
ages of six and ten. Children between 0-5 years comprised 20 percent of the orphan population.
Vulnerable children made up 50 percent of the total orphan population while 26 percent were
total orphans and 25 percent were partial orphans (Table 4).

4

Table 4: Nature and number of Orphans

Nature Total Orphans Partial Orphans Vulnerable Children
of Male Female Male Female Male Female Total
Orphan
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
0-5 yrs 35 1% 23 1% 45 2% 42 2% 183 7% 173 7% 501
6-10 yrs 94 4% 83 3% 76 3% 73 3% 176 7% 196 8% 698
11-24 yrs 249 10% 184 7% 201 8% 140 6% 286 11% 275 11% 1,335
Total 378 15% 290 11% 322 13% 255 10% 645 25% 644 25% 2,534
Source: HOLP Impact Assessment data

2.1.3 Dairy goat farming
HOLP settled for dairy goats as one of the key inputs to improving the livelihoods of OVCs and
their caregivers. The dairy goats were expected to provide benefits that would include milk, cash
from milk sales, and manure to be used in the kitchen gardens.
To actualise this, HOLP proposed to provide two dairy goats (does) for each of the families in
the OVC caregivers groups. Half of the group members were to receive the goats directly from
HIK, while the remaining half was to receive the goats through Heifer’s practical cornerstone of
Passing On the Gift (POG). In addition, each group was provided with a buck for breeding
purposes as well as to improve the existing local goat breeds.
In support of dairy goat farming, the project also trained the beneficiaries on practical and profit
oriented dairy goat husbandry. Training was also conducted on the benefits to be derived from
the dairy goats and management skills to optimise the benefits. With the dairy goats came some
equipment like spray pumps etc. By the end of 2007, HOLP had provided 912 families, catering
for more than 7,176 OVCs, with 1,131 dairy goats directly and through POGs (Table 5).
Table 5: Distribution of Dairy goats, families and OVCs in the project area by December 2007

District Dairy Goats Families OVCs
Homa Bay 384 350 2,899
Migori 388 345 2,521
Nyando 18 18 149
Rachuonyo 128 120 1,053
Suba 71 79 554
Total 989 912 7,176
Source: HIK Homa Bay office. Note: These figures exclude the bucks and any distributions made after December 2007. Note
figures for Rongo and Migori have been combined because Rongo was only recently hived off Migori District

According to the HIK Homa Bay office records, all the 55 groups were provided with breeding
bucks. Of the goats distributed, 665 were pure breeds, and the rest were crosses and POGs,
which were either pure breeds or crosses).
The 482 respondents captured by the study revealed that they received a total of 558 goats
between the years 2005 and 2008 (Table 6). The survey also found that 14.5 percent of these
goats were Alpine, 56.8 percent Sannen and 28.7 percent crosses.

5

Table 2.6: Number of Goats Received by the Respondents

Row Labels 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total
Homa-bay 62 65 70 1 198
Migori 54 100 40 0 194
Nyando 0 0 15 0 15
Rachuonyo 0 3 46 9 58
Rongo 9 17 14 0 40
Suba 1 35 17 0 53
Grand Total 126 220 202 10 558

From the focus group discussions and interviews with key resource persons, it is evident that
the dairy goats have performed extremely well. The following are clear indicators of the goats’
performance to date:
• 71 percent of the goats have kidded with a twining rate of 37 percent.
• Out of a sample of 482 beneficiaries who received dairy goats between 2005 and 2007,
548 goats had kidded 583 times, with a total of 797 kids.
The project spent a considerable amount of resources to train OVCs and their caregivers on
dairy goat husbandry. But not all beneficiaries attended all training sessions since some of them
were absent when some of the topics were taught. More than 95 percent of the beneficiaries
received training on various aspects of goat husbandry that focused on dairy goat housing,
feeding, disease management, rearing kids, forage production, milking, marketing, business
skills and nutrition among others. Majority (98 percent) of the respondents indicated that they
would like to have more training, to enhance their skills and to consolidate the lessons already
taught.
Members of the family including OVCs of age also attended some training, although many learnt
goat husbandry techniques practically as they observed their care-givers in action. This is an
important aspect of the project because it ensures that almost any member of the household
can take care of the goats when the guardians are away.
Visits to beneficiary farms show that the training was effective and most beneficiaries were
trying to manage their goats as trained (see photos 1 and 2).

Photo 1: A young orphan with a Sannen goat Photo 2: A woman feeds her dairy goat

6

All families have set aside land for goat forage including Napier grass and fodder trees, while
sweet potatoes are grown not only for domestic consumption, but to feed the vines to the goats
too.
Milk yields are in general, below the potential of the dairy goats (Table 7), although it can be
improved through better feeding. Research by FARM AFRICA and HIK show that dairy goat’s
potential for milk production is on average seven litres a day, but under good management.
Maximum daily milk yields ranged from four to seven litres while the minimum recorded was half
a litre among the districts. From Table 7, mean daily milk yields stands at 2.1 litres, against a
potential of six to seven litres. During Focus Group Discussions (FGD), a farmer in Ogongo,
Suba reported daily milk yields of seven litres. These production figures exclude milk left for the
children. Goats that had twinned were left with more milk, to feed the twins.
Table 7: Summary of milk yields from the first two goats
District Homa Migori Nyando Rachuonyo Rongo Suba Total
Bay
No. of first goats milked 129 125 12 50 26 46 388
Daily milk yield from first goat 284.5 256.8 28.0 96.9 53.5 101.1 820.7
Mean yield for first goat 2.2 2.1 2.3 1.9 2.1 2.2 2.1
No. of second goats milked 10 17 1 1 8 37
Daily milk yield from second goat 18.5 28.5 3.0 0.5 9.8 60.3
Mean yield for second goat 1.9 1.7 3.0 0.5 1.2 1.6

