IK Compendium in English - CiteSeerX

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Local Pathwaysto Global Development

Marking Five Yearsof the World Bank

Indigenous Knowledge forDevelopment Program

Indigenous Knowledge

© 2004Knowledge and Learning GroupAfrica RegionThe World Bank

IK Notes reports periodically on indigenous knowledge (IK)initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa and occasionally on suchinitiatives outside the Region. It is published by the AfricaRegion’s Knowledge and Learning Group as part of an evolvingIK partnership between the World Bank, communities, NGOs,development institutions, and multilateral organizations.

For information, please e-mail: [email protected]. TheIndigenous Knowledge for Development Program can befound on the web at http://worldbank.org/afr/ik/default.htm

The views and opinions expressed within are those of theauthors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policiesof the World Bank or any of its affiliated organizations.

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Contents

PART ONE: LEAD ARTICLES

1. Indigenous Knowledge—a Local Pathway to Global Development ................................................................................ 12. Indigenous Capacity Enhancement: Developing Community Knowledge ..................................................................... 43. Education and Indigenous Knowledge ........................................................................................................................... 94. Women’s Indigenous Knowledge: Building Bridges Between the Traditional and the Modern ................................... 135. Indigenous Responses to AIDS in Africa ..................................................................................................................... 186. Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods: Local Knowledge Innovations in Development................................ 247. Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Resource Management ....................................................................................... 308. Indigenous Knowledge and Science and Technology: Conflict, Contradiction or Concurrence? .................................. 349. Indigenous Approaches to Conflict Resolution in Africa .............................................................................................. 3910. Indigenous Knowledge: The Way Forward .................................................................................................................. 45

References .................................................................................................................................................................... 56Authors of the Lead Articles ........................................................................................................................................ 61

PART TWO: IK NOTES

IK Notes Summaries ......................................................................................................................................................... 66The IK Notes1. Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Overview ....................................................................... 722. Zimbabwe: Sustainable Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Agriculture .................................................................... 763. Senegalese Women Remake their Culture .................................................................................................................. 784. Ghana: From“ Sacrilege ” to Sustainability—Reforestation and Organic Farming.................................................... 815. Burkina Faso: Literacy for the “Little Ones” in Nomgana ......................................................................................... 846. Senegal: Village Bankers: The Experience of Fandène ............................................................................................... 877. Ghana: Literacy and Local Governance in a Rural Community ................................................................................. 908. Nurturing the Environment on Senegal’s West Coast ................................................................................................ 939. Mali: The Development of an Agricultural Union: Increasing Levels of Local Empowerment ................................... 9510. Indigenous Healing of War-Affected Children in Africa .............................................................................................. 9811. Education and Koranic Literacy in West Africa ....................................................................................................... 10212. Mali: Cultural Resources and Maternal Health ........................................................................................................ 107

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................................ vii

Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................ ixAcknowledgments ................................................................................................................................................................ xAcronyms and Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................................. xi

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13. Sahelian Languages, Indigenous Knowledge and Self-Management ......................................................................... 11014. Grassroots Dissemination of Research in Africa: Collecting and Connecting ........................................................... 11415. Health: Indigenous Knowledge, Equitable Benefits ................................................................................................... 11716. Senegal: Grassroots Democracy in Action................................................................................................................. 12117. Regional Planning, Local Visions: Participatory Futuring in West Africa ............................................................... 12418. Participatory Management and Local Culture: Proverbs and Paradigms ................................................................ 12819. Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights .......................................................................................... 13220. Reinventing Apprenticeship and Rites of Passage ..................................................................................................... 13521. Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program: Two Years Down the Road......................................................... 13922. Indigenous Knowledge Goes to School: Potential and Perils of Community Education

in the Western Sahel ........................................................................................................................................... 14223. Seeds of Life: Women and Agricultural Biodiversity in Africa .................................................................................. 14624. Strengthening Traditional Technical Knowledge: the Sugar Cane Wine Example .................................................. 14925. Mali: Indigenous Knowledge—Blending the New and the Old .................................................................................. 15226. Traditional Medicine and AIDS ................................................................................................................................. 15627. Uganda: Information Technology and Rural Development:

The Nakaseke Multi-Purpose Telecenter ............................................................................................................ 15828. Indigenous Knowledge and Local Power: Negotiating Change in West Africa ......................................................... 16129. West African Languages: Medium and Message ....................................................................................................... 16430. Ghana and Zambia: Indigenous Knowledge and HIV/AIDS ..................................................................................... 16831. Malicounda-Bambara: the Sequel .............................................................................................................................. 17132. African Traditional Healers: The Economics of Healing ........................................................................................... 17533. Repairing the Ravages of War in Mozambique .......................................................................................................... 17834. Tanzania: Communicating Local Farming Knowledge ............................................................................................. 18135. Ethiopia: Traditional Medicine and the Bridge to Better Health .............................................................................. 18436. Eritrea: The Process of Capturing Indigenous Knowledge ........................................................................................ 18737. HIV/AIDS: Traditional Healers, Community Self-assessment, and Empowerment ................................................. 19038. Senegal: Indigenous Language and Literature as a Non-profit Business ................................................................. 19339. Burkina Faso: Integrating Indigenous and Scientific Rainfall Forecasting .............................................................. 19740. Maternal Health Care in Rural Uganda ................................................................................................................... 20141. Eritrea: Eliminating a Harmful Traditional Practice ............................................................................................... 20442. Developing Indigenous Knowledge in Francophone Africa ........................................................................................ 20643. Rural Seed Fairs in Southern Tanzania ................................................................................................................... 20944. Uganda: The Contribution of Indigenous Vegetables to Household Food Security ................................................... 21245. India: Using Indigenous Knowledge to Raise Agricultural Productivity .................................................................. 21546. The Role of Myths and Rites in Managing Natural Resources along the Mozambican Shoreline ............................ 21947. Using the Indigenous Knowledge of Jatropha ........................................................................................................... 22248. Ethiopia: Potential of Traditional Social Insurance for Supporting Health Care ..................................................... 22649. Farmer Experimenters: Self-developed Technology ................................................................................................... 22950. Eritrea: Collective Responsibility for War Orphans .................................................................................................. 23351. Traditional Medicine in Tanga Today ....................................................................................................................... 23552. A Qualitative Understanding of Local Traditional Knowledge and Medicinal Plant Use ......................................... 23853. The Economics of African Indigenous Knowledge ..................................................................................................... 242

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54. Traditional Medicine Practice in Contemporary Uganda.......................................................................................... 24555. Indigenous Knowledge: the East Africa-South Asia Learning Exchange .................................................................. 24856. Ghana: Kanye Ndu Bowi: An Indigenous Philosophical Context for Conflict Management ..................................... 25257. Cultural Rights for Zimbabwe’s Sui Generis Legislation.......................................................................................... 25558. Grassroots Women’s Approach to Capacity Building ................................................................................................ 25959. Adzina: An Indigenous System of Trial by Jury on the Ghana-Togo Border ............................................................. 26360. Institutional Constraints in Promoting IK: Community Access to Social Networks

and Formal Institutions ...................................................................................................................................... 266

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n 1996, we articulated a vision for the World Bank tobecome a “Knowledge Bank” that intermediatesideas as well as financial resources. At the First Glo-bal Knowledge Conference in Toronto in 1997, po-litical leaders and civil society representatives from

developing countries endorsed this vision. They calledupon the World Bank not only to provide its own know-how, gained through more than 50 years of developmentexperience, but to equally learn from the practices ofcommunities so as to leverage the best in global and localknowledge systems.

The World Bank has responded to this challenge. Werecognize that knowledge is not the exclusive domain oftechnologically advanced societies. We need to give a newmeaning to empowering poor people and helping to givethem voice—not as recipients of knowledge, but as con-tributors and protagonists of their own development.

In 1998, we launched the Indigenous Knowledge forDevelopment Program to help learn from community-based knowledge systems and development practices, andto incorporate them into Bank-supported programs. Acore activity was the publication and dissemination of aseries of IK Notes, where development practitioners re-port on successful local solutions for local developmentproblems. The present publication, marking half a decadeof the IK program, is a collection of 60 such narratives.Thematic lead articles introduce the cases, synthesizingthe lessons learned and discussing the impact indigenousknowledge can make on our development efforts and onhelping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs).

Foreword

The cases presented here demonstrate how communi-ties and local practitioners use indigenous knowledge sys-tems and practices to help increase their crop yields,educate their children, reduce suffering from HIV/AIDS,decrease infant and maternal mortality, heal the impactof conflict, learn from each other, and empower them-selves. The cases also suggest that the communities arequite willing, indeed eager, to combine global knowledgeand modern technology with their indigenous knowledgeand institutions to obtain better results. TraditionalBirth Attendants in the Iganga District of Uganda, forexample, use modern walkie-talkies to refer critical casesto the public health system, thus contributing to reduc-ing maternal mortality substantially, one of the MDGs.

I am confident that this collection of successfulgrassroots community experiences will prove to be a valu-able resource in improving our understanding of howcommunities empower themselves to manage their owndevelopment in the larger context of globalization. Build-ing on such practices and helping scale up the more suc-cessful ones is critical to ensuring results. It will alsoenrich the development process, making it more equi-table and sustainable.

James D. WolfensohnPresident

The World Bank

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his publication is the five-year-milestone of theIndigenous Knowledge for Development Pro-gram in the Africa Region of the World Bank.The main goal of the program is to learn fromthe knowledge embedded in the practices of local

communities. A core activity of the program is the publi-cation of the IK Notes—a monthly periodical that appearsin print and online in English, French and, occasionally,in Portuguese, Swahili, and Wolof. We present here 60 ofthe IK Notes, in which development practitioners de-scribe how successful indigenous practices enrich the de-velopment process.

We learn, for example, how communities have appliedtheir traditional judicial system to reduce or prevent con-flict in Ghana, how rural women in India have empow-ered themselves by developing their own capacity, howyouth in Senegal have improved their skills and competi-tiveness, how cooperating with traditional healers in-creases the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS projects, and howcommunities in Uganda combine traditional and modernknowledge to help reduce maternal mortality.

In addition, this publication includes several new the-matic articles by leaders, scholars, and development prac-titioners that synthesize the lessons from the variousthemes of the Notes and discuss the conditions that makethe incorporation of indigenous knowledge into develop-ment work successful. And, as His Excellency, the Presi-dent of Tanzania concludes in his introduction to thispublication, the most important condition is that deci-sion-makers and development partners must be ready tolearn from communities and to help them shape theirown development agenda.

The World Bank has contributed to this process byhelping clients enhance their capacity to develop their in-digenous knowledge base and by creating more opportu-

Preface

nities for local communities to be involved in develop-ment. In Uganda, for example, the Bank has supportedthe development of a national strategy that incorporatesindigenous knowledge into the country’s poverty reduc-tion program. In Ethiopia, the Bank is supporting the de-velopment of medicinal plants for the domestic market.The Bank also brokered cooperation for the scientificvalidation of traditional medicinal practices between lo-cal research organizations, NGOs, practitioners, and theglobal scientific community.

The Bank has also integrated indigenous knowledgeinto Bank-supported programs to obtain better results.In a number of West African countries, programs to com-bat HIV/AIDS include regular consultations with the tra-ditional healers. In Burkina Faso, the Bank is helping topromote a traditional water harvesting and soil conserva-tion technology throughout the country. Bank-supportedsocial protection projects in Malawi, Tanzania, andNorthern Uganda build on community-based institutionsfor local management of the projects.

Over the past five years we have learned a lot about theefficacy and sustainability of indigenous practices in de-velopment. We also see a growing pattern of integrationof indigenous practices in development programs for im-proved development results. With this new compilation ofIK Notes and related thematic lead articles we offer thedevelopment community a collection of good practicesand ideas that can help in designing programs that em-power communities through the validation and use of in-digenous knowledge systems.

Callisto E. Madavo Vice President Africa Region

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x Local Pathways to Global Development

This publication is the result of an internationalpartnership by a network of promoters, practitioners,and protagonists of indigenous knowledge. The editorswish to record their gratitude to all the contributors.For over five years, the authors of the IK Notes havetaken the time and effort to share their experiences,impressions, and lessons learned. The editors trustthat they will extend our thanks to those who are thesource of the knowledge discussed here: the communi-ties, women farmers, traditional healers, birth atten-dants, village elders, herdsmen, and many others.

The editors wish to express their profound gratitudeto His Excellency, The President of the United Repub-lic of Tanzania, Benjamin W. Mkapa, who has beenkind enough to author the introduction to this publi-cation and whose central message we have adopted inour title: local pathways to global development.

The authors of the lead articles have patiently en-dured the editors’ proposals for amendments in for-mat, style, and diction. We thank them for engaging usin a fruitful discussion on context and content—up tothe very last minute.

The editors further wish to thank the team membersof the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Pro-gram and other World Bank staff, who provided usefulcommentary and contributions.

On behalf of the Africa Region’s IK Program for De-velopment, the editors wish to express their gratitudeto the President of the World Bank, James D.Wolfensohn, and the Vice President of the Africa Re-gion, Callisto E. Madavo. The Foreword and Preface tothis commemorative publication are symbolic of theirvision, which helped to promote the recognition of in-digenous knowledge as being critical to the develop-ment process. This publication would not have beenpossible without their support and guidance.

Any errors of this publication remain the responsi-bilities of the editors.

Reinhard WoytekPreeti Shroff-MehtaPrasad C. Mohan

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Acronyms and Abbreviations

ABC Abstain, Be Faithful, Use CondomsABEL Achieving Basic Education and LiteracyADR Alternative Dispute ResolutionARV Antiretroviral (drug)C2C Community-to-Community Learning

and Training ExchangeCBO Community Based OrganizationCCD Convention to Combat DesertificationCDC Center for Disease ControlCDD Community Driven DevelopmentCE Capacity EnhancementCIDA Canadian International Development AgencyCIRAN The Centre for International Research and

Advisory Networks (former department ofNUFFIC)

CISDA Center for Information Society Developmentin Africa

COSECHA Association of Advisors for a Sustainable,Ecological and People-Centered Agriculture

CSIR Council for Scientific Industrial ResearchECA United Nations Economic Commission for

Africa (UNECA)ENDA Environment and Development ActionFAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United NationsFGM Female Genital MutilationGM/CCD Global Mechanism of the Convention to

Combat DesertificationGTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische

Zusammenarbeit (German DevelopmentAgency)

HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/AcquiredImmune Deficiency Syndrome

HYV High Yielding VarietyICT Information and Communication TechnologyIDRC International Development Research Centre

(Canada)IFAD International Fund for Agricultural

DevelopmentIK Indigenous KnowledgeIKS Indigenous Knowledge SystemsILO International Labour OrganizationIPR Intellectual Property RightsIPGRI International Plant Genetic Resources

InstituteITU International Telecommunication UnionIUCN World Conservation UnionIUCN-ROSA IUCN Regional Office for Southern AfricaMDG Millennium Development GoalsMTA Material Transfer AgreementsNARO National Agriculture Research Organization

(Uganda)NCP Natural Crop ProtectionNGO Non-Governmental OrganizationNIH National Institutes of Health (USA)NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development

CooperationNUFFIC Netherlands Organisation for International

Cooperation in Higher EducationPELUM Participatory Ecological Land Use

Management (Network in Eastern andSouthern Africa)

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PICTA Partnership for Information andCommunication Technologies in Africa

PLWHA People Living With HIV/AIDSPROMETRAPromotion des Médecines TraditionnellesR&D Research and DevelopmentSADC Southern African Development CommunitySARNIKS Southern African Regional Network on

Indigenous Knowledge SystemsSEWA Self-Employment Women’s Association

(India)STI Sexually Transmissible InfectionsTAWG Tanga Aids Working Group (Tanzania)TBA Traditional Birth AttendantTHETA Traditional and Modern Health Practitioners

Together Against AIDS and other DiseasesTRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission

UMADEP Uluguru Mountains AgriculturalDevelopment Project

UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme onHIV/AIDS

UNCED United Nations Conference on Environmentand Development

UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Tradeand Development

UNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific

and Cultural OrganizationUSAID United States Agency for International

DevelopmentWBI World Bank InstituteWCC World Conservation CongressWHO World Health OrganizationWIPO World Intellectual Property Organization

Part One

Lead Articles

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In Laetoli, near Olduvai Gorge, Northern Tanzania, paleontologists havefound footprints of early hominids, presumably two adults and a child, ideal-ized as father, mother and child. We do not know where the three walkers inthe “cradle of mankind” came from, where they went and what their planswere. But it is reasonable to assume that were they capable of speech theywould have shared thoughts, ideas, knowledge, while walking along the plainsome three and a half million years ago. Ever since humans walked on earth,they have sought more knowledge to feed their families, stay healthy, arguewith their neighbors, getting a better understanding of their environment orjust have some distraction from an otherwise rather challenging life.

For hundreds of millennia, local needs and constraints and day-to-day chal-lenges drove the quest for knowledge. Scientific approaches to knowledge gen-eration, as we know them today are, historically speaking, a very recentphenomenon. These modern approaches have brought about tremendous re-sults: we have the capacity to feed more than six billion people satisfactorily;vaccinations protect our children from once deadly diseases, we communicatewith the help of satellites around the globe and we compete on global marketplaces with our products. Yet, despite these achievements, we still have crisesof hunger, HIV/AIDS, illiteracy, isolation, and conflicts and abject poverty.While the debate on the causes of poverty is not closed, we have learned thatscience and technology alone cannot provide all the answers or solutions tothese unsolved problems or how we can overcome living in a disparate worldcharacterized by unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities.

As scientists struggle to respond to global challenges, they have increasinglydistanced themselves from local ways of solving problems. Local solutionswere even discriminated against as hindering progress, outdated, “old wivestales” or simply just unfashionable. As we “modernized” our societies, a “de-gree” in traditional or indigenous knowledge was not planned for. Hence, weoverlooked its potential as a resource and even further neglected the knowl-edge that women and men, families and communities had developed them-selves for centuries.

The sixty cases presented in this collection of IK Notes demonstrate that in-digenous knowledge (IK) is a resource that can help to solve local problems, aresource to help grow more and better food, to maintain healthy lives, to share

1. Indigenous Knowledge—a Local Pathwayto Global DevelopmentBenjamin Mkapa

Benjamin Mkapa is President of theUnited Republic of Tanzania.

2 Local Pathways to Global Development

wealth, to prevent conflict, to manage local affairs, andthus contribute to global solutions. Indigenous knowl-edge has contributed to building solidarity in communi-ties affected by globalization and shielded them againstsome of its negative impacts. There is not one of the Mil-lennium Development Goals to whose achievement indig-enous knowledge cannot contribute. The sixty casescontained in this publication successfully underline thecrucial role indigenous knowledge can play in develop-ment: IK has helped to reduce hunger and poverty in In-dia, it has improved primary education and enrollmentby using local language as a means of instruction in WestAfrica, it has enabled men in Senegal to understand theimpact of female circumcision on women and empoweredwomen to move towards eradicating the practice, it hashelped to reduce child mortality in Eritrea and maternalmortality in Uganda, it provides primary healthcare tomillions of Africans, it has helped communities inMozambique to manage their coastal natural resources,and it has helped to build partnerships between the weakand the strong in Ghana to share wealth.

Sixty persuasive arguments and yet we find it difficultto convince so many scientists, politicians, developmentexperts and administrators to systematically use indig-enous knowledge in the development process. The pluralof anecdotes is not evidence, they say; scientific proof formost of its claims has yet to be found. However, for thecommunities where indigenous knowledge has worked,these cases are not anecdotes but reality. Had they waitedfor the scientific proof for the treatments they receivedfrom local healers, four thousand HIV/AIDS patients inTanga, Tanzania without access to modern antiviraldrugs would not have been alive today.

But these sixty cases provide more lessons than just thebenefits of the particular practices or approaches to de-velopment. The most pertinent ones relate to ownershipof development, local capacity, self-reliance, and empow-erment.

Ownership has been at the center of the developmentdiscourse over the last years. The sustainability of manyexternally induced development projects hinges on theownership by the beneficiaries. When building on indig-enous knowledge, ownership does not even arise as an is-sue. Indigenous knowledge is locally managed andowned. Studying, understanding and building on theknowledge of communities will substantially reduce therisk of failures of the development approach and the in-vestments by governments and bi- and multilateral do-nors. The increased sustainability does not only arise

from particular indigenous practices that would be in-cluded in the context of a development project. The veryprocess of learning from the community recognizes thecommunity and the bearers of indigenous knowledge aspartners in development who bring as much, if not more to theprocess as the providers of global knowledge.

Capacity building essentially assumes a vacuum on theside of the beneficiaries of capacity building efforts, everso often camouflaged by the term capacity strengthening.Undoubtedly, African farmers, communities, administra-tors, engineers and politicians have much to learn to copewith an increasingly complex and ever changing eco-nomic and political global environment. Yet, have com-munities and farmers not coped with an ever-changingenvironment in the past? Political experiments, inad-equate institutions to market their crops or failing ser-vices have not prevented them from prevailing andadapting to find their own solutions to survive. The com-munities not only have knowledge about practices, theyalso have knowledge of how to adapt to adverse environ-ments, institutions and policies.

Self-reliance, as political tradition in Tanzania since in-dependence, is one of the key characteristics of buildingon indigenous knowledge. Yet, many chose to interpretself-reliance as isolation, reaffirming the assumption thatknowledge sharing and learning among African commu-nities is against tradition, and that the risk associatedwith that is the loss of power and control. These cases tellus differently. Communities are eager to learn and share,because their environment teaches them one lesson al-most on a daily basis: only those who learn will prevail.Self-reliance is a genuinely local approach to develop-ment—no less so in an economic sense. When our latePresident Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere first promotedself-reliance after Tanzania’s independence, learning wasa primary means for the country’s development. If theorthodox sciences were as open to learning from indig-enous knowledge, as local communities are ready to learnfrom others and the outside world, both sides would ben-efit substantially.

Empowerment is a central icon of the development dis-course. Development planners and implementers gogreat lengths to help empower the poor, the women, thevulnerable. The cases in these IK Notes teach us that em-powerment cannot come from the outside. Lasting em-powerment is self-empowerment. The communities,farmers, women, innovators, teachers whose stories arepresented here have all chosen to empower themselves.

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They were given space and opportunity either througheducation, through intermediaries such as NGOs, a re-search station, an extension agent or a ministry, but theyall had to go the last mile themselves. This reflects wellwhat Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said at the inaugurationceremony of the South Commission on 20 October 1987:

“From the elders of my tribe I learned a story. Hereit is in the original:

‘Wakasusu, nihe wagya?Nagya kwita Wanzugu.Oragya kutura?Ndagya Kusaya-sayamu, Ndinukira!

Rabbit, where are you going?I am going to kill the Elephant.Can you do it?Well, I’ll try, and try again.’

It is in this spirit that I recommend to development ex-perts and planners, researchers and practitioners, politi-cians and bureaucrats, teachers and students to humblylearn from these cases. They are not blueprints or recipesor shortcuts to development, nor do they seek to romanti-cize indigenous knowledge or traditions or suggest thatglobal knowledge is irrelevant. Rather, they show that,indigenous and global knowledge working together in ademocratic, self-determined way is the best combinationto foster sustainable development. It remains for us, thepoliticians and decision makers, to provide the space forthis to happen.

Only those who learn will prevail.

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2. Indigenous Capacity Enhancement:Developing Community KnowledgeFrannie Leautier

When asked, communities are quick to identify solutions to address local de-velopment problems. For communities to realize their development choices,enhancement of their own capacity to deliver and manage these solutions is acritical necessity. In the introduction to this publication, His Excellency, thePresident of Tanzania remarks that African communities and farmers havealways coped with changing environments and that “communities not onlyhave knowledge about practices, they also have knowledge of how to adapt toadverse environments, institutions, and policies.” The IK Notes in this publi-cation offer a vivid illustration of three basic principles that underpin capacityenhancement (CE) in the context of indigenous knowledge (IK). First, capacityenhancement should not assume a vacuum of knowledge, a void of institu-tions, a lack of skills or a deficiency of willingness. Many of the cases show thatwith the right approach, development actors can identify and tap into localcapabilities in the areas of knowledge, skills, and practices. Second, capacityenhancement efforts without the opportunity to apply that very capacity in alocal context are likely to be ineffective. Adults learn best when the knowledgeand skills gained are of direct relevance to the problems they are seeking tosolve. Third, the enhancement of indigenous capacity is a key to the empower-ment of local communities and their effective participation in the developmentprocess. People are better able to adopt new ideas when they can be seen in thecontext of existing practices and ways of doing.

In this context, one may distinguish three levels of capacity; one represent-ing the more technical skills acquired in relation to a set of concrete develop-ment problems dealing with a specific situation (e.g., managing an orphanage,keeping dairy cattle, organizing an awareness campaign, etc.). The other levelis concerned with skills and approaches that are critical to the management ofan organization. These relate, for example, to managing local affairs and meet-ing the interests of local residents. The third level relates to the question ofbalancing interests and negotiating with central and local authorities, and iscentral to the empowerment of communities and the development of society.For example, the technical skills acquired when building a school in a commu-nity may be secondary to the community’s experience gained in managing theproject, supervising contractors, keeping the process transparent, and con-cluding it without much external assistance. Based on some of the insightsfrom these IK Notes, this article discusses how communities can take charge oftheir own capacity enhancement on all three levels and what developmentpartners can do to support this process.

Frannie Leautier is Vice Presidentof the World Bank Institute.

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Communities can take charge of their own capacity enhancement

The IK Notes contained in this compilation illustrate awide range of community-based capacity enhancementinitiatives. They include adapting literacy programs; in-troducing local knowledge approaches into school cur-ricula; women’s initiatives to manage natural resources;healing of war-affected children; farmers’ access to mar-kets, appropriate technology, and financial institutions;research design and dissemination; documenting indig-enous knowledge and protecting the intellectual propertyrights of communities.

They tell the stories of outstanding individuals, or ordi-nary individuals doing extraordinary work, of dedicatedCBOs or NGOs, of curious researchers or practitioners—all engaged in achieving the same goal: improving liveli-hoods of the communities in which they live. Finally, theydocument how communities have empowered themselvesby engaging authorities or development partners to bemore responsive to local development perspectives.

The following three boxes illustrate how different ac-tors have built on their own knowledge systems, mobi-lized external expertise and helped improve livelihoods intheir communities.

In Mali, local communities use literacy and numeracyprograms as a platform to enhance their capacity to man-age development activities that affect their daily lives.They apply newly acquired skills to design their ownmanagement systems for agricultural cooperatives.

This case may almost appear to be a provocation to con-ventional development planning. Had the problem been

identified as “weakness in the governance of cooperativesocieties” the standard approach would likely have beento train more accountants at all levels (build the rightskills to control), conduct awareness raising seminars (in-form and therefore get buy in), and introduce computersand a management information system (transparent pro-cess of making information available and tracking keydecisions). Such a project would most likely have targetedthe literate and those well conversant with the existingsystem. Instead, a completely unrelated activity—anadult literacy program—prompted participants to de-velop their own accounting systems and managementprinciples for the cooperatives, at a level of understand-ing that was immediately relevant in the village, andhence allowing such systems to slowly adapt to new tech-nologies, on the appropriate organizational backbone.Eventually, the cooperatives were not only managed bet-ter, but ownership and control had shifted appropriatelyand to the right level.

