For the people, by the people : results and lessons from a small grants programme

This booklet documents the achievements of selected projects of the Mangroves for the Future (MFF) Small Grants Programme in Sri Lanka, with emphasis on drawing lessons to improve future project performance. The projects are presented under three thematic areas, namely Ecosystem restoration, Education and Awareness, and Livelihood enhancement. The contents are largely based on information gleaned from project progress reports and reviews, and notes of field monitoring visits. The discussions at the Lessons Learned workshops enriched the contents significantly. All projects were not as successful as hoped. Nonetheless, they provided useful lessons on conducting small projects with communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private sector and quasi-government institutions. And many projects showed how small sums of money could be utilized to produce significant local level results, which are replicable.