Almost 50 percent of the milk produced is used for various purposes at home (Figure 1),
especially in tea, and other foods especially vegetables. A little milk was left to go sour, and
some sold in the neighbourhood. A few households (five percent) produced ghee from the milk.
Using milk in tea, vegetables etc ensures that the little milk is shared by a large number of
family members. Young children and those who are sick are given a little milk to drink.
How families use goat milk on daily basis (l) Although Figure 1 shows that a
significant amount of the milk is sold,
all respondents whose goats have
Give away kidded use milk at home, and only 35
1%
percent sell some. Probably those with
Sell
20% higher milk yields sell, while most use
the milk at home. Use to which milk is
put was similar among the entire
project Districts (Table 8). At least 93
percent of all who have milked their
Home dairy goats have done some value
79%
addition or processing which takes
various forms like boiling, making ghee
etc. Out of the 395 respondents who
undertake some processing, 78
percent boil, another 78 percent mix
the milk with vegetables, while 30
percent ferment the milk. At least five
Figure 1: Percent use of milk from dairy goats percent of them produce ghee from
goat milk. Fermented milk is a delicacy

7

among the Luo community, and this is the milk mostly given to children, although some take
fresh boiled milk.
Table 8: Daily use of milk from dairy goats (in litres per day)
District Home consumption Sold Give away
Homa Bay 1.8 1.3 0.6
Migori 1.7 1.3 0.9
Nyando 1.8 1.2 1.0
Rachuonyo 1.4 1.0 0.8
Rongo 1.9 0.8
Suba 1.8 1.5 0.5
Mean 1.7 1.2 0.8

The survey revealed a daily mean milk production of some 846.72 litres, which if sold a the
mean selling price of KES 35In
general, dairy goat milk prices are
much higher than milk from cows
on a unit basis. Dairy goat milk
prices ranged from a low mean of
KES 25 in Suba District to KES
48.5 a litre in Homa Bay, while
milk from cows is sold at KES 20-
25 a litre (Table 9). Most of the
milk is sold to neighbours, while a
few people have ‘contracts’ to
deliver milk and are paid on a
monthly basis for their delivery.
Data from the field show that 42
percent of the milk is sold to
neighbours, and 38 percent is
contracted (Figure 2). These data
indicate that there is adequate
demand for dairy goat milk in the
area. Figure 2: % Distribution of dairy goat milk markets
Indeed during focus group discussions, beneficiaries were full of praise for the dairy goat milk
using several adjectives to describe the ‘miracle’ milk.
Table 9: Mean milk prices in the five districts (in KES per litre)

Minimum 15 10 30 20 30 10 20
Maximum 65 65 30 100 60 40 30
Average 36 33 30 46 41 25 35

Selling of bucks: Quite a number of beneficiaries have generated money directly by selling
bucks that were brought up in their homes. This assessment found that on average, a buck is

8

sold at about KES 10,000 to 15,000. Buyers come from mainly outside the project area.
However, the marketing aspect for bucks has not yet been well coordinated.
As a consequence, and because of the interest generated in the region on dairy goats, the
Nyanza Dairy Goat Farmers Association (NDGFA) was recently formed and registered. Part of
its role will be to support farmers in marketing of their produce. Of those enumerated, 81 (17
percent) had sold a goat, mostly bucks (96 percent) at a mean cost of KES 9,650. Those
enumerated had revenue of at least KES 781,350. This is money that the poor community within
the project area hardly generate, and is set to rise. At the time of the mission, there were close
to 100 bucks waiting to be sold, and this would generate approximately KES 1.0 million.
Despite the valiant efforts of the goat owners, quite a few have died over the years, with the
numbers increasing annually (Figure 3), although the death rates have gone down.
These deaths rob the owners of 120

incomes and other benefits. By Number of deaths by year and type
the end of 2007, 129 goat deaths Alpine Crosses Saanen Grand Total

were reported by the respondents
100
out of the 1345 captured by the
study. The numbers were split
evenly between males and
females (63:66). However, more 80

of the Pure Bred Sannen (PBS)
died (43 percent) compared to
Number of deaths

Pure Bred Alpines (PBA) - (24
60
percent) and cross breeds (33
percent). From the total of all
goats recorded during the survey
(1345 goats), ten percent (10%) 40
have died over a two and a half
year period, which translates to
about four percent per annum(4%
p.a.). The FGDs revealed that 20

most of the goats reported dead
comprised of stillbirths and goat
kids. 0
2005 2006 2007 Grand Total

Figure 3: Percent use of milk from dairy goats
2.1.4 Kitchen gardens
HOLP promoted kitchen gardens with the aim of enhancing household food security, conserving
the environment and, in particular, to provide the OVCs and their caregivers with nutritious
foods, especially indigenous vegetables. An opportunity to do this arose with the up-take of
dairy goat husbandry, and the promotion of organic farming. In the set up, families were to use
goat manure in the production of local vegetables that have proved to be nutritious with positive
effects among HIV/AIDS patients. At the time of the evaluation, 92 percent of respondents had
active kitchen gardens where they practiced organic farming at the time of the mission. Kitchen
gardens ranged in size from a mean of 285m2 to 485m2, although the smallest was just 4m2.
Beneficiaries were given a package of seeds and tools for their kitchen gardens. Training was
carried out by ADPP, using organic farming techniques developed by ICIPE and the Kenya
Institute of Organic Farming (KIOF). At least 91 percent of the respondents attended the
trainings, which were broadly on the following topics:
9

Laying out the kitchen gardens, raised bed systems, double digging, use of organic pesticides,
composting and use of liquid manure. Other members of the households also benefited from the
training directly and by observing their guardians practically doing the duties.
Some of the crops grown in the kitchen gardens are presented in Figure 4. Like in the case of
goat milk, produce from the kitchen gardens were used at home and some sold in the nearby
markets for income. All the respondents consumed the produce at home, 62 percent sold some
of the produce in the nearby markets, while 14 percent gave some of the produce to the needy
including schools.
On a monthly basis, those who sold their
produce from the kitchen gardens earned an
average of KES 629, with a range of KES 30
to 8,000 per month. Some of the
beneficiaries have literally transformed the
kitchen gardens into commercial enterprises
(see photos 3 and 4). From the sample of
beneficiaries enumerated, monthly incomes
from the kitchen gardens totalled close to
KES 210,000.
Besides the crops grown in the kitchen
gardens, most beneficiaries grew other
crops in their farms. Quite a number have
started applying organic farming techniques
in these farms as well.
For both dairy goat production and kitchen
Figure 4: Vegetables grown in kitchen gardens gardening, all OVCs within the families
participated in various activities. OVCs interviewed were quite adept at carrying out routine
husbandry activities in both the goat pens and kitchen gardens.

