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)
Ghana:
Youth
organization introduces tree planting as a commercially viable and ecologically
sound activity and resolves land use conflict
Summary: In Forikrom, a community of 6,000
people in north-Central Ghana, young people mobilized to intervene in a bitter
conflict that had arisen between priests of the traditional religion and disciples
of a militant Protestant sect over the progressive drying up of a creek thought
to be invested with supernatural powers. The youths pointed out that the deforestation
of the zone had played a large role in the loss of the water source, and they
launched a massive tree-planting operation with the technical support of state
agencies and NGOs, which provided related training. The activity resulted in the
development of a whole cycle of forestry training courses in Forikrom, the establishment
of a very profitable teak farming business, and its progressive diversification
into every aspect of organic agriculture, not to speak of appeasement of the original
religious conflict. The community is now recognized throughout the region as a
specialist in this area.
Lesson: Taking ownership of natural resources
through a community based organization helps to reclaim land, provides additional
income and earns recognition for locally developed knowledge and skills.
Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes.
External Link: IK Notes No. 9
Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org
Ghana:
Out-migrated
villagers support their home community
Summary: For more than 50 years Mafi-Kumase
had good access to primary and nearby secondary school facilities due to missionary
activity and dedication of residents. Many of the educated youth eventually moved
to Accra in pursuit of better professional opportunities. According to their tradition,
they maintained very close contact with their home community. In 1960 they established
an association called "MAKAYA" (Mafi-Kumase Area Youth Association)
to serve as a link to their community and to support its development. MAKAYA subsequently
became the driving force in launching a series of investments and community development
activities in the village area. Thanks to its contacts in the capital and abroad,
the association has been able to raise funds to which the villagers themselves
would not have had access, and to secure favorable judgments from the Gh-naian
administration, especially with regard to the authorization of projects and investments.
In addition, the association holds a three-day conference and general assembly
each spring in Mafi-Kumase, in the course of which MAKAYA members, village residents
and local leadership discuss the priority needs of the region, the results of
current projects, and future prospects.
Lesson: Former rural-urban migrant form
an association, raise funds for transfers and lobby the government for support
of their original community.
Source: University of Florida, IK-Notes
(to be published)
Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org
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
|
Niger: A woodcutters’ cooperative manages and markets
forest products
|
|
Summary: The
woodcutters of Makalondé and Kouré sell firewood to people going
to and from Niamey. They formed cooperatives in order to better
organize woodcutting and preserve forest resources. They requested
help from the “Energy Project” in Niamey and were able to take part
in several short training sessions on forestry extension. Their
businesses are now yielding 200,000 CFA francs in average annual
earnings per woodcutter, plus 400,000 francs in profits for the
community each year, which are largely reinvested in locally-designed
social programs. Production is falling, how-ever, due to the increasing
distance of the stands of dead trees to which the groups try to
limit their harvest, and to the fact that the woodcutters have set
their own tree felling quota well below the one authorized by the
government forestry agency in order to better conserve the natural
resource base. The groups have therefore begun planting new trees
as part of their organized activities. At the same time, cooperative
members have become increasingly aware that they are still unable
to manage these enterprises and their numerous offshoots very successfully
on their own. All of the ac-counting is done by the sole literate
member of the community, a marabout with enough knowledge of Arabic
to keep accounts. They are now in the process of establishing a
local literacy center.
|
|
Lesson: Arising
from felt need and effective demand, a production cooperative eventually
requests for basic education to improve their own management.
|
|
Source: University
of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)
|
|
Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org
|
| |
|
|
Nigeria: Indigenous financial practices among
farming communities
|
|
Summary: Farming
communities in Nigeria have developed various systems of saving and lending.
Normally farmers would form savings associations with an emphasis on savings
and access to the resources on a rotational basis. Some of the associations
would formulate regulations and by-laws while the majority has strong
but undocumented formal rules and regulations. Once a member, saving is
compulsory and expected on a regular basis, usually related to market
days. The loans are used for non-consumables, but also for payment of
school fees or farm labor. Repayment is ensured through social control.
Usually members do not receive interest on deposits, loans are granted
on favorable terms. No mention is made of dealing with defaulters; it
is assumed that social control is sufficient to ensure a sustainable S/L
association. However, the savings base is too small for accumulation or
for credits to finance major investments. So far there has been little
recognition by the formal credit institutions of the existing indigenous
financial practices.
|
|
Lesson: Existing
indigenous rural savings and loan associations are yet to be recognized
by the formal credit sector. Collaboration on an equitable basis would
increase the impact of formal institutions and increase the investment
potential in rural area.
|
|
Source: Nweze,
N.J.(IK Monitor 2(2)
August 1994)
|
|
External Link: IK Monitor
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Senegal: Building local banks on group based responsibility
|
|
Summary: Fandène
is a village community located six kilometers from Thiès, Senegal. It
was formerly the site of a Catholic mission and rural community center.
