ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
Supporting Citizen Initiative for Development in Africa (SCIDA) is a leading nonprofit organization empowering communities to undertake self-development initiatives and to responsibly utilize development opportunities to fight poverty. Founded in 2013 and registered in 2017 under the Association Law of Liberia, SCIDA is a non-sectarian, independent, and non-governmental org
anization based in Nimba County, Liberia. It is one of the fast-growing non-profitmaking organizations focused on fighting poverty, corruption, and social injustice, and enhancing good governance. In 2021, SCIDA reported working in 142 local communities and 18 administrative districts in Nimba, B**g, and Grand Gedeh counties, supporting 12 poverty-fighting projects, governance, human rights, and health response projects, and reaching over 13,890+ people directly and 27,456 indirectly. SCIDA’s programs in the development context address a broad range of thematic areas including education, health; economic development and empowerment, agriculture and climate change, leadership development, food security, rule of law (justice), peace-building, microfinance loan, governance, water sanitation, livelihood, and community development. SCIDA also advocates for policy change and the rights of poor and vulnerable communities at the local and national levels. Within each of these thematic areas, SCIDA focuses on empowering and responding to the needs of women, girls, youth, and other vulnerable groups, including promoting gender equality and human rights. With headquarters based in Ganta, Nimba County, SCIDA is led by a 7-member Board of Directors The organization has an active staff of 19 persons and 27 volunteers who are implementing the organization’s policies and programs. OUR VISION
SCIDA’s vision is a country free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has development opportunity and enjoy their human rights. OUR MISSION
SCIDA’s mission is to create an enabling environment for the empowerment of marginalized people in situations of poverty, violence, illiteracy, diseases, and social injustice through programs that allow them to realize their full potential
OUR OBJECTIVES
• Empower communities to undertake self-development initiatives and responsibly utilize development opportunities to fight poverty.
• Empower the local community with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to enhance productivity to increase their chances for sustainable development.
• Promote the responsible participation of women, youth, and other underserved communities in the social, economic, and political processes of their communities.
• Contribute to accelerated development of grassroots leadership institutions that promote women and youth entrepreneurship, leadership, community participation, and civic responsibilities.
• Advocates for policy change, and the promotion and protection of women, youth, children, and other vulnerable people’s rights/issues
OUR CORE VALUES
• Safety: Everyone is safe so we can accomplish great things together.
• Strengths-Based Principles: Everyone has an opportunity to reach their full potential.
• Quality Service: We are passionate about what we do.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Everyone is comfortable, respected, and included.
• Transparency: We are open and honest in all aspects of our work.
• Accountability: Everyone takes responsibility for their actions and attitude.
• Learning and Improving: We reflect on our experiences to learn and grow. RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
SCIDA has vast experience and has implemented donor programs in several locations across Liberia. August 2019 – September 2020: SCIDA implemented a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project known as Local Empowerment for Government Inclusion and Transparency (LEGIT). The LEGIT project was aimed at enhancing Liberia’s decentralization process through the transparent and effective implementation of the Local Government Act (LGA), the County Service Charter (CSC), and the County Social Development Funds (CSDF) in Nimba County. During the implementation of the project, SCIDA worked with local authorities in five administrative districts, including Buu-Yao, Twah River, Kparblee, Doe, and Gbi & Doru in Cluster 2, Nimba County to initiate community engagement and advocacy dialogues on the implementation of the Local Government Act (LGA), the County Service Charter (CSC) and Section 10 of the National Budget Law which focuses on the management and control of the County Social Development Funds (CSDF). The project Conducted 13 Community forums/town hall meetings, 17 radio talk shows, 10 formal mechanism/town hall meetings, and 3 focus group discussions. In addition, 60 civil society actors mobilized from 15 Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) received training in advocacy strategies and on the provisions of the LGA, the CSC, and the CSDF. At the