Photo 3: Beneficiaries harvesting from the kitchen Photo 4: From kitchen garden to commercial
gardens vegetable farming

2.1.5 Strengthening capacity of OVC caregiver community groups
A total of 55 OVC caregiver community groups participated in the project. As a pre-requisite to
receive project inputs, the groups underwent training to strengthen their management
governance activities that were aimed at enhancing group cohesion and orient their activities
towards the set objectives. Also, the groups were required to formally register with the social

10

services and, in doing so, become legal entities. With the registration, the groups were able to
open Bank Accounts through which, they were to manage their financial dealings. Most of the
training was delivered by LABALU, although HIK and ADPP also conducted some of the
training.
After this initial capacity building exercise, the groups were taken through Heifer Cornerstones,
and helped to plan for their activities guided by the principles of Project Cycle Management
(PCM). The groups drew their plans of actions, including activities, inputs, expected outputs etc.
The groups also planned to have regular meetings, and elaborated on their ‘constitutions’ to
include modalities of working with HOLP.
However, the capacity strengthening activities were not adequate. Groups were still having
problems related to group dynamics, and on occasions, governance issues. Therefore, this
input was not adequately delivered, and may have other consequences to the sustainability of
the project.
2.1.6 Psychosocial and medical care
This component was meant to better integrate OVCs in their caregiver families, support the ‘new
family’ set up and assist with provision of medical care, counselling on HIV/AIDS and encourage
the OVCs to attend school. However, none of the activities planned under this component were
delivered by the partner – St Francis Sisters. Therefore, the project beneficiaries missed out on
the potential benefits from this intervention.
2.1.7 Capacity building of partner organisations
Under this activity, capacities of the three partner organisations were to be strengthened. HOLP
provided LABALU and ADPP with resources for office equipment and facilitated their
movements. In addition, HOLP invited all the organisations to attend important training
workshops and seminars on areas of interest from time to time.
However, the capacity building exercise was not well targeted, and there are no records of
capacity needs of these organisations. Whereas ADPP was satisfied with the capacity building it
received, both LABALU and St. Francis Congregation were unhappy with it.
Therefore, it is deduced that the project implemented most of the key activities, with some
extremely well implemented, while others like strengthening local capacities could have been
better implemented. Significantly, components that HOLP was charged with were fully
implemented and extremely well too, while implementation by the partners in general, fell short
of expectations.
2.2 Impact of the Project
In examining the impact of the project, impact felt by the four different sub-target groups distilled
from the project documents have been distinguished. These sub-target groups are classified as
OVCs, caregivers, the wider community and the implementing partners.
2.2.1 Impact on OVCs
Results from the household survey show that 98 percent of daily milk production was used at
home for making tea, mixed with vegetables or fermented. Interviews with OVCs within the
households revealed that they were given dairy goat milk, especially at the height of milk
production. Some OVCs drink the milk raw straight after milking. Caregivers preferred to share
the little milk by using it to make tea or mixed with vegetables. The rest of the milk was sold 19.8
percent and given to neighbours or schools as gifts 1.5%.

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Caregivers and key resource persons interviewed during focus group discussions were
emphatic that the dairy goat milk was more nutritious than milk from cattle. They went as far as
stating that many OVCs who came into their families with skin diseases, and almost always fell
sick were now ’shining’ and healthy because of the goat milk.
Because of the perceived superior nutritive quality of dairy goat milk (beneficiaries actually
believe that it is medicinal), its price is greater than that for cattle milk.
All the OVCs interviewed eat at least lunch and super a day in addition to either tea or
fermented milk. Though the baseline survey reported the same finding, the quality of meals then
did not include tea or milk (less than ten percent had tea or milk). Although most households still
eat ugali and vegetables, the type of vegetables have changed, with more of the organically
produced indigenous vegetables. Most of the tea is made with milk from the goats – even
families that do not have milk from their goats can either buy or borrow from neighbours (group
members) to use at home (see Figure 1).
The following data is an indication of the impact of the project on OVC’s nutritional status:
In the survey carried out, 506 children were five years and below but growth monitoring cards
were available for only 163 children. The cards showed the following:
• 131 (80.9 percent) showed normal growth;
• 23 (14.1 percent) above normal; and
• 9 (5.5 percent) were below normal weight (growth).
First, the baseline survey did not measure the nutritional status of the OVCs even indirectly, and
therefore it is difficult to know if the findings above are largely as a result of the project outputs.
But given that Nyanza province has always had comparatively low indices of weight vs. age for
children below five, it is fair to attribute, even partly, the observed results to the project inputs.
In Magungu, a day-care centre for OVCs in Rachuonyo District that was given three dairy goats,
the managers reported that none of the 118 children had fallen sick to opportunistic diseases
related to HIV/AIDS in the past three months ostensibly because of the dairy goat milk.
From the data, there were 2,382 ‘children’ between ages six and 24. Of these, 1,960 were in
school (82 percent). Some children below six years were also in school. When only those
between six and 18 years are considered, 89.4 percent were in school (1,664 out of 1,862).
Whereas it would be presumptuous to ascribe this high rate of school attendance to the project,
clearly there is a link.
Most children who do not attend school are usually the vulnerable ones with no one to care for
their needs including food, clothing, uniforms and books. Because their caregivers are able to
sell milk, bucks or even vegetables from their gardens and get some income, basic school
necessities of OVCs can be met, and are actually met.
In addition to shelter, food, health, schooling and clothing, a pressing need for most OVCs is
parental love and care. All children interviewed were happy with their foster homes, and the
care/attention they were getting. However, there were a few reported cases of stigma,
especially in schools. Pupils in school often teased their less fortunate colleagues although the
problem is now being addressed by teachers and local opinion leaders.

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Photo 5: OVCs in a kitchen garden Photo 6: OVC learns to feed a goat

The love and care given to OVCs is perhaps the greatest impact of the project on their lives –
courtesy of the project inputs. Obviously some OVCs may not be very happy living with foster
parents who are largely poor, but under the circumstances, they are better off than in the
streets.
Some of the indirect benefits to the OVCs must also be mentioned. OVCs have participated in
taking care of the goats, and also organic farming (see photos 5 & 6), in the process learning
invaluable livelihood skills (Figure 5). When asked about their participation in the kitchen
gardens and goat husbandry, the OVCs were elated that they had learned important concepts,
were more than happy to help with the chores and that the chores were in no way punishing
them. Some even claimed ownership over certain chores, like cleaning the pens so that they
could ‘talk’ with their goats.

