Burkina Faso: Informal self-help structures perform a vital function in ensuring social cohesion within and among villages.

Summary: In practicing agriculture, the Bissas have harmoniously combined collective and individual tasks. There are two types of traditional self-help organizations: the Yawole or Susoaaga: "invitation to cultivation", existing within the Mossi tradition. The Yewole or Songtaab is an association among young Bissas practicing group-agriculture for their in-laws or on their own plots. These traditional self-help structures are informal and seasonal. They contribute to social cohesion within and among villages.

Lesson: Self-help traditional structures based on local values (in terms of practices and technical knowledge), strengthen social cohesion and constitute a solid

Source: Basga E. DIALLA, Claude BATIONO, Maxime S. OUEDRAOGO, DMP / MOB, juin 1998 (document inédit), Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso ; and : Dr Bernard Lédéa OUEDRAOGO : “Association Internationale Six S”, BP 100, Ouahigouya Tél :55-00-38 (BurkinaFaso)

Mali: Skill development in the informal sector declines after literacy component is dropped.

Summary: In 1991 a donor supported program aimed at upgrading the skills of small industry owners and craftsmen of the informal sector in the capital. As a result, craftsmen’s associations were formed, cooperative savings and credit schemes were established, managed by the association, training in management, book keeping and approaches to technology innovation were held. Loans were pro-vided for investment. The program has enabled numerous informal sector craftsmen to acquire new technical skills and to affiliate in the effort to improve working conditions and obtain needed credit. In addition, the associations have managed to win several contracts that the craftsmen would never have been able to obtain individually, and thus broaden the market for their products. However, the literacy component of the program has made little progress. Very few of the participants acquired the skills necessary to take full charge of managing the new associations, or the confidence required to deal with commercial banking institutions and compete in the market for manufacturing contracts. The activities began to plateau after the ILO withdrew, and the future, according to the most recent reports, remains uncertain

Lesson: Lack of education and access to information due to illiteracy, can spoil otherwise successful self-help organizations.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published) or ILO

Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org

Senegal: Communal and public efforts reclaim a nature preserve of Kër Cupaam and contribute to bio-diversity.

Summary: Flora and fauna of the Natural Reserve of Popenguine, a shelter along the migratory route of numerous birds that follow the Atlantic coast of West Africa, had been severely damaged by the effects of drought, increased grazing, and firewood harvest. To reclaim the reserve a group of women created the Association of Women of Popenguine for the Protection of the Environment. The association raised green firebreaks around the entire perimeter, replanted native species furnished by a nursery established at the same time, and trained young volunteers from neighboring urban areas in nature conservation who eventually performed much of the physical labor. The women not only succeeded in re-stimulating local biodiversity and restoring the natural vegetation of the area but their efforts also apparently contributed materially to the reappearance of animal species not seen in those parts for years: porcupines, mongoose, pata, jackals, civet cats, etc. During the following eight years, the RFPPN used first its own resources and then additional ones provided by donor organizations. The restoration of the reserve's ecology attracts the sort of tourist activity that would genuinely benefit the local population, as opposed to earlier tourist traffic.

Lesson: Taking ownership of natural resources through the local community helps to preserve indigenous bio-diversity and provides additional income.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes

External Link: IK Notes No. 8

Contact: pmohan@worldbank.or

Senegal: Setting training standards in the informal sector

Summary: The Leather Artisan's Group (le Groupement d'Intérêt Economique des Artisans de Cuir) was formed eight years ago to address difficulties faced by its sixty members in obtaining raw materials (leather, skins, glue, dyes, rubber, cloth, thread, etc.) and the rising costs of these inputs, exacer-bated by currency devaluation. Today the Leather Artisan's Group also serves its constituency by instituting standard procedures among its members, including methods for training apprentices, organizing marketing and securing input. Like many other "economic interest groups" created in the country over the last few years, the Leather Artisans do not constitute a modern enterprise or an officially licensed profession. Because of the complementary nature of the leather trade to other crafts and the many people it employs, it is a mainstay of the informal sector of the Senegalese economy.

Lesson: Associations of producers of the informal sector formed under economic pressures eventually offer guild-like services to its members without becoming part of the formal sector.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)

Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org

Street Children's Courier Services

Summary: Programs working with street children in Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan, have found that these young people cannot be enticed or compelled to return to the schools they left or never attended. By virtue of their rough experience in the streets and the necessity to care for themselves, they have in effect become precocious adults and must be treated as such. The most successful program for teaching them greater responsibility and simultaneously equipping them with new skills is one that has capitalized on their street knowledge to help them start their own business as bicycle couriers carrying priority packages from one location to another across the capital's clogged streets. As a West African proverb puts it, "Send a boy where he wants to go!"

Lesson: Building on the street children’s experiences in a third world metropolis offers them a business opportunity.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)

Contact: pmohan@worldbank.or

Female circumcision in Maasai society fulfill a pivotal role in Maasai culture.