In 1987 the residents of Fandène created their own credit mutual and savings
union. It has now expanded to branches in twenty neighboring villages,
of both Islamic and Christian affiliation. This network, entirely self-managed
in Fandène and on its way to being so in the other communities of the
network, has progressively amassed capital of twenty million CFA francs.
The various branches solicit loan requests from groups and individu-als
in the surrounding area, require formal written application and justification,
perform their own formal evaluation of the feasibility of the loan, and
offer technical assistance to help borrowers make their investments profitable.
The savings institutions in each community collect repayments at an annual
interest rate of 15%, and reinvest profits in the their own institutional
development and in local social service programs. The Fandène network
has in addition created technical advisory teams to assist groups in low-income
neighborhoods of the nearby cities of Thiès and Dakar who wish to establish
their own credit and savings programs.
|
|
Lesson: Savings
and loan schemes based on local groups and peer control facilitates capital
accumulation in a rural area
|
|
Source: University
of Florida, IK-Notes 6 March 1999
|
|
External Link: IK Notes No. 6
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|
Burkina
Faso: 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
»
|
|
Mozambique:
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 accommodate 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 transactions
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 permitted
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 business
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: Bellows and drums as means of communication
|
|
Application: In
Mossi communities, bellows are used as a means of communication within
their blacksmith casts; while drums are used to reach a more diverse and
wider audience.
|
|
Summary: Mossi
blacksmiths use smithy bellows to produce sounds and rhythms that are
in fact coded messages, and that only they can understand. Drums, however,
are used traditionally to reach a more diverse and larger audience in
the rural areas
|
|
Lesson: As
traditional means of communication, bellows are used only within Mossi
blacksmith casts, while drums reach larger audiences and can be used to
convey messages during public awareness campaigns in rural areas
|
|
Source: Lidia
CALDEROLI, Ethnographie 92, 1(1996) Printemps n°119 Titre : «Notes sur
le langage des soufflets chez les forgerons Mõose (Wubr-tenga- Burkina
Faso): une forme de communication de travail»; et Junzo KAWADA, Institut
de Recherches sur les Langues et Cultures d’Asie et d’Afrique, Tokyo,
Japon
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Ethiopia:
“Dagu” is a traditional channel to transmit information efficiently and
rapidly in Afar society
|
|
Summary: "Dagu"
is the name of a traditional channel of communication, used by the Afar
people to convey messages to individuals, groups or within groups. Any
information that affects or contributes to the well-being of a community
can –using this means-- be transmitted in one day to all its members.
The authenticity and validity of messages have to be confirmed by the
elders, who are usually trusted by the other members of the community.
Messages are usually related to special events, such as weddings, funerals
or to some other social or economic issues.
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|
Lesson: :
Effective word-to-mouth traditional means of communication can be used
to convey development-related messages within communities or from one
community to another
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|
Source: Akalu
Woldemariam, Association for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge (APIK)
Addis Ababa University P.O. Box 1176 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Tel/Fax: +251-1-550655
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| |
|
Contact:
EHNRI@telecom.net.et
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Tanzania:
Acquisition and sharing of knowledge.
|
|
Summary: Maasais
and Barabaig alike of Northern Tanzania have developed and maintained
traditional knowledge and practices for the management and conservation
of biological resources on which they depend on. Their knowledge and practices
are empirical, based on continuous observation and their close attachment
to and utter dependence on natural resources. The knowledge is stored
in cultural and religious beliefs, taboos, folklore or myths as much as
in the individuals' practical experience. Knowledge is imparted in the
youth through a phased childhood and adolescence. This contributes to
a stock of knowledge in human and animal health, in agricultural meteorology
and in land use. A combination of cultural, empirical and hierarchical
methods ensures the safeguarding and further development of knowledge
as well as effectiveness of existing practices. By preferring utilitarian
to hierarchical or theoretical concepts, knowledge is much easier shared.