The next case from India suggests that even in very tra-ditional settings, the most unlikely “candidate”—a lowcaste woman—can become a change agent by first devel-oping her own capacity and transferring what she knowsto others. Confidence in implementing change for herself,translates into the ability to build confidence in others.Knowledge of what would be most effective for her andher community is rightly applied to make such ideasmore widely acceptable in a region.

Extension workers had tried for years to introduce im-proved dairy management and land use technology in thesame communities, yet failed—according to the casestudy—because of their perceived lack of understanding

Cotton has been cultivated and marketed in southernMali for over thirty years, and the working of textilesfrom various fibres is a culture of centuries in Mali.Most recently, cotton companies and their affiliatescommonly used to control the purchase of cotton fromfarmers and its transport to processing centers. To-day, village organizations have almost entirely as-sumed these functions. Representatives of farmers’associations or their federations are now fully respon-sible for weighing the crop, paying producers, stock-ing the products, transporting them to processingcenters, and reselling them to the processors, as wellas for the necessary organizational and accountingtasks, and development of related policy. The feat was

accomplished thanks in large measure to literacyand non-formal education programs, which enableda core of adolescents and adults to acquire reading,writing, and accounting skills in their own local lan-guage. Based on these new skills, the participantsdeveloped and applied their own vernacular and bi-lingual management systems for the farmers’ asso-ciations.1 Farmers in Mali now manage thevertically integrated chain of production and processlogistics, as they used to in past centuries, when vil-lages made their own fabric. An indigenous skill oflogistics management that was latent for many yearsis again in use.

Re-establishing command of the supply chain to farmers in Mali


of the local context. The improved management systemas successfully promoted by a low-caste woman is notmuch different from the system proposed by extensionworkers. Yet, changing the change agent from an externalinto an internal one, made all the difference in achievingthe desired outcomes.3

The last example from a USAID research project inWest Africa has a very subtle message that omits the“skill building” theme altogether. Instead of identifyingskill gaps and needs, the actors inverted the approach,surveyed existing indigenous knowledge, and reflectedthe results back to the respondents and their communi-ties. This established a useful knowledge base on existingtechnical, operational, and managerial skills in the infor-mal sector. But more importantly, it also helped empowerthe communities by making them realize that their ownknowledge is valuable and useful.

The challenge for development practitioners, govern-ments, and development partner organizations is to de-termine what they can do to help stimulate processesthat are similar to the ones described in these cases.

Local change agents contribute to enhancinglocal capacity

Previous experiences of communities in interacting withgovernments and development projects have often led tocommunities adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Often, itis not the entire community or its leader, but an indi-vidual or a group within the community with a particularinterest, that sets the change process in motion: women,elders, youth, coffee producers or even the poorer seg-ments of the community or occasionally an exceptionalindividual. The three examples illustrated in the boxes,as well as experience from other cases, indicate that thereis no single “best practice” to bring about change andempowerment through local capacity enhancement. Ex-cept when faced with severe external shocks, societiestend to prefer gradual, social, and economic change, espe-cially when existing conditions are already fragile. Anychange, especially a sudden one, brings risks that thepoorer segments of the population might neither be ableto anticipate nor be willing to take. Risk aversion is a cop-

Local catalyst promotes change in rural India

In rural India a socially disenfranchised woman gainedacceptance in her community and beyond by challeng-ing the local context through her technical ingenuityand her capacity to broker external knowledge into thecommunities. She convinced communities to adoptmeasures for the improvement of their lives. She didthis by introducing improved land and dairy cattlemanagement, first to her own landholding, then to hercommunity, and finally throughout her region. Exten-sion agents had hitherto failed to achieve a similar out-

come, primarily because the community perceived theextension agents as outsiders who could “not under-stand and appreciate the local context and conditions.”Having lived in conditions similar to or even worsethan those of the other community members providedthe woman change agent not only with the credibilityto promote change and enhance capacity, but with thecritical knowledge of where to start, and how to getbroader acceptance of new ideas.2

The USAID-funded ABEL Project (Achieving BasicEducation and Literacy) has successfully developedmethods for disseminating studies carried out by Afri-can researchers around the theme “decentralizationand local capacity-building.” The research themes in-cluded the acquisition of skills in the informal sector,management of women’s cooperatives, NGO-govern-ment cooperation in providing non-formal educationservices, and experiments in informal primary school-ing. The research approach emphasized the involve-ment of the disseminators and target audience in a

critical review of the studies, documenting and analyz-ing personal experiences, and drawing practical policyconclusions from the results. The ABEL project ap-proach defines research as “a conversation about indig-enous knowledge, its refinement, and its practicalapplications.” Those responsible for the work struggledto make existing studies understandable in practicalterms and help their “clients” recognize the fruits oftheir own experience as research worth comparing withwork done elsewhere.4

Unleashing the potential of local knowledge in West Africa

7

ing strategy that centers around resisting most exter-nally induced approaches to change. External changeagents tend to underestimate these risks, as they usuallydo not have to bear these themselves.

However, the lessons of experience also tell us that be-ing an insider is not sufficient to bring about social andeconomic change. The insider needs at least to have hadsome external exposure, stimulus, and the ability to dem-onstrate that it is possible to merge local and externalknowledge into a working model. The advantages of localchange agents are that they know the local context, “howto work the system.” The narrative of how women inMalicounda, Senegal challenged and then abolished thepractice of female genital mutilation is a model exampleof the benefits for a community of having internal changeagents who have been empowered as a result of externalexposure.5

Local context, cultural idiosyncrasies, and usually localmanagement and ownership tend to determine the paceand direction of change. Once communities accept to besupported, pulled, or driven by a change agent, they tendto exploit their own and the change agents’ explicit andtacit knowledge to address their social, institutional, oreconomic concerns.

Self-paced learning at the local level through struc-tured literacy programs often plays a catalytic role in theprocess of change. The impact of self-paced learning canbe most easily seen when looking at adult education inrural areas, which has played a significant role for mem-bers of a community to become active, to organize, and tostart addressing a problem.6 While the objectives of theeducation projects in such literacy programs are prima-

rily directed at increasing literacy, they typical generatesecondary outcomes focused on empowerment. For ex-ample, in addition to receiving literacy training, the par-ticipants in such programs would agree to address acritical problem of relevance to their community, makingthe learning immediately relevant and allowing local resi-dents to learn a skill that can be used to implement otheractivities in the village.

Contrary to general perceptions7 regarding the secre-tive nature of some form of IK, and the unwillingness ofindigenous knowledge bearers to learn from others, IKNotes authors have recorded a remarkably high propen-sity among communities to learn, both from other com-munities and from available global knowledge. Literacy isa key mechanism that enables communities to engage insuch knowledge exchange.

Innovative literacy efforts documented in the IK Notesshow that instruction in the local language and the use oflocal language teaching materials (which often empha-sizes local context through story-telling, local history, orliterature) tend to be more successful in achieving higherliteracy rates. The use of local language is not only moreeffective, it underscores the value of cultural norms andpractices in development planning and practice. This alsocreates opportunities for endogenous capacity enhance-ment, as the two examples in the next box demonstrate.

The role of development partners

As in other areas of development cooperation, partnerscan support governments to create the political and eco-nomic environment that fosters indigenous capacity en-

Another case describes the effectiveness of locally se-lected and retained seed for the improvement of landraces. Communities were able to tap into their knowl-edge (as retained in the local varieties of seeds) and al-ready existing capacity (farmers have cultivated andselected seed for centuries), not only to expand this ca-pacity but also turn it into an opportunity not avail-able under previous agricultural extension services.9

This case illustrates how a traditional top-down exten-sion service can be transformed into an enabling insti-tution for the development of local capacity.

In Nwodua, Ghana illiterate farmers, school drop-outyouth, and village authorities started and managed in-novative health, economic, and educational initiatives.This approach was more useful than the ideas theycould adopt from recommendations by external changeagents. In an environment where the only substantialremaining locally managed and controlled economic ac-tivity is subsistence production, any additional, worth-while activity that can be owned and managed by thelocal community is an attractive proposition.8 Theywould succeed because they were able to use latent capac-ity, embedded in how they managed subsistence farming,towards managing health and educational initiatives.

Capacity is embedded in the practices of a community


hancement, assist communities directly by providing op-portunities to demonstrate their innovativeness, and actas brokers to help exchange experiences across communi-ties, countries, and even regions. An enabling environ-ment includes mechanisms that identify local innovators,while at the same time ensuring more than just incre-mental learning by providing platforms for knowledgeexchange and learning. A rational approach to support-ing indigenous capacity enhancement initiatives wouldalso concentrate on areas that are most relevant for thecountry; for instance, several African countries have nowstarted initiatives that link up traditional healers withthe public health service. Apart from health, the areasmost likely to yield results are agriculture, natural re-sources management, education and, increasingly impor-tant, conflict prevention and resolution.

Development partners can play a critical role in helpingto scale up successes of transferable or replicable indig-enous innovations. Once it has been reasonably well es-tablished that innovations and the capacity to managethem could be replicated elsewhere in the country or theregion, with similar or equal benefits, development part-ners and governments could invest in the disseminationof local innovations as well as in the further developmentof that capacity. As a first step, governments could seek toestablish processes that document the scope and degreeof capacity to innovate at the community level in thecountry. They could then seek to support initiatives thataim at sharing and learning. Finally, they could helpdocument and disseminate the lessons learned acrosscommunities and countries.

Some newer development approaches, such as Commu-nity Driven Development or Social Action Fund10 typeprojects not only provide opportunities for capacity en-hancement, but also opportunities for this capacity to beapplied.

Conclusion

Capacity building or enhancement measures are oftencritical to programs or projects that aim to introduce newtechnologies, change institutions, or improve services.Many development agencies use this functional ap-proach, built around the capacity requirements of thesystems to be introduced. The IK Notes have demon-strated that assuming the perspective of the communitiesand their existing capabilities—i.e., available knowledgeand institutions—helps create increased ownership,sustainability, and relevance of capacity enhancing mea-sures. This involves applying the principles that emergefrom the cases described in the IK Notes—that is, assum-ing a substantial level of existing knowledge and compe-tence of institutions, including indigenous knowledge;providing opportunities to apply enhanced capacities;and accepting capacity enhancement not only as an endin itself but as a means for empowerment. While commonsense might suggest these to be obvious, we have alsoseen that the described social or economic results couldonly be achieved after development actors have acceptedthese principles in a theoretical fashion and as categori-cal guidelines in the design of their community interac-tions and their approaches to implementation. Applyingthe principles we outlined in this series will contribute toa more substantive empowerment of communities, asthey move from being recipients of aid to shapers of theirown destiny.

1 IK Notes 9.2 IK Notes 58.3 IK Notes 60 describes a series of cases with similar characteristics

from India.4 IK Notes 14.5 IK Notes 3.6 IK Notes 3.7 IK Notes 53.8 IK Notes 7.9 IK Notes 43.10 Over the last few years The World Bank developed Community

Driven Development (CDD) and Social Action Fund projects tobetter address poverty by involving the beneficiaries in problemidentification and finding local solutions, wherever possible.

9

3. Education and Indigenous KnowledgePeter B. Easton

The relations between education and indigenous knowledge (IK) in Africancountries are critical and complex. They are also potentially a two-way streetas brought out by several of the IK Notes in this compendium. Educational ac-tivities provide one of the prime means for transmitting, accumulating, en-hancing, and transforming IK; and traditions of indigenous knowledge andlearning may themselves offer models or patterns for organizing the provisionof education. To understand the relationship, however, it helps first of all toget a better grasp of each of the terms of the equation.

Meanings of indigenous knowledge

Members of ENDA-Tiers Monde in Dakar, an NGO active in many phases oflocal development, make some useful distinctions that are themselves a directoutgrowth of IK work in education and can be very helpful in further refiningour sense of the multiple connections between the two.1 They suggest thatthere are three meanings or operational levels of indigenous knowledge:• IK as a heritage from the past, including specific bodies of knowledge in dif-

ferent areas like botany, medicine and social governance;• IK as the embodiment of a different and particularly African mode of

thought which present learners and teachers apply to the acts of learningand instruction; and

• IK as a means of articulating what people know and—for the future— creat-ing new knowledge from the intersection of their capacities (in the first twosenses above) and the challenges of development.

That third level of IK—creation of new knowledge from the intersection ofcultural heritage, personal genius, skills and insights gathered through a life-time, and pressing challenges of local development—broadens the notion andreveals a proactive dimension. In particular, it makes it evident that much ofIK activity is fundamentally educational, for it does not involve people in dis-covering and preserving existing canons of knowledge—it enables them to“make” new knowledge. And in fact the majority of case studies linking IK toeducation in the set included in this volume are of that nature: they describepeople finding ways to recognize, extend and reinvent tradition.2

Peter B. Easton is Professor of AdultEducation and Human ResourcesDevelopment in the Department ofEducational Foundations and PolicyStudies at Florida State University.


Meanings of education

Education itself comes in many forms. The distinctionsamong “formal,” “nonformal,” and “informal” educationoriginally made by Coombs and Ahmed (1974) are stillserviceable in defining rough underlying categories thatare relevant to our understanding of the uses of indig-enous knowledge.

Formal education in their terminology refers to thesort of “institutionally graded and hierarchically struc-tured” learning that leads to diplomas with officialequivalence—in short, all the various branches of the of-ficial system of education, from primary schools to uni-versities.

Nonformal education, on the other hand, denotes “anyorganized, systematic educational activity carried on out-side the framework of the formal system to provide se-lected types of learning to particular subgroups in thepopulation, adults as well as children.” It thus includes awide variety of undertakings—from traditional age-group initiation or scouting, through adult literacy andbasic education programs, and on to out-of-school reli-gious or civic education and much locally provided voca-tional instruction or training in business and industry.

Informal education, finally, is taken to mean “the life-long process by which every person acquires and accumu-lates knowledge, skills and insights from dailyexperiences and exposure to the environment”—more orless systematic or serendipitous, according to circum-stances, but not collectively organized, recognized, andstructured.

The boundaries among these domains are obviously abit blurry and hybrid forms abound, but the cross-hatch-ing of the two kinds of distinctions just mentioned—i.e.,

between education as a vehicle for IK and IK as a modelfor education, on the one hand; and among formal,nonformal, and informal varieties of learning on theother—brings to light a whole series of avenues poten-tially linking the two. The result is depicted in the tablebelow. Some of the dimensions of linkage illustrativelyhighlighted are covered in the articles from IK Notes in-cluded in this volume that deal, directly or indirectly,with education.

As indicated in the central column of the table, perhapsthe most general characteristic of the process of indig-enous learning that may itself have an influence on thedelivery of education is its contextualization. Indigenousknowledge is typically tied to and incarnated in specificsocial, cultural, and economic activities within the con-cerned community, and it is typically acquired by someform of participation in those activities, at once func-tional and ritualistic. Much of formal and/or organizededucation in African communities, however, is largelydecontexutalized and involves learning things—andlearning in ways—that show little relation with the so-cial, cultural, and economic habits of the host community.

Cross-cutting effects of gender and religion

Indigenous knowledge is usually not gender-neutral andthis fact likewise affects its educational functions. IK is inmany cultures the particular province (though not theexclusive prerogative) of women, who conserve prescrip-tions and understandings, stories, and botanical insightsfrom the reservoir of oral tradition and historical experi-ence—even where these are characterized by male-domi-nated culture as “old wives’ tales.”

Example s o f re lation sh ips be tw e en in dige nous kn ow le dge an d e ducation obtaine d by cross-h atch in g type s o f e ducation w ith mode s o f re lation sh ip

Educat ion as ve hic le for IK IK as mode l for educat ion

Formal e ducat ion

In t roduct ion of local h istory, ethno-botanical knowledge, tr adit ional music or crafts, etc. in to the formal school or univer sity cur r iculum

Use of local languages as a vehicle for learn ing in schools; adopt ion of t r adit ional apprent iceship format s as par t of instruct ional delivery

Nonformal e ducat ion

Training local extension agent s or administ rat ive personnel in in t ervent ion methods that blend IK & “Western” scient ific approaches.

In addit ion to the above, building new educat ional dimensions in to exist ing age group societ ies and tradit ional associat ions

In formal e ducat ion

Making available through a var iety of media informat ion on different types of IK and their applicat ions.

In

crea

sed

use

of

con

text

lea

rnin

g

an

d c

onte

xtu

aliz

ed i

nst

ruct

ion

At a communal level, promot ing increased contact and commerce with —and increased observat ion of—tradit ional art isans by the rest of the populat ion .

11

Much could be said about the interaction of IK and gen-der. Suffice it here to note the example of teaching per-sonnel. In countries where primary schools, andparticularly those in rural areas, are staffed in good partby local women with the requisite qualifications—as isthe case in India and a small but growing number of Afri-can nations—teachers may in fact find ways, both con-scious and unconscious, of introducing contents andapproaches drawn from local IK into the classroom expe-rience. In much of francophone Africa, however, ruralprimary schools have been predominantly staffed bymen—and often, through explicit administrative policy,by men from other cultural regions of the country—acharacteristic that has reinforced their function as adecontextualized instructional system designed to ini-tiate children to “modern” society and to a universal ornational culture having little to do with local traditions.

The intersection of religion and indigenous knowledgelikewise has many meanings for education in Africa.There are typically three cardinal points on this compass:(a) local religious traditions; (b) the doctrines and prac-tices of world religions (for the most part, either Chris-tianity or Islam, though not infrequently both); and (c)the culture of “lay” or State-focused schooling. BothChristianity and Islam have been adapted to African cul-ture and even “Africanized” to varying extents during thehistory of their transmission across the continent—mostly accomplished through education of one type oranother—though proponents of Islam would, if anything,deny this sort of syncretism even more vigorously thanChristian missionaries (e.g., Mugambi 2002, Monteil1964). And both have likewise influenced and been influ-enced by national ideologies of development to varyingdegrees, depending on the particular religious complex-ion of the State during a given period of time.

Religion complicates the picture because of the way inwhich it can affect the meaning of what is indigenous,what is imported. The contrast among the influences oflocal culture, international religions, and the colonial re-gime of capitalism stands out with particular clarity inworks like Ceddo, the renowned film by Senegalese au-thor and cinematic director Ousmane Sembène (2001[1977]), in which the Islamic imam, the Catholic mission-ary, the defenders of local tradition, and the representa-tives of colonial power all vie for dominance. Incircumstances like those of 20th century Senegal, whereschooling and State power were largely monopolized byan entente between State and Christian missions, Islamicinstitutions themselves come to be seen in some sense asrepositories of “indigenous” knowledge—that is, sources

of an African tradition oppositional to the colonial statewith roots going back through generations of local soci-ety. Sembène pointedly reminds the film-goer that Islamwas itself an outside imposition at one time. The scene isstrikingly similar, in some ways, to the circumstances re-counted in IK Notes Number 4, “From Sacrilege toSustainability,” on reforestation and organic farming inForikrom, Ghana, though the major protagonist there isevangelical Christianity.

Understanding the relationship

In a sense, most of the articles in this collection speak atleast indirectly of the relation of indigenous knowledge toeducation, because for “traditional” ways and reservoirsof perception to have an impact on the conduct of devel-opment they must be articulated and mobilized. Oncethey are, to whatever end, then these bodies of knowledgeand experience acquire the critical mass necessary fortransmission through—and for incorporation into—ex-isting forms of societal learning, whether as subject mat-ter or as model for process.

But those articles that deal explicitly with concerns ofeducation (formal, nonformal or informal),3 even if onlyin part, are fewer in number, and the principal onesamong them are worth briefly highlighting here. Theirdistribution and their nature are illustrative of a numberof points made above, though, if read in detail, the textsreveal facets of a complex and dynamic reality that gowell beyond a few generalizations.

It is significant that none of the articles bears prepon-derantly on the uses of IK in formal schooling, whether atthe primary school or the university level. Though notexemplified in these papers, the blend is potentially lessof a problem in higher education, where both politicalcorrectness and the normal purview of topics like history,anthropology, philosophy, and sociology can make a placefor critical consideration of local knowledge and Africantraditions—if not for pedagogies and the type ofcontextualized learning typical of indigenous education.At the primary and secondary level, however, the struggleis more difficult. Even the use of African languages—themselves stratified between a large number of localspeech traditions and a smaller number of vehicular oneslike Swahili and Hausa—has been a practice more oftenrecommended than sustained (cf. Bunyi 1999).

However, some articles4 do deal with incorporation ofIK contents and learning processes into communityschooling—those unchartered versions of elementary orsecondary instruction that have been established by vil-


lages and local associations, and sometimes promoted byState authorities as well, as a means of absorbing excessdemand for schooling or of addressing acute problemslike youth unemployment and social maladjustment. Un-fortunately, as the studies relate, the nearer these locallyengendered forms of schooling get to the formal system,the more they end up having to abandon IK contents andprocesses, like use of maternal languages.

Multiple forms of nonformal education are evident inthe articles—as a means to mobilize local energies andaugment local skills for the challenges of development;5

as a facility for capturing indigenous knowledge and ap-plying it to current challenges like democratization;6 andas the centerpiece of alternate knowledge traditions likeKoranic studies.7 The very variety of foci in this field,which, in a manner typical of nonformal education, spansconcerns from agricultural marketing through local gov-ernance, health and human rights, provides multiple in-terfaces for articulating and developing local knowledge.Numerous patterns of interaction manifest themselves,where adult education and vocational courses serve as aplatform for reinvigorating local government in ruralGhana,8 which recount how alternate apprenticeship sys-tems and “rites of passage” have been developed for ur-ban youth and war-ravaged communities in Kenya, theSudan and Mozambique,9 and, where a program devotedto articulating Senegalese women’s “ways of knowing”ended up forging a new means of combating female geni-tal mutilation, without condemning the culture in whichit took place.10

Last but not least, the venues and avenues of informaleducation and its relations to indigenous knowledge arestill more diverse, since almost any activity devoted to ar-ticulating local understandings and then applying themto current development problems—or to blending themwith other sources of knowledge in conservable form—may have in and of itself a profound educational impacton participants and bystanders alike. This is quite obvi-ously the case in situations like those analyzed in educa-tional research in Benin,11 on village bankers in Fandène,Senegal,12 on women bean farmers in Kenya,13 on localstrategies for ecological preservation on the West Africancoast,14 and on Fulani literature as a nonprofit busi-

ness.15 For educational institutions to be able to draw ona corpus of relevant and applicable lessons from indig-enous knowledge, someone must continually pioneer itsapplications and adaptations. “Informal education” ac-tivities like those described in the referenced issues per-form, inter alia, this function.

Putting it all together

In fact, there is potentially a funnel or circuit linking theinteraction of indigenous knowledge with the three kindsof education highlighted here. Experiences of informaleducation like publishing, environmental protection, andlocal banking that involve applying indigenous knowl-edge to—or broadcasting it in—new arenas create thegrist for cycles of nonformal training and thereby enricha corpus of lessons, applications, and understandingsthat may progressively work its way into formal school-ing as well. The recognition and dissemination that it re-ceives then hopefully transforms the environment a bit,reinforces the informal impulse, and re-ignites the cycle.

None of the stages in this cycle is guaranteed, however.Each requires dedication, hard work and a measure ofgood luck or providence. Though habitual portrayals ofthe education system put formal education at the centerand institutions of higher learning at the top, arguablythe spark plug of the process described here lies in whatthe staff of ENDA call the capacity for new knowledgecreation in indigenous culture and therefore the informalactivities in which that aptitude is first realized.

1 IK Notes 42.2 IK Notes 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 25, 31 and 46.3 IK Notes 5, 7, 11, 13, 18, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 38 and 42.4 IK Notes 5, 29, 42.5 IK Notes 9.6 IK Notes 16.7 IK Notes 11.8 IK Notes 7.9 IK Notes 20 and 33.10 IK Notes 3 and 31.11 IK Notes 14.12 IK Notes 6.13 IK Notes 23.14 IK Notes 8.15 IK Notes 38.

13

4. Women’s Indigenous Knowledge:Building Bridges Between the Traditional and the ModernMamphela Ramphele

Women in most societies of the world, as mothers, grandmothers, wives, sis-ters, or daughters, often represent the first line of health care, prepare mealsfor the family, convey values, and provide the first role models for behavior. Inmany rural societies of developing countries, women carry the burden of farmlabor and on-farm transport; they arrange for household energy (mostly fire-wood) and water. During periods of hunger, women know which plants canprovide emergency meals to help keep their families alive.

Beyond the provision of livelihoods for local communities in the areas offamily health, growing of staple crops, conflict management, and bio-diversityconservation, women have also found local answers to broader issues such astrade, tourism, education, health, and employment.

Despite the essential contributions to the lives of their families and commu-nities, women still face many constraints in exercising more influence overtheir living conditions. These constraints include an excessive workload, thedifficulties of accessing or controlling the key factors of production, and a lackof training opportunities and appropriate information, extension and advi-sory services.1

Some IK Notes in this compilation present specific cases where women’s in-digenous knowledge and practices help them, their families, and their commu-nities to address local development challenges successfully. This articlehighlights some of these cases and calls for more recognition of women’s indig-enous knowledge and its integration into the development process. In the past,indigenous knowledge related to family health care or subsistence food pro-duction has received little research and attention. Existing constraints are re-inforced, perpetuating gender inequality partly because technical orinstitutional knowledge associated with women’s work often remains unap-preciated or is not valued.2 While patriarchal traditions in many societies havecontributed to these perceptions, we increasingly see evidence of women be-coming the promoters of their own development priorities, including ways tochallenge such traditions.

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele is ManagingDirector of the World Bank.


Addressing local challenges

We know from the findings presented in the IK Notes thatin Senegal, the women of Malicounda initiated a cam-paign to put an end to the practice of female genital muti-lation.3 For years, external agents, such as developmentorganizations, and advocacy groups had called for theabolition of this practice in Senegal. Yet the eventualchange was made possible only after the women ofMalicounda had decided to use indigenous structures toovercome the practice from within their communities,rather than as a response to external calls.

This is a powerful story of empowerment and socialchange, with important lessons. In a nutshell, the womenconvinced the village council to abolish the practice in thevillage. However, not satisfied with this result, thewomen created a team (including a few of their hus-bands) to visit neighboring villages. They spoke towomen there and helped them win the support of theircommunities. They also managed to convince the tradi-tional leaders, including the religious Imam ofMalicounda to support the women’s agenda and involvethemselves actively as agents of change. This approachhas increased ownership of the change process in thecommunities and beyond. In the event, this grassrootsmovement led to the “Declaration of Malicounda” by acongress of 18 village leaders from the region who com-mitted to abandon the practice in their communities. Oneyear later, the President of Senegal proposed the “Oath ofMalicounda” as a model for national adoption. In lessthan three years, this grassroots movement had spread tomore than 200 communities nationwide and several com-munities in other countries as well.4

Researchers have also found that women have taken alead role in preserving natural forests and bio-diversityin high-risk and marginal regions. In Senegal’s WestCoast region of Popenguine, for example, local womenformed an association for the protection of the environ-ment5 to address the issues they were most concernedabout. These included loss of bio-diversity, diminishingvegetable stock, an inappropriate tourism strategy, youthunemployment, and lack of capital. The association in-volved traditional leaders, urban women, and youth, en-couraging entire communities across the region toparticipate. It planted firebreaks with endogenous spe-cies around the entire perimeter of their forests, estab-lished a cooperative distribution network for wood,charcoal, and gas to regulate fuel consumption, therebysupporting local efforts to control deforestation. Theycollected household waste for the compost needed in the

nursery producing tree seedlings and formed savings andloan groups and a regional network of women associa-tions. 6

Other IK Notes7 point to the substantial contributionof women to maintaining agro-biodiversity. Droughts pe-riodically affect many regions in Africa, often causingwidespread famine. In their role as principal providers offood in the event of food shortages, women have devel-oped coping strategies to maintain food security at thehousehold level. They often rely on minor crops or semi-domesticated plants, more tolerant to droughts andpests, providing a reserve for extended periods of eco-nomic hardship.8 Many of the plants women use alsohave medicinal value.9 However, women’s indigenouspost-harvest technologies, such as storage, and process-ing practices related to underutilized plants, are in dan-ger of disappearing.10 Today, projects focusing on theconservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in-creasingly collaborate with women on in-situ and ex-situconservation efforts, such as the cultivation of medicinalplants in home gardens.11

The role of women’s IK in relation to farm animals isalso underestimated. Although animal ownership in mostsocieties is associated with men, women often collect fod-der for cattle, look after their health, milk them, and col-lect and use dry cow dung for energy purposes.12 As aresult, gender differentiated research in this area is be-ginning to discover that women have acquired a substan-tial stock of husbandry and ethno-veterinary knowledgethat complements existing scientific knowledge.

Contributing to global goals

Research on indigenous knowledge has highlighted theways in which women have developed effective strategiesto help achieve the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). In the Tanga Region of Tanzania, for instance, alocal NGO run mostly by women provides prevention,testing, counseling, home-based care, and income genera-tion opportunities to local AIDS patients. Because of thetreatment provided by traditional healers, patients areable to resume their daily lives and live longer. The NGOassists women who provide home-based care to HIV/AIDS patients. It has also set up day-care centers forHIV/AIDS orphans, provides education to school chil-dren, and involves traditional birth attendants (TBAs) inawareness raising related to HIV/AIDS.13 The work ofthe NGO has a direct impact on people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) by enabling them to lead productive lives

15

again. By organizing community-based care of PLWHA,the NGO also helps facilitate a better management ofwomen’s increased total workload, allowing them to takecare of their other essential tasks such as food productionand family health care.

In West Africa, women have redefined adult educationprograms with respect to functional literacy and skillbuilding. Following their participation in literacy pro-grams, women returned to their communities, empow-ered not only by their new skills, but also by realizingthat their traditional skills and knowledge, comple-mented with external knowledge could be put to use ad-dressing local community problems. Their increasedself-awareness enabled them to address harmful indig-enous practices, such as FGM, which was described ear-lier.14 By forming regional associations and promotingadult literacy programs, they encouraged other women toreplicate their experiences.15 Another innovative educa-tion project in Mali used cultural symbols and indigenouspractices to initiate a dialogue about women’s pregnancyand health risks within the family and the community.Project participants have also learned to use modern me-dia, such as videos, flipcharts, and badges to promotecommunity awareness about women’s health risks.16

The cases relating to education reveal the complexity ofindigenous knowledge and underscore the role of womenin this context. While women are undoubtedly a valuableresource of indigenous knowledge, some of the con-straints mentioned above are a result of actual or per-ceived cultural traditions. The IK Notes on educationlead to an interesting conclusion: culturally ingrainedbut harmful practices such as FGM have shown great re-sistance to external efforts to abolish them, whereas in-ternal and even indigenous ways to address them in asustainable manner appear to have had a much higherchance of success. However, these indigenous approachesrequired the external stimulus—e.g., the adult literacyprogram—that gave the women the confidence to addressthe issue, take it up with their traditional leaders, andconvince them to make it their issue as well. The result ofboth processes—the literacy program as well as the fightagainst FMG—led the women to be recognized as an em-powered group in their communities and beyond.

In another case, the cooperation between the modernpublic health sector and traditional birth attendants inthe Iganga District of Uganda demonstrates howwomen’s indigenous and modern knowledge can be lever-aged to help achieve one of the MDGs. The project man-

aged to bridge the perceived gap between the traditionaland modern knowledge systems and lead to impressiveoutcomes: a reported 50 percent reduction in maternalmortality in three years.17

Next to literacy, income generation provides additionalopportunities for the empowerment of women. For ex-ample, a number of self-help groups have emerged to sup-port women with skills development and opportunitiesfor income generation. It is quite common for men to takeover activities from women once these activities generatecash proceeds (e.g., when subsistence crops become cashcrops) and seize responsibilities from women once theyprovide cash proceeds, especially in food production.Hence, efforts to support income-generating projects forwomen have to consider such gender roles to ensure thatthe opportunities offered can be fully utilized by thewomen. Combining such efforts with savings schemes in-creases the likelihood for women to remain in controlover the proceeds.

In India, for example, women formed over 175 self-helpgroups in the rural district of Pratabghar in NorthernIndia, such as the Kaveri Mahela Self Help Group.Formed in 1995, the Kaveri group initially comprised 15members. At first, each member saved the equivalent of10 cents per month, which they increased four to eighttimes over the next six months. Today, each membersaves up to $6 per month. The funds are saved in the localbank under a joint fund called the Kaveri Self Help Fund.Having saved a fair amount, the women started an inter-nal lending scheme within the group. They also took outindividual loans worth $100–200 from the local bank toinvest in modern technologies, such as a sugar cane pro-cessor. These self-help groups have also become effectiveagents of social change in the countryside and have ad-dressed several sensitive issues, such as the dowry sys-tem. Today, a large number of women in this district canread, write, and comprehend complex aspects of theirbusiness transactions. 18

Building on these experiences, in the small town ofEmbalam in South India, women run “Village KnowledgeCenters” for their own and neighboring villages. This en-ables women to educate themselves further, not only inavenues available to them through the government andother NGOs but also on subjects of their own choice, suchas local diseases and treatments for humans and farmanimals.19 As is the case in Senegal, the empowerment ofwomen through education in India has allowed them toaddress cultural obstacles to their own development.


Leveraging women’s indigenous knowledge:a challenge for development agents

The series of factual accounts from the IK Notes providesfascinating insights into various areas where women’s IKcan have an impact on development. Whether it is localproduction or political expression through advocacy,women have managed to influence community leaders,politicians, and development partners. They have raisedand addressed serious issues such as female genital muti-lation, HIV/AIDS, food security, and the loss of sustain-able production practices while promoting innovativecommunity institutions, such as savings and creditgroups, natural resource management cooperatives, anddrought management committees.

More systematic research is needed to complementstudies on the socio-economic roles of women in their so-cieties and on power relationships, concentrating on theirindigenous knowledge and wisdom. This would help de-velopment practitioners to better understand, value, andeventually validate such contributions to development.The price of overlooking women’s IK outside their “tradi-tional,” domestic knowledge domains could eventually re-sult in losing a substantial body of knowledge. This posesa specific challenge for development workers: they needto help develop more space and opportunities for womento express, apply, and share their knowledge of solvingdevelopment problems.

Women as bearers of indigenous knowledge, can—prob-ably better than men—act as bridge builders betweenrepresentatives of the various knowledge systems. In thearea of family health, for example, where women have thedistinct advantage of being considered by most people asthe leading practitioners, opportunities for integrationand mutual learning exist, as the Iganga experience dem-onstrates.20 Local women are also better positioned toovercome the barriers that harmful traditional practiceshave imposed on their lives, rather than exogenous ap-proaches, as the Malicounda example suggests.21 Thesecases point to opportunities for governments, develop-ment partners, and the World Bank alike to help facili-tate the integration of various knowledge systems for thebetterment of the local communities.

Conclusion

One of the central messages of the IK Notes is thatwomen’s IK can make a significant contribution toachieving sustainable outcomes in development. There-fore, there is a need to make sustained and focused ef-forts towards facilitating the incorporation of women’sknowledge into broader development efforts.

To enable women to maximize their IK contribution tothe development process, national governments and de-velopment partners need to go beyond gender-balancedparticipation of women in development activities and de-velop approaches that provide them with:• Space, in the form of fora where women can present

their experiences, learn from their peers, and encoun-ter representatives from the established knowledgesystems for fair and equitable exchange and learning;

• Opportunities, in the form of substantially improvedaccess for women to the knowledge systems and infra-structure in their countries in a way that is not pre-scriptive in its methods and outcomes. From primaryschool to adult literacy programs, education is a center-piece of such an approach; its effectiveness depends onappropriate participation and inclusion not just ofnumbers of participants, but of contributors to a devel-opment solution; and

• Recognition, through a commitment by governmentsand development partners to direct specific researchtowards IK of women; to identify, document, and appro-priately disseminate women’s IK; to help strengthenexisting women’s knowledge networks; and to providefora for the exchange of knowledge between womenand the formal sciences. Recognition, of course, also in-cludes the possibility for traditional women practitio-ners to gain income from their IK and not be takenadvantage of in arrangements that deprive them of pos-sibilities to practice their skills. “Recognition” dependsabove all on an inclusive and participatory process be-tween the public and private actors in development. Byproviding them with opportunities of the type de-scribed in the IK Notes, women can become agents ofchange rooted in their traditions and yet be able to le-verage learning from outside their communities.

17

1 Austria Development Corporation, CTA, Hellenic DevelopmentCorporation; 1999: “The economic role of women in agriculturaland rural development: promoting income-generating activities.”Seminar Report. (http://www.cta.int/pubs/erw/english_intro.pdf)

2 Madge, Clare; 1994: Collected food and domestic knowledge in theGambia, West Africa: The Geographical Journal, Volume 160. Issue:3.

3 IK Notes 3.4 IK Notes 31.5 Regroupement des Femmes de Popenguine pour la Protection de la

Nature or RFPPN.6 IK Notes 8.7 IK Notes 8, 23.8 One such plant is cat’s whiskers (Cleome gynandra L./Gynandropsis

gynandra (L.) Briq.), which has been the subject of some excep-tional in-depth research (http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/pdf/350.pdf)

9 IK Notes 44, 58.

10 In Kenya, young people may reject traditional leafy vegetablesbecause, they say, they taste bitter. Older women point out that thisis probably because the food has not been prepared properly. (http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/Institute/fact_gender.htm)

11 IK Notes 35.12 IK Notes 5813 IK Notes 51.14 IK Notes 31, 58.15 IK Notes 3, 8.16 IK Notes 12.17 IK Notes 40; the case is also summarized in the concluding lead

article: “Indigenous Knowledge: The Way Forward.”18 IK Notes 45.19 IK Notes 63, not in this compilation; can be downloaded from

http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/iknt63.pdf20 IK Notes 40.21 IK Notes 3, 31.

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5. Indigenous Responses to AIDS in AfricaEdward C. Green

The IK Notes in this volume clearly illustrate that many solutions to the prob-lems of the poor lie within those communities and populations. A discussion ofthe responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa demonstrates that local so-lutions to the spread of the disease are equally or more valid, efficient, and ef-fective than those designed on external models.

Evidence is mounting that the global model of AIDS prevention has beenineffective in Africa. The model is based on risk-reduction or “remedies” inter-ventions (condoms, treating sexually transmissible infections [STIs] withdrugs), rather than on risk avoidance (mutual monogamy, abstinence, or delayof age of first sex).1 The remedies–based prevention model does not activelypromote partner reduction, or even address multi-partner sex.

When HIV/AIDS first appeared in Africa, most governments preferred not todeal with the issue. There was indignation for blaming Africans for the originof a deadly pandemic. There was also fear that evidence of AIDS would ruintourism and foreign business investment. Yet at least two African govern-ments responded very quickly to AIDS: Uganda and Senegal. These two coun-tries are now recognized as the first two AIDS success stories in Africa.; and itis important to look carefully at these programs, which were developed largelyby the countries themselves, and before Western AIDS organizations hadgeared up to assist Africa in the fight against AIDS.

Both Uganda and Senegal developed AIDS prevention programs that em-phasized primary behavior change,2 along with risk reduction interventions.Put another way, they dealt with AIDS as a behavioral issue requiring behav-ioral solutions, rather than merely as a medical problem requiring medical so-lutions. Both countries were successful in drastically reducing HIV prevalence(Uganda) or in preventing HIV from even entering the general (non high-risk)population (Senegal). No country in the world can match Uganda’s 66 percentoverall decline in infection rates.

It is accurate to say that these African governments, later assisted by theirNGOs, relied on indigenous knowledge to design effective programs. Thisshould come as no surprise. Influencing behavior, or changing deeply en-trenched behavioral and social patterns, is not the same as promoting a drugor a vaccine.

Edward C. Green is Senior ResearchScientist at the Harvard Center forPopulation and Development.

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Risk-reduction model

The AIDS prevention paradigm that was exported to Af-rica in the later 1980s was developed for high-riskgroups, such as men who have sex with men in US citieslike San Francisco. Part of the risk reduction model wasnot to address sexual behavior. It was argued that thiswould amount to making value judgments, which is un-scientific and would only drive away those who needed tobe reached. AIDS experts settled for risk or harm reduc-tion approaches, which assume that behavior is difficultor impossible to change, and that efforts ought to bemade to mitigate the consequences of risky behavior.Thus, condoms and clean needles (where legal) were pro-vided to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted andblood-to-blood HIV infection respectively. There was andis no discouragement of any form of sexual behavior, orinjecting drug use. AIDS experts applauded themselvesfor their open-mindedness and realism.

This approach might have been suitable for San Fran-cisco, or even São Paulo or Bangkok. But when this wasexported to Africa, there was little attempt to adapt themodel to local cultural settings or epidemic patterns, de-spite claims to the contrary. In the US, Europe and mostof Asia, HIV infections are concentrated in a few fairlywell defined high-risk groups. In (Sub-Saharan) Africa,most infections are found in the general population. Ac-tually, many are opposed to this distinction, arguing,“let’s not single out particular risk groups. That will stig-matize them—blame the victims—and make the generalpublic feel that they are not at risk.” So our messageshould be, “we are all at risk of AIDS.” This has a nice,egalitarian ring; we are all in this together. Nevertheless,differences in epidemiological patterns and cultural set-tings are real, calling for—among other things—differentapproaches to prevention in different settings.

AIDS prevention in Africa

How has the risk-reduction model fared in Africa? Mostefforts have focused on condom supply and promotion.There is no evidence to date that mass promotion ofcondoms has paid off in the decline of HIV infection ratesat the population level. The UNAIDS multi-center study,published in a special edition of AIDS in 2001, found thatcondom user levels made no significant difference in de-termining HIV prevalence levels (Buve et al. 2001). And avery recent UNAIDS review of condom effectiveness(Hearst and Chen 2003) concludes, “There are no definite

examples yet of generalized epidemics that have beenturned back by prevention programs based primarily oncondom promotion.”

Some argue that not enough condoms are being used inAfrica to have made a difference yet, and that condomswould have an impact if only they were made easily avail-able in the billions instead of the mere tens of millions.Possibly, but what we do know from recent USAID data isthat, after more than 15 years of intense condom socialmarketing (a field I have worked in) in Africa, the resultis an average of only 4.6 condoms available (not necessar-ily used) per male per year in Africa in recent years(Shelton and Johnston 2001). That figure was actually abit higher in the mid-1990s; it has declined somewhateven since then in spite of the explosion of AIDS in south-ern Africa. The problem seems to be low demand ratherthan supply.

Uganda’s home-grown approach

In addition to condoms, the other relatively expensiveAIDS prevention programs currently funded by majordonors are mass treatment of STIs, voluntary counseling,and testing and prevention of mother-to-child transmis-sion through Nevirapine. Like condom marketing, theseare medical remedies rather than a promotion of behav-ioral change. These programs, along with condom socialmarketing, had not yet started in Uganda when infectionrates began to decline in the late 1980s. Yet Uganda hasexperienced the greatest decline of HIV infection of anycountry. Its home-grown prevention program was basedlargely on a message expressed in a local metaphor:“zero-graze.” This means only graze your beast in yourown field; do not graze elsewhere (i.e., do not have sexoutside of marriage or stable relationship). Responding toforeign expert advice about AIDS, President Museveniobserved in 1991, “Just as we were offered the “magicbullet” in the early 1940s, we are now being offered thecondom for ‘safe sex.’ We are being told that only a thinpiece of rubber stands between us and the death of ourcontinent. I feel that condoms have a role to play as ameans of protection, especially in couples who are HIV-positive, but they cannot become the main means ofstemming the tide of AIDS.”

Within a mere three to four years of the start ofUganda’s prevention program, behavioral surveys (cor-roborated by biological data) began to show much lowerlevels of casual sex, a delayed age of first sex, and rela-tively high condom user rates among the few who still


engaged in casual sex. Uganda also pioneered approachesin reducing stigma, bringing discussion of sexual behav-ior out into the open, involving HIV-infected people inpublic education, persuading individuals and couples tobe tested and counseled, and improving the status ofwomen. The genius of Uganda’s ABC program (Abstain,Be faithful, or use Condoms) is that it focuses on the“proximate determinants” or immediate causes of HIVinfection, as well as on what individuals themselves cando to change (or maintain) behavior, and thereby avoid orreduce the risk of infection. But it also tackled the diffi-cult social and institutional problems that only commit-ted governments can address over the near tointermediate term. These programs were led by the gov-ernment (especially the Ministry of Health), but also in-volved many NGOs and community-based localorganizations.

Senegal’s indigenous solutions

Like Uganda, Senegal was one of the first countries inAfrica to acknowledge HIV/AIDS and to begin imple-menting significant HIV/AIDS prevention and controlprograms. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census(BUCEN); like Uganda, “Senegal has been a successstory, as the government has managed to keep the epi-demic from getting out of control” (BUCEN 2000:1). Ac-cording to UNAIDS, Senegal currently has one of thelowest HIV seroprevalence rates in Sub-Saharan Africa,and it appears to be stable at under 1 percent or less ofthe general population (BUCEN 2000).

A UNAIDS assessment of Senegal’s response to itsAIDS epidemic (Sittitrai 2001:9) highlights the followingelements:• As in Uganda, politicians in Senegal were quick to

move against the epidemic once the first cases appearedin the second half of the 1980s.

• Since 93 percent of Senegalese are Muslims, the gov-ernment made efforts to involve religious leaders; HIV/AIDS became a regular topic in Friday sermons inmosques, and senior religious figures talked about it ontelevision and radio.

• Many other levels of Senegalese society joined in. By1995, 200 NGOs were active in the response, as werewomen’s groups with about half a million members.

• HIV prevention was included when sex education wasintroduced in schools. Parallel efforts reached out toyoung people who are not in school (Sittitrai 2001:9).

Again as in Uganda, we find evidence of primary behav-ioral change in Senegal, that is, partner reduction andrise in age of sexual debut. According to the DHSwebsite,3 the median age of sexual debut has risen morethan in any other African country for which DHS dataexist, from 16.6 to 17.4. And the UNAIDS author notesfrom a review of demographic and behavioral data:

Senegalese women in their early 20s did not have sexuntil they were almost 19 or older. For their mothers’generation—the women who were between 40 and 49 in1997—the median age was closer to 16 (Sittitrai2001:11).

A 2001 study of never-married females in Dakar aged15–23 was conducted by Family Health International,with USAID and CDC funding, through the SenegaleseMinistry of Health. Only 29 females out of a randomsample of 699 reported ever having had intercourse. Thismeans that 95.9 percent were delaying sex; only 4.1 per-cent were having sex (Hygea/FHI 2001: 31). This repre-sents a very low proportion of girls and young womenhaving early sex, by almost any country’s standard, espe-cially since about 11 percent of the sample is in the agegroup 20–23. Most (55 percent) of the 29 young women inthe FHI study who reported having any number of part-ners in the 201 study reported just one partner (Hygea/FHI 2001:35).

Like Uganda, Senegal enlisted the support of religiousorganizations in AIDS prevention, began AIDS educationin primary schools, and deliberately used fear arousal asa prevention strategy. This does not correspond to theWestern model of AIDS prevention. What occurred inUganda and Senegal are indigenous, African responses toAIDS. And they worked.

African paradigm worked best

On the intervention side, there are similarities betweenAfrica’s two success stories, beginning with the fact thatboth programs were largely indigenous. If anything,Senegal seems to have been even bolder than Uganda intelling the major donor agencies that, while their supportwas wanted and needed, they should not tell Africans ex-actly how best to prevent AIDS. According to Demo-graphic and Health surveys, Senegal and Uganda standout among African countries in the high proportions ofsurveyed people who say they learned about AIDS fromface-to-face, local contacts, as distinct from radio, printmaterials, or formal health workers. Senegal stands outas a country where women feel personally at risk of get-

21

ting AIDS (even though its HIV prevalence is the lowestin continental sub-Saharan Africa, about 0.50 percent),and Uganda stands out as a country where women feelthey can refuse unwanted sex or insist upon condom use.

These two countries also mobilized both their religiousleaders and their traditional healers at the beginning oftheir respective epidemics. THETA (Traditional Healersand Modern Practitioners Together Against AIDS), aUgandan NGO, promotes collaboration between tradi-tional and modern health practitioners in the fightagainst AIDS.4 This NGO developed a model of collabo-rating in prevention and treatment of AIDS, drawingupon the many thousands of traditional healers inUganda. The Africa-wide, Senegal-based NGOPROMETRA is coordinating AIDS programs that involveindigenous African healers throughout the continent.5

The governments of Uganda and Senegal recognizedwhere their strength lay when it came to transmittingculturally appropriate messages to their broad popula-tions. It came largely from community leaders. In a 1998World Bank exercise, the author was able to estimatethat between 4,500 and 6,750 Ugandan religious clergywere trained annually in HIV/AIDS prevention at districtlevels between 1995–1998. Fully a third of all Ugandandistricts also trained traditional healers, meaning thatover 1,800 healers were trained every year for four years.Of course, this estimate is based on written records. Evenallowing for considerable inflation of figures, this stillamounts to a greater number of indigenous healers offi-cially involved in HIV/AIDS prevention than in most—perhaps any—other country in Africa. THETA, theUgandan NGO, was the model for the training of indig-enous healers.

In short, two African countries drew upon their respec-tive cultures, along with what for them was commonsense, and proceeded to do what was needed to preventAIDS effectively. And they did this largely on their own.The unfortunate thing is that most African countries didvery little or nothing until well-meaning experts showedup, and as a result, most African countries have AIDSprograms that tend to reflect external notions of what todo. If we are to be entirely objective, it is hard to concludethat HIV/AIDS prevention programs have worked wellelsewhere, since HIV infection rates appear to be goingup (again) among key groups in the United States andEurope (e.g., Gross 2003; MAP 2000).

Providing more options

It has been difficult for donor agencies and consultingfirms involved in AIDS prevention to accept evidencethat suggests that what they have been doing may nothave been very effective in Africa; meanwhile somethingthey have not supported directly has worked better. Somehave dismissed the ABC approach as simplistic, narrowor reductionist. Yet, the ABC approach adds primary be-havior change (the A and B of ABC) to programs favoredby donors, programs that for the most part do not go be-yond “C,” beyond condoms and D-for-drugs remedies.Adding primary behavior change therefore providespeople with more options for preventing HIV infectionthan are currently available in most programs, and theseare sustainable options that do not depend on relativelyhigh-cost imports.

Care, support and treatment

Going beyond prevention, there are other sets of issuesassociated with care, support and treatment of PLWHAs(people living with HIV/AIDS) and their families. Thetreatment issue that currently dominates global dis-course has to do with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, andhow to lower the price of these in order to make themavailable to the poor through complex systems of profes-sional health care operating in biomedical health care fa-cilities. Certainly, effective drugs (even if expensive)ought to be available to those who need them most, evenif they are poor and hard to reach. But it should also berecognized that it will take at least several years to workout all the problems involved in providing ARVs in an eq-uitable way in Africa. Meanwhile there are low-cost,home-based care and support programs already operat-ing in Africa that could be receiving more support fromforeign donors. The Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG)is an excellent example of a low-cost, sustainable pro-gram based on indigenous knowledge.6

“TAWG’s work is an outstanding example of howpositive results can be achieved in the fight againstAIDS by synergistically combining local expertise, in-digenous knowledge, and modern health workers toprovide effective low cost treatment for people livingwith AIDS.”7


TAWG in Tanzania and THETA in Uganda are bothcommunity-based programs that provide herbal medi-cines for the treatment of the opportunistic infections ofHIV/AIDS. In addition to anecdotal evidence, there aredata from clinical trials (which are always hard to financewhen they involve unpatentable natural products) toshow that at least some of these medicines are effective.For example, clinical trails have confirmed the efficacy ofone of THETA’s locally available herbal medicines forHerpes Zoster and AIDS-related diarrhea (Homsy et al.1999). Due to cost and access issues, it is likely that in-creasing numbers of Africans will rely primarily or exclu-sively on phytomedicines and indigenous therapies forthe infections associated with AIDS. The pharmaceuticalindustry has started to recognize the value of the“ethnomedical” approach to bioprospecting for new, mar-ketable drugs, that is, starting such research on naturalproduct medicines already in use by traditional healersand/or entire indigenous populations.8 And the WorldBank has recognized the economic development value ofconserving medicinal plants in situ, and growing themcommercially ex situ.9

“Given the central cultural role of traditional heal-ers in communities, they provide one of the besthopes for treating and stemming the spread of AIDS.But healers rely on medicinal plants and there hasbeen a significant decrease in the abundance of manyimportant medicinal plant species as their habitatsare lost through deforestation, cultivation, overgraz-ing, burning, droughts, desertification, etc.”10

Some community-based programs for people infectedand affected by AIDS provide information and advice onimproved nutrition, psychosocial and spiritual issues,participation in support groups, stress avoidance, promo-tion of good general immune system health, cessation ofsmoking and alcohol consumption, development of posi-tive attitudes, and the like. Considering only the role ofimproved nutrition, it has been established that concen-trations of HIV in the genital tract are increased by vita-min A deficiency (Mostad et al. 1997), thussupplementation of this vitamin alone might play a rolein prevention of HIV as well as treatment. And vitamin Acan come from local fruits and vegetables. In fact, thebest community programs do not rely on outside tech-nologies, commodities, or ideas.

