What is a micro project?
A micro-project is a very small project suggested, owned and managed by the beneficiaries (poor families with income less than US$ 2 per day) themselves.
This is in contrast to what we would normally mean by a project which has a project manager with a set of beneficiaries who are not running the project.
Another name for a micro-project is "self help". Something that an individual can do to improve their own lives.
All micro-projects have four stages:
- Preparation - analyzing families own personal situations and identifying needs in terms of activities required to improve their standard of living.
- Planning - selecting an activity that families can do to meet their needs
- Implementation - doing the activity
- Review - reporting on the success or problems in the activity in meeting their needs
When you see a micro-project on MicroAid web site, it has already been prepared and planned and is ready for implementation. It will probably need a few extra external resources for the micro-project to happen. This is where online internet donors are needed to provide that little bit of extra help, the catalyst, without which the micro-project does not go ahead.
So, in contrast to a normal project, the major resource in a micro-project is the person who does it. There may be other resources required such as good information, local facilitators and teachers, activity plans, and finance to pay for small items such as transport or trial materials. But these are all secondary to the person themselves who must put in the most effort.
This is why we call our approach "MicroAid" because the required external resources (aid) is small (micro) but the internal resources (the person themselves) is large