Evidence pro-vides a strong corrective agent in determining the usefulness
of existing knowledge, and an "incentive" to further develop
it.
|
|
Lesson: Indigenous
knowledge systems are often application oriented. The introduction of
new concepts should use approaches that are based on or compatible to
existing systems.
|
|
Source: MARECIK,
N. Ole-Lengisugi, F. Ole-Ikayo
|
| |
|
Contact:
multicho@yako.habari.co.tz
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Uganda:
Traditional birth attendants using some information technologies contribute
to reduction of maternal mortality
|
|
Summary: The
Rural Extended Services and Care for Ultimate Emergency Relief (RESCUER)
pilot project launched in March 1996, in Iganga District, Uganda, addresses
the problem of high maternal mortality. The project helped empower a network
of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) to partner with the public health
service centers (PHC) to deliver health care to pregnant women. This resulted
in increased and more timely patient referrals as well as the delivery
of health care to a larger number of pregnant women. Modern technology
was used to enable the TBAs to refer patients to the PHCs. This involved
the installation of a solar powered VHF radio communication system that
included fixed base stations at the PHCs, mobile 'walkie talkies' with
the TBAs, and vehicle radios in the referral hospital ambulances and the
District Medical Officer’s vehicle. A notable impact of the project was
that Maternal mortality declined by more than 50% over a period of three
years.
|
|
Lesson: Enabling
and empowering Traditional Birth Attendants can increase the reach of
public health services and reduce the incidence of maternal mortality
|
|
Source: The
Challenge and opportunities of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) in the health sector by Maria G. N. Musoke, prepared for the African
Development Forum (ADF) ’99; Maria G. N. Musoke, Makerere University,
Uganda
|
| |
|
Contact:
lip97mgm@sheffield.ac.uk
|
|
Zimbabwe: Totemism provides a unifying bond for people for peaceful
coexistence of communities and a starting point for joint developmental
efforts.
|
|
Summary: A
study on coping mechanisms in the north eastern part of Zimbabwe observed
that during wars and famines, communities of Mozambique and Zimbabwe have
sought and provided mutual refuge, shared resources and even provided
for education of each others’ children. Their relationships were determined
by common totems. A totem is a symbol that represents the identity of
a given group of people that share the same genealogy as a clan. The totem
becomes a respected object or phenomenon of nature by the people who hold
it sacred, acting as a binding force of individuals and groups of people.
This could be a mammal, a bird, a fish or a reptile. A person’s life is
regulated by rules and behavioral patterns centered around the philosophy
of totem. For example, in exogamous cultures, people of the same totem
would not marry because they are considered sister and brother. In some
communities, a deceased would not be buried without the participation
of at least someone who shares the same totem as the mother of that deceased.
The values and beliefs of totems help to unite people and give them identity.
The local community gains from appreciating their relationship with their
neighbors and other communities.
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Lesson: Professionals
working with communities need to understand the mechanisms and values
manifested in totemism for development programs or peace efforts in conflict
zones.
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Source: ZIRCIK
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| |
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Contact:
wsadomba@africaonline.co.zw
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Ghana: Redefining local governance
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Summary: In
1979 the residents of Nwodua, a village of 640 people located 20 kilometers
from Tamale in northern Ghana, set up their own adult literacy program
with the assistance of teachers from neigh-boring villages. Instructors
were paid in kind by manual labor on their farms, and were replaced if
they grew dissatisfied with this small “salary.” The group of newly literate
adults then managed to convince the Bishopric of the Catholic church to
establish a primary school in Nwodua, and arranged for the village to
become the center of a new functional literacy project in the Dagbani
region. As one result of its role in the regional literacy project, the
village was also able to establish a permanent “Adult Primary School”
in the community. Members of the group succeeded next in using these initial
accomplishments as selling points to different NGOs and aid agencies and
acquiring from them support for new activities: establishment of a commercial
tree nursery and a soap factory, purchase and operation of a grain mill,
construction of a new road linking the village to the main interurban
route. But the most remarkable aspect of the experience is undoubtedly
the fashion in which the residents of Nwodua remodeled their community
government system to sup-port this program of activities and its diverse
effects. A large share of authority seems to have been transferred without
a hitch from the traditional chief to a “General Development Committee”
elected from the initiators of the various experiments. The committee
has in turn created a series of sub-committees to oversee the different
socioeconomic projects currently underway.
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Lesson: Villagers
realize the value of education, organize adult literacy in self-help and
gradually transform their community.
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Source: University
of Florida, IK-Notes
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External Link: IK Notes No. 7
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Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org
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Mali:
Village associations achieve settlement on producer prices through
collective bargaining.
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Summary: Village
associations (associations villageoises, or AV) represent cotton
producers against the Malian Textile Company (Compagnie Malienne
des Textiles, CMDT) in the Koutiala region of southern Mali. In
1989 representatives of the different regional associations had
jointly succeeded to reject an unfavorable policy adopted by the
CMDT regarding the financial responsibility of producers’ associations.
