PUBLIC MARKET A SOCIO-ECONMIC AMENITY FOR SHALANMBOOD COMMUNITY:

By Daryeel Project with Shalambood Community, Marka Disrict.

Using a participatory community and consultation process, the Shalambood community prioritized responding to the lack of a public market that is missing in the town where community members are lacking a designated space to run and own small scale businesses. The construction of a market will aim to enhance the livelihood opportunities of business owners and benefit the community and its surrounding locations. A market will also improve interaction among various clans residing in shalambood town of Marka District.

Shalambood is located on the outskirts of Marka town, about 20km away. The locals are farmers and herders; they have their own farms and keep the animals both inside and out of the village. Despite flourishing with various produces including vegetables and fruits produced locally both from the community garden and from personal farms found inside and out of the town, there is lack well founded market for the residents. This community are known for their great farming activity, they cultivate various crops such as pawpaw, pumpkins, yams, beans, “qajaar” (local name of the cucumber), watermelon and tomatoes. These products are sold in the Shalambood main streets since there is not standardized Market and sometimes in the Marka vegetable market.

The community in Shalambood has shown much interest and presented great interest in participating in the Marka District community-based planning and matching grant sessions through the Daryeel project, which supplements funds raised by the community at a set ratio. This funding scheme incentivizes cooperation between community sub-groups, boosting collective action and encouraging social cohesion. The community in Shalambood has no previous experience in initiating, co-financing, or directly financing projects and this is the first time such activity is being piloted in the town. The community prioritized piloting the matching grants with the construction of a market. The construction of the market will seek to promote social-economic development and enhance social cohesion. The market will also foster a women-led economy, as women in Lower Shabelle are seen to be the breadwinners. The matching grant ratio will be 1:3. The community contribution is expected to be $20,000 with the project matching $60,000. Hence the total cost of the community project will be $80,000.

The implementation process is government-led, and community-driven. The increased intercommunal interaction and community government promotes both horizontal and vertical trust, reducing any potential conflict that existed among the different clans and subclans since the target areas are fragile and at least experienced conflicts both in the past or the present.

Thank you for contributing towards improving access to social economic and public amenities in Shalambood town through forecasting to establish public space that will give an atmosphere of equitable resource mobilization, sound business environment and recreational centre to ensure peace and social cohesion is uplifted for the Shalambood community and neighbouring villages.