“The Ethiopian government, with World Bank as-sistance, will soon start to implement the first con-servation and sustainable use of medicinal plantsproject in Sub-Saharan Africa. The overall objectiveof the project is to initiate support for conservation,management and sustainable use of medicinal plantsfor human and livestock health care.”11

Community based programs related to AIDS can givehope to those who are, or suspect they might be, HIV-positive. The message of these programs is that infectedpersons can live longer, more productive lives if certainsteps of self-care are taken. This approach and messagecontradict the widespread belief in Africa that AIDS islittle more than a death sentence. It contradicts fear, so-cial stigma, and defeatist thinking. Fear and stigma leadsto PLWHAs hiding their HIV status (and, for that matter,not being tested for HIV), abandoning hope, and weaken-ing their immune system and health further with fearand anxiety, a vicious downward cycle; and, of course, notbecoming involved in AIDS education as happened inUganda.

There are some who argue that programs that rely onnatural products and indigenous resources merely reflecta “double standard of health care,” with “second-classmedicine for the rural masses” while the best of orthodoxmedicine is reserved for the rich countries and the localurban elite. This has long been one of the arguments usedagainst any sort of collaboration between biomedical andindigenous health practitioners in Africa (cf. Green1994). Indeed, why not insist on expensive medicines forthe poor as well? The answer to this is, certainly, weshould insist upon the best medicines for the poor, if wecan find a way to pay for them. But keep in mind thatARVs are very expensive, even generic versions, and weare talking about providing them in countries that spendless than $10 per year per person on all of peoples’ healthcare, from cradle to grave. Moreover, we ought not to de-value and dismiss indigenous medicines and locally avail-able therapies, without unbiased consideration ofavailable evidence relating to their efficacy.

Of course it would be optimal to find ways to pay forARVs, distribute them equitably, and support self-reli-ant, community-based programs that rely on indigenousknowledge, technologies, and structures. Most of the ma-jor donor organizations seem focused solely on the

23

former. The World Bank’s Indigenous Knowledge for De-velopment Program is an exception, and therefore it hasseveral pointers to offer about the many important thingsthat are needed in addition to ARVs. Even when ARVsbecome widely available, there will still be a need for sus-tainable, community-based programs of care, supportand treatment, which are based on natural products, in-digenous therapies, local organizations and flexible pay-ment systems of health financing.

“In many developing countries, the inadequacy ofcurrent health financing arrangements, typified byprogressively declining budgetary allocations andmore cost sharing schemes have led to the explora-tion of additional and alternative approaches to im-prove the financing situation. Among thealternatives suggested are risk sharing mechanismsthat include community-based schemes that tap thepotential of traditional social arrangements.”12

1 This dichotomy is imperfect because reduction in the number ofsexual partners would have to be classified as risk reduction, notavoidance.

2 John Richens proposed the term primary behavior change to denotefundamental changes in sexual behavior, such as partner reductionor abstinence that do not rely on devices or drugs.

3 http://www.measuredhs.com/4 IK Notes 26, 54.5 IK Notes 26.6 IK Notes 51.7 Ibid.8 IK Notes 15.9 IK Notes 35.10 IK Notes 30.11 IK Notes 35; the project has already started and is presently mid-

term.12 IK Notes 48.

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6. Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods:Local Knowledge Innovations in DevelopmentJohn Aluma

Agriculture probably comprises the largest collection of indigenous practicesworldwide. Farmers and pastoralists grew crops and kept animals in the hu-mid, boreal, arid or temperate locations, developing production systems thatwere well adapted to these locations and the gradual development of these sys-tems to respond to changes in the environment. Many of these systems weresustainable only under “low-input–low-output“ regimes. The introduction ofmechanization, fertilizers and phytomedicines has turned some of these sys-tems into high-input–high-output systems, most of which could only be sus-tained with external1 support. However, a considerable number of thesehigh-input systems were either not sustainable or did not produce the highoutputs that were expected.

While the political environment2 was often a factor constraining primaryproducers from capitalizing on these new systems, most commonly throughmarket restrictions or land use rights, another common constraint was inap-propriate technology transfer. Examples include (a) the use of few cultivars fora variety of environments; (b) the introduction of tillage developed for temper-ate locations often resulting in loss of organic matter and erosion in humid ortropical soils; (c) disease- and pest-plagued plants and animal breeds that hadnot developed immunities or resistance.

The modernization of agriculture and other land use changes have alsobrought about a reduction of genetic variability. Researchers and producersare counteracting this trend by re-introducing indigenous species back intothe gene pool of domestic crops and livestock. While efforts in this directionare increasing, the funding available for research is minimal, given the lack ofresources for public agricultural research in general.3 However, an increasingnumber of national agricultural research institutions in developing countriesinclude the study, development, and commercialization of indigenous knowl-edge-based production practices, especially plant products with a promisingfuture for medicinal, nutraceutical or industrial use.4

Clearly, the benefits of modernized agriculture and the green revolution areundisputable—and without them, the world could hardly feed more than sixbillion people. However, evidence suggests that in the event of severe short-ages of the major staples, many communities in Africa revert as a short- term

John Aluma is Deputy Director Generalof the National Agricultural ResearchOrganization, Uganda (NARO).

25

survival mechanism to “traditional” plants and cropsthat have received but a fraction—if at all—of the re-search attention of the major crops. This indicates anunderutilized potential worth exploring, to raise the un-derstanding of communities’ responses to livelihood chal-lenges. In this context, three major questions arise:• In what ways have indigenous knowledge and practices

and innovations enhanced livelihood in a manner thatis ecologically sustainable, economically viable and so-cially acceptable, and more specifically, in what way hasIK contributed to the three most important factors infood security: availability, access and utilization?

• Who are the drivers of IK innovation or adaptation?• What are the circumstances that foster or constrain

them, in support of or as challenges to the scaling-up ofsuccessful practices?

The IK Notes in this collection demonstrate local ap-proaches that may provide some answers to these ques-tions. An overriding principle in indigenous responses tothe challenges of rural life appears to be a comprehensiveapproach that extends beyond the “purely technical.” In-stead, the community approach is embedded in a generalresponse to issues relating to poverty, household food andnutrition security, health, sustainable agriculture, off-farm employment, participation, social and human capi-tal formation, access to institutions and social networks,to name but a few.

Reviving a traditional practice for better livelihoodsin Mali

The Jatropha Curcas Plant5 Project in Mali promotes theproduction and processing of Jatropha (Physic Nut;Euphorbiaceae family). Growing the plant helps to con-trol erosion and to improve the soil in a semi-arid envi-ronment. Processing (extracting seeds) the Jatropharesults in income (especially for women) renewable en-ergy and contributes to poverty reduction. Jatropha, ofLatin American origin, was originally introduced for pro-ducing lubricant oil. It is a drought-resistant perennialand can be used as a natural fence. Jatropha hedges pro-tect food crops and gardens from livestock and reduce soilerosion. The hedges also help to reduce conflicts betweenthe farmers and livestock owners over animals causingcrop damage.6 The revival of the traditional practice bywomen who harvested the seeds for medical purposes andlocal soap production has led to profitable soap-makingenterprises managed by women and a reduction of pov-

erty. The press cake, which remains after oil extraction, isa high-grade organic fertilizer. Jatropha oil also works asa diesel fuel substitute for small engines that drive grainmills and water pumps.

Initially, the German Technical Assistance (GTZ) sup-ported Jatropha cultivation activities within the frame-work of a renewable energy program, but after learningfrom communities, the project has now expanded into acomprehensive approach to agricultural development,environmental protection, income generation, and socialcohesion. The team learned the following lessons.

The approach:• Builds on valuable, local IK practice• Demonstrates multiple uses of the product (plant, seed-

oil, erosion control, property delineation)• Addresses immediate community concerns• Encourages women’s involvement in economic initia-

tives and promotes home based industries• Links ecological sustainability with economic develop-

ment• Encourages use of locally available raw material.

While it is not very common for a single crop to havesuch a multiplicity of applications,7 the use of Jatrophahas had a significant impact on the livelihood prospects ofthe community involved; it has provided income forwomen and has helped to empower the communities.

Driving the innovation

In Honduras in 1999, the Association of Advisors for aSustainable, Ecological and People-Centered Agriculture(COSECHA) decided to study farmers’ innovations. Iteventually documented 82 technologies developed by 52farmers.8 Those identified as worthy of further valida-tion and dissemination are shown in the next table.

The numbers reflect the typical, primary biophysicalconstraints of small farmers in developing countries:pests, diseases and weeds. Hence, control practices con-tribute to more than half of the innovations. The studyfurther noted that no innovations were made in areasthat researchers and scientists would have consideredequally important, in this particular location: water har-vesting and management of tree crops. The study con-cludes that farmers made no efforts to innovate intechnologies that they considered outside their scope ofresources (water harvesting) or that would show onlylong-term effects (tree management).


Supporting farmer experimenters and innovators

The Government of Uttar Pradesh state in North Indiaintegrated indigenous knowledge into a World Bank-sup-ported Sodic Land Reclamation Project. Started in 1993,the project assisted farmers in reclaiming over 68,000hectares of sodic soils.9 Farmers in the Uttar Pradesh re-gion created local site implementation committees andself-help groups that worked in collaboration with projectmanagers and non-governmental organizations in orderto adapt indigenous knowledge and constantly innovatein order to develop locally appropriate strategies. Theproject strengthened local institutions, empowered thebeneficiaries and developed a model for transferring ser-vice delivery to communities.

Modern practices, such as the use of chemical fertiliz-ers, pesticides and new farming technologies promoted bythe government were combined with farmer developedindigenous technologies, such as the ap-plication of gypsum for land reclamation,the building of contour bunds, leachingthe soil, multi-cropping, green manur-ing, crop rotation, natural compost andplowing the land. These indigenous prac-tices were cost-effective and environ-mentally friendly.

As a result, farmers have reclaimedland belonging to 247,000 families, crop-ping intensity has increased from 37 per-cent to 200 percent, crop yields andfarmer incomes have risen by 60 percentover five years, and land values havequadrupled. Indirect results include the

generation of income for women’s self-help groupsthrough diversified activities, such as poultry farmingand horticulture and labor wage rates have doubled be-cause of increased economic activities in the area. Themost important impact on mainstreaming and scaling-upthe activities derives from a farmers’ school, where farm-ers themselves teach and develop the curriculum jointlywith the instructors to maintain and further develop lo-cal knowledge innovations.

Rural development, food security and indigenousknowledge

These and other examples in the IK Notes10 that reflecton agriculture, food security and rural development re-spond to the three questions raised in the introduction tothis article: the contribution of IK to food security andrural livelihoods, drivers of the rural innovation processand enabling conditions.

The contribution that indigenous knowledge and farm-ers’ innovation make in the context of food security can-not be underestimated. The table below presents themajor issues of food security—availability, access and uti-lization—and their constituent factors to which IK couldcontribute.

The IK Notes discussions on agriculture and food secu-rity—or rural livelihoods as a whole—reveal that the pri-mary drivers for local change are a deteriorating naturalresource base (loss of natural habitat, deforestation, soildegradation) ), declining agriculture productivity, loss ofindigenous cultivation practices, and conflicts over accessto and the utilization of natural resources. Ecologicalsustainability of the improved practices has been at thecenter of many innovations.

Farm e r in novat ion s in local te ch n ologie s in Hon duras (1999)

Te ch n ology cate gory Num ber o f te ch n ologie s

Insect con t rol 15

Fer t ilizat ion 10

Cont rol of plan t disease 8

Weed con t rol 2

Food preparat ion 2

Animal husbandry 2

P lan t propagat ion 1

Green manur ing 1

Soil conservat ion 1

Others 3

Total 45

Food security issue

P ossible ro le /contribut ion of IK

Availability • increased and/ or sustainable product ion 11 • t echnology12 • bet ter storage facilit ies and reduced losses13

Access • stability of product ion (ecologically sound production) 14 • markets, services, in format ion, r ights, social

en t it lements15 • purchasing power 16

Ut ilizat ion • consumpt ion 17 • hygiene, water , san itat ion , food safety, quality18 • childcare, feeding pract ices, preparat ion , habit s, in tra-

household dist r ibut ion 19

Frame condit ions • research20 • food emergency preparedness21 • physical health of consumers and producers22

27

While the cited examples do not allow for an assess-ment of the long-term impact of IK on livelihoods, imme-diate and mid-term effects are apparent in all cases. Thedrivers of innovations and change are mostly individuals,often acting in or through groups (women, youth, farm-ers, participants of an adult literacy training, and soforth) established through a common concern or interest,rather than formal structure. In most instances, the “in-novators” have had contact with “global knowledge” tothe extent that they could also better appreciate theknowledge and experience available within their own en-vironment and realize the potential ofchange from within. This finding is im-portant for the role of external agents,such as donors, agricultural research, andextension and other actors in the ruralspace with a mandate to assist communi-ties to improve their livelihoods. Whilemany of these institutions have changedtheir roles from being delivery systems ofcentrally formulated recommendations topartners of communities, understandingor valuing indigenous knowledge is oftennot part of their mandate.

An environment that is conducive tothe valuation and promotion of indig-enous knowledge practices not only en-ables institutions to utilize IK in a morerational and efficient manner, it also sig-nals to the communities that their contri-butions to science and technology arevaluable, possibly inducing more innova-tive creativity. For example, the NationalAgricultural Research Organization(NARO) in Uganda has recently devel-oped an approach to incorporate indig-enous knowledge into its activities insupport of the National Program to Mod-ernize Agriculture. By adapting a simple,yet effective decision flow matrix, indig-enous practices are screened and eitherdisseminated subjected to further studiesor rejected. Based on this matrix, the or-ganization can decide quickly where to al-locate resources, where to link withoutreach and where to advise against un-desirable indigenous practices.

The approach of NARO (in conjunctionwith other actors in Uganda) has initiateda process in Uganda that fosters the

study and use of indigenous knowledge and innovationsand their eventual scale-up. In the context of a nationalstrategy for the sustainable development of IK and its in-tegration into the national poverty eradication process,Uganda provides a framework in which practitioners, aswell as researchers are encouraged to promote the useand the dissemination of indigenous practices. At thesame time, legislation has been drafted that looks to pro-tect the innovators of indigenous knowledge.

Ide n tify problemDefin e th e act ion

Does IK related to problem exist?

Is IK e ffe ctive an d sustain able?

Can th is IK be improved for be tter pe rformance?

De scribeValidateP ackage Impro ved IK

Apply an d prom ote im prove d IK

Ide n tify an d te st appropriate outside kn ow le dge

P ackage an d promote IK

Test appropriate alternative o utside kn ow le dgeNo

Ye s

No

Ye s

Ye s

No

Ide n tify problemDefin e th e act ion

Does IK related to problem exist?

Is IK e ffe ctive an d sustain able?

Can th is IK be improved for be tter pe rformance?

De scribeValidateP ackage Impro ved IK

Apply an d prom ote im prove d IK

Ide n tify an d te st appropriate outside kn ow le dge

P ackage an d promote IK

Test appropriate alternative o utside kn ow le dgeNo

Ye s

No

Ye s

Ye s

No

IK integration matrix of NARO


Challenges

While biotechnology moves towards its next frontier,promising higher yields on poorer soils with fewer pests,communities, as well as service providers in the ruralspace, especially in Africa, will continue to rely in thenear future on conventional technologies. Researchersand practitioners are continuously refining these tech-nologies. To explore and utilize indigenous knowledge toimprove on these technologies, researchers and otherstakeholders need to go one step further towards indig-enous knowledge. Researchers and policy makers need tounderstand better that livelihood practices are not justthe manifestation of culture. Instead, there is a need toappreciate that indigenous practices are the outcome of“trial and error” research undertaken (and ongoing) bygenerations of practitioners in an environment that isnot standardized. These indigenous practitioners largelychose not to protocol their results and have, for a varietyof causes, omitted to share them across communities andborders in a systematic manner.

Agricultural research and rural development face two,essentially contradicting, requirements when confrontedwith the challenge of incorporating indigenous knowl-edge. Many of the bearers of indigenous knowledge be-long to the elder generation and will take theirknowledge with them once they pass away. At the sametime, demands to contribute to poverty reduction andfood emergency prevention often require large-scale solu-tions. Many of the IK practices are localized and cannotbe scaled up easily before one is reasonably certain thatthey will work. Hence, research will be faced with the de-cision to document as many practices as possible or se-lect, at the risk of missing “the best,” a limited number ofpractices, breeds or stock for dissemination and scale up.Nevertheless, successful scale-up is possible (for example,Kenya is developing a few medicinal and aromatic plantsfor commercial and industrial use), especially where theprivate sector can play a role in providing the requiredinvestments. However, for many rarely or underutilizedcrops and vegetables,23 this may not be sufficient to savethem from vanishing from the menu.

Communities widen the knowledge base

Transport and telecommunication infrastructure aregradually reaching even remote communities in rural Af-rica. This provides opportunities for them to start shar-ing their problems, experiences, and solutions with othercommunities and jointly developing their own knowledgebase. In South Africa, a group of Rooibos tea-growingfarmers visited another community to learn about mar-keting. Following the exchange the group formed a farm-ers’ association, improved its marketing system, and isnow exporting the tea to Europe, multiplying its income.Practitioners from East Africa and South Asia met in aregional exchange to learn from each other about the con-servation and production of medicinal plants.24 Re-searchers, extension agents and other rural serviceproviders can help communities to find matches for ex-changes, research can broker collaboration between prac-titioners, accompany farmer-led experimentation andsupport communication beyond the physical exchange.

The following example demonstrates how communitiesdocument their own knowledge and how informationtechnology has helped communities to share experiences.The Uluguru Mountains Agricultural DevelopmentProject (UMADEP) in Tanzania is designed to involve lo-cal farmers in the documentation of local knowledge re-lated to Natural Crop Protection (NCP). Farmers thenspread this knowledge to their peers in the area using ap-pealing and locally relevant education materials andtraining workshops.25 This approach involves the localcommunity throughout the process of collection of theknowledge, documentation, and dissemination.

Conclusion

The IK Notes examples discussed above suggest that ru-ral communities are acutely aware of their livelihood is-sues. They adapt indigenous knowledge in order totransform traditional institutions and generate resourcesrequired for addressing community-specific problems.Governments and development partners can play a vitalrole to help set up mechanisms for documentation, vali-dation, dissemination, exchange, and integration into thenational development process. Finally, such institutionaland financial support provided by the government anddevelopment agencies that foster locally defined liveli-hood efforts of communities are likely to result in mul-tiple positive outcomes.

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1 External not in the sense of foreign development assistance butexternal to the local production system, e.g., mineral fertilizerrather than organic fertilizer produced on the farm.

2 Enabling policies address more than the technologies and econom-ics of food production—whether at subsistence or commerciallevel. Other issues include buffer stocks, food aid and foodprices, research, extension and responding to the challenges ofglobalization of food technology, trade and competitiveness andthe market distortions created by subsidies in industrializedcountries.

3 “ It is notable, for example, that Monsanto, a life-sciences multina-tional based in St Louis, Missouri, has a research and developmentbudget that is more than twice the R&D budget of the entireworldwide network of public-sector tropical research institutes” J.Sachs, 1999, http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidinthenews/articles/sf9108.html

4 GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) recently launched awebsite related on underutilized species http://www.underutilized-species.org/

5 IK Notes 47.6 Jatropha is a “multipurpose” plant; Ugandan farmers use it to

support vanilla vines. Local communities have adapted the plant toa variety of uses, including ornamental ones.

7 Reportedly, the plant with the highest number of uses is thecoconut tree which provides for nutrition, health, shelter, transport,art, fiber, to name but a few. Yet, as with so many other crops,research into coconut has concentrated on its primary product, i.e.,fat; this is where the coconut faces the toughest competition of allits uses from other crops.

8 IK Notes 49.9 IK Notes 48.10 IK Notes 2, 4, 24, 43, 44, 44, 45, 49.11 IK Notes 2, 4, 44, 45, 58.12 IK Notes 23, 24, 43, 47, 58.13 IK Notes 47.14 IK Notes 2, 8.15 IK Notes 9, 15, 19, 23, 27, 28, 34, 43, 57, 58.16 IK Notes 6.17 IK Notes 47.18 IK Notes 44, 47, 52.19 IK Notes 36.20 IK Notes 14, 36, 39, 49, 54.21 IK Notes 39, 44.22 IK Notes 15, 26, 30, 32, 35,37, 41, 51, 52, 54.23 As described in IK Notes 44, there are quite a variety of rarely

used, often not domesticated plants used in emergency situations.These plants are underutilized and under-researched. While during“normal” periods, people have clear preferences for the major staplecrops, these “reserve” plants may have properties that could beexploited further.

24 IK Notes 55.25 IK Notes 34.

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7. Indigenous Knowledgeand Natural Resource ManagementAchim SteinerGonzalo Oviedo

Achim Steiner is Director General ofIUCN—The World ConservationUnion, Gland, Switzerland.

Gonzalo Oviedo is Senior Adviser forSocial Policy of IUCN. Information forthis article has been contributed byIUCN’s Regional Office for SouthernAfrica (ROSA).

To judge from the breadth of issues that IK Notes cover, the importance ofindigenous knowledge for development and the environment is now increas-ingly acknowledged by researchers and practitioners. Research and practicalexperience from all over the world, and perhaps most notably from Africa,show that indigenous knowledge has not only been a key factor in the develop-ment of local cultures and in their continued adjustment to modifications intheir environments, but also an increasingly important contribution to actionsundertaken outside the local community realm.

The establishment of the Indigenous Knowledge Program by the WorldBank in 1998 was a welcome enterprise for IUCN—The World ConservationUnion, which had started working on indigenous knowledge in Southern Af-rica in the early 1990s. Today, IUCN continues working on indigenous ecologi-cal knowledge issues in that region, through its Regional Office for SouthernAfrica, as well as globally, and has firmly integrated topics relating to theknowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities in its global program.

Africa is a continent rich in natural resources, such as forests, wetlands,wildlife, minerals, fisheries, and many others. Effective systems of manage-ment can ensure that these resources not only survive, but also in fact in-crease while being used rationally, thus providing the foundation forsustainable development and for a stable national economy.

Natural resources have for centuries been an important part of peoples’ diet,economy, and culture. For people living in or near forests, plants and animalsprovided food, medicine, hides, building materials, incomes, and a source ofinspiration. Rivers provided transportation and fish, and water and soils pro-vided a permanent source of sustenance.

It is well documented that traditional communities derive both their socio-cultural and spiritual identity from the land. The respect for the land wasbuilt into the use of the land. Indigenous practice was based on a sense of har-mony with the natural environment, which resulted in sustainable practiceand sustainable use. The traditional use of natural resources was based on tra-ditional values.

In many developing countries, the use of natural resources such as wildlife,is necessary for the well-being of their people. For centuries, their way of life

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has comprised mechanisms of conserving or ensuringsustainable utilization of such resources through a sys-tem of values and taboos. (See box.)

For instance, in Barotseland in the Upper Zambezi Val-ley in central Southern Africa, it was a serious offence tokill a fertile female animal. The killing of animals was re-stricted to male and older animals. Certain animal spe-cies could not be hunted during certain seasons (such asthe breeding season), avoiding the risk of depleting theresources. This system is similar to the culling practicefor the sustainable “harvesting” of wildlife. The commu-nities were able to ensure continued population growth oftheir wildlife resources, while at the same time benefitingfrom the protein, which was usually lacking in environ-ments, where livestock keeping was difficult because oftsetse flies.

Both the Barotse people and the Bemba of LuapulaProvince of Zambia had a tradition of avoiding the catch-ing of very small fish. Communities observed fishing sea-sons usually through a set of traditional ceremonies.Such a ceremony would usually open the fishing seasonfor a given period. These practices ensured that sustain-able resource exploitation.

In these societies a fairer distribution of income waspossible, both at the inter-generational and intra-genera-tional levels, because the communities themselves re-spected the temporal dimensions of the exploitation ofthese resources. The resources belonged to the communi-ties, and thus they exploited them keeping in mind theinterests of future generations. Under traditional re-source management regimes, redistribution was an ac-cepted practice.

Communities usually passed on their indigenousknowledge of resource management to the next genera-tion through oral transmission. The continued existenceof such systems depended heavily on the passing down ofthis knowledge. Hence, the continuity and transmissionof that knowledge and its associated culture from onegeneration to another, and its more effective distillationinto practical applications that are socially and economi-cally beneficial, are critical factors in the survival and dy-namics of the culture.

In the absence of economic benefits and incentives as-sociated with traditional practices, some forms of devel-opment and exploitation will lead to a loss of knowledgeand sustainable practices. The ‘chitemene’ system of cul-tivation is an example of an indigenous knowledge sys-tem in danger of disappearing. This is because the localcommunities of Northern, Luapula, North-Western andCentral Provinces of Zambia who practice ‘chitemene’have no incentives to do so any longer. The Forest Act setaside large tracts of land as forest lands, reserved andclosed to local communities. It further took steps to stopor discourage chitemene cultivation, which governmentspecialists considered a simple slash-and-burn technique.However, chitemene was critical to traditional subsis-tence farming that has been sustainable for centuries.

Today, a combination of population pressure andshrinking land availability due to public restrictions onland use reduces the effectiveness of the chitemene sys-tem by shortening the fallow cycles. Villages used to clearonly mature vegetation before planting; now successionvegetation will be cleared after only five or ten years. For-merly, the diversity of crops cultivated reduced the risk oftotal crop failure and the ample variety of foods enrichedthe diet. Intercropping and land rotation prevented landdegradation and increased productivity. Now, the prevail-ing commercial farming, as promoted by some public poli-cies, is causing the collapse of the traditional systems.This leads to erosion and loss of indigenous knowledge inthe area.

Sustainable wildlife management

In Barotseland in the Upper Zambezi Valley in cen-tral Southern Africa, it was a serious offence to kill afertile female animal. The killing of animals was re-stricted to male and older animals. Certain animalspecies could not be hunted during certain seasons(such as the breeding season), avoiding the risk of de-pleting the resources. This system is similar to theculling practice for the sustainable “harvesting” ofwildlife. The communities were able to ensure contin-ued population growth of their wildlife resources,while at the same time benefiting from the protein,which was usually lacking in environments, wherelivestock keeping was difficult because of tsetse flies.

Both the Barotse people and the Bemba of LuapulaProvince of Zambia had a tradition of avoiding thecatching of very small fish. Communities observedfishing seasons usually through a set of traditionalceremonies. Such a ceremony would usually open thefishing season for a given period. These practices en-sured that sustainable resource exploitation.


IK and the spiritual element

Nearly half of the IK Notes that relate to natural re-sources indicate that spirituality has a strong influenceon their management.1 The traditional water conserva-tion practice in Forikrom, Ghana, where the regulation ofwater access and use is based on spirituality is one suchcase.2 For many local communities, the planet and its re-sources are considered sacred and deserve utmost re-spect. This often leads to management systems forcrucial and fragile natural resources that are based onspiritual norms and institutions.