Figure 5: Duties that OVCs carry out in goat husbandry and kitchen gardens

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2.2.2 Impact on OVC caregivers and family members
Caregivers of OVCs reported numerous benefits from the project, especially the dairy goats
(Figure 6) including the much acclaimed dairy goat milk, incomes, farm yard manure and
enhanced social standing within the community.
In terms of impact to the caregivers, the greatest is hope and social recognition. Owning a dairy
goat is now a prestigious thing in the project area. Dairy goat milk is revered as an invaluable
medicine against HIV/AIDS in the project area.
Another impact of the project as was expressed by many was that the dairy goat has been
keeping the beneficiaries well occupied at home and hence reduced the hours spent on idle
talk. Whereas taking care of the goats has eaten into some of their time, many claimed it was
worth it, in any case, they stated, “what can we get without sweating?”
Some groups have coined a saying that loosely
translates to “the dairy goats have kept us busy,
and protected us from unnecessary loitering in
the markets” or in Luo, “diel ogeng’o bayo”. This
is an important impact because guardians are
able to spend more time doing productive work.
The kitchen gardens and organic farming have
significantly reduced moneys spent on buying
vegetables – usually kales that are not as
‘nutritive’. The money saved has gone into other
domestic uses. Another important impact is the
social capital built through the capacity building
initiatives at group level. Beneficiaries who
attend training are now better savers, use better
production techniques (extended organic
farming concept to their farms), while a few
beneficiaries have transformed their
Figure 6: Benefits from dairy goats
subsistence oriented kitchen gardens into
commercial undertakings.

Most female beneficiaries whose goats have kidded or access milk from neighbours claimed
that the project has significantly enhanced ‘peace’ at home, especially as men tend to come
back home early enough to take ‘the thick’ tea made from goat milk, as well as not intending to
miss the yummy vegetables mixed with goat milk. This is a critical impact because amidst
poverty and challenges posed by HIV/AIDS and the orphans, tranquillity at home is necessary
to help the families go through the difficult times.
Caregivers have learnt the art and spirit of sharing, especially when they have to give milk to
schools and neighbours who do not have any, but in return also receive milk when in need. The
project has also helped many save money – according to LABALU, the number of group
members saving in their local savings and credit schemes has increased by over 60 percent,
and the money per member has also increased by close to 50 percent in the last two years.
Another impact has been innovation among the dairy goat keepers. Project beneficiaries have
started innovating techniques of adding value to their produce, for example production of ghee
from the milk and sold at about KES 300 per litre. The impact is that the project has created an
enabling environment for innovative business people to take up opportunities of making some
income.

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A very significant impact of the project has been the formation and registration of the Nyanza
Dairy Goat Farmers Association, which is expected to lobby and advocate on behalf of the
members. The chairman of the association is a care giver from Rachuonyo Distinct. Farmers
from each District are expected to register district-based chapters of the association. The
significance of NDGFA is that it would like to take over the keeping of breeding records,
hopefully with the support of HIK, and also streamline marketing of dairy goat products.
Therefore for the OVCs and their families, the project has enhanced social capital, built
household assets, provided some basic necessities and given them hope. Therefore, the impact
of the project is immediate, visible and significant.
2.2.3 Impact on the wider community
In the context of the wider community, impact can be summarised as follows:
• Many households are now taking into the concept of organic farming, and especially the
number of kitchen gardens has risen dramatically in the last year. The mission counted
close to 50 homes with kitchen gardens modelled on the organic farming – Push Pull
technology.
• The larger community is able to purchase the ‘miracle’ dairy goat milk. Indeed the
demand for the milk, especially in the urban areas like Migori and Homa Bay towns
where awareness of the milk’s qualities is high, and the milk prices are relatively higher.
• There is definitely an increase in demand for dairy goats; however the supply of dairy
goat does is still low because group members are still undertaking the POG, while those
who finished their share of POGs are busy building their stocks/asset levels.
• Farmers from the wider community have now begun to upgrade their local goats through
breeding with pure bred bucks.
The greatest impact the project has created is to give hope to thousands of OVCs and their
caregivers that they can rise from their lows to succeed in life. Many actors and key resource
persons accept that this is the most important impact of the project, although no one can
quantify it. Nevertheless, other quantifiable impact as presented above is still very significant
within the project and national context.
To a lesser extent but nonetheless important, the project has in general had a positive impact
on the environment. The need to feed dairy goats with recommended nutritious forages has
prompted beneficiaries to put up agroforestry trees like Caliandra, Sesbania, etc. On the other
hand, there is now a significant reduction in the use of pesticides in farms because farmers
have opted to use bio-pesticides they make locally and save on production costs. Growing of
Napier grass is supporting the reduction of soil erosion, while intercropping using the push-pull
technology developed by ICIPE is improving the soil structure and fertility (as evidenced by
greater yields).
It can thus be summarised that the project has had a profound impact among the beneficiaries
and their neighbours. In addition to creating hope among a very desperate people, incomes
have in general improved, and families have saved money on ‘domestic’ expenses. The fact
that many caregivers reported their willingness to take up a few more OVCs is enough
testimony to the success of the project so far.
Examined from another angle, the project has provided empirical evidence that taking care of
OVCs from within caregiver families, and not orphanages is a practical step towards better care
for the OVCs. Whereas the merits or demerits of orphanages is not part of this ToR, many
children would be happier staying in the free world of ‘normal homes’, doing what other children
are doing, and learning ‘world dynamics’ in a natural environment, and not in the confines of

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orphanages. In any case, taking all the OVCs in the project area to orphanages is to say the
least impossible and not sustainable. Giving people resources that they can use to care for their
loved ones, relatives and desperate children is a more practical option even if a tricky
undertaking.