Summary: The Maasai are a patriarchal society. Girls marriages are determined by male parents. A male head of household decides when girls in the family should be circumcised, married out and to whom. Becoming a married woman means relinquishing all the girls rights and happy life with warriors. (See also entry Nr. 57). Circumcision is the entry point to marriage life. All Maasai girls are circumcised and exchanged with cows during marriage. Uncircumcised women would still be regarded as girls and will not be married. Circumcision thus is considered a symbol of maturity, and responsibility, a rite of passage from pubescent girls to matrimonial women. Circumcision as a practice gives a woman social respect in a community and recognition as a woman ready for marriage and capable of bearing children. The root cause of female oppression is considered to lie in the practice of forced marriages for pubescent girls.

Lesson: Addressing FMG requires a thorough understanding of the history, power relationships and culture specific understanding of its role in society.

Source: MARECIK, Tanzania Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Courtney Snegroff, "Female Circumcision in Maasai Culture" (1998)

Burkina Faso: Customary law and women’s access to land ownership

Summary: Customary law does not allow women access to land ownership. They are allowed to exploit land only temporarily on their husband’s behalf. While the terms of the formal law,"Reorganisation Agraire et Fonciere au Burkina Faso" gives access to land ownership to everyone, women continue to be discriminated against especially in rural areas by traditional law

Lesson: Women who constitute more than half the population in many African countries and who perform most of the housework and farming should be allowed to enjoy land ownership by customary law.

Source: DAKIE, Arbre et Développement, Direction de la Foresterie Villageoise et de l’Aménagement Forestier, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, AD n°23, 4e trimestre, 1998

According to customary law in Burkina Faso, land is allocated by traditional chiefs and communally owned

Summary: In rural communities of Burkina Faso land is allocated by traditional land chiefs (Tengsoaba, in Mossi language), on behalf of the ethnic group, the clan or the family. According to customary law, the traditional leader in charge of land allocation is the closest descendant of the first tenant of the land. For that reason he enjoys the status of intermediary between the livings, dead relatives, and invisible powers, co-owners of the lands. He allocates land to families, households and individuals, according to their needs. Every member of the group (who owns the land collectively) enjoys the right of permanent land use and exploitation, which is transmitted from father to son. Strangers integrated in the group are allocated land on a term basis; their rights are temporary and precarious. However, today, with demographic explosion and the fact that the land officially belongs to the state, customary law faces serious challenges.

Lesson: Demographic explosion has a serious impact on traditional land allocation practices. The fact that the land officially belongs to the state poses a serious challenge to customary law, making dialogue between formal and informal institutions necessary to find a acceptable solutions for the concerned communities

Source: Souleymane OUEDRAOGO, Inspecteur des Domaines, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, juin 1993, (IIMI): « Quel(s) régime(s) foncier(s)pour les aménagements hydro-agricoles »

Traditional, local institutions ensure for peaceful land re-allocation process in post-conflict Mozambique

Summary: Following the peace agreement in 1992, about one third of the population - approximately five mil-lion Mozambicans - including refugees and internally displaced people, returned to their villages over a two year period. Many of them had been away from their villages for ten or fifteen years. Meanwhile other displaced people had occupied their dwellings and agricultural plots. To accom-modate the returnees with productive land or housing without depriving the new settlers of their livelihoods required a large-scale re-distribution of land. Conservative estimates assume that 500,000 land transactions took place during a two-year period, about a quarter of a million transac-tions per year. These transactions were all carried out at the local level by local and/ or traditional authorities using indigenous knowledge and local capacity. No external assistance of any kind from government, donors or NGOs was involved. This massive and rapid land allocation process permit-ted the Mozambican smallholders to re-launch economic growth based on a dramatic increase of agricultural production. Two years after this unique land allocation program, there were no reports of land conflicts except in cases where government had allocated communal lands to outside busi-ness interests.

Lesson: Large scale land re-allocation based on customary law proved to be faster, cheaper and less prone for conflicts.

Source: Roberto Chavez, Resident Representative of the World Bank in Maputo from 1993 to 1997

Contact: rchavez@worldbank.org

Burkina Faso: Small industry development for women

Summary: In 1990 in the Goughin district of Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, a group of women formed their own group "Song Taaba" to collect venture capital amounting to 150,000 CFA francs ($300) from their own members. They started processing shea butter, "soumbala", soap and peanut butter; marketing their own products; and keeping accounts and minutes by using their new skills. Literacy training had provided the institutional framework for an important women’s initiative, but it hadn’t given participants the skills required for management and development of a business activity of this sort. Lacking confidence in their own practical skills, the newly literate members chose the initial staff for the enterprise from women who had either attended primary school them-selves or who had daughters in primary or secondary school able to assist them in their work. This solution did not work well, however, and bit by bit the newly literate members took over the management positions. The group obtained official cooperative status in 1992, and in 1995 marketed twelve tons of soumbala, among its other products. Song Taaba is currently in the process of establishing a network of women’s groups across the central part of the country to collaborate in the promotion of each other’s products. At the same time, they have extended their literacy program to provide a greater number of their members with the skills they need to play an active role in the business.