end of the training, 5 District Coalition structures were established. Each of the District Coalitions Structures’ advocacy action plans and a formal mechanism action plan were developed and reviewed monthly. The direct beneficiaries of the project were members of the District Development Council (DDCs), Rural Women's Organizations, the District Youth Organizations, Community-Based Organizations, and Community-Based Radio Stations. In addition, the District Commissioners, Paramount Chiefs, Clan Chiefs, Zone Chiefs, Town Chiefs, and other influential community members benefited from the project. Paramount among our beneficiaries were women, youth, elders, and persons with disabilities. Key objectives of the project were: (i) To increase awareness and sensitization amongst communities regarding the implementation of the LGA and CSDF as well as proper information dissemination; (ii) To build a coalition of local communities at district levels for informed advocacy on the implementation of the LGA and the CSDF; and (iii) To strengthen the capacity of the coalition for sustainable advocacy on the transparent and effective implementation of the LGA and CSDF
In addition to the LEGIT project implementation in Nimba County, Fellow-On activities were conducted in the context of the COVID-19 response. In response to the coronavirus disease outbreak in Liberia, a follow-on project known as “Increasing Citizen Knowledge on COVID-19” supported by USAID/LEGIT was implemented across Cluster -2, the five targeted districts in Nimba County. The project aimed to increase citizen’s knowledge and skills on the risk and prevention strategies for COVID-19 as well as, enhance the capacity of the five established District Coalition structures to effectively work with their local government structures such as the District Health Team and District commissioners to ensure that approved public health education messages on COVID-19 are reaching all in Nimba County. SCIDA in collaboration with the District Coalition structures and the County Health Teams, conducted eleven (11) Community awareness and sensitization campaigns on COVID-19 risk and prevention strategies, three (3) radio talk shows, 2 formal mechanisms through stakeholders’ town hall meetings for rolling out District Coalition structures action plan on COVID-19. At the same time, 60 civil society actors’/district coalitions members were trained on COVID-19 response strategies and provided five (5) coaching, mentorship, and monitoring support to the established District Coalition structures and hygiene promotion and Behavior Change Communication (BCC) materials such as faucet buckets, powdered soap, chlorides, nose masks, and alcohol-based hands sanitizers were distributed in towns and villages across the five districts. In line with the project communication and visibility plan, the design of project communication tools was initiated and completed, including posters/flyers and PowerPoint presentations (PPT). SCIDA developed and printed IEC/BCC materials such as Posters/Flyers and banners which serve as a means of disseminating information for awareness purposes on COVID-19 risk and prevention strategies in clusters -2. These tools are also serving as a means of visibility of the project in the communities of Cluster -2, Nimba County. Since the project ended in September 2020, SCIDA continues to remain engaged with the beneficiary communities and the District Coalition Structures through the provision of technical, capacity building, coaching, mentorship, and collaboration support through its Women Peace & Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) funded project. These continued engagements are intended to further strengthen the District Coalition structure’s capacities to work with their local government structures in developing friendly and sustainable information dissemination on the LGA, CSDF, CSC, and COVID-19 prevention and other community development intervention in their local communities. August 2020 – June 2021: SCIDA implemented a Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) funded project known as Supporting Women-led Community Initiative to Enhance the Fight Against Coronavirus Disease in Liberia. The project which was implemented in 7 districts Meinpea-Mahn, Sanniquellie-Mahn, Buu-Yao, Twah River, Doe, Kparblee, and Bin-Garr within Nimba County provided rural vulnerable women and women’s organizations with the tools necessary to respond to the coronavirus disease outbreak and its associated social, economic impacts at the community level. The project recruited and trained 14 women’s civil society and community-based organizations on COVID-19 risk and prevention strategies and were placed into 7 CSOs/CBOs Networks at the district level to ensure that public health education messages on the risk and prevention strategies on COVID-19 and SGBV are reaching all women and girls through community radios, the use of community town hall and Stakeholders engagement meetings, focus group