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3. CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNT
3.1 Assessment of HOLP Partners
The three key implementation partners were LABALU, St Francis Congregation and ADPP and
their roles are spelt out in the ToR to this assignment (Appendix 1).
LABALU was tasked with strengthening community groups and delivering training on record
keeping, mobilisation of savings and credit and providing counselling to the OVCs and their
families. Though it is an organisation hinged on the Catholic Archdiocese of Homa Bay, it is a
semi autonomous entity; however, the church may still have considerable influence on its
activities.
In terms of its performance, it is quite evident that it did a lot to mobilise the groups in the field,
helped to strengthen them, but fell short of the expected training standards. LABALU does not
have adequate technical capacity to implement the activities it was meant to (see details in
Appendix 9). Further, LABALU seemed to have concentrated more on training the groups in
rural savings and credit and encouraging them to get loans as opposed to strengthening the
groups, and training them on governance and group dynamics.
St Francis Sisters Congregation was tasked with providing health services to the OVCs, food for
the young and vulnerable and organising for psychosocial support to the OVCs and their
families. However, the project document did not elaborate how this organisation would achieve
this. Whereas it worked hard to mobilize the community groups, it is evident that St Francis
Congregation had very high expectations that Heifer did not meet. As a result, it more or less
did not implement any of the activities expected of it. According to HOLP and HIK records, St
Francis Sisters Congregation had budgeted for KES 937,500 for its activities. It received this
money, but obviously, the amount was inadequate for the intended activities, and it is not clear
what it used the money for. In our considered opinion, there was a serious mismatch in the
expectations of the Congregation.
Secondly, it is clear that the St Francis Sisters Congregation did not have the capacity to
undertake the tasks assigned to it, and was depending on resources from HIK to set itself up in
order to implement its activities, which also include working with OVCs. Capacity here is used in
the broadest sense of the word, to include human and non-human resources.
ADPP performed its tasks very well, and has adequate technical expertise in organic farming.
However, it delivered training without preparing manuals and modules, and one cannot
ascertain whether training was uniformly delivered across the project area. It certainly is a
strong organisation, but with ample opportunities to strengthen itself and perform better
(Appendix 8). The mission also recognises the fact that challenges posed by the other two
implementing partners to some extent affected service delivery by ADPP, which expected to find
common interest groups that were already well organised, trained and strengthened. Instead, it
spent time in delivering some training in group dynamics and institutional strengthening.
The mission found that ADPP has continued to offer support to the groups through more visits
since the first phase ended. However, it has significantly scaled down its activities – due to
resource constraints. On a positive note, ADPP offers extension services to individual farmers
who visit any of its three Agrovet branches in the project area.
At another level, it may have been asking too much of these organisations to provide technical
support over such a wide area. Understandably, they cannot do so for nothing, and spreading
themselves too thin is in the first instance not very attractive (possibility of incurring losses),
while on the other hand it offers them an opportunity to expand and learn more.

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It is also important to note that some government departments collaborated very closely with
HOLP in project implementation. The veterinary department, right from the headquarters in
Nairobi to the field officers at the divisions and locations actively participated in various
activities, not least of all in trying to give veterinary care to the goats. Community Animal Health
Workers in HOLP were trained by officers from the veterinary department. Also, the Livestock
production office continues to offer support including extension to the project activities.
However, HOLP had to pay for most of the services from the government departments.
Plan Kenya, an NGO operating in the project area collaborated with HIK in providing building
materials for goat pens to a few of the beneficiaries in Homa Bay. HIK is encouraged to enter
more of such collaborations in order to reach more of the really needy families.
3.2 Lessons Learnt and Challenges Faced by the Project
In their own words, project staff say that HOLP has been a fantastic learning process for them,
with many challenges.
1. The first challenge was that of strengthening the community groups into legal entities
that HOLP could deal with as per the practices of Heifer Kenya. HOLP had expected to
find groups that were strong enough to work with, but most had not even registered with
the Social Services Department, and hence had no bank accounts, which was central to
the implementation of the project. The lesson here is that HIK should at least carry out a
rapid institutional assessment of the capacities in community groups, and not take on
face value, reports from other partners.
2. Secondly, the project experienced significant delays in accessing the funds from CIFF,
which cascaded into delays in implementing other activities. As with most rural
communities, such delays are usually not a good sign, especially when an organisation
wants to implement activities for the first time. HIK decided to invest its own resources to
move the project forward. ADPP and LABALU also used their resources to kick-start
their activities. Therefore, given the dynamics of fund raising and flow of funds, it is
important to know the levels of commitment to make, so that embarrassing situations are
avoided.
3. There were also significant delays in procuring breeding dairy goats, and the project had
to seek for goats from South Africa and Kenya (and not France as was initially planned).
Of course this flexibility in sourcing for goats is highly commended, but the situation can
be avoided through better planning during the proposal stage.
4. Because dairy goats were new in the area, no one could predict how they would adapt to
the environment, and specifically, how they would react to animal diseases under
husbandry conditions that were sub-optimal. The survey recorded at least 129 deaths
from a sample of 482, (including kids) from various causes. These deaths represent
massive loses to the families. A typical buck costs about KES 10,000, while a doe
fetches close to KES 15,000. Deaths have been rising every year since 2005, which
recorded only eight deaths rising to 56 in 2007, although the annual death rates are
showing a declining trend, with mostly the new borns dying in larger numbers. Most of
the deaths were reported in new born kids. The project does not have the capacity to
effectively assess the cause of deaths, although enterotoxaemia, bloat and tick borne
diseases e.g. East Coast Fever (ECF) are believed to be major causes of death.
5. Access to veterinary services remains a huge challenge. Although the project has
trained CAHWs, they are few, and their training was inadequate for the needed services.