Lesson: Business oriented women realize the value of literacy for better management.

Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)

Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org

Cameroon: Response of rural women to economic crisis.

Summary: Cameroon has experienced a severe economic recession during the past thirteen years, character-ized by falling farmer incomes, population pressure on limited farmland, and retrenchments in the public sector, salary cuts and a 50% devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994. This has made it difficult for both urban and rural households. Faced with this situation, women sought for alter-native in-come earning avenues in handicrafts. They include, for instance, footwear, bags and soap making. These items are not new, but the inventiveness in their production and variety makes the difference. The women produce soap using locally available palm oil and caustic soda. A variety of bags (school bags, handbags, shopping bags) and slippers is produced by using locally available material. Old sisal bags, cartons, plastic paper, thread and wool, are collected and recycled. Only the soles for slippers are paid for, The cost of production is very low. Products compete well with manufactured or imported goods, because they are not only different but also much cheaper. Proceeds from selling these products constitute an important supplement to family income.

Lesson: Women respond immediately to household needs and demonstrate their creative spirit in seeking local solutions to problems.

Source: D.N. Ngwasiri; CIKO

Contact: ngwasiri@camnet.cm

Congo: Tontine women-members use goods instead of money to cope with constant money devaluation and depreciation

Summary: Women from Kinshasa and other African cities often use the system called "tontine": a mutual in which several persons contribute to a fund; at the end of a determined period the fund is divided among them by rotation in the form of payment of capital or an annuity. However, given constant currency devaluation and depreciation, these women have chosen to use goods instead of money, which could be a dress, a wash basin, a freezer, a stove, and goods or commodities to start a business. Thus, they end up deciding not the amount of cash subscription but the reference good. This practice is also being used by African women living in Europe, and allows them to acquire an item or goods in spite of each one’s limited income.

Lesson: Using goods instead of money to cope with constant money devaluation and depreciation may enable tontine members to acquire goods at least cost .

Source: Groupe de Recherche et d’Expertise sur le Développement des Savoir-faire Locaux en Afrique, (Montpellier, France).

Contact: Nguala.Luzietoso@Wanadoo.Fr

Global Addresses of IK Centers

Addresses of IK Centers (PDF)

Link to the Addresses of Other IK Centers and CIRAN's IK-Pages
Nuffic/CIRAN IK Development Monitor and Addresses of Other IK Centers

Bank Sources

Indigenous Knowledge for Development Link to the Homepage of the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program of the Africa Region

Database of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices Link to the Database of Practices of the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program of the Africa Region

IK Notes Newsletter Link to the IK Notes of the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program of the Africa Region

An Introduction to the Microfinance Institutions Contact List

External Sources

Register for Best Practices in Indigenous Knowledge Link to the database of Best Practices of UNESCO

Nuffic/CIRAN IK Development Monitor and Addresses of Other IK Centers Link to the Addresses of Other IK Centers and CIRAN's IK-Pages

 Please send feedback or comments to rwoytek@worldbank.org

Should you know of other indigenous knowledge practices that have helped or may help to improve Bank programs, please share them with us. We will enter your contribution into the IK-Database.

Bank Projects with IK

IK Contribution Format

Should you know of other indigenous knowledge practices that have helped or may help to improve Bank programs, please share them with us. We will enter your contribution into the IK-Database.

You could structure your contribution by using the following format:  

1. Country:Where is the practice applied (country and location)?

2. Domain:

In which sector is the practice applied (agriculture, health, social development etc.)?

3. Technology:

What technology (e.g. soil erosion control, childcare, institutional development etc.)?

4. Bearers of Knowledge:

By whom is the practice applied (e.g. Washambaa, local healers, women's group of a given village etc.)?

5. Source: Where can we inquire further?

 Primary provider information (probably yourself or your institution)

Secondary providers of information

Add references to literature, web sites, names of individuals or organizations that can corroborate the practice.

Include addresses of primary and secondary providers of information.

6. Descriptive headline of practice:

One to two lines capturing the main features of a practice.

7. Summary:

Describe the main features of the practice and explain (not more than 200 words).

8. Lessons:

Answer three key questions related to efficacy and impact of the practice.

 - Why it is important for the local community?

- Why might it be beneficial to other communities?

 - Why should development organizations learn more about this practice?

9. Methods used to capture information:

How was the practice identified, recorded and documented?

NB: The IK database is an open, on-line resource for information on indigenous knowledge practices. The database acts as a referral system and does not disclose the technical details of practices or applications. Most practices in the database have been reported elsewhere in publicly accessible information sources. As is the principle of a referral database the provider of information could be asked by users of the database to provide further information or pointers as regards details of the practice. It is to the discretion of the provider of information and the inquirer to negotiate the terms of the exchange of knowledge. No information provided will be made public without the consent of the provider.