Based on this success the village associations united again to oppose
a decision of CMDT to raise payment of staff from proceeds made
on cotton without increasing payments to producers. The AV elected
a delegation, but CMDT management, worried by the unstable political
conditions in Mali at that time, refused any negotiation with the
peasant movement. As a consequence, the AVs called for a strike
by cotton producers. For two months the associations re-fused to
deliver their cotton to the CMDT. Eventually, CMDT accepted the
principle of collective bargaining by an NGO representing producers.
In this manner SYCOV (Syndicat des Producteurs du Coton et du Vivrier
or Union of Cotton and Food Crops Producers) was born. The Union,
which operates bilingually (Bambara-French), has continued to grow,
is now a part of the institutional and political landscape of Mali,
establishing at a national level the legally-established right of
peasants to participate in all decisions which concern them. SYCOV
is also organizing training courses in oral and written French for
Bambara-literate representatives of the AVs and has required bilingualism
in all documents it uses and all sessions in which it takes part.
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Lesson: Political
environment, pressing needs and local organizational competence
transform a farmers’ union
into
a national political player.
|
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Source: University
of Florida, IK-Notes
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External Link: IK Notes No. 9
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Contact: pmohan@worldbank.org
|
|
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Mali: Village based management centers induce a second
level of local governance
|
|
Summary: To
strengthen their management performance, the village associations
of southern Mali, created in 1993 an institution charged with auditing
their accounts and providing technical assistance to local leaders
in financial matters. This structure became the “Koutiala Management
Center”; a new branch has just been established in the Office du
Niger region. The center is staffed by personnel recruited from
the village associations and responsible for providing third-party
audit of their ac-counts. The staff are trained and supported in
turn by external technical assistance, which is de-signed to play
a diminishing role. Policy oversight of the Center is carried out
by an Administrative Council, which is linked in turn to the Federation
of Village Associations of southern Mali. The center is supposed
to operate entirely on a budget funded by the revenues generated
from sale of its services to the village associations. It is thus
half way between being a “wholly owned subsidiary” of the Federation
and operating as a private auditing firm. At this stage, the Center
is still partially dependent, on external funding. But it has survived
a first phase of establishment, operation and preliminary institutionalization
and is in fact providing needed services and generating revenues.
The Center thus demonstrates the ability of local associations to
move up a substantial notch in the sequence of activities required
to become financially independent.
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Lesson: The
management centers demonstrate the ability of local associations
to become financially independent based on ownership.
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Source: University
of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)
|
| |
|
Contact:
pmohan@worldbank.org
|
|
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Niger:
Limits to the self-governance of local natural resource management
programs.
|
|
Summary: This
initiative is an innovative natural resource management aimed at
ensuring food security, natu-ral resources conservation, and promoting
local control of the development process in 50 communities. It was
planned to begin with the commercial development of woodland resources
and move on, through regional land use planning and better organization
of agricultural input supply, to the establishment of farmers’ councils
that would direct all soil conservation in the Department. The implementation
approach expected honest negotiation with village-level counterparts,
active participation of the population in the diagnosis of environmental
problems and the development of new interventions. It included the
advice of elders and opinions expressed by all stakeholder groups.
However, no substantial literacy or technical training components
were integrated into the project. The difficulties are compounded
by a very limited use of writing in this rural zone, where the literacy
rate is one of the lowest in the world. The translation of contracts
into the local language has proved time-consuming and even these
translations are only usable by a very small part of the village
society. The lack of “intellectual capitalization” by the project
seems to have essentially hamstrung local assumption of responsibility
for the entire operation, and the very modest technical skills of
participants did not enable them to capitalize on the potential
for new agricultural and financial investment which project designers
had hoped to induce.
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Lesson: Participation,
use of local language, stake-holder involvement, tapping of indigenous
knowledge are necessary but not sufficient conditions for project
success. Without their intellectual appropriation through the local
population, innovations cannot be sustainable.
|
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Source: University
of Florida, IK-Notes (to be published)
|
| |
|
Contact:
pmohan@worldbank.org
|
|
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
| Community - Based Rural Development
Project |
|
The Community-Based
Rural Development Project (Phase I), will initiate the process of improving
revenues, and living conditions of rural populations in Burkina Faso,
particularly that of food crop producers who account for seventy five
percent of the rural poor. It will develop the capacity of rural inhabitants
to manage sustainable, equitable, and productive development, and will
also facilitate the emergence of rural municipalities. Project components
will: 1) strengthen the technical, and organizational capacities of the
rural population, through three sub-components, to: raise awareness for
participation, and encouragement of village regrouping, through communication,
promotion, and in |