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6. This assessment has reported that milk yields are way below the potential of the goats
for many of the beneficiaries. The proximate cause of the low yields lies with how and
what beneficiaries feed the goats on. Some beneficiaries do not feed the goats with the
recommended mix of forages, although going by the sizes and health status of the
goats, most are given adequate food. Therefore, it is the quality of the feeds that is an
issue, but HOLP does not have capacity to offer adequate extension services.
7. A recent challenge, and which may become a huge one is the issue of markets for
bucks. Though the prices fetched so far are good – KES 10,000, many households are
keeping bucks, which are not only feeding, but some are reported to be destroying the
goat pens.
8. Field data also shows that capacity building – for all the activities was inadequate.
Trainings were done a few times, yet the technology being introduced is new. This is
echoed in beneficiaries’ passionate appeal for more training sessions, to cover goat
husbandry, organic farming and strengthening of their groups.
9. The centralized management of funds in Nairobi is a challenge in that it affects the flow
of funds and, subsequently, the speed with which require services can be delivered. The
local regional office (now in charge of more than 1000 dairy goats) must make requests
that are then processed, and, at times the requested goods are procured in Nairobi and
then sent to the regional office. Though a centralized system has its merits, HIK should
give serious thought to decentralizing some of its financial management – in this case, a
proposal is made for monthly allocations to be retired before the next allocation is made.
10. HOLP has few and efficient staff members. However, they did not have adequate
facilities to produce optimally, even if their work is rated excellent. Staff do not have
adequate vehicles to travel within the project areas and have had to rely on transport
from the GoK departments. Hence there is need for HIK to consider increasing the
number of vehicles as well as looking into the mode of motorisation it gives staff,
especially the female officers – who are not comfortable riding motorbikes over very
rough terrain. Considering the nature of and amount of information the regional office
deals with, to ensure that the project staff have some reasonable office space from
where to operate and in order for them to provide efficient services to beneficiaries and
other interested actors, equipment like computers/laptops should be made available to
them all.
11. Partners’ expectations of the project remained a challenge throughout the
implementation period, especially St Francis Sisters Congregation. This is a critical
lesson in dealing with partners. The inclusion of a reasonable probationary period of
collaboration before formalizing partnerships is therefore recommended.
12. Other collaborators like staff from GoK would like to be facilitated to move to the field
where they can support HOLP beneficiaries better, especially the veterinary officers.
Whereas the presence of many NGOs paying bigger allowances has complicated the
nature of these collaborations, there are an adequate number of GoK staff willing to work
for the cause – of course with some little facilitation – which is improving the livelihoods
of the beneficiaries.
13. Effective monitoring of critical indicators was not carried out, largely due to inadequate
technical capacities to do so, and also due to lack of defining the right indicators in the
project log-frame. Indeed, the logframe (Appendix 9) was reviewed in order to indentify
indicators to use for this assessment.

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Although the challenges seem many, field based project staff proved equal to them, and were
actually able to find local solutions or circumvented them to successfully implement the project
activities.

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4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Conclusions
1 HOLP has successfully introduced an important practical, appropriate livelihood
enhancing technology targeting a very vulnerable section of the community – OVCs and
their care givers. The dairy goats introduced in the project area have adapted well and
been well received by the beneficiaries despite earlier apprehensions of low technology
adoption. On the other hand, promotion of organic farming techniques for production in
the kitchen gardens to enhance food availability at the household level has significantly
rekindled interest in kitchen gardening within the project area in general.
Dairy goats have, within the short time period, brought immense benefits to most of the
project beneficiaries including milk, manure, incomes, knowledge and skills, enhanced
the social standing of the OVC families and most important of all, brought hope to a
largely despairing community. The importance of the dairy goats is seen in the light of
the future, as its benefits accrue. Similarly, kitchen gardening has also brought
numerous benefits including production of nutritious local vegetables, incomes, and an
enhanced good environmental practices. Because of the higher yields realized from the
organic farming technology, some beneficiaries moved from subsistence to commercial
organic agriculture, earning substantial incomes to meet the needs of OVCs and their
families.
The impact of these two technologies on the OVCs and their caregivers has been visible,
significant and almost immediate – better nutrition reflected in the few underweight
OVCs, most OVCs living happily within the foster families and accessing life’s basic
necessities, and importantly, improved overall health (as evidenced by the reported
decline in skin diseases and opportunistic infections). These benefits have also spread
to all the children within the caregiver households, most of whom are also vulnerable by
virtue of their guardians being either affected or infected with HIV/AIDS.,
2 The use of local NGOs and CBOs as implementation partners was, in a nutshell, a major
lesson for HIK. Although HIK and the partners signed legal letters of agreement, the
working relationship in the field would have yielded better results if the partnerships were
better structured, the organisations given an incubation period to know and learn from
each other and more joint planning and monitoring sessions held. Of the three
implementing partners, only ADPP came close to achieving the desired level of
expectations, while the other two fell short for various reasons. Critically, none of the
partners have been able to monitor the progress of the groups since December 30th
when the legal agreements lapsed, despite earlier stating that they were routinely
working with the said groups in other endeavours.
The relatively poor performance of the local partners is ascribed to inadequate
understanding of what the partnerships entailed as their different expectations were not
harmonized. This was not helped by a rather unclear reporting, supervision and
communication channel between the partners and HIK, and failure on HIK’s part to hold
regular consultative meetings with the partners.
3 Due to lack of capacity among the partners, provision of psychosocial support and
medical care components were not implemented, hence OVCs did not realize the
benefits that were expected from this component. Therefore, HIK should review its
approach to partnering with local organisations, paying particular attention to the human
and financial capacities, long term interests and management history of the partners.

