Local Ownership

Critical to the sustainability of the Millennium Villages is the need to empower the entire community, including women and vulnerable groups, by building local technical, administrative, and entrepreneurial capacity. In conjunction with improved health and education, this transformation encourages women and men to establish their own businesses, to take advantage of microfinance and micro-enterprise opportunities and to explore income earning possibilities beyond farming.

Participatory, community-led decision-making is central to the way Millennium Villages work and is also fundamental to sustainability. Establishing community agreement to become one of the Millennium Villages sites takes place through a series of discussions with elected and appointed officials, community committees, and open forums at the local level. Discussions entail a description of the MDGs, a brief summary of the UN Task Force Recommendations for meeting the MDGs, and the concept behind the Millennium Villages project. This village dialogue is a means of assuring transparency and carries through the course of the entire project.

Once agreement is established, specific committees and community members begin the process of identifying and evaluating project possibilities with the support of a scientific team and local partners. Together they create a package of village-specific project initiatives that are deemed most appropriate and cost effective. They also produce a community action plan for implementing and managing these projects. All along, Millennium Villages fosters and empowers democratic practices, and actively promotes gender equality in decision-making and allocation of resources.

On-site facilitators in community management and oversight, agriculture and the environment, and health and infrastructure are hired through the village budget. Wherever possible these facilitators are seconded from line ministries or hired locally. A training center is also established in the community.

Technical capacity building, beginning at the onset of implementation, provides villagers with the skills they need to sustain the project initiatives in the long-term. Training courses for health and nutrition, agricultural and environment, energy and transport services, water resources and sanitation, and business and communications provide villagers with the skills they need in each area.