One of the most interesting institutions derived fromtraditional knowledge and practices is the establishmentof sacred natural sites. Taboos and indigenous manage-ment codes commonly restrict access to these sites to par-ticular activities and members of a community. Manysacred sites have survived for hundreds of years and actthus as important biodiversity reservoirs. Sacred naturalsites also contribute to forming an ethnic identity andplay a key role in local communities’ culture andlifestyles.

However, state and conservation agencies, policies andlaws have overlooked and undervalued the contributionof sacred sites to conservation. While community-basedcontrols once helped protect sacred natural sites, todayrural communities are increasingly vulnerable to politi-cal and economic pressures beyond their control. Withoutsecurity of tenure and active participation in decisionsthat affect them and their land use, it is impossible forlocal communities to protect their lands and resources ef-fectively.

Integrating IK into changing environments

One of the most interesting aspects brought out by IKNotes in several areas related to natural resource man-agement is the application of IK in conditions of social,economic, and cultural change. Success stories regardingthe application of indigenous knowledge to solving con-crete environmental challenges point to the following fac-tors that characterize the role of IK:• Some elements of indigenous knowledge as preserved

by elders and traditional institutions, sometimes linkedto spirituality, have worked successfully for a long pe-riod of time.3

• External and internal factors have led progressively tothe erosion of indigenous knowledge and practices; newneeds have emerged putting pressure on traditional

management systems; availability of lands and re-sources shrank due to population dynamics and compe-tition with other users,4 which often resulted in areduction of the livelihood supporting role of the natu-ral environment for the communities. In many in-stances, this has pushed communities into situations ofconflict and resulted in the breakdown of traditionalinstitutions.5

• Emerging forces—such as youth and empoweredwomen groups, with the help of external catalysts—bring in new knowledge and practices through organi-zational approaches that go beyond traditionalinstitutions.6

• These emerging forces strive to achieve a fundamentalobjective: turning indigenous knowledge and tradi-tional rules into legal institutions that the governmentand the broader society accept.7

The IK Notes thus communicate a lesson that is worthreflecting about. For indigenous knowledge to survive asa vital element of the community life and livelihood strat-egy, it has to be put into the context of contemporary so-cial, economic and cultural change, and has to endure thetest of adapting to the new conditions. For this to happensuccessfully, two approaches seem to be critical:• The combination of indigenous knowledge with formal

science, interacting on an equal footing at the communitylevel and acting on the principle of mutual support.

• The amalgamation of traditional .practices and institu-tions with formal regulations and structures, so as toprovide renewed stronger foundations to indigenousknowledge while making the larger society aware of itsvalues and contributions. “The challenge… is how toblend traditional systems of regulation, myth, andritual with a necessary administrative armature tobuild new communally shared meanings and a new cul-ture of natural resource management.”8

IK in perspective

There are many ironies in the history of indigenousknowledge in the contemporary world. One of them isthat centuries ago communities created protected ornatural areas subject to strict regulations to keep themundisturbed based on sacredness and spirituality. Inmodern times, protected areas created under the secularmodel of the Yellowstone Park in the United States oftenoverlap with the lands and resources of traditional com-munities. Yet, regulations often deny the traditional com-

33

munities inhabiting them the rights of use or access tolands and resources, and sometimes even expel or treatthem as intruders. Fortunately, today the world recog-nizes the need to change protected area policies and prac-tices to give due consideration to the needs and rights oflocal communities. This includes the revaluing of theirindigenous knowledge and its integration into protectedareas management.9

Another irony, with equally or perhaps more dire conse-quences, is the fact that indigenous knowledge—oftenstigmatized as ignorance and superstition—has helped tobring about many of the great fortunes of the biotechno-logical industry. The pharmaceutical industry, for ex-ample, has produced medicines for global markets fromplants and animals of traditional medicinal value to localcommunities. The same can be said about the food indus-try. Traditional healers and local communities providingthat knowledge have rarely ever received any adequatecompensation from these industries. At the same time,such communities have become poorer.

The Biodiversity Convention initiated a debate and ac-tion on the issues related to the wider application of in-digenous or traditional knowledge beyond localcommunities. Governments and civil society are calledupon to address questions such as: Who should primarilybenefit from it? Should commercial or non-commercialuses be stressed? What is the role of governments? It isnot the intention of this article to debate such issues indetail. We believe in the usefulness and value of indig-enous knowledge for natural resource management, andthus maintain that its wider application would be of greatbenefit to the entire world; but equity and justice are cor-nerstones in dealing with this issue.

A final point of this article is the great challenge of pre-serving indigenous knowledge. In the presence of massiveand increasingly aggressive forces of cultural change, in-digenous knowledge faces enormous risks. Indigenousknowledge, as stressed in the definition provided by theIndigenous Knowledge for Development Program andthe experiences recorded in the IK Notes, is largelyuncodified, tacit, and transmitted orally or by example.Nowadays, knowledge that is based exclusively on thesefeatures does not have guaranteed survival. In a few de-cades, perhaps most of the indigenous knowledge of theworld will be lost, unless it is strengthened in a way thatcan endure the challenges of cultural change. This re-quires great innovation, creative measures that take ac-count of communities’ needs and rights, and strongcommitment from all relevant institutions—educational,environmental, development cooperation, and finance.

Guided by its own policies, perspective, and mission,IUCN is firmly committed to supporting the preserva-tion, revitalization, and application of indigenous knowl-edge to biodiversity conservation, and sustainable use,within a framework of equity and respect for cultural di-versity, as mandated by its Congress. To this end, IUCNworks together with local communities and their institu-tions, and builds partnerships with relevant global andnational actors.

We still have the opportunity to save one of the greatestbodies of the intellectual production of humankind—onethat may have embedded in it the solutions to many prob-lems of the present and the future of the planet. We allmust commit to doing it.

1 IK Notes 4, 46, 48.2 IK Notes 4.3 IK Notes 4, 46, 48.4 IK Notes 23, 46, 48.5 IK Notes 23, 45.6 It could be youth associations working on environmental issues,

such as the “Mobisquad” in Forikrom, (IK Notes 4) or women’sgroups such as the Association of Women of Popenguine for theProtection of the Environment in Senegal (IK Notes 8), orproducer committees such as the Mussel Rocks ManagementCommittee of Zimelene, Mozambique (IK Notes 46).

7 This often involves lengthy, complex, and sometimes painfuldealings and negotiations with authorities, which unfortunatelyare not always ready to listen to the voice of the communities.

8 IK Notes 46.9 This was a strong message given by the IUCN-organized Vth

World Protected Areas Congress in 2003, held in Durban, SouthAfrica, in September 2003. A ten-yearly event, the WorldProtected Areas Congress brings together organizations andexperts to share their experiences and recommend approachesand actions to strengthen the role of protected areas inconserving biodiversity.

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8. Indigenous Knowledge and Science andTechnology: Conflict, Contradictionor Concurrence?Sibusiso Sibisi

Dr. Sibusiso Sibisi is President and CEOof the Council for Scientific and Indus-trial Researh (CSIR), South Africa.

Indigenous knowledge is today considered relevant in the social and humandevelopment domains. Its contribution to science and technology is often un-derestimated or not known. For example, the Maasai pastoralists actively im-munized their herds by inoculating healthy animals with saliva froth offreshly diseased ones. Similar was the practice of English midwives, whostored molding bread with their delivery utensils and cloths. Yet, Pasteur re-ceived recognition for pioneering vaccination and Fleming for the discovery ofpenicillin.

For centuries, local communities have relied on their indigenous knowledgeand expertise to cope with the challenges posed by harsh environments: ex-tended droughts, flash floods, epidemic pests, or infertile soils. Farmers havedeveloped their own systems of weather forecasting by observing cloud forma-tions, bird migration patterns, seasonal winds and other seasonal or a-sea-sonal factors, or worked out complex, sustainable land use systems. In thissense, IK has evolved into a science and technology of its own, with farmersand communities performing as scientists and innovators—observing, draw-ing conclusions, and taking action. In Burkina Faso, meteorologists and farm-ers now work together to forecast weather.1

Modern science and technology has helped increase food security and agri-cultural production globally through the propagation of high yielding varieties(HYV). Occasionally, these HYV were more appropriately described as highresponse varieties: they perform to their full potential only when sufficientnutrients and water are available and pests, diseases, and weeds are undercontrol. In many locations, this required the establishment of efficient and ef-fective systems for input supply, irrigation, extension services, and down-stream arrangements such as marketing and processing. The failure toestablish these institutions made the Green Revolution much less successfulin Africa than in Asia. Indiscriminate use of fertilizer and pesticides alsocaused environmental and health hazards. Agricultural research and industryresponded with the development of less demanding varieties, often relying ongenetic stock developed by farmers over generations into “land races.”

However, many farmers responded as well. They reverted to their indig-enous knowledge and practices. To prevent soil erosion in Burkina Faso, they

35

used the old Zaï (demi-lunes) technology or built ridges.In Northern Tanzania and Kenya, small holders returnedto agroforestry, a complex system of a highly interwovenand interdependent mix of annual and perennial plantsthat international research only now begins to under-stand fully. While these systems did not provide the sameyields of a single crop under high external input regimes,they were much less risky, better adapted to local condi-tions, and usually more sustainable. In Malawi, old andnew technologies related to sanitation, soil fertility, andeducation are combined for the development of an agendafor researchers and communities.2 In Latin America,farmers have demonstrated their ability to innovate inthe context of participatory technology development ac-tivities.3 The Honey Bee Network in India supports localinnovators and promotes their inventions.

Health care is another area where indigenous knowl-edge substitutes for modern yet inaccessible orunaffordable drugs or healthcare. In Africa, most peoplehave only limited access to modern drugs and the ratio oftraditional healers to modern doctors is over eighty toone. As a result, traditional medicine still contributessubstantially to primary healthcare and many traditionalhealers have developed cures for many common diseases.

The world knows about the high incidence of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Little is known about how traditionalhealers have developed treatments for the opportunisticdiseases of HIV/AIDS.4 The Tanga AIDS Working Groupin Tanzania (TAWG)—a consortium of traditional heal-ers, modern doctors, nurses, and people living withAIDS—has treated over 4,000 patients with herbs pre-scribed by local healers. The treatment has enabled pa-tients to resume their daily lives, which have beenprolonged by five to ten years. TAWG has developed awealth of information on plant collection and prepara-tion, methods of preparation, treatments, and indicatorsof efficacy.

Challenges of modern science

The above examples illustrate the richness of indigenousknowledge systems and their contribution to science andtechnology. The basics of astronomy, pharmacology, andeven mathematics, food technology or metallurgy derivefrom traditional knowledge and practices. But the un-precedented progress of science and technology over thelast 100 years has created an implicit bias that considersany practice, not developed in a scientific laboratory or acorporate research and development (R&D) department,

to be of lower value or quality, and attributes technologi-cal achievements or inventions to formally educated re-searchers and engineers. Learning from indigenousknowledge is still the exception rather than the rule.

Scientific validation

Indigenous knowledge and modern science can comple-ment each other in many ways, as has been demonstratedin the case of agriculture and healthcare. However, scien-tific validation remains a critical challenge for indigenousknowledge practitioners. Health regulations and re-search protocols require that treatments in medicine orprocesses in other disciplines are clearly described andsubjected to critical analysis and that they reproduce rep-licable results. They are expected to provide documentedevidence of the efficacy of their claims in academic jour-nals. However, much of indigenous knowledge is rootedin oral traditions and is not systematically documented inwritten form (with some notable exceptions of traditionalmedicine from India and China). Indigenous knowledge islargely held in the custody of the elders in a communityand usually not shared across communities. As a growingnumber of local languages are disappearing so may a vastbody of knowledge and culture. Hence, the challenge formodern scientists and traditional practitioners is tobridge the gap between their worlds of different method-ologies, knowledge exchange, verification and validationand, eventually, applications.

For this to happen, the science and research communi-ties (and their associated industries) need to develop stra-tegic partnerships between scientists and IKpractitioners. This calls for an open mind and the willing-ness on both sides to learn from each other. Scientistsneed to understand and accept the context specificity ofIK, and IK practitioners need to understand and acceptthat knowledge sharing and critique are essential prereq-uisites for the maintenance and development of anyknowledge.

Efforts are also needed to enhance the capacity of IKpractitioners to document their work systematically toenable them to withstand the scrutiny of modern science.This requires resources and technical assistance from thescientific community and international organizations. Iinthis context, the World Bank’s Indigenous KnowledgeProgram organized a workshop, bringing together devel-opment practitioners from East Africa, scientists fromthe US National Institutes of Health, George WashingtonUniversity Hospital, and Bank staff. The focus was on


learning from traditional health practices in Africa. Themain outcome was an agreement between the partici-pants to work together on validating herbal treatments ofHIV/AIDS-related opportunistic infections.

In South Africa, research organizations such as theMedical Research Centre (MRC) and the Council for Sci-entific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are, with govern-ment support, making inroads into the scientificvalidation of traditional medicines. The CSIR’sBioprospecting Programme, formed in 1988, focuses itsefforts on the transformation of African TraditionalMedicines into minimally processed, scientifically vali-dated herbal medicines; the discovery of new pharmaceu-tically active ingredients; and the establishment ofcommunity-based agro-processing businesses for the pro-duction of medicinal and aromatic crops.

Intellectual property rights

Science thrives on a cycle of verification, falsification, im-proved models and experimental verification, in an envi-ronment of global sharing and critique, allowing forsubstantial progress of knowledge including paradigmchanges. Today, technology (and innovation) thrives onthe protection of property rights, at least during the ini-tial years of production. Traditional practitioners espe-cially in the health sector prefer sharing their knowledgewithin their families, producing only incremental im-provements of knowledge and practices. When tradi-tional practitioners will be invited to the global sharingand exchange of knowledge, they will also need some pro-tection that avoids depriving them of their livelihoods.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)has collaborated with other UN agencies to address thischallenge of intellectual property rights (IPR) for tradi-tional knowledge holders.5 In 1992, the Convention onBiological Diversity (CBD) aimed to address these issuesby acknowledging the value of indigenous knowledge andresources. It established a framework for providing ac-cess to genetic resources and a means for fair and equi-table benefit sharing.6 Two years later, the WTO’s TradeRelated Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreementcame into force and created an international standard forminimum IPR protection.

WIPO has begun to provide training to IP offices, gov-ernments, NGOs, and communities at the grass rootslevel to increase the understanding of the role of IPRs inthe protection of traditional knowledge. Creating newstandards for documentation would provide a framework

to help manage IPR implications in the IK documenta-tion process. This will enable national IP offices to inte-grate the IK documentation into their existingprocedures for conducting prior art searches to examineapplications for patents related to IK-based inventions.7

Innovative approaches to protect IK are necessary be-cause existing arrangements may not be applicable to thespecifics of IK. The normal criteria for patenting a pro-cess do not exist with IK: traditional knowledge is pre-served through oral tradition and demonstration ratherthan documentation. Some initiatives may help, such asencouraging local communities to register traditionalpractices. Other evolving forms of protection of IK in-clude Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), involvingthe provision of material (resources or information) inexchange for monetary or non-monetary benefits. Ex-amples of fair and equitable benefit sharing between us-ers and custodians of traditional knowledge can be foundin several countries today.8

According to a recent report by WIPO,9 “indigenouspeople possess their own locally specific systems of juris-prudence with respect to the classification of differenttypes of knowledge, proper procedures for acquiring andsharing knowledge, and the rights and responsibilities at-tached to possessing knowledge, all of which are embed-ded uniquely in each culture and its languages.”Therefore, the scientific community needs to study andunderstand these indigenous protocols governing theirknowledge systems, and give them due recognition andrespect.

However, while protection of IPR may be a necessarycondition for addressing the valuation and validation ofIK, it is not sufficient. Much of indigenous knowledge andpractices is in the public domain (for example in agricul-ture). The establishment of IPR will not prevent infringe-ments, and traditional practitioners or local communitiescommonly have no means for legal recourse. As withmodern medicine, only the establishment of own stan-dards of efficacy and efficiency (and in the case of medi-cine, safety) and agreed protocols for practicing andprofessional ethics will help to validate and value tradi-tional practitioners. These standards do not need to be inopposition to—or total compliance with—those of mod-ern science.

In developing these standards, traditional practitionersshould be encouraged (and assisted) to carry out theirown, more systematic research. Often, local communitiesdo not have access to laboratories and technical expertiseto conduct research. The institutions that exist in devel-oping countries are frequently under-funded and under-

37

resourced. To encourage the discovery of new drugs de-rived from IK and reward its custodians, developed coun-try research institutions should engage in twinningarrangements with research institutions in least devel-oped countries. This would help to enhance research ca-pacity of traditional practitioners as well as the researchand development (R&D) capacity of national drug labora-tories to undertake clinical trials on herbal treatmentsderived from IK. A partnership could develop betweenthe local healers and scientists to share their knowledgeof medicinal plants and the subsequent economic gainsderived from marketed products. Several research facul-ties in industrialized countries offer exchange programsand fellowships to experts from developing countries tolearn about their advanced technologies and in turnshare their indigenous knowledge and expertise. This isanother way to bridge the gap between traditional andmodern science.

To support these efforts to scale up the science of IK, itis also critical that governments develop national strate-gies in support of studying and developing IK. The minis-tries of health and agriculture, for instance, could takethe lead in assessing the role of IK in furthering their de-velopment objectives. In Uganda, for example, the Na-tional Commission for Science and Technology (UNCST)has begun to champion IK into its research priorities. Atthe policy level, it has integrated IK into the country’sPoverty Eradication Action Program (PEAP).

A case study, which represents an impressive approachthat could serve as a model for similar types of partner-ships built around the scale-up and protection of IKS sys-tems to enrich the development process, has unfolded inSouth Africa in recent years.

A CSIR-patented pharmaceutical formulation for obe-sity control generated worldwide attention in recentyears. The story of P57—as this natural anti-obesityagent was dubbed—and its invention has its roots in in-digenous plants, which have formed part of the diet ofcommunities in rural South Africa for centuries.

During the early 1960s, an investigation was launchedto determine the nutritional value and also any possiblelong-term toxic effect of “food from the veld.” The Na-tional Food Research Institute of CSIR, one of the insti-tutes now incorporated into CSIR Bio/Chemtek, led thisinvestigation.

The genus hoodia was studied because certain speciesof this succulent plant were known to be consumed by theSan as a substitute for food and water. Following six yearsof attempts to isolate and identify the chemical substanceresponsible for the anorectic effect of extracts of the

hoodia plant, the project was moth-balled because therepertoire of chromatographic and spectroscopic tech-niques available to chemists and biochemists, simply wasnot sufficient.

During 1983, twenty years after the P57 researchstarted at CSIR, the organization acquired state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry for theidentification of chemical structures of complex naturalproducts and the investigation was re-launched. As a re-sult, a new chemical entity was discovered, representinga family of molecules not known before to have anorecticproperties.

Other milestones followed: The CSIR patented P57 in1996, and in 1997 licensed Phytopharm plc, a listed UKcompany, to undertake the further development and com-mercialization of the patented discovery. In its attemptsto commercialize P57, Phytopharm signed a licensingagreement with Pfizer Inc. in 1998. With commercializa-tion a real possibility, the CSIR took up discussion withthe San people in 2002, publicly acknowledging the im-portance of the traditional knowledge of the San in thiscase study. A Memorandum of Agreement around thesharing of potential benefits was signed by the CSIR andthe South African San Council in March 2003, with theCSIR committing to paying the San 8 percent of all mile-stone payments it receives from its licensee, UK-basedPhytopharm, as well as 6 percent of all royalties that theCSIR receives once the drug is commercially available.This benefit-sharing model ensures that the San will re-ceive equitable benefits if the drug is successfully com-mercialized.

While Pfizer has since reverted its rights toPhytopharm and endeavors to take P57 to market con-tinue, South Africa has already benefited in terms of thetransfer of world-class drug development technology toSouth Africa. The CSIR is equipped to collect, extract,and screen plant samples from the country’s 24,000 in-digenous plant species. Working relationships and formalagreements with traditional healers and communities arein place and will be key in future successes from the coop-eration between science and indigenous knowledge.

The CSIR, South Africa is a leading center of excellencein science and technology in Africa. Over the past threedecades it has been working together with the San peopleto develop a model framework to address the twin chal-lenges of scientific validation and IPR identified earlier.This case study represents an impressive approach thatcould serve as a model for similar types of partnershipsbuilt around the scale up and protection of IK systems toenrich the development process.


Conclusion

The question raised in the title of this article can be an-swered with an emphatic plea for concurrence. Knowl-edge grows only when shared, applied, and challenged.The world today cannot afford to omit the abundant bodyof indigenous knowledge to address its problems as ex-pressed in the Millennium Development Goals. Conflictand contradictions between the different “knowledgeworlds” will vanish once the gap between traditional andmodern scientists and practitioners can be closedthrough mutual acceptance of standards, continuous ex-change, protection of rights, and recognition and rewardfor contributors. This will also provide the basis for anintrinsic abolishment of harmful indigenous practicesthat have had their share in discrediting traditional cul-tures and practitioners.

1 IK Notes 39.2 IK Notes 25.3 IK Notes 49.4 IK Notes 51.5 IK Notes 19.6 IK Notes 15.7 IK Notes 61.8 IK Notes 19.9 WIPO, 2001: “Report on Fact Finding Missions on Intellectual

Property Needs and Expectations of Traditional KnowledgeHolders.” Geneva.

39

9. Indigenous Approaches to Conflict Resolutionin AfricaFred Ben-Mensah

Fred Ben-Mensah is AssistantProfessor of International Relations,Howard University, Washington.

The validity, appropriateness, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability ofindigenous1 solutions for local problems are the themes of this compilation ofsixty IK Notes. What has been proven valid for the areas of education, agricul-ture and natural resource management, and health holds true for conflictresolution systems in Africa.2 The futility of efforts to resolve conflicts in Af-rica at the national level has been the primary reason for the extensive in-volvement of regional organizations, private military companies,nongovernmental organizations, and the United Nations, though with limitedsuccess. Modern conflict resolution principles and methods are generally notcontinuations or adaptations of those of its indigenous populations.3 There isa perceived gap or “disconnect” between modern and indigenous conflict reso-lution philosophies and practices. Chances for peaceful resolution of Africa’sconflicts can be enhanced considerably if the region’s indigenous principles,skills, and methods of conflict resolution are understood and harmonized withthose of the modern nation-state.

The IK Notes in this publication touch on a crucial aspect of indigenous Afri-can conflict resolution systems, principles, procedures, reintegration of ex-combatants, and rehabilitation of war victims.

Apart from the well-known conflicts, such as the civil wars in Somalia, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire,Guinea Bissau, and Senegal, most of Africa’s conflicts are communal. They oc-cur in the hinterland and are rarely reported, though they contain the seeds ofescalation. They claim thousands of lives, create internally displaced personsand refugees, and limit economic activity thus preventing a nation or commu-nity from extending its production-possibility frontiers.4

A few key questions need to be addressed: What was the nature of conflictsin pre-colonial Africa? What systems of conflict resolution existed? How doconflicts in traditional Africa compare with those of the region’s contemporaryones? In what way, if any, can an understanding of the indigenous conflictresolution approaches reduce present conflicts? Can common forms and spiritof indigenous conflict resolution be scaled up to develop a broader conflictresolution framework? Can indigenous methods be combined with modernand foreign methods?5 Can the region develop an alternative dispute resolu-


tion (ADR)6 system that will enable it to cope with itsever-increasing and apparently intractable conflicts?

Conflict in traditional Africa

A significant part of anthropological research in Africaplaces emphasis on the consensus model in which com-munities are seen to be coherent, self-contained systemsin which economic, political, social, and religious prac-tices complement and reinforce one another in a well-or-dered and harmonious fashion. Interests that woulddevelop from, e.g., marriage or economic cooperation be-tween different ethnic or descent groups, would tend toevolve into certain norms of institutions that impose con-straints upon community members who would otherwisechoose to utilize the option of violence in situations ofconflict of interest.7 With this model of social control,conflicts were neutralized by social institutions, conven-tions, norms, values, beliefs, and moral principles, whichprimarily emphasized tendencies toward social equilib-rium.8 The primary function of institutions, therefore,was to emphasize areas of mutual benefits instead of in-centives to cause harm to others.

It is empirically verifiable, too, that, as in any humansociety, conflicts were part and parcel of indigenous Afri-can communities. Disputes could result from a breach ofcontract, theft, slander, and witchcraft and sorcery accu-sations. They could also result from marital misunder-standings, injuries against persons, and damage toproperty. Fights could result from misunderstanding overinheritance and the difficulty of determining land bound-aries, as well as over access to political office. Conflictcould also occur between people of different communitiesor ethnic groups normally over the determination ofrights ownership of natural resources and raid of live-stock.

Thus, a meaningful search for viable alternative con-flict resolution systems for Africa must start with a rec-onciliation of this contradiction. Most African societiesemphasized social harmony as the overriding ideology ofsocial control. This has been well-demonstrated in theconception and application of the philosophies of ubuntuamong the indigenous communities of Southern Africaand kanye ndu bowi 9 among the Buem of the Ghana-Togo border area.

Indigenous African conflict resolution systems

The main indigenous conflict-handling fora identified inAfrica are summarized below:

Mediation is the most popular dispute-settling forumin traditional Africa. The managers of mediation are usu-ally lineage elders, priests, and influential individualswho are known for their wisdom, skills, and trustworthi-ness in their official and professional capacities and pri-vate dealings. These individuals, who are referred toelsewhere10 as du nkuwo, (or the eyes of the city or com-munity) enjoy excellent reputation within their commu-nities and have the capability to persuade individualswho have been summoned to attend hearings. It oftenhappens that lineage heads or influential individuals whohave excelled in the art of negotiation, persuasion, con-ciliation, and advice are often invited to mediate conflictsoutside of their own kin groups or communities. Media-tion normally avoids overt display of power, winner-losermentality, social scars, and bitterness that are normallyassociated with adjudication. Disputants seek mediationgenerally because it is considered affordable, flexible, andadaptable. As a conflict resolution method, mediationhelps to achieve a settlement through negotiation, con-ciliation, persuasion, inducement, and compromise. Itwas logical and common for the people to seek mediationbecause disputants usually looked for a more congenialand less adversarial conflict settlement to continue to livetogether amicably.

Adjudication is a more elaborate process than media-tion. It usually proceeds in stages and normally involvesintensive cross-examination and assembling of witnessesand, where necessary, exhibits would be tended in as evi-dence.11 People in general prefer mediation to adjudica-tion, primarily because the former is not only lesstime-consuming and cheaper, it also avoids a winner-loser outcome, which makes post-settlement conciliationmore difficult. Also, cases that were submitted for adjudi-cation normally include those that had either failed to beresolved by mediation or arbitration or were constitu-tionally defined as criminal.12

The resort to mystical powers to resolve conflict was acommon practice in pre-colonial Africa. Trial by ordealwas a practice whereby recourse could be made to mysti-cal bodies, e.g., the fetish to determine guilt and/or inno-cence. If evidence was so conflicting that the judges ormediators were finding it difficult to come to a decisionthey could resort to the application of trial by ordeal.

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These were normally cases in which the facts were diffi-cult to ascertain through secular means.13 It was alsocommon for people to resort to the use of witchcraft and/or sorcery to settle conflict in Africa. People would resortto these mystical means when they did not want to bringtheir grievances into the open in order to be redressed byeither adjudication or mediation. In African thought ingeneral, witchcraft refers to the use of non-material mys-tical means in attacking one’s adversary, whereas the useof sorcery involves both the use of non-material mysticalmeans and material objects. The efficacy and destructivepowers of witchcraft and sorcery were firmly believed andfeared in most African communities.

Traditional African societies and communities dealtwith the challenges of maintaining peaceful relationshipswith their neighboring ethnic groups through diplomacy.A failure of diplomacy would lead to war or the resump-tion and or escalation of a conflict. Central to the diplo-matic efforts were clan elders, or, in the case ofcentralized political systems, delegates of the reigningmonarch. These diplomats—often referred to as “mes-sengers,” “linguists,’ or “heralds” were, like mediators,individuals who had acquired exceptional skills in the useof language and had distinguished themselves in the artof negotiation, persuasion, and conciliation.14

Other methods of dispute settlement in traditional Af-rica included fission, “slanging-match,” and joking rela-tionships. Fission, also referred to as “split” or“secession” was a practice whereby one faction or partyto the dispute moved and created a new settlementelsewhere.15 Communities resorted to “slanging-matches” where the disputing parties wanted to dilutethe intensity of the tension, which, if not done, could leadto violence. Parties to the conflict would challenge eachother to an exchange of insulting songs and words. A jok-ing relationship had a similar cathartic effect as a slang-ing-match. Parties to the conflict insulted each otherplayfully, but, challenged by the larger society or commu-nity not to react in aggressive or revengeful manner dur-ing such exchanges. In principle, one was supposed to bemore tolerant of those with whom one had a joking rela-tionship. While it could be practiced by people within thesame community or society (as in the case of the Fulbe ofNigeria, Senegal, and Niger), it could also exist betweenpeoples of different societies or communities (as in thecase of the Fulbe and Tiv of Nigeria).16

The individual vis-à-vis the community and con-flict resolution. There was a close connection betweenindividuals and their kin groups and/or even the largercommunity vis-à-vis conflict resolution. As a bearer of the

lineage or community name, individuals were expected touphold a positive image of themselves in their social con-duct. Lineage and community members, too, were ex-pected to unfailingly stand by a member who wasinvolved in any manner of dispute. Lineage heads in par-ticular would be expected to make sure that any memberof the group who was summoned for any form of wrong-doing attended the court hearing and paid the court finesthat might be imposed. Recidivism in particular was,therefore, severely sanctioned by lineage leaders and thecommunity as a whole, whose duty it was to provide thepublic officials with support in enforcing thecommunity’s normative order.17

In his contribution, Wolff extended the conflict resolu-tion role of kinship structures and its underlying ideol-ogy, when he discussed attempts in Eritrea to offerprotection to thousands of children who were victims ofthe county’s thirty-year conflict.18 In this program, notonly were the children’s extended families sought in or-der to be assigned the responsibility of protecting theseorphans, an alternative plan was also designed wherebyhomes, based on the people’s indigenous extended familyvalues and structures, were being created for the protec-tion of children whose biological extended families couldnot be found.

In most African societies and/or communities, social or-der could be sustained through the imposition of “intrin-sic sanctions.” These were subtle but pervasive means bywhich members of the community could be molded intocomplying with the rules of social control. These intrinsicsanctions are both positive—the psyche rewards that thepeople could receive when they conformed to the ap-proved mode of behavior—and negative—the feeling ofmoral discomfort that they experience when they default.Thus, the sustenance of the ideology of harmony as in thecase of kanye ndu bowi among the Buem19 or ubuntu insouthern Africa (explained below) involves an emphasison community myths, beliefs, values, and motives.

Enforcement of judicial decisions. Fragility of thepolitical order and limited capability of the enforcementmechanisms influenced the enforcement of judicial deci-sions in the pre-colonial setting. Unlike the modern na-tion-states, most pre-colonial African societies lackedorganized and standing police and the institution of im-prisonment.20 How did these societies enforce their judi-cial decisions in order to maintain law and order? Thesearch for an explanation to this apparent enigma directsattention to the following socio-structural elements.

Institutional and personal trustworthiness. Suc-cessful settling of conflict in pre-colonial Africa by judi-


cial officials would meet not only the expectation of thedisputants that their conflict was resolved, it would alsoreinforce a conviction among their subjects that the po-litico-judicial officials could bring about the resolution ofother disputes in the future. In most of the pre-colonialAfrican societies, the political officials—chiefs, fetishpriests, lineage heads, and influential individuals—werealso judicial officials, such as adjudicators, mediators,and arbitrators.21 Contrary to the modern experiencewhere such a concentration of societal power can be arecipe for autocracy and despotism, political leaders ofpre-colonial Africa utilized their roles in conflict manage-ment by demonstrating their skills, capabilities, andtrustworthiness and, in doing so, enhanced their legiti-macy and political standing before their subjects.

The ideational context. In pre-colonial Africa, thephilosophical orientation, which under-girded conflictresolution was as important as the skills and the moralintegrity of the conflict resolution officials. For example,in most African communities, disputing parties needed toconcur with the decisions of the courts to consider theconflict resolved. For example, the Tiv of Nigeria believethat “a good judge does not force a decision on the partiesbut gets them to concur if he can.”22 In this context, thepolitico-judicial officials were expected to ensure thatparties to a dispute unanimously concurred on the fair-ness of the judicial decision.23 The implications of this in-digenous principle for the contemporary peace talks inthe region are enormous. 24

The use or the threat of use of supernaturalsanctions on intransigent parties in the implementationof peace agreements was crucial. If a person refused toabide by a decision of the court, the chief and his eldersmight, by imprecation compel him or her to do so.25 As averdict enforcement mechanism, curses served as power-ful sanctions to ensure obedience to the court’s decision.Since the dominant traditional religious entities in Africamostly consisted of ancestral worship, the role of mysticalforces in enforcing judicial decisions in the region cannotbe separated from the supportive role of kin groups orcommunity members. Religious ritual and communitysupport were central elements in post-conflict recon-struction in some communities in Mozambique andAngola, in the economic, political, and psychological re-habilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants and vic-tims of war.26

Ostracizing is a judicial procedure applied against re-cidivistic members of the community. These individuals— referred to as “the bad lot”27 — are habitual criminals,apparently incorrigible, who constantly steal, rape, or

murder but fail to submit themselves to the orders of thecourts. The Buems of Ghana thought ostracism wasequivalent to life imprisonment. This was because, onceostracized, the individual is cast out of any social event,thus assuming a status of the “finally intolerable,”28 apariah and an anathema to his or her kin group. He orshe was “stripped of the soul.” 29 Thus, the fear of ostra-cism in the traditional African setting was so great that itoffered leaders of communities in which it was practicedan opportunity to pressurize intransigent parties to sub-mit themselves to court hearing when summoned and toabide by judicial decisions.

Immediately on attaining political independence,Africa’s founding fathers acknowledged the “disconnect”between African traditions and practices and those thatwere transplanted by the colonizers. They also saw theneed for utilizing the region’s indigenous principles, val-ues and ideological symbols, and models as the basis forpolitical modernization, nation-building, and the cre-ation of democratic governance. In this spirit LeopoldSenghor formulated “Negritude,” Kwame Nkrumah“Consciencism,” Julius Nyerere “Ujamaa,” and KennethKaunda “Humanism.”30 A similar attempt can be foundin the adoption of the indigenous African kinship ideol-ogy by the post-colonial African leaders to enhance theirlegitimacy. Ranging from the conservative Houghouet-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire to the radical Nkrumah of Ghana,most of these leaders have in one way or the other in-voked the ideology of kinship as the basis for creating le-gitimate governance. This took the form of the“metaphor of father and family,“ which was a vision ofgovernance derived from an idealized notion of authorityand behavior within the African family systems.31

The national judicial systems in Africa recognize theexistence of traditional conflict resolution systems fortheir relative competence in matters of local traditionsand customs. Some countries have even incorporatedthem into the national statute.32 Thus, cases deemed ten-able under the relevant indigenous laws are often re-ferred from the national courts to these traditionalcourts. For example, disputes arising from land or mar-riage contracts executed under a particular local custom,but brought before the national court system are oftenreferred back to the traditional courts for redress. Thetraditional courts are deemed more competent in casesthat demand knowledge of local customs and historysince much of this has not been written and it is thechiefs and their elders who could be relied upon assources of such knowledge. 33

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There have, however, been problems in the implemen-tation of this judicial juxtaposition initiative. This is be-cause some of the principles of the legal systems of theethnic constituents are in apparent irreconcilable conflictwith those of the modern nation-states that have estab-lished jurisdiction over them. Some authors believe thatthe implementation of a national land law alongside anexisting indigenous one can give rise to “intercode ambi-guity,” a situation whereby two or more persons orgroups can advance different, though apparently legiti-mate claims, to the same piece of land at the same time.This has contributed vastly to the causes of communalconflicts that have engulfed most of Africa’s agrariancommunities. Given the centrality of land in the eco-nomic, political, and sociocultural lives of these commu-nities, conflict emanating from the problems ofdetermining rights in land can be considered the keysource of conflict in the region.

Conclusion

The following observations and recommendations may beof use to African governments, their development part-ners, and Africanist scholars with an interest in Africanconflict resolution:

1. It is not suggested that a wholesale application ofAfrica’s indigenous principles and methods will resolvethe region’s contemporary conflicts. However, Africanpolicy-makers and their international partners must lookfor the means by which relevant aspects of the indig-enous principles and practices can be integrated and har-monized with those of the modern nation-states of theregion as well as across the diverse indigenous systemsthemselves.34

2. Indigenous philosophies with a perceived reconcilia-tory role such as ubuntu in the deliberations of post-apartheid South Africa’s Truth and ReconciliationCommission (TRC) and the proposed adoption of“gacaca” in Rwanda must be acknowledged, selectivelyexplored, and their spirit incorporated into the countries’judicial, political, and civic cultures. For example, in thecase of the South African TRC’s deliberations, the appli-cation of the spirit of ubuntu—an expression of “collec-tive personhood” that subsists on such values as groupsupport, compromise, caring, empathy, co-operation, andsolidarity—was in harmony with the primary objective ofthe TRC, creating a non-adversarial relationship betweenoffenders and their victims.35

3. African policy makers can also explore some of theenduring qualities of the main indigenous African con-flict resolution processes and seek ways and means of ap-plying them to the contemporary conflict resolutionpractices in the region. These include:• the sanctity of the presiding mediators or the judges in

terms of demonstrated moral uprightness, neutrality,and honesty in their private and public behaviors;

• full and free discussion of the complaints by the dispu-tants, leading to a high measure of agreement betweenall present; and

• the losing side’s recognition of the justice in the win-ning side’s case and its acceptance of the fairness of theprocess.

4. The adoption of Africa’s indigenous principles andvalues as the basis for political development, includingconflict resolution, does not offer automatic success. Thishas been demonstrated by the extent of governance prob-lems in most of the African countries even though most ofthese countries’ post-colonial leaders have in one way orthe other adopted the indigenous principles and valuesbut disappointed in the behavioral obligations enshrinedin the indigenous principles and their underlying normsand values.

5.To adopt, refurbish, and sustain Africa’s indigenousconflict resolution principles, three key issues, must betaken into account. First, there is a need for role models,in this case the active use of the region’s men and womenin mediation. These individuals must be the du nkuwo(the eyes of community) who have been recognized, notonly for effective performance in particular spheres ofhuman endeavor such as politics, civil administration,scholarship, military, liberation struggle, and entrepre-neurship, but also for the demonstration of unquestion-able moral uprightness. Second, effective conflictresolution depends on good governance. Third, Africangovernments and the various agencies of political social-ization in the region need to educate the public in generaland the younger generation in particular on the region’svital indigenous principles that have been handed downover the years.

African governments and Africa’s regional organiza-tions need to devise the means and political will to resolvethe horrendous and growth-retarding conflicts in the re-gion. After all, the ability of a state or a community toenact and enforce laws that govern behavior, includingconflict resolution, is an unquestionable measure of itsdevelopmental capacity.36


1 For the purpose of this paper, the term “indigenous” is usedinterchangeably with the terms “traditional,” “customary,” and“pre-colonial.”

2 The term “conflict resolution” is used in this article in a broadersense to include all manner of management, which prevents,reduces, or even resolves conflict. This also includes post-conflictactivities that are meant to reinsert, reintegrate and rehabilitateex-combatants and war-affected persons.

3 Woodman and Morse, 1987.4 Fred-Mensah (1999).5 Zartman, 2000, p. 9.6 Nader, 1995, p. 64.7 See Gluckman, 1965.8 Bates, 1993.9 IK Notes 56.10 Kouassi, 2000, p. 74.11 Swartz, 1966 Fred-Mensah, 2000, IK Notes 56.12 Fred-Mensah, 2000.13 Radcliffe-Brown 1940, p. xviii. 1985, p. 225.14 Schraeder, 2000, p. 74–77. Smith (1976), Adjaye, 1996, and

Kouassi (2000).15 Merry, 1989.

16 Wilson-Fall, 2000, pp. 55–56.17 R.D. Cooter, op. cit., p.22.18 IK Notes 50.19 IK Notes 56.20 Cooter (1996) citing J. Locke’s The Second Treatise of Civil

Government.21 J.F. Holleman (1974) pp. 16–17.22 See Bohannan, 1957.23 See also Fred-Mensah, 2000, 2001, IK Notes 56, 59.24 See Stedman et al., 2002.25 See A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 1940, p. xviii.26 IK Notes 10.27 Radcliffe-Brown, cited by Gluckman, 1965.28 Llewellyn and Hoebel, also cited by Gluckman, 1965.29 Fred-Mensah, 2000, p. 43.30 See Deng and Zartman, 1991, p. 14.31 See Schatzberg, 1986, pp. 14–15.32 Woodman and Morse, 1987.33 Ghana, 1960, p. 8.34 Easton and Belloncle, 2001, p. 4.35 See Masina, 2000, pp. 170–179.36 See Brautigam, 1996.

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10. Indigenous Knowledge: The Way ForwardNicolas Gorjestani

Nicolas Gorjestani is Senior Adviserand Chief Knowledge and LearningOfficer in the Africa Region of the WorldBank.

This concluding article reviews the context for and the achievements of theWorld Bank’s Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program, discusses themain lessons learned to date, and outlines a possible way forward to promoteIK in the future in the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).In doing so, the article draws on the lessons that emerge from the 60 IK Notes,as well as on the recommendations made by the contributing authors in thepreceding thematic lead articles, and, finally, on the experiences gained duringthe first five years of the IK Program. Together, these point to the following:there is considerable potential for successful indigenous practices to enhancethe sustainability and impact of development efforts; and the developmentcommunity should increase its support to programs that help enhance the ca-pacity of local communities to share IK and apply it to get better developmentresults.

Context

As indicated in the foreword to this publication, the World Bank launched theIndigenous Knowledge for Development Program in 1998 in response to thechallenge articulated by government and civil society leaders at the GlobalKnowledge Conference in Toronto, Canada in 1997. The start of the programalso coincided with a newly formulated vision of a Knowledge Bank. Withinthis vision, and recognizing that it is not just a storehouse of universally appli-cable and transferable knowledge, the Bank would seek to:• Empower its clients to tap a variety of knowledge sources, including indig-

enous knowledge systems embedded in local communities,• Help connect clients to one another and to other sources of experience,• Learn from and with clients about what works in a given setting and why.

The “business case” for using IK rests on the following premises: that un-derstanding the local context allows for better adaptation of global knowledge;that using local knowledge sources increases ownership and eventually pro-duces better results on the ground with enhanced sustainability; 1 that learn-


ing from and building on the knowledge systems embed-ded in local communities helps to empower these commu-nities and fosters a sense of equity in their interactionswith governments and external development partners;that building on IK could only be achieved in partnershipwith the communities themselves, with governments andcivil society, and with development partners andacademia, in order to leverage scarce resources and maxi-mize the comparative advantage of the respective part-ners;2 and, most importantly, that investing in theexchange of IK and its integration into development pro-grams supported by the Bank and its development part-ners would help achieve the overriding developmentobjective, the reduction of poverty.

Achievements

At the launch of the IK Program, the World Bank pub-lished a “Framework for Action”.3 The latter was embed-ded in a strategy aimed at improving the quality ofdevelopment programs and empowering local communi-ties through activities in three key areas: (a) raisingawareness of the importance of IK; (b) enhancing localcapacity to document and exchange IK; and (c) applyingIK in development programs. The following is a briefsummary of the intermediate outcomes, which the IKprogram has helped to promote to date.4

Raising awareness

There has been a growing recognition of the importanceof IK in the development process as evidenced by the fol-lowing:5 the volume of IK publications related to develop-ment has risen substantially;6 the concomitant numberof actors, NGOs, and even research institutions engagedin IK-related matters is growing rapidly; developmentpractitioners and decision makers increasingly recognizeIK as an important and underutilized knowledge re-source7 ; IK is finding a more prominent place in the glo-bal dialogue on development;8 IK has become lesscontroversial and its promoters today represent a mix ofdevelopment practitioners, researchers, and experts fromthe humanities and natural sciences;9 and the develop-ment community is beginning to address the intellectualproperty rights related to IK.10

This evolution is also clearly observable in the WorldBank. “Indigenous” or “local” knowledge has increas-ingly entered the Bank’s publications and dialogue with

its clients, whereas in the past the focus was mostly on“global” knowledge.11 Similarly, to underscore the impor-tance of indigenous knowledge systems, at the 2001 An-nual Meetings the Bank’s management disseminated toits governing body a booklet entitled “Learning from Lo-cal Communities: Challenges and Opportunities” whereseveral successful cases of IK were brought to the atten-tion of the audience. Finally, client demand for IK-relatedmaterial in the Bank has been growing steadily: the IKwebsite is the second most visited site on the Bank’s Af-rica Region external portal;12 and the Swahili and Wolofversions of the IK website receive about twice as manyvisitors as the French version, suggesting a strong clientresponse to IK content in local languages.

Enhancing local capacity

There has been a noticeable improvement in the capacityof local communities and IK centers to exchange indig-enous practices and learn from each other as demon-strated by the following: accessing documented andpublished information has become much easier, includingin African countries, enabled in part by the increasingreach of the Internet; networks of IK practitioners areproliferating at the country as well as regional level (e.g.,associations of traditional healers in Uganda, Tanzania,and other countries; regional association of traditionalhunters in West Africa, etc.); community-based documen-tation and dissemination centers are being established(e.g., in Uganda); cross regional IK learning exchangeshave provided a platform for replicating successful indig-enous practices;13 and a growing number of community-to-community knowledge and learning exchanges (C2C)within and across countries have enhanced local capacityto learn from peer experiences in other communities.

The C2Cs represent one of the most effective ap-proaches to sharing indigenous practices that have astrong tacit knowledge content. For example, one suchC2C in South Africa produced a measurable outcome inimproving the well-being of the participating community.The latter learned through the C2C how to improve itsmarketing strategy and succeeded in securing a sizeableexport contract for a local cash crop.14 The revenues fromthe exports are manifold the cost of organizing the ex-change. Lessons of experience with several such C2Cs,including pointers on successful approaches to prepara-tion, management, and evaluation of C2C, have been pre-pared to help practitioners in organizing suchexchanges.15

47

Applying IK in development

There is a growing movement toward integrating IK intopoverty reduction programs to help achieve better resultsas evidenced by the following developments: severalcountries have begun the process of preparing nationalIK strategies through national workshops and otherevents (e.g., Uganda has completed a national IK strat-egy; and Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, Kenya, Sri Lankaand Tanzania have held workshops to help launch theprocess); a few countries have already incorporated IKinto their poverty reduction programs (e.g., Uganda’sPoverty Eradication Action Program (PEAP) has incor-porated IK as a component of science and technology; theState of Kerala in India is incorporating IK into the

State’s 10th Five Year Plan, etc.); and guidelines for theintegration of IK into project planning and preparationhave been prepared in partnership with CIDA, ILO, andthe IK Program.16 Some regional organizations are alsoincorporating IK into their strategies, e.g., SADC has in-cluded IK as a component under science and technologyin its Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan).17

Progress in integrating IK into development efforts hasalso been observed in the projects supported by the WorldBank. Whereas five years ago, very few projects containedspecific components related to IK, today more than twodozen projects under implementation or preparation con-tain such elements. Table 1 highlights some of theseprojects in Africa.

Table 1. Examples of integration of IK into World Bank-supported projects

P roject Coun try IK Com pon e n t

In tegrated Ear ly Childhood Development P roject

Er it rea Collect ing and disseminat ing t radit ional pract ices with a special reference to post conflict situat ions

Nut r it ion and Ear ly Childhood Development (ECD) P roject

Uganda Learning exchange on IK pract ices in ECD projects in India and Sr i Lanka and use of ICTs

Ear ly Childhood Development (ECD) P roject

Kenya Learning exchange on IK pract ices in ECD projects in India and Sr i Lanka and use of ICTs

Women’s Development In it iat ive P roject

Ethiopia Indigenous pract ices of women collected and syn thesized; SEWA’s small scale en terpr ise exper ience in India t ransfer red to Ethiopia

Agr icultural Research and Train ing P roject II

Uganda Indigenous agr icultural pract ices in tegrated in to out reach and disseminat ion programs

Nat ional Agr icultural Advisory Services P roject

Uganda Suppor t for farmer dr iven ext ension service

Nat ional Agr icultural Research P roject

Kenya IK agr icultural pract ices for out reach, ver ificat ion , and disseminat ion

Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF3)

Malawi IK as a tool for community empowerment and development communicat ion

Nor thern Uganda Social Act ion Fund (NUSAF)

Uganda Use IK to promote post -conflict healing of communit ies affected by war

Nat ional Agr icultural Advisory Services P roject

Uganda Building IK-based indicators for farmer sat isfact ion in farmer-dr iven extension service

P RSP /CAS P rocess Kenya Iden tify poten t ial role of local-level inst itu t ions to increase t ransparency and par t icipat ion

MAP - Mult i-Count ry HIV/AIDS P rogram

Burundi Use IK to help local communit ies combat HIV/AIDS, working with local healers

MAP - Mult i-Count ry HIV/AIDS P rogram

Guinea Use tradit ional healers to help reduce oppor tun ist ic in fect ions related to HIV/AIDS

Conservat ion and Sustainable Use of Medicinal P lan ts P roject

Ethiopia IK component will help collect and analyze data on benefit s der ived from medicinal plan ts

Nor thern Savanna Biodiversity Conservat ion P roject

Ghana P romote the conservat ion and sustainable ut ilizat ion of medicinal plan ts


Lessons learned and challenges

Learning about IK enables an interdisciplinaryapproach18 to development that helps to empowerlocal communities and builds their capacity to ef-fect change. This approach involves learning about thebio-physical environment, the social fabric, the localeconomy, culture and history, as well as the knowledgeembedded in a community. Such a holistic approach canhelp to: better understand the local situation in its en-tirety; design more effective and sustainable programs;learn from communities and help them learn to adaptglobal practices appropriately. This could in turn help toenrich the development process, and to promote a morebalanced perspective between “exogenous” and “endog-enous” concepts of development.19

Given the holistic nature of IK, learning from exchangeof IK can also provide value that goes beyond a specificpractice. For example, the community-to-community ex-changes (C2C) mentioned earlier have demonstrated thatparticipants not only learn specific skills or practices; butmore importantly, they observe different approaches tosolving problems and are prompted to reflect upon theirown problem-solving strategies in the context of a spe-cific practice. Hence, the C2Cs have the potential to em-power the local communities and help enhance theircapacity for effecting change, beyond the immediatelearning of a specific technology. Since development is es-sentially about a process of desired change, the above ap-proach would contribute effectively to achieving thefundamental goals of a community.

IK is highly context specific and hence may notbe easily replicable, unless it is adapted or lever-aged with other knowledge systems. By definition,IK is context specific.20 Hence it sets its own limitationsto transferability and scaling-up: what works successfullyin one location or for one community may not for an-other.21 Nevertheless, some indigenous practices can beadapted to other institutional or socio-cultural contextsor leveraged with other knowledge systems with impres-sive results. The box below shows how in the Iganga Dis-trict of Uganda, a community driven initiative succeededin reportedly reducing maternal mortality rates by about50 percent in three years, using simple technology to le-verage indigenous knowledge and modern knowledge sys-tems. Such cases have the potential to be replicated andscaled up in other communities (in Uganda as well as inother countries) with similar social-cultural characteris-tics (e.g., the prevalence of traditional healers and birthattendants in the rural areas).

Validation of IK is necessary to confirm the im-pact and the potential value of replication, but itrequires protocols that fit the specific nature of IKand that empower its practitioners. Scientists whochallenge the validity of the experiences of indigenouspractitioners tend to say that “the plural of anecdote isnot evidence.” There are two ways to respond to thischallenge. The first (more popular) approach calls forsubjecting IK practices to research and methodologicalscrutiny. For example, some countries have invested innational pharmaceutical laboratories that analyze me-dicinal plants to find active ingredients; others have in-vested in farming systems research, aiming tounderstand the indigenous cropping systems. 23 However,the outcome of these investments has been limited. Thereare very few concrete recommendations resulting fromsuch research that help traditional practitioners. For ex-ample, the majority of agricultural extension workerscontinue to concentrate on messages related to the “ma-jor” crops under relatively simple input-output regimes.

Yet, there remains a need to document and confirm theclaims of impact of IK, especially in areas such as tradi-

Traditional birth attendants and healthworkers partner to save lives

in rural Uganda

In the Iganga District of Uganda, a UNFPA-sup-ported project (RESCUER) seeking to reduce mater-nal mortality equipped Traditional BirthAttendants (TBA) with modern communicationtechnology. This involved the installation of a solar-powered VHF radio communication system that in-cluded fixed base stations at the Primary HealthCenter, mobile “walkie-talkies” for the TBAs, andambulance vehicles and a reliable supply of blood re-serves. Improved communication and transporta-tion links between the TBAs and the health postsresulted in increased and timelier patient referralsas well as the improved delivery of health care to alarger number of pregnant women. Connecting theTraditional Birth Attendants and the health centershelped leverage the indigenous and modern knowl-edge systems. A notable impact of the project wasthat maternal mortality reportedly declined by morethan 50 percent over the period of three years i.e.,about three-quarters of the applicable MillenniumDevelopment Goal for 2015!22

49

tional medicine where lives are at stake—how does oneknow that the claim of healing is true and that the plantsin question are safe? Appropriate protocols need to be de-veloped that fit the specificities of IK. Some progress hasrecently been made in this area. For example, the IK Pro-gram has brokered an initial partnership between theTanga AIDS Working Group, Tanzania, and the US Na-tional Institutes of Health (NIH) to cooperate on the vali-dation of the efficacy of the herbal treatments used bytraditional healers in Pangani District to treat the oppor-tunistic diseases of thousands of HIV/AIDS patients. An-other example involves development of guidelines by theWHO for appropriate approaches to determining thesafety, efficacy, and quality of medicinal plants.24

The second option is to develop national, possibly fol-lowed by international, standards and professional ethicsfor IK practitioners. The latter approach could be poten-tially more effective in empowering indigenous practitio-ners. For example, the success of modern medicine buildson strong institutionalized professional bodies with ap-propriate regulation by the industry and governmentagencies. These professional bodies and communities ofpractice have designed own standards and ethics that, byand large successfully, help to control misuse, fraud, andmal-practice.

In the case of indigenous practitioners, however, suchrepresentation is typically the exception rather than thenorm (e.g., in some countries there are associations oftraditional healers). Nevertheless, progress is underway.A global network of IK resource centers is graduallyemerging. Its members are academic institutions, NGOs,CBOs, and individuals engaged in the study, documenta-tion, dissemination, and advocacy of IK. Regional net-works are also slowly emerging, such as PELUM(Participatory Ecological Land Use Management), whichhas been formed in some countries in East and SouthernAfrica to share and combine experiences, skills, andknowledge in smallholder agriculture.

Active and member-driven networks can be effectivedisseminators and advocates of IK. However, the commu-nities of indigenous practitioners are still fragmented,with individuals generally operating in isolation, oftencompeting with each other, or “protecting” their knowl-edge through secrecy arrangements or sharing on an in-tra-familial basis only. As a result, IK practitioners tendto play a marginal role in the knowledge debate and haveyet to develop effective mechanisms to learn from eachother so as to further develop their knowledge. Thistends to prevent good indigenous practitioners from be-ing duly recognized (and rewarded) beyond the local con-

text and lowers the “culling” rate of poor performers orharmful traditional practices, which, in turn tends to dis-credit the entire profession.

The two approaches mentioned above are not mutuallyexclusive, and research is needed as much as is advocacy.However, without the latter, the former might notachieve what good indigenous practitioners need most:general recognition as empowered, credible professionals.These empowered practitioners could then engage the re-search community, promote their own agendas to seekprotection for their intellectual property, and act at parwith policy makers and representatives of the conven-tional sciences. The development partners can play animportant role in enabling this process.

Developing innovative approaches to protect in-tellectual property associated with IK is a keychallenge facing the global development commu-nity. Innovative approaches are needed because existingarrangements may not be applicable to the specific na-ture of IK. For example, IK is typically preserved throughoral tradition and demonstration rather than documen-tation. More often than not, it emerges gradually. Only inrare cases is an industrial process involved. And, an indi-vidual inventor is unlikely to be identified. These are allessential criteria for patenting a process or technologyunder the prevailing rules governing the intellectualproperty rights (IPR). WIPO, a partner of the IK Pro-gram, has taken the lead in promoting a global dialogueand partnerships around the challenge of how to find in-novative approaches to IPR as they apply to indigenousknowledge.

There are several action areas to help address this is-sue. In the area of documentation, local communitiescould be encouraged to publicize and register traditionalpractices. Practical, cost-effective and indigenous ex-amples of documentation also exist.25 Material TransferAgreements (MTA) is another interesting approach toprotecting IK. These agreements involve the provision ofmaterial (samples or information) in exchange for mon-etary or non-monetary benefits. Examples of fair and eq-uitable benefit sharing between users and custodians ofIK can be found in several countries today. For example,in Cameroon, the US National Cancer Institute has re-portedly signed a contract with the government, follow-ing the discovery of a forest plant species with a potentialanti-AIDS chemical. Cameroon provides plant samples inreturn for payments, which are used for community de-velopment projects.26

Regional agreements could also lead to cost effectiveforms of protection for local communities. For example,


the 1996 Andean Pact adopted by Bolivia, Colombia, Ec-uador, Peru and Venezuela, empowers the national au-thority and indigenous communities in each country, asthe holders of traditional knowledge and resources, togrant prior informed consent in exchange for equitablereturns.

The need to address the issue of IPR of IK should notprevent the development and implementation of IK ini-tiatives that are beneficial for communities and the de-velopment process as a whole. However, somecommunity-based organizations and NGOs remain cau-tious about the perceived ultimate motives of the devel-opment partners’ interest in IK. They may be concerned,for example, that communities could be deprived of theirknowledge (and the associated products, processes, rightsor benefits). While the relevance and importance of theIPR issue is not in doubt, the development partners aswell as governments should not lose sight of the fact thatIK is an endangered resource—if not recorded and docu-mented, studied and challenged, disseminated andadapted, it is very likely to disappear.27 The challenge forthe development community is therefore to develop a bal-anced approach that assures the preservation of IK sys-tems while at the same time protecting its bearers.

The way forward

The material in this publication demonstrates that overthe past few years there has been good progress in put-ting IK on the agenda of development: awareness of thevalue of IK in the development process is growing; al-though sharing of IK across borders and communities isstill dominated by academic circles rather than by practi-tioners. This is changing gradually and the integration ofIK into development projects is also beginning to takeplace. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done to buildon the progress to date and to extend its breadth anddepth. Some of the areas that need most attentionemerge from the earlier section on lessons and chal-lenges. Clearly, the main actors are the communities andthe practitioners. Nevertheless, governments and theirdevelopment partners can play an important role in help-ing to enable the communities by supporting appropriatepolicies, programs, research, and targeted interventions.

Is it realistic to envision that in the next five yearslearning from IK and incorporating successful practicesinto development programs becomes the standard ratherthan the exception that it is at present? The followingsuggests a six-point agenda for action by governmentsand partners to help realize this vision. The World Bank’s

IK Program is committed to supporting this agenda inpartnership with all the other actors involved. The spe-cific modalities for cooperation will have to be based onthe principles of comparative advantage and appropriateburden sharing.

1.Scale up successful IK practices to help achieve theMDGs

There is ample evidence to suggest that one of the bestways to empower local communities is to enable them toapply their indigenous practices in development activitiesthat affect them directly. While there is a growing inter-est by local institutions and governments in incorporat-ing IK into programs and projects, the degree of thatinterest varies. In part, this is because some governmentsare still uncertain about the commitment of externalpartners in supporting such activities, who may havedoubts about the efficacy of such an approach. Table 2highlights the potential contribution of IK to helpingachieve the MDGs. These cases demonstrate that withappropriate adaptation and leveraging with other knowl-edge resources, IK can make a significant contribution insaving lives, educating children, increasing agriculturalproduction, enhancing governance, etc. It would, there-fore, make good development sense for the partners toincrease their support for community-driven activitiesthat rely on IK.

2. Enhance the capacity of local communities to develop,share, and apply their IK

One of the most effective ways to empower local commu-nities is to help enhance their capacity to exchange andapply indigenous practices (either directly or in combina-tion with other practices). In particular, experience sug-gests that brokering knowledge and bringing togetherknowledge seekers and providers is especially useful inincreasing the participative problem-solving capacity oflocal communities. Specific action in this area could in-clude support for:• Development of national IK strategies and their incor-

poration into poverty reduction programs• Brokering of South-South knowledge and learning

exchanges• Facilitation of community-to-community exchanges• Building of IK professional associations, standards

and ethics• Supporting communities to develop businesses related

to IK.

51

The governments could take the lead in creating theappropriate policy environment for these activities toevolve. Partners could support the process by providingresources for brokering and facilitation functions as wellas the dissemination of lessons of experience (e.g., in theform of tool kits and guidelines, some prototypes of whichhave already been prepared). Projects, intermediariesand government agencies could be supported in providingopportunities for exposing traditional practitioners to thescientific research community and other professional as-sociations. At the same time, the private sector could beencouraged through appropriate policies to invest in thedevelopment of products emanating from indigenouspractices, or develop appropriate community - privatesector partnerships.28

3. Develop innovative protocols for the validation andprotection of IK

As indicated in the earlier section of this article, existinginternational protocols governing intellectual propertyrights (IPR) are based essentially on the concept of pat-ents. Similarly, protocols for validation of traditionalmedicine are essentially based on researching the effectof single substances on a specific disease or illness. Thismakes their application in the case of traditional medi-cine problematic, given the multiple ingredients in aherbal treatment. Accordingly, more appropriate ap-proaches need to be developed to address the issues ofIPR and scientific validation in the case of IK. Whilethere has been a start in this direction, as indicated ear-lier, more concerted action is called for. The governmentscan help by designing appropriate policies and legal cov-enants. The partners, led by WIPO in the case of IPR is-sues and by WHO in the case of traditional medicine,

MDG IK e xam ple S ource

Eradicate poverty an d h un ge r

In the Indian state of Ut tar P radesh, farmers used their local knowledge and exper t ise to increase agr icultural product ivity and incomes by 60 percen t in about five years.

IK Not es 45

Ach ie ve unive rsal prim ary e ducat ion

In West Africa, the use of local language as a medium of instruct ion has helped increase lit eracy rates among rural populat ions and provided gain ful employment for teachers and young gir ls.

IK Not es 5

P rom ote ge nder e quality an d e m pow er w ome n

Women are playing an act ive role as agen ts of social change throughout Afr ica. In S enegal, the women of Malicounda empowered themselves to put an end to the local pract ice of female gen ital mut ilat ion .

IK Not es 3

Re duce ch ild m ortality

Throughout Afr ica, local communit ies use t radit ional child rear ing pract ices to supplement the diet of in fan ts. In Ethiopia, t r adit ional medicine is used to t reat common in fan t diseases.

IK Not es 35

Im prove m ate rn al h e alth

In Uganda, t r adit ional bir th at tendan ts have collaborated with dist r ict health cen ters, using modern ICTs, to help reduce maternal mor tality repor tedly by over 50 percen t in three years.

IK Not es 40

Com bat HIV/AIDS , m alaria an d oth e r dise ase s

In T anzania, t radit ional healers have successfully t reated oppor tun ist ic in fect ions of over 4,000 AIDS pat ien ts, prolonging their lives.

IK Not es 51

En sure e n viron m e ntal sustain abili ty

Rural communit ies in Mozam bique manage con t rol of forest exploitat ion along the coun t ry’s shoreline through myths and t radit ional r ites, main tain ing these resources for the next generat ions.

IK Not es 46

Build a global partn e rsh ip for de ve lopm e n t

A team of IK exper t s from East Africa visit s coun terpar t s in S outh Asia to develop a par tnership for S outh-S outh cooperat ion on IK-related act ivit ies.

IK Not es 55

Table 2. Potential contribution of IK towards achieving the MDGs


could contribute by promoting the use of appropriate inter-national protocols and disseminate them through an infor-mation campaign that reaches the local practitioners andthe communities, associations researchers, etc.

4. Develop a results framework for monitoring IK andmeasuring its impact

With an increasing of number of projects and activitiesincorporating IK, a body of evidence is building up thatwill be useful in expanding IK applications across coun-tries. It is, therefore, important to identify effective ap-proaches to monitoring and evaluation of results inprojects that incorporate IK, and to establish a better un-derstanding and a larger database of quantifiable resultsof IK-driven activities. Sector-specific sets of indicatorswould need to be developed that demonstrate how the in-corporation of useful IK (or addressing harmful prac-tices) in development has made a difference. Thisframework would also help to distill successful ap-proaches to replication and scale up. The frameworkshould be referenced against the MDGs, indicating howIK can contribute to achieve them. This would also helpto address the issues related to validation and IPR associ-ated with IK. Governments could ensure that national IKstrategies contain appropriate arrangements for measur-ing results. The partners could help by developing com-mon methodologies based on successful country practicesand disseminating these to the communities of practice.

5. Establish an innovation fund to promote successfulIK practices

While IK is typically passed on from generation to genera-tion, it is not static in that each generation can adapt andimprove on earlier practices. Local communities have thepotential for creativity and innovation. There is evidence tosuggest that, when enabled, communities and traditionalpractitioners are capable of developing new problem solv-ing approaches that build on their IK systems. There isalso evidence to suggest that an innovation fund to supportsuch activities could go a long way in stimulating furthercreative thinking among the communities. For example,the GTZ has evaluated a series of small scale innovationprojects funded by Germany and found them to be particu-larly useful in promoting community-based initiatives,micro-enterprise development and local innovations. Simi-larly, the World Bank’s Development Marketplace hasspurred several very creative community-based solutions,

some of which have involved IK.29 An innovation fund dedi-cated to IK could be modeled on the latter and provide aplatform for partners to contribute resources as “venturecapital” for IK-related innovation.

6. Organize a global IK conference to promote the aboveagenda

Despite recent progress, awareness of the role that IKcan play in development is generally limited. Yet, there isa growing body of evidence to suggest that successful in-digenous practices can contribute effectively to the devel-opment agenda. In this context, it would be timely toorganize a global conference that would bring togetherpolicy makers, representatives of IK communities ofpractice and other community-based organizations, andthe development partners, etc., to help generate a stron-ger commitment to implement the above agenda. Theyear 2005 would be a realistic target for such a confer-ence and it would provide a springboard for IK’s role inhelping achieve the MDGs in the remaining decade be-fore the target date in 2015. The IK Program of the WorldBank is ready to collaborate with other partners, countryauthorities as well as community-based organizations inpreparation and organization of such a conference. Aninternational conference would underline the commit-ment of development partners to promote the use of IK inthe development process.

Conclusion

The present publication has attempted to bring togetherevidence to support the important role that IK can playin the development process. It commemorates five yearsof the Indigenous Knowledge Program, which is amongseveral initiatives that the World Bank has undertakenover the last few years. These initiatives have sought tobring about some fundamental changes in the way theWorld Bank approaches the development challenge. TheIK Program and the other initiatives are hopefully mak-ing the Bank more responsive to clients’ needs, more fo-cused on empowering local communities, and determinedto learn from others to enrich its own developmentknowledge, which is increasingly becoming the Bank’ssecond “currency.”

As His Excellency, the President of Tanzania, con-cluded in his introduction to this publication: only thosewho learn, will prevail. We have learned that IK is a criti-cal factor for sustainable development and empowerment

53

of local communities. The integration of IK into the devel-opment process will help to enrich it and make it more eq-uitable. Like any other knowledge, IK needs to beconstantly used, challenged, and further adapted to theevolving contexts. Supporting local and regional net-works of IK practitioners and facilitating community-to-community knowledge and learning exchanges will helpto enable the communities to participate more actively inthe development process as protagonists of their own de-velopment. While innovative mechanisms for the valida-tion and protection of IK need to be developed, manyindigenous practices can at the same time be adapted andscaled up within local, national, and regional develop-ment efforts. To move ahead on these fronts requires astronger commitment from governments, partners, com-munity-based organizations, and other interested playersto work together in a partnership to harness IK for devel-opment in a process of learning from communities andhelping communities to learn.

1 Prior to the launch of the IK Program, the Bank had initiated somework in the 1980s related to indigenous knowledge in the agricul-ture sector in an effort to improve the design of developmentprojects (Warren, D. M. 1991).

2 For example, WIPO would concentrate on IPR issues, IFAD onagricultural topics, NGOs would provide the link to communities,etc. The initial partners that helped launch the IK Program wereECA, CISDA, IDRC, ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, and WHO in thecontext of PICTA (Partnership for ICT in Africa). Subsequently, theIK Program has cooperated also with others, including CIDA,CIRAN at NUFFIC (Netherlands Organization for InternationalCooperation in Higher Education), FAO, GM/CCD (Global Mecha-nism of the Convention to Combat Desertification), GTZ, IFAD,ILO, Netherlands Development Cooperation, NORAD, SwissDevelopment Cooperation, UNCED, UNCTAD, WIPO, and numer-ous NGOs, CBOs and centers of excellence, mainly in Africa andSouth Asia.

3 See “Indigenous Knowledge for Development: a Framework forAction,” November, 1998, http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/ikrept.pdf. For an early discussion of the program’s rationale seealso IK Notes 1 and for intermediate progress, IK Notes 21.

4 See tabular overview at the end of this article for activities andachievements of the IK Program.

5 The IK Program does not claim that the increase in awareness isdue solely to its own activities. Other actors have played animportant role.

6 Web searches for “indigenous knowledge” yielded some 10,000 hitsin 1998; they exceed 120,000 by late 2003.

7 For example, participants at recent conferences organized byvarious UN agencies (FAO, UNCTAD, WHO, WIPO, WTO) havebegun to share information and experiences related to the promo-tion, application and protection of IK in the development process.

8 For example, the Development Gateway has a website dedicated toIK, which is one of its most frequently visited pages. See: http://www.developmentgateway.org/node/130646/

9 This denotes a substantial qualitative change for the better,compared to the mid to late 1990s when (i) social anthropologistsdominated the substantive discussion of IK, with some notableexceptions like the late agriculturalist, Michael Warren; and (ii) thesupportive public opinion largely shared a romantic view of IK,whereas the opposing view considered IK akin to witchcraft(“voodoo”) or “old wives tales.”

10 WIPO, which has created a unit to address IK issues, provides aforum for a global dialogue on intellectual property (IP) and IK,and is developing a range of tools aimed at enhancing the IPinterests of the bearers of IK.

11 For example, search results for “indigenous knowledge” in Bankdocuments show a significant rise from 13 in 1998 to 237 in 2003.

12 Most recent annual averages show: ~120,000 visits, ~500,000 hitsto access IK objects, and the equivalent of about 25,000 books ofinformation accessed. Moreover, the IK Notes sub-site has a veryhigh user intensity rate (i.e., each visitor consulting on averageabout 20 IK Notes).

13 A group of about 20 policy makers, traditional healers and projectofficials from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda and their World Bankcounterparts visited Sri Lanka and India in September 2002 tolearn from successful integration of IK in traditional medicine andearly childhood projects. This exchange led to further South-Southexchanges between South Asia and East Africa (e.g., Ethiopianwomen’s groups adopted guidelines from SEWA (Self EmploymentWomen’s Association in India) helping them to better market theirhandicrafts).

14 For more detail, see the website of the Heiveld cooperative: http://www.indigo-dc.org/history.html

15 The IFAD-housed Global Mechanism (GM/CCD)and the IKProgram jointly conceived the C2C initiative, which the Govern-ments of the Netherlands and Switzerland have supportedgenerously. A toolkit for the preparation, implementation andevaluation of community-to-community knowledge and learningexchanges has been prepared and is available on line: http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/commun_toolkit/starthere.htm.

16 These guidelines are available on line: http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/guidelines/

17 See URL: (URL http://www.sadc.int/index.php?lang=english&path=about/risdp&page=risdp4)

18 The use of the term “interdisciplinary” in this context is deliber-ate: it refers to the interplay of various disciplines (e.g., economics,sociology, medicine, pedagogy etc.), in contrast to “multi-sectoral”,which refers to the interplay between various sector practices (e.g.,in education, health, transportation, etc.).

19 A recent doctoral thesis on development at the University ofToulouse, France, elaborates on the tension between the “external”and “endogenous” notions of development. In analyzing the IKProgram, the author supports the interdisciplinary nature of the IKapproach to development. See Virginie Escudie, “Du‘développement’ et la ‘technologie’ : impasses des représentationsexogènes et émergence de programmes alternatifs“, January 2004.

20 For “operational” purposes, the IK Program of the World Bankuses the following definition: IK is unique to every culture orsociety, is embedded in community practices, institutions, relation-ships and rituals, is the basis for local-level decision making; IKprovides problem solving strategies for communities, using locallyavailable resources. The IK Program distinguishes IK from “local”and “traditional” knowledge in that IK is (i) commonly not taughtin the formal education system (though it can be developed throughintegration with that system), (ii) still in use, and (iii), beingcontinuously developed. “Traditional knowledge”, even though itmay still be in use, is commonly not developed exclusively anyfurther. Local knowledge (and expertise) would be all knowledgeavailable in a specific country or location, including indigenous,


traditional and modern. See http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/what.htm.

21 In the early years of development cooperation, technologies weretransferred directly from industrial countries in the hope that theywould help developing economies to “leap-frog.” The promoters of“appropriate technologies” repeated the same approach on areduced scale, when they assumed that what had worked well, forexample, in India, would also work in Tanzania. Some of these earlytechnology transfer efforts even developed into “movements”—especially appropriate technology—confusing ends and means,something that IK proponents should avoid.

22 IK Notes 40.23 Investments in this type of research are, however, limited by

budget constraints and certainly dwarfed by the public and privatesector budgets available to “mainstream” research. Nevertheless,as the awareness of the importance of IK increases, so hopefullywill the level of resources devoted for its research. The fact, that, inUganda, IK has recently been integrated into the national povertyreduction program through the science and technology sector,implies that IK is recognized as a legitimate focus area for scientificresearch.

24 See WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002-2005, WHO, 2002.25 For example, the IIRR (International Institute for Rural Recon-

struction) has produced a manual: “Recording and Using Indig-enous Knowledge.” It provides rural development workers withinformation and tools needed to integrate IK and describes morethan 30 methods of recording and documenting IK. See http://www.panasia.org.sg/iirr/ikmanual/.

26 Posey, D. and Dutfield G.: (1996) Beyond intellectual property:Toward traditional resource rights for indigenous peoples and localcommunities. IDRC, Ottawa.

27 Another consequence of the IPR dominated public debate on IK isthat national and local organizations dedicated to the promotion ofIK develop a guardian’s approach to the issue, creating an exclusiverather than cooperative atmosphere. Some organizations forexample compete for (scarce) funding or for the recognition of beingan exclusive representative of the “true” IK. Hence, investments inthe development of IK strategies or action plans may face substan-tial transaction costs needed to bring the various players togetherand develop cooperation among them.

28 There are good examples: in South Africa, tea-growing farmers ofSuid Bokkeveld have used indigenous practices (adopted fromfarmers in Wupperthal in West Cape Province) to improve theirpost-harvest processing and set up a cooperative which hassucceeded in securing export orders to Europe. In Uganda, theauthorities are supporting the marketing of a toothpaste based onindigenous plants.

29 In fact, the Bank’s IK Program was launched with a grant fromthe Innovation Marketplace, which preceded the DevelopmentMarketplace concept, then limited to proposals from Bank teams.The Development Marketplace expanded the concept to includeproposals from civil society groups in participating countries. Ateach marketplace, which usually takes place every other year (threesuch events have been organized to date), the Bank providesinnovation grants ($100,000 on average) to several innovationprojects selected from thousands of proposals. The last marketplaceheld in December 2003, awarded about $6 million to 47 proposalsfrom 27 countries.

55

* Direct attribution of program activities and the development partners’ IK engagement is not possible. However, a survey of websites ofvarious donors reveals that, compared with 1998, the overall efforts in this area have increased substantially.

Indigenous Knowledge Program Overview 1998–2003

Obje ct ive s Activit ie s Ach ieve me nts

Developing a database of IK pract ices, lessons learned, sources, par tners, etc.

Database with over 260 ent r ies h t tp://www.wor ldbank.org/afr /ik/datab.htm; est ablished contact with over 20 IK Center s wor ldwide; database linked to WIPO’s por tal on IK databases to assist patent offices with pr ior ar t searches.

Ident ifying and test ing inst ruments for capture and disseminat ion of IK.

Established report ing format without disclosing pract ice details for entry in to database; tested de-br iefing technology, video recording and audio in terviews; Mult i Media CD ROMS (knowledge packs on using IK to help ach ieve the MDGs).

P ublish ing selected cases in pr in t and electronic format .

60+ IK Notes published on a monthly basis h t tp://www.wor ldbank.org/afr /ik/iknotes.htm

Raisin g awaren e ss of th e importan ce of IK

Raising awareness of the impor tance of IK among development par tners.

Most of the development partners now have in it iat ives to incorporate or build on IK in their development programs.*

Helping enhance local capacity to share IK, especially among the local IK centers.

Suppor ted the format ion of regional networks; assist ed five centers to establish connect ivity; suppor ted village museum for t r adit ional Maasai culture.

Ident ifying appropr iate methods to collect , disseminate IK among communit ies.

Suppor ted Uganda Nat ional Council for Science and Technology to develop village-based documentat ion and disseminat ion centers.

En hancing local capacity to docume nt an d e xch an ge IK

Facilit at ing knowledge and learning exchanges among communit ies.

Suppor ted more than a dozen local, r egional and cross regional IK exchanges for communit ies and produced toolkit s for community knowledge and lear ning exchanges.

Helping count r ies to prepare nat ional str ategies to help in tegrate IK in to pover ty r educt ion programs.

Suppor ted Uganda to formulate a nat ional IK strategy; assisted Kerala to incorporate IK in to the State’s 10th Five Year P lan; assisted Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali and Sr i Lanka with nat ional or ientat ion workshops on IK, leading to follow-up act ivit ies towards proposing elements for nat ional st rategies.

Applying IK in the deve lopment proce ss.

In tegrat ing indigenous pract ices in to programs/projects suppor ted by the Wor ld Bank and other partners.

More than two dozen projects suppor ted by Wor ld Bank, some in cooperat ion with other development par tners, have IK elements or dedicated component s. These include projects in ear ly childhood development , health , HIV/AIDS, agr iculture, medicinal plant s, and natural resource management .


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Authors of the Lead Articles

John Aluma (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Live-lihoods: Local Knowledge Innovations in Development), aUgandan national, is the Deputy Director General ofUganda’s National Agriculture Research Organization,(NARO). Dr. Aluma is a distinguished scientist andteacher in forestry. He studied at Makerere University,Uganda, in Norway, and in the Netherlands and became adistinguished representative of Uganda in numerous na-tional and international councils, research organizations,conferences and associations. He helped to mainstream in-digenous knowledge into agricultural research in a WorldBank-assisted project, Agricultural Research and Train-ing, Phase II. He has spearheaded efforts in his countryand beyond on the role of community development, farmerinnovation and indigenous knowledge.

Contact: [email protected]

Peter Easton (Education and Indigenous Knowledge),an American national, is Professor of Adult Educationand Human Resource Development in the Department ofEducational Foundations and Policy Studies at FloridaState University. He specializes in the economics of train-ing and adult education, evaluation methodology, partici-patory movements, and comparative international adulteducation. He has over thirty years of experience workingin adult education and related fields in the United States,Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. He has beenresponsible for a number of large adult education-relatedprojects, including a functional adult literacy project inthe Republic of Niger, a basic education improvement inthe Republic of Haiti, a community empowerment andadult training project in low-income areas of Florida, andan OECD funded comparative adult education researchstudy in West Africa. Professor Easton has also served asa trainer in adult education evaluation methods for the

UNESCO Institute for Education.Contact: [email protected]

Nicolas Gorjestani (Indigenous Knowledge: The WayForward ), an Iranian national, is Senior Advisor andChief Knowledge and Learning Officer, Africa Region atThe World Bank. An economist by training, Mr.Gorjestani has held a variety of senior staff and manage-ment positions at the Bank. A decade ago, he helped pio-neer knowledge management in the Bank and has sincebecome an authority in the application of knowledgesharing in the context of development. He is Program Di-rector of the Indigenous Knowledge for DevelopmentProgram, which he conceived in collaboration with otherdevelopment partners. As leader of the Africa RegionKnowledge and Learning Group, he also oversees a vari-ety of activities that promote the sharing of knowledgeand learning between Bank staff and between Bank staffand client countries to help leverage the experiences of allstakeholders towards reaching the Millennium Develop-ment Goals. Mr. Gorjestani has written extensively onknowledge and development issues.


Edward Green (Indigenous Responses to AfricanAIDS), an American national, is a Senior Research Scien-tist at the Center for Population and Development Stud-ies at Harvard University. He has worked for over 25years in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe,in the areas of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases,primary family health care, children affected by war, en-vironmental health, biodiversity and conservation. Hehas served as an advisor to the ministries of health inboth Mozambique and Swaziland. Mr. Green is an au-thority on the integration of African and biomedical

(In alphabetical order, with the titles of their articles in parentheses)

61

health systems and practitioners to achieve public healthgoals. He has published three books on African indig-enous healers and health belief systems. He has studiedthe cases of Uganda and Senegal, making evident thatsimple behavioral change has led to significant reductionin HIV infection rates.


Frannie Léautier (Indigenous Capacity Enhance-ment: Developing Community Knowledge for Empower-ment), a Tanzanian national, is Vice President of theWorld Bank Institute. Prior to assuming this position,Ms. Léautier was Chief of Staff to the President of theWorld Bank Group. Ms. Léautier is a recognized expert ininfrastructure strategy formulation. She has taught atthe Center for Construction Research and Education,and the Department of Urban Planning, at the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology. She is Associate Editorfor the Journal of Infrastructure Systems and a memberof a number of international committees on infrastruc-ture development.

Contact [email protected]

Callisto E. Madavo (Preface), a Zimbabwean na-tional, is currently the Vice President of the Africa Re-gion. Mr. Madavo received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.degrees in Economics from the University of NotreDame. Before his appointment as Vice President of theAfrica Region, he held various senior positions in the sec-tor and regional departments of the World Bank. Mr.Madavo has been a corporate mentor to the IndigenousKnowledge for Development Program and has promotedthe mainstreaming of useful IK within the larger contextof achieving the Millennium Development Goals.


Ben K. Fred-Mensah (Indigenous Approaches toConflict Resolution in Africa), a Ghanaian national, isAssistant Professor of International Relations and con-sultant in International Development at Howard Univer-sity in Washington, DC. A product of Johns Hopkins,Cambridge and Cape Coast Universities, Professor Fred-Mensah did his post-doctoral studies at Brown Univer-sity. He has worked as a consultant for the World Bank,the International Food Policy Research Institute, and theUnited Nations Development Program, among others.He has published on conflict, land, and development is-sues in Africa and is currently working on regional lead-ership, African security and social capital relating topost-conflict reconstruction.


His Excellency Benjamin W. Mkapa (Introduction:Local Pathways to Global Development) is President ofthe United Republic of Tanzania and Member of Parlia-ment. He has held various ministerial portfolios, includ-ing Minister of Foreign Affairs; Information and Culture;Information and Broadcasting; and Science, Technologyand Higher Education. He has also served as hiscountry’s High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassa-dor to the United States. He was Managing Editor to thenational newspapers “The Daily News”, “The National-ist” and “Uhuru” and a founding Director of the nationalnews agency SHIHATA.

Prasad C. Mohan (Editor), an Indian national, is aSenior Communications Specialist in the Knowledge andLearning unit of the Africa Region, World Bank. He hasmore than 20 years of operational experience in assistinggovernments design development communication strate-gies. Before joining the World Bank in 1991, he workedwith the FAO in Rome and the UN Center for HumanSettlements in Nairobi and Bangkok.


Gonzalo Oviedo (Indigenous Knowledge and NaturalResource Management), an Ecuadorian national, isIUCN’s Senior Adviser for Social Policy. Trained in SocialAnthropology, Environmental Science and Protected Ar-eas Management, he has worked in the areas of social as-pects of nature conservation, indigenous peoples policies,community involvement in conservation and develop-ment, protected area policies, and environmental and ru-ral education. Before joining IUCN’s Secretariat inGland, Switzerland, he worked for WWF International inSwitzerland as Conservation Policy Officer and Head ofPeople and Conservation. He has worked in LatinAmerica for several environmental and developmentNGOs, the Charles Darwin Research Station of theGalapagos Islands, UNESCO, and other internationaland Ecuadorian organizations.


Mamphela Ramphele (Women’s Indigenous Knowl-edge—A Source of Empowerment), a South African na-tional, is a Managing Director at The World Bank. She isprincipally involved in managing the Bank’s involvementin knowledge and socioeconomic development, monitor-ing important global issues and concerns, and enhancingexisting partnerships with civil society and other stake-


holders. Dr. Ramphele leads the formulation of the Bank’spolicies on health and education, and is in charge of inte-grating, monitoring, and evaluating progress with regardto the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.Ms. Ramphele is a former Vice-Chancellor of the Univer-sity of Cape Town. As a student, she played a key role inthe Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. Shehas written several books and articles on education,health, and social development.


Preeti Shroff-Mehta (Editor), an Indian national, di-rects the Indigenous Learning for Global Action Initia-tive and teaches graduate courses in InternationalEducation and Development at the Education Policy andLeadership Department at the University of Maryland,USA. She has fifteen years of experience in formal andnon-formal education project management, civil societyorganization training, indigenous capacity enhancementand international development research in South Asia,Europe and North America. She has received graduatetraining and numerous awards in the fields of Economics,Development Studies, International Education and Ur-ban Planning from leading academic institutions in In-dia, England and the USA.


Sibusiso Sibisi (Indigenous Knowledge and Scienceand Technology: Conflict, Contradiction or Concurrence?),a South African national, is President and CEO, CSIRSouth Africa. Prior to this appointment, he was DeputyVice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation at the Univer-sity of Cape Town where he added “Innovation” to the port-folio to ensure an emphasis on the social and economicreturns of university research. Dr. Sibisi joined PlesseyLtd., in 1997, managing and directing research and devel-opment in telecommunication technologies. He has beenthe Chairperson of the National Advisory Council on Inno-vation (NACI). Dr. Sibisi has supplemented his scienceand technology background (B.Sc. Physics, London; Ph.D.Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, CambridgeUniversity; Fulbright Fellow at the California Institute ofTechnology) with executive management and commercialventuring. He initiated the formation of knowledge-inten-sive start-up enterprises both at Cambridge and CapeTown.


Achim Steiner (Indigenous Knowledge and NaturalResource Management), a Brazilian-born German na-tional, is Director General of IUCN, The World Conserva-tion Union. He holds a BA from the University of Oxford,a MA from the University of London and attended theGerman Development Institute and the Harvard Busi-ness School. Before his appointment as Director of IUCN,Mr. Steiner was Secretary General of the World Commis-sion on Dams. As Chief Technical Advisor with GTZ andthe Mekong River Commission and Senior Policy Advisorof IUCN’s Global Policy Unit, he developed new partner-ships between the conservation community, the WorldBank and the United Nations. He has also worked in Af-rica and Asia. Mr. Steiner is a member of numerous na-tional and international bodies, including the UNSecretary General’s Advisory Council for the GlobalCompact, the Environmental Advisory Council of theEBRD, and the China Council for International Coopera-tion on Environment and Development.


James D. Wolfensohn (Foreword), an Australian-born American national is The World Bank Group’sninth President, and currently serving his second term.He built an international investment banking businesswith a complementary involvement in development is-sues and the arts. He has placed sustainable poverty re-duction at the center of the Bank’s mission and focusedthe institution’s work on supporting the internationalcommunity’s effort at reaching the Millennium Develop-ment Goals. Mr. Wolfensohn has been a supporter of theIndigenous Knowledge for Development Program, in-cluding inaugurating the program’s websites in Swahiliand Wolof. He has also spearheaded other Bank initia-tives in recognition of the role of culture and tradition indevelopment.


Reinhard Woytek (Editor), a German national, man-ages the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Pro-gram in the Africa Region of the World Bank. Prior tothis, he led the GTZ/GATE Information and AdvisoryService for Appropriate Technology, assisting local NGOsto build knowledge networks on rural development. WithGTZ and EU, he worked for 10 years in Tanzania in theagriculture and environment sectors. His operational ex-perience includes community and IK-based developmentof land use systems. As adviser to the Principal Secretaryin the Ministry of Finance, he was involved in the coffee,food security and cooperative sector reforms.


Part Two

IK Notes

IK Notes Summaries

1 Indigen ous Kn owledge Systems in Su b-Sah aran Afr ica: An Overview; October 1998

Donn elly-Roark, P .

The fir st , in t roductory IK N ote links economic an d social developm ent with par t icipatory approaches. Capacit y enh ancement an d inst itu t ion buildin g effor t s ar e significant an d r elevant in com bining indigen ous an d m odern in tervent ions. Th e key elements of the IK approach in developmen t ar e: communit y par t icipat ion for defin ing development process an d r esult s; development of indigenous approaches to project m anagem ent ; and focusing on project outcomes that r eflect com munit y demands.

2, 10

2 Sustainable Indigen ous Knowledge Systems in Agr iculture in Zim babwe’s Rural Areas of Matabele Land Nor th and South P rovinces ; Novem ber 1998

Lar son, J .; Sibana, H.

This case study explores socio-polit ical, environmental, economic and r eligious im plicat ions of IK in farming; ident ifies an d analyses n atu ral r esource man agement approaches and assesses the value an d limit at ions of IK systems. The stu dy ar gues that indigen ous t echnologies should be r ecognized an d in tegrated in development effor t s. A key st r at egy should include commu nity capacity enhancement for docum entat ion, exch ange an d disseminat ion of IK.

6

3 Senegalese Wom en Rem ake their Culture ; Decem ber 1998

Easton, P . After at t endin g adult lit er acy t r ain ing, th e women of Malicoun da communit y address female genit al mut ilat ion . By co-opt ing t r adit ional and r eligious leader s, they manage to abolish the pract ice in their own communit y and numerous oth er s count rywide.

2, 3, 4

4 From "Sacr ilege" to Sustainability: Reforestat ion an d Organic Farming in For ikrom, Ghana; J anuary 1999

Easton, P . Young people in Gh ana br in g var ious commu nity groups together t o address deforestat ion an d other local problems. A newly formed young people’s associat ion succeeds in afforestat ion , agro-forest ry, or gan ic farmin g, adult educat ion an d t r ain ing by workin g wit h local leader s and linkin g with th e inst itu te of adult educat ion, forest ry depar tment and in ternat ional development agencies.

3, 6, 7

5 Burkina F aso: "Liter acy for the Lit t le Ones" in Nomgana; F ebru ary 1999

Easton, P . The Manegbzange associat ion in Bur kina Faso in it iat ed an alt ern at ive approach to pr im ary schooling an d adult educat ion by t eaching in t he wr it t en local Moore langu age; th ey developed a cur r iculum aroun d agr iculture and r esearch in to local cultural dimensions, involved parent s in school man agement an d ‘local r esource people’ in classroom learning. The outcomes suggest h igher student success r ates com pared wit h schools that use French as the only lan guage of inst ruct ion .

3

6 Village Banker s: The Exper ience of Fan dène, Senegal; March 1999

Easton, P . The Fandène Youn g P eople’s Associat ion (AJ F) in Senegal suppor t s communit y effor t s to addr ess youth migrat ion t o urban ar eas, cyclical r ecur r ence of food shor tages, lack of access to inst itu t ional networks and lack of local par t icipat ion in development in it iat ives. The developm ent of a locally design ed an d m an aged savings and loans networ k expands r apidly to other commu nit ies in th e r egion and prom otes economic development , women’s em power ment , farming and t echn ical skills t r ain ing progr ams.

3, 6

7 Lit er acy and Local Governance in a Rural Commu nity: Th e Exper ience of Nwodu a, Ghana; Apr il 1999

Easton, P . et al.

The N wodu Development Commit tee in it iat ive in Ghana establishes new and im proved forms of local govern ance. The associat ion works thr ough sector commit tees, one each for adult lit er acy, pr im ary health car e, food processing, agro-forest ry, vocat ional inst ruct ion, agr iculture t r ain ing, and road const ruct ion managem ent .

2, 3

8 Nur tur ing the En viron ment on Senegal's West Coast ; May 1999

Easton, P . et al.

Drought , over -stockin g, forest fir es and in tensive croppin g have en dan gered the flora an d faun a sur rounding th e natur al r eserve of Ker Cu paam, situated in the “P et it e Côte” r egion of Sen egal. Th e local wom en’s in it iat ive launched dur ing 1988 is an in digenous effor t to preserve the environment and expand t he tour ist in dust ry. The key act ivit ies r elate t o a cooperat ive dist r ibut ion network for fir ewood and fodder , alt ernate ener gy sou rces, t r ee nur ser ies and self-sufficiency in cooking fuel.

3, 4, 6

9 The Development of an Agr icultural U nion in Mali: Increasin g Levels of Local Empowerment ; J un e 1999

Easton, P . et al.

A cooperat ive union in Mali em erges from village level associat ions with ‘t r adit ional’ inst itu t ion al st ructure an d ‘modern’ funct ions. The Union of Cot ton and F ood Crops P roducer s operat es bilingually in Bambara and French, enh ances local capacit y an d increases par t icipat ion of village organizat ions. It coordinates food product ion an d m arket in g r elated financial, man ager ial and t r ain in g act ivit ies for it s m em ber s.

2, 3, 6

No IK Notes title Author(s) Summary Referenced inlead articles


10 Indigenous Healing of War-Affected Children in Afr ica; Ju ly 1999

Green, E.C.; Honwana, A.

Indigenous healer s and community leaders assist war-affected children to recover from trauma through healing r ituals. Successful community-based healing approaches for children in Angola and Mozambique demonst rate the need for building on indigenous healing pract ices when helping to rein tegrate children in to society and suggest partnerships between indigenous healing approaches and donor assisted, foreign psychological in tervent ions. Because effor t s to address emot ional, mental and social needs of children affected by war or ethnic conflict are st ill in the preliminary stage, study of indigenous healing pract ices can help develop culturally appropr iate approaches to suppor t vict ims.

9

11 Educat ion and Koranic Lit eracy in West Afr ica; August 1999

Easton, P . et al.

Koranic schooling is a long-standing parallel system of non-formal educat ion in Afr ica. Koranic schooling includes ‘pract ical lit eracy’, ‘Islamic science’, mult i-t iered informal learning systems, some formal school component s and links with h igher educat ion inst itut ions in Afr ica as well as st rong links to Islamic social and economic networks across the cont inent .

3

12 Cultural Resources and Maternal Health in Mali; September 1999

Clemmons, L.; Coulibaly, Y.

The Afr icare’s Child Survival P roject in the Dist r ict of Dioro in the Segou Region of Southern Mali conducted act ion-or iented research to invest igate knowledge, att itudes and pract ices regarding maternal health , pregnancy and childbir th , h ighlight ing the need for open dialogues with in the community about maternal health , use of culturally relevant methods to educate about pregnancy and recognit ion of the role of appropriate media (stor ies, folk songs etc.).

4

13 Sahelian Languages, Indigenous Knowledge and Self-Management ; October 1999

Easton, P . Lit eracy programs in Burkina Faso increasingly recognize mult i-lingual, indigenous knowledge-based pr imary educat ion and the role of community managed literacy networks. The use of local language-or iented lit eracy programs has led to h igher achievement levels among students, economic in it iat ives by the women, local and regional language publicat ions and increased adult lit eracy.

3

14 Grassroot s Disseminat ion of Research in Afr ica: Collect ing and Connect ing; November 1999

Easton, P . The Achieving Basic Educat ion and Literacy P roject and the Associat ion for the Development of Educat ion in Afr ica descr ibe their exper ience in designing, disseminat ing and decent ralizing development research with the aim of building local capacity. The specific project in it iat ives address quest ions such as: how often is Afr ican researchers’ work shared with the audience that can actually benefit and learn from the research? What are the channels of communicat ion and what are the necessary means required to maximize research impact and effect iveness?

2, 3, 6

15 Health : Indigenous Knowledge, Equitable Benefit s ; December 1999

Moran, K. Shaman P harmaceut icals, Inc. has established a benefit shar ing relat ionship with Niger ian scient ific inst itu t ions, village communit ies and t radit ional healers. The company focuses on more efficient drug discovery and development processes while ensur ing benefit s (IP R related and commercial) to collaborat ing count r ies, cultures and communit ies. The case demonst rates how benefit s can be der ived by linking indigenous medicinal systems with modern medical inst itu t ions.

5, 6, 8

16 Senegal: Grassroot s Democracy in Act ion; J anuary 2000

Easton, P . The Senegalese NGO TOSTAN provides local democracy and human r ights educat ion, involving women, men, children and elders with in the local community. Training modules developed join t ly by NGO and communit ies focus on rural women’s non-formal educat ion, income generat ion and health educat ion. Because of th is in it iat ive, women have taken leadership in conflict-resolut ion, local communit ies have developed new cr it er ia for evaluat ing polit ical candidates; women closely monitor nat ional legislat ion on women’s r ight s; communit ies have start ed garden projects and fru it cooperat ives.

3

67

17 Regional P lanning, Local Visions: P ar t icipatory Futur ing in West Afr ica; February 2000

Easton, P . Farmers, women and other local community members par t icipated in developing a ‘System’s Perspect ive’ for regional planning, ident ifying long-term trends likely to affect local communit ies. A ser ies of forecast ing exercises conducted across a number of West Afr ican count r ies ident ified the following issues: ecological and economic changes; urban-rural linkages; need to rely on local resources and ingenuity; st rengthening of family st ructures; t r anslat ion of government documentat ions and manuals in to local languages; development of village cooperat ives, in ter-village federat ions for polit ical par t icipat ion.

3

18 P art icipatory Management and Local Culture: P roverbs and P aradigms; March 2000

Easton, P . Local proverbs that encapsulate local at t itudes and insights with regard to themes like accountability, per formance and social r esponsibility can provide useful guidance to understand local percept ions, preferences and exper ience with respect to these themes and in evaluat ing the related per formance of public programs and project s.

3

19 Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual P roperty Rights; Apr il 2000

Prakash, S. This IK Notes h ighlight s some of the ongoing debates about the benefit s and limitat ions of IPR regimes. The recommendat ions include in tegrat ion of indigenous customary laws with intellectual property r ights through sui gener is systems, documentat ion of indigenous knowledge within the public domain, and development of inst itut ional benefit shar ing frameworks.

6, 8

20 Reinvent ing Apprent iceship and Rites of P assage: An Ent ry in to the Urban Economy in Sub-Saharan Afr ica ; May 2000

Easton, P . The in it iat ion of young people into adult life and its rout ines and skills is common pract ice in most rural communit ies in Afr ica. Similar tr adit ional suppor t systems are absent in the life of urban st reet children. Three in it iat ives attempt to adapt t radit ional inst itut ions to the needs of the urban youth: the network of “informal schools” in urban slum communit ies in and around Nairobi; the effort s of the Street Kids In ternat ional organizat ion that build on the knowledge and st rengths of the st reet children in Sudan; and innovat ive in it iat ives to support informal sector ar t isans in Senegal.

3

21 Indigenous Knowledge for Development : Two Years Down the Road; J une 2000

Prakash, S. This IK Notes r eviews act ivit ies, achievements and challenges of the ‘Indigenous Knowledge for Development P rogram’ aft er two years. The next st eps ident ified are: in tensificat ion of ongoing effor ts to mainst ream IK in development ; est ablishment of communit ies of pract ice; and st rengthening local alliances to learn from each other .

10

22 IK Goes to School. P otent ials and Per ils of Community Educat ion in the Western Sahel; J u ly 2000

Easton, P .; Capacci, C.; Kane, L.

The incorporat ion of IK in to formal educat ion systems and linking lit eracy init iat ives to community needs in Afr ica are progressing slowly. Some nat ional governments have begun test ing non-formal community approaches to educat ion with content in local languages. Some of these in it iat ives encourage community par t icipat ion in areas of financial, administ rat ive and curr icular planning of pr imary and secondary educat ion.

3

23 Seeds of Life: Women and Agr icultural Biodiversity in Afr ica; August 2000

Easton, P .; Ronald, M.

Bean farming women in Kenya play a cr it ical role in preserving genet ic var iety and agro-biodiversity. Mono-cropping compares to t radit ional Kenyan agr iculture pract ices by reducing diversity of seed stocks and food secur ity. Recognizing and understanding women’s knowledge in th is area could help to reverse such trends.

3, 4, 6, 7

24 St rengthening Tradit ional Technical Knowledge: The Sugar Cane Wine Example; September 2000

Ngula, L.; Khonde, B. Char les, P .; Bazabana, J .-J .

Communit ies in the D.R. Congo t ransfer knowledge of the sugar cane winemaking process through select ive, informal apprent iceship and knowledge shar ing. Only community elders and women were allowed to par t icipate in the final processing. The analysis suggest s to st rengthen IK by linking it with modern knowledge to improve efficient and t imely supply of quality raw mater ial, product development and market ing.

6


25 Mali: Indigenous Knowledge - Blending the New and the Old; October 2000

Easton, P .; Belloncle, G.

A research team in Mali evaluat ing an ongoing lit eracy program suggests involving t radit ional leaders and community elders in promot ing literacy. The Minist ry of Educat ion suppor ts the use of village-based literacy-train ing modules emphasizing technical content , needs assessment , and awareness of IK based problem-solving approaches.

3, 8

26 Tradit ional Medicine and AIDS ; November 2000

Bodekar , G.; Kabatesi D.; King, R.; Homsey, J .

In proposing an ‘Afr ican Solut ion’ for combat ing AIDS in Afr ica, th is art icle out lines the need for in tegrat ing tradit ional medicine in to broader effor ts for HIV/AIDS prevent ion and discusses ways to improve st akeholder networking in Southern Afr ica.

5, 6

27 Uganda: Informat ion Technology and Rural Development ; December 2000

Prakash, S. The mult i-purpose community telecenter in Nakaseke has in t roduced new informat ion and communicat ion technologies to st imulate rural development by facilit at ing access to informat ion, learning resources, computer applicat ions t rain ing, and communicat ion t echnologies, document local farming pract ices and improve health services.

3, 6

28 Indigenous Knowledge and Local P ower : Negot iat ing Change in West Afr ica; J anuary 2001

Easton, P . An evaluat ion study of ongoing literacy in it iat ives in Mali suggest s that lit eracy projects were oft en not successful because of the following factors: the rural par t icipant s had few opportunit ies to apply knowledge of wr it ten Bambara in the rural environment ; local government and agr icultural services did not always use local language; schools relied on French as the medium of inst ruct ion; and there was a lack of credit or investment opportunit ies to match the creat ion of locally run enterpr ise a viable alternat ive.

6

29 West Afr ica Languages: Medium and Message; February 2001

Easton, P . An analysis of the st ructure and lexicon of the Hausa language suggests that understanding a local language can be helpful for the development process, as they reflect specific cultural exper iences.

3

30 Indigenous Knowledge and HIV/AIDS: Ghana and Zambia; March 2001

Naur . M. A compar ison of Ghana and Zambia ident ifies the responsibility of nat ional governments in developing local language-based t rain ing approaches for t r adit ional healers and community specific communicat ion and educat ion st rategies to respond to the HIV/AIDS cr isis.

3, 6

31 Malicounda-Bambara: The Sequel, The J ourney of a Local Revolut ion; March 2001

Easton, P . After linking with elders and other community members, Bambara women successfully abolished the harmful indigenous practice of FGM in their community. Through regional networking and educat ion in it iat ives, the women succeeded in other communit ies and even other count r ies as well.

3, 4

32 Afr ican Tradit ional Healer s: The Economics of Healing; May 2001

Leonard, K. L.

Despit e the expansion of modern medicine, t radit ional healers are st ill popular in Afr ica and receive fees compat ible or in some cases h igher compared with modern medicine pract it ioners. The ‘pay-only-if-cured’ and outcome cont ingent cont ract followed by the t radit ional healer s provides credibility and appropr iate incent ives to at t ract a r ange of pat ients.

6

33 Mozambique: Repair ing the Ravages of War : In it iat ion Societ ies and Community Schooling; J une 2001

Easton, P . Mahade, A.; Ahmed,. Z.

The Mozambican NGO ent it led, “Children, Family and Development” demonst rates that community based effort s to blend school content with the t radit ional in it iat ion model, carr ied out under local direct ions for young people uprooted by armed conflict , has led to h igher school enrollment and par t icipat ion of community members in curr iculum reform.

3

34 Tanzania: Communicat ing Local Farming Knowledge; J uly 2001

Mgumia, A.H.

The Uluguru Mountains Agr icultural Development Project works with farmers to document and disseminate their knowledge to other farmers in the region. The mult i-disciplinary research relies on development of appropr iate educat ion and communicat ion mater ial and farmer -to-farmer knowledge shar ing.

6

69

35 Ethiopia: Tradit ional Medicine and the Br idge to Bet ter Health ; August 2001

Lamber t , J . Deforestat ion, cult ivat ion, over -grazing, burning, erosion etc., t hreaten medicinal and food plant s and other natural r esources that have long sustained populat ions in Sub-Saharan Afr ica. The growing scarcity of medicinal plant species requires urgent recognit ion of their vital cont r ibut ion to human and livestock health in Afr ica. The key recommendat ions are to blend modern sciences and IK and st rengthen inst itu t ional capacity to preserve medicinal plant cult ivat ion pract ices.

4, 5, 6

36 Er it rea: The P rocess of Captur ing Indigenous Knowledge; September 2001

P idatala, K. This IK Notes descr ibes systemat ic effor ts to document and validate indigenous knowledge across regions in Er itrea, r ecommending individual and group t rain ing to document and analyze IK and involving local academic inst itu t ions in Er itrea.

6

37 HIV/AIDS: Tradit ional Healer s, Community Self-assessment , and Empowerment ; October 2001

Naur . M. Tradit ional healers and indigenous knowledge can empower communit ies to deal with social consequences of HIV/AIDS, and contr ibute to allocat ing government resources to the most effect ive use. As an example, South Afr ican social mobilizat ion efforts h ighlight the significance of community-based human r ights approaches based on P aulo Freire’s educat ion pr inciples.

6

38 Senegal: Indigenous Language and Literature as a Non-profit Business - The ARED Story; November 2001

Easton, P .; Fagerberg-Diallo, S.

The lack of local lit erature is a major const raint to successful lit eracy train ing. The Pullar lit eracy and cultural awareness movement demonst rates an increasing demand for t exts in P ullar . Local language mater ial produced, includes lit eracy and numeracy manuals; novels and other lit erature; t reat ises on IK and religious pract ices and texts for management t rain ing.

3

39 Burkina Faso: In tegrat ing Indigenous and Scient ific Rainfall Forecast ing; December