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4 Whereas the field staff did extremely well, the staff compliment was rather thin, and
hence the workload has tremendously increased. At initiation, HOLP was being
implemented in only two Districts, but is now spread to six (Rongo was hived off Migori).
This poses a challenge to the only available three field project advisors. The spatial
expansion did not come with additional facilities like vehicles and computers, which
would make the work of the staff more comfortable. Whereas motorbikes are a good
means of transport, they can be a hindrance, especially when it rains and where the
terrain is as rugged as the project area, and three of the five staff are ladies.
The enhanced spatial coverage has also proved to be a challenge to administration of
the project, especially as the financial systems of HIK are fully centralized, almost always
resulting in delays in money flows, that also occasion slower responses to challenges in
the field, e.g. dealing with disease outbreaks.
5 Because of pressure on staff time, important monitoring data has not been analysed,
therefore not used in supporting project implementation. Project advisors kept close tabs
on the project activities, but this vigil did not translate into corrective measures.
Therefore, the project has considerable scope to improve on its monitoring. This needs
to include qualitative information and not rely heavily on quantitative data from the field
as currently seems to be the case. It is doubtful if the entire country programme has a
monitoring and evaluation system in place.
6 Whereas dairy goat production has faced disease and buck marketing challenges,
HOLP responded strongly to the disease problem by training CAHWs, most of who are
members of the groups, to offer ‘first aid’ services, and act as a link between the goat
owners and GoK veterinary officers. But the training CAHWs received was only
introductory and they definitely need more to become effective in their duties. Though
the challenge on marketing will probably take longer to solve, however, HIK has
supported beneficiaries to form an association, which will hopefully take on the role. Both
the CAHWs and the dairy goat association are critical building blocks towards achieving
sustainability.
7 The project has established very good working relationships with other actors on the
ground, especially the service delivery departments of the government like veterinary,
livestock production, DDO; Plan Kenya, World Vision, OIP, CARD, CMAD, CCF etc.
these relationships are also an indication and recognition of the importance of HOLP in
the area. On the other hand, it has brought in new challenges, as more actors seek to
have a role to play in the success of the project – especially the GoK departments
expect to be facilitated (read paid) to deliver certain services. On a positive note, these
relationships have resulted in different levels of collaboration that have brought
immediate benefits to the target groups and enhanced the project impact e.g. Plan
Kenya supporting some groups with resources to build goat pens, while ICIPE’s Push-
pull technology has significantly enhanced production in the kitchen gardens.
8 Overall, HOLP was a successful project, and has created an immediate, significant and
visible impact among the beneficiaries (OVCs and their caregivers), the wider members
of society, implementing partners and other actors in the district. For the beneficiaries,
the project has brought nutritious food (milk and vegetables), incomes (from sale of milk,
bucks and vegetables), increased household assets (dairy goats), enhanced the social
standing and brought love and hope among the families. The project has also given birth
to a new source of livelihood – CAHWs, who are earning some income through their
services. There is still room for improvement, especially with the lessons learnt that

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would enhance implementation of activities, overcoming challenges, and delivering
more, better, faster with fewer resources.
HOLP has ably demonstrated that with a few inputs, local communities can manage
some of the impacts of HIV/AIDS. In particular, HOLP has shown that OVCs can be
better taken care of within foster homes, where they can also learn important life skills,
while at the same time being children like any other.
9 In conclusion, HOLP is a simple project that is among the very few livelihood
improvement initiatives with excellent targeting, extremely high technology adoption
rates (especially in Nyanza province), an almost assured sustainability element (through
the groups, POGs and CAHWs), easily replicable with visible and immediate impact.
4.2 Recommendations
In the proposed second phase, the two types of recommendations are made; the first in
response to the challenges faced during phase I, while the second set of recommendations are
largely based on the wishes of the beneficiaries and other actors.
4.2.1 Recommendations to improve implementation and enhance impact:
1 HIK implements projects through local partners, and therefore should conduct due
diligence on all potential partners before committing to work with them on the long term
to ensure smoother implementation of activities. Because there are many local
organisations whose major interest is monetary benefits, it is proposed that HIK should
engage potential partners in a pre-partnership probationary phase of up to six months,
before signing full partnership agreements with them for the longer term. During this pre-
partnership period, time should be spent in harmonizing expectations, laying clear
working modalities, and forming an implementation team. Issues of technical capacity
will emerge and a way out can be formulated at this stage.
Given the likely scenario that the spatial coverage of the second phase will be expanded,
HIK should explore two possible scenarios of working with area-based or sector based
partners. In the former, HIK could choose to work with a partner operating within a
limited geographic area, where they are based and known. In the second scenario, HIK
continues with the system used in phase I, where a partner implements a sector
component over the entire project area.
The area-based partners approach is more attractive, because it reduces logistical costs
like travelling. Because the organisations will be implementing activities in their area of
operations, they are more likely to offer support beyond the life of the project. Of course,
this arrangement also has challenges, like a partner lacking critical capacity for specific
components. This is actually an opportunity for it to build its capacity through the project
(also being one objective of HIK working with local partners). An organisation with the
necessary technical capacity from another area (or HIK staff or consultant) can be
contracted to train the organisation so that it provides the service.
2 Even as HIK would like to expand during phase II, it is critical that it objectively reviews
and adjusts its staff capacity. Whereas it has a qualified Veterinary Officer as its
coordinator, the administrative duties are such that he can hardly offer his veterinary
skills to the beneficiaries as demanded. The project would best be served by having an
additional veterinary officer to support and strengthen CAHWs, in addition to quickly
responding to dairy goat disease challenges, basically to strengthen dairy goat disease
management. This officer can work across several HIK projects, but be on call for HOLP
emergencies and planned activities.

23

Secondly, as HIK expands its activities and presence in the area, it should think of
having either interns or junior employees to assist the field project advisors. This will
ensure that HIK builds a critical mass of well trained, practical project advisors for its
portfolio that is expanding in the country. These assistants should also assist with area-
based data analysis.
Lastly, on this issue, HOLP should spare resources for office space to be used by the
project advisors, or enter into agreements with partners to house/host the project
advisors.
3 For the second phase, and particularly in order to address the issues of psychosocial
care and support, HIK should seek partnership or working arrangements with institutions
that have the technical know-how, experience and resources as co-implementers of a
joint project, while concentrating on its core activities of addressing livelihood challenges
through livestock production and organic farming. However, HIK should avoid partnering
or collaborating with organisations that may appear able to address the needs of their
beneficiaries but, in the long run, stand to benefit more from HIK’s huge beneficiary base
to raise money for their organisation.
4 Whereas the project collected an impressive amount of data on project activities, this
data has not been processed. Secondly, the data collected was biased towards dairy
goat production and kitchen gardening, while none was collected to monitor the key
objectives of the project, namely, the well-being of OVCs. Part of the problem was lack of
capacity to manage and analyse the data. Given that the M&E practices of HIK should be
improved, for the second Phase, and probably for the entire organisation, an M&E
system should be put in place and institutionalised.
Similar to this but at another level, it is recommended that all future programming of HIK
should have very clear and explicit indicators for monitoring which should also be
defined in unambiguous language during baseline surveys. It is important that baseline
data be collected on the OVCs, as none has been collected to monitor among others,
their health status, education performance and general level of happiness within the
foster homes.
5 Demand for dairy goats is rising in the area and, while reproduction is also increasing,
the breeding records of the goats are neither known nor stored in a database that can be
easily retrieved for verification. Therefore, the breeding history of the dairy goats is not
known, and this may probably impact negatively on the sale of dairy goats in future.
Whereas the breeding records are best maintained by a neural body, the recent
formation of the dairy goats association in the region being a positive step in that
direction, HIK should probably initiate the process and hand it over to a suitable
beneficiary-related institution in the future. It is also possible that HIK could build the
capacity of such an institution to keep the records as part of the phase II activities.
6 At another level, phase II of the project should improve the capacity of the beneficiaries
to better respond to the threat of dairy goat diseases, starting with enhancing the
knowledge level and skills of CAHWs. Another proposal is that the CAHWs role should
be expanded to cover the major aspects of the project – dairy goat production and
husbandry, and organic farming – and therefore rename them as Community Own
Resource Person (CORP). With this transformation, more resources should be spent on
building the capacity of the CORP. This proposal is attractive because on the one hand, it
gives HIK a direct contact with the beneficiaries at minimal cost for a long time and
enables the beneficiaries to access advice and support more rapidly. On the other hand,
the process will support sustainability while also offering opportunities to the CORP to

24

generate some income e.g. offering first aid to the goats, stocking small quantities of
inputs, and even charging for advice they give (employment opportunity).
Because the CORP will require some support for start-up capital, HIK should explore the
possibility of linking them up with financial institutions that promote agriculture and
micro-enterprises like Equity Bank, AFC, FAULU Kenya, and KWFT among others.
7 In designing a second phase, a key lesson learnt is that ‘facilitation’ resources are
needed to ensure optimal collaboration, especially from GoK. Even institutions that have
adequate resources are often stretched when their staff offer technical services to other
organisations, i.e. many organisations work with activity based budgets, which are pretty
limiting and hence may not access resources to carry out activities beyond those already
planned for.
4.2.2 Recommendations on deepening project impact – from beneficiaries, actors and
stakeholders
1 There was a general call for HIK to introduce dairy cows in the project area. Whereas
past attempts have not succeeded, HIK’s approach to the introduction and promotion of
such technologies has succeeded in other parts of the country, and stands a good
chance in the project area. However attractive dairy cows are, it is doubtful that they
would be suitable for this target group. Probably, and if indeed there are resources to
introduce dairy cows, it should be a separate component targeting a different segment of
the community and not OVCs.
2 Several requests were for HIK to augment their programme activities with the promotion
of local/indigenous poultry production. The argument here was that returns from the
poultry is almost immediate and it can be used by the families to begin sustaining
themselves before their goats kid down and even before the long-term financial benefits
of dairy goat breeding is felt within their households. Although many households keep
poultry, production and productivity are low, indigenous chicken are on high demand
within the urban areas (hotels) thereby fetching good returns. Secondly, demand for eggs
from indigenous poultry is rising.
3 Promotion of beekeeping. There is very little beekeeping going on in the project area,
and especially the more dry areas of Suba District are quite suitable. Already, OIP
produces an average of 500 Kg of honey from just a few hives around Oyugis town.
Using the lessons learnt from the very successful Phase I, formulation of a second phase to
HOLP is fully supported in order to consolidate and deepen the benefits and impact to the OVCs
and the general community. The second phase should also expand spatially to reach more of
the OVCs, as estimates put the number of orphans to be around 200,000 in the project districts,
which essentially means that if other vulnerable children are included, the figure will be much
larger, yet HOLP targeted just about 7,000 OVCs.

25

APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Terms of Reference
1. Introduction
Homa Bay Orphan Livelihood Project ( HOLP) was developed by Heifer Project International
with the main objective of supporting orphans and vulnerable children in the Homa Bay region to
develop sustainable livelihoods. The goal of the project was to provide orphans with the tools
and resources needed to develop economically, socially and environmental sustainable
agricultural enterprises. Through provision of the dairy goats, training in sustainable agriculture
and related supplies, the HOLP will increase the incomes and nutritional levels of participating
orphans and their families through the production of goat’s milk, vegetables and other products.
Once children were able to feed themselves and their siblings, they would be able to focus on
other necessities such as education, health and other social activities.
Homa Bay, Suba, Migori and Rachuonyo Districts have a combined population of more than
1,300,000 (1999 census). The current population is skewed toward the traditionally non-
economically active groups: young people under 15 years who make up 47 percent while those
over 60 years taking up 6.7 percent of total population. The balance of 47 percent of the
population, which should be economically productive, is the group most seriously affected by
HIV/AIDS. This has left the young and the old to take care of themselves along those that are
sick. At times when they should be cared for by others, the young and elderly are being forced
into caregiver roles. It is estimated that there are more than 250,000 orphans and vulnerable
children in the region.
Governmental data on orphaned children estimates that 15 percent of all children have been
orphaned by HIV/AIDS, which translates to 1.6 million children of ages between 0 to 15 years.
Nyanza region has the highest number of orphans, with more than 20 percent of all children
under the age of 15 years being orphans. These orphans are usually disadvantaged compared
with children with parents. An assessment done by the government confirmed that 92 percent of
children with parents have access to education compared to 88 percent of orphans. It was
further confirmed that the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) do not have the basic material
needs that family would supply, shelter, food security, clothing, access to health services and
feeling of belonging. HIV/AIDS has placed an enormous strain on foster families and has
reduced the capacity of these families to provide and care for the children. Most orphans are
taken in by families headed by single parents, grandparents or older children; families which are
typically already living in poverty. The reduced family income is lowering the ability of OVC
caregivers to take children to schools. Social instability rises due to poverty levels and girls may
be lured into commercial sex for survival.
In order to slow down the trend of poverty progression, the needs of orphans and vulnerable
children should be addressed as a matter of urgency. A programme targeting OVC, with aim of
alleviating their disadvantaged positions in families and society and enabling them access all life
necessities, must be developed and implemented with multi-sectoral array of partnerships. Such
programmes needs to establish safety nets for children, while building sustainability and
addressing their social needs: education, health, income and food security, shelter and feeling
of belonging.
2. HOLP Phase 1
Under phase 1 of this project, HPI working with partners, namely the St. Francis Sisters
Congregation, Lake Basin Land Use programme (LABALU) and Animal Draft Power
Programme (ADPP) and the Kenya government Ministry of Livestock Development carried out
the following activities:
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HOLP Final Report Assesses Impact on Orphans

HOLP Final Report Assesses Impact on Orphans

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