discussions and community outreach campaign. The project worked to ensure the leadership and meaningful participation of women and girls in all decision-making processes in addressing the COVID-19 outbreak at the county and district levels. In addition, 360 vulnerable and economically challenged rural women smallholder farmers, women, and girls survivors of sexual gender-based violence (SGBV), women-headed households, and women and girls with disabilities were provided livelihood capacity-building support through the provision of social safety cash transferred. Additionally, agricultural inputs, training, and other technical agribusiness assistance were provided. The project also increased collaboration and coordination among local authorities and community stakeholders in supporting the prevention of SGBV, including through advocacy campaigns on social and cultural norms targeting males as an agency of change in combating violence against women and girls (VAWG), as well as providing psychosocial support and referral to relevant authorities. September 2022 – December 2023: SCIDA is working with Democracy International (DI) to implement a 16-month civic engagement project seeking to promote accessible and effective civic education amongst women, youth, and other marginalized populations for an increase in knowledge of civic duties and responsibilities and participation in political processes in Grand Gedeh and Nimba counties. The project whose overreaching goal is to increase civic knowledge and engagements of marginalized groups and reduce bias towards women in leadership among all i.e., men, women, boys, and girls, will directly target women, youth, out-of-school youths, sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, and host communities’ members, especially women aspirants or candidates. The project will be implemented in Grand Gedeh and Nimba counties. The project would directly assist and/or empower 90,952 target beneficiaries (women, youth, out-of-school youths, persons with disabilities, sexual minorities, etc.) August 2017 – February 2018 - SCIDA implemented an advocacy project entitled “Strengthening Citizens Initiative for Transparency and Accountability (SCITA)” with funding from the United States Department of State. The project aimed to enhance transparency and accountability in the natural resource management sector of Liberia specifically the Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) between ArcelorMittal and the Government of Liberia. The project worked to increase awareness and sensitization on the implementation of the Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) between the Government of Liberia and ArcelorMittal in the communities of Bain-Garr, Leewehyeepea, Mehnpea-Mahn, Sanniquellie, and Yarmein districts in Nimba County. At the same time, the project worked to ensure youth and women’s full participation in the equitable distribution of the County Social Development Funds (CSDF) provided by AML to communities affected by ArcelorMittal operation in Nimba County as well as, effective information dissemination on community involvement in the natural resource management sector. The project trained 60 local civil society actors and established five District Action Groups (DAGs) in the five targeted administrative districts Bain-Garr, Leewehyeepea, Mehnpea-Mahn, Sanniquellie, and Yarmein within Nimba County. This was intended to strengthen the relationship between the affected communities, ArcelorMittal, and the Government of Liberia as well as, improve the knowledge and understanding of local communities on the MDA and management and control of the County Social Development Funds (CSDFs). April 2014 – March 2015 - SCIDA in partnership with Creating Opportunity for Development in Liberia (COfDEL), SCIDA received a grant of USD 250,000 from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) which implemented a life skills project in the communities of Kparblee, Doe, Yarwein Mehnsonoh, and Wee Gbehyee-Mahn districts in Nimba County. The project entitled ‘Advancing Adolescent Girls Education Program (AAGEP) provided life skills training benefiting 450 vulnerable adolescents and young women. The program also offered school-going materials to hundreds of young women and adolescent girls to encourage and increase the number of young women and adolescent girls going to school within the aforementioned 4 administrative Districts in Nimba County. Currently, SCIDA has present in 3 counties Nimba, B**g, and Grand Gedeh with functional local community-based structures such as District Action Groups (DAGs), District Coalitions Structures (DCSs), and CSOs/CBOs Networks. These established community-based structures are fostering peace, security, governance, rule of law, food security, women and youth empowerment, human rights, etc. SCIDA work is funded by private donations from community philanthropies and public grants, including USAID, the United Nations (UN), the United States Department of State, etc.
