Working with local communities is a strong thread that runs right through field activities. APOWA builds upon the organization’s core strengths: achieving demonstrable results; working with a wide range of stakeholders, robust project planning methodologies; our experience with transactions; and, perhaps most importantly, our ability and commitment to back up our strategies. APOWA has adopted a ‘bottom-up’ strategy to ensure the involvement of the community in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme.