DGM Brasil Launches Project Management System with Training for Beneficiaries
DGM Brazil project beneficiaries and DGM Brazil National Executing Agency members at a SIGCAA training. Photo Credit: DGM Brazil CAA/NM
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All initiatives supported by DGM Brazil participated in project management workshops in the second half of 2018, at which time the Project Management System (SIGCAA) was launched, a tool used to monitor activities.
The Project Management System (SIGCAA) is a tool created by the team of the Alternative Agriculture Center of Norte de Minas (CAA/NM), the national executing agency of the DGM Brazil project. The purpose is to facilitate the monitoring of the activities carried out by both the DGM Brazil support team and the subprojects of indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional communities supported, as well as being used for the quantification and qualification of the results of the initiatives.
The tool is used by the subprojects to follow up on each activity performed, with the insertion of reports, photos, videos, among others. "By means of a methodology defined by the key team of DGM Brazil, the system makes this record and shows, in a visual and analytical way, the development of the project", explains Artur Fernandes, CAA/NM technician.
The system was previously used by the national executing agency (CAA/NM) offline, as a desktop program, and needed to be adapted for online use by the beneficiary subprojects. The adaptation, which lasted about two years before being released, was carried out by Claudia Calorio, a consultant specialized in socio-environmental management and project management, who developed the new methodology of the system, and CAA/NM technician Artur Fernandes, who was responsible for programming.
DGM Brazil project beneficiary receiving training by DGM Brazil National Executing Agency, CAA/NM. Photo Credit: DGM Brazil CAA/NM
"At first we had thought of hiring a company in the area of Information Technology to develop this system, however, all proposals were very high costs", says Claudia Calorio. "Therefore, we have chosen to take advantage of the system already used by the national executing agency of DGM Brazil, the CAA /NM, and reformulate it for use by subprojects," he adds.
The initiatives of the Cerrado peoples supported by DGM Brazil participated in workshops for the preparation and adaptation of projects in Montes Claros, Cuiabá and Brasília during the second half of 2018. The activities were designed to empower the leaders of each initiative in SIGCAA when they were submitted to the system.
Maria do Rosário, from Coco Babaçu Women's Cooperative, a project that aims to strengthen productive groups, with the sustainability and improvement of production, emphasizes that the training space of the projects was very important. "We will bring information to the other women who couldn’t be present. This project covers several communities and this training serves to execute the project with more quality,” she said.
Representatives of indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional communities from the states of Minas Gerais, Bahia, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Maranhão, accompanied by representatives of the National Steering Committee (CGN) of DGM Brazil attended the workshops.
Riverbed in the Cerrado Biome region of Brazil. Photo Credit: Patti Dunne
Cacique José Tserenhomo Xavante, representative of the Xavante Ripá Association of Productivity and Ethnodevelopment, participated in a workshop held at the headquarters of the national executing agency of the project and tells of his experience and how he develops the work to strengthen forest production, reforestation and commercialization of native and fruit trees in Aldeia Ripá. "I liked the activities, it was the first time that we participated in a project with the CAA/NM and we made a workshop. I was able to ask questions and participate, as well as learn how to do reports, assessments and how to do the work," says the cacique (native for “chief”).
The program is used online to make sure that everyone can access, the access is guaranteed anywhere with internet, the system can be configured for access through computer, mobile and tablet. In addition to gathering and grouping the physical financial performance information of each project and each activity carried out by the associations, ensuring ease for the representatives and for the key team of DGM Brazil that accompanies the projects.
"The workshop was providential, very important for us to understand the monitoring system well and to remove all doubts about the project. That gives us the security and autonomy to take the initiatives, because we know exactly how the project is going, so we will enthusiastically pass it on to the community so that the project can achieve its goals ", says Tércio Jacques Fehlauer, technical advisor to the Association of the Rural Black Community of São Miguel, Maracaju (MS).
Photo Credit: DGM Brazil CAA/NM
About DGM Brazil
DGM Brazil is a mechanism dedicated exclusively to indigenous communities, quilombolas and traditional communities, with the objective of promoting and improving their traditional practices of use and management of natural resources, protection and territorial management, and to expand the capacities of leaders and their organizations in spaces for the formulation of public policies that promote the socio-environmental sustainability of the Brazilian Cerrado.
In the first announcement of the DGM Brazil, 41 initiatives were supported by the peoples of the Cerrado, distributed in 9 states, investing a total of almost R$6.9 million. Already in the second call for proposals, more than R$2 million were invested in projects aimed at the conservation and sustainable development of territories and cultures of indigenous peoples, traditional communities and quilombolas of the Brazilian Cerrado. Altogether, almost R$ 10 million is being invested in the 'birthplace of the waters', the Cerrado biome.
National Executing Agency
In Brazil, the DGM is being implemented by the Alternative Agriculture Center of Norte de Minas (CAA/NM), an organization made up of representatives of indigenous peoples, quilombola and traditional communities. It acts as National Executing Agency in consonance with the National Steering Committee (CGN) of the DGM, also constituted in its majority by representatives of indigenous organizations, quilombolas and traditional communities of the Brazilian Cerrado. The agency was chosen by a public selection process which, together with the CGN, is responsible for managing the resources allocated to the mechanism, supporting the projects of the proposing organizations. The CAA / NM has as strategic axes of action in agroecology and the Right of Peoples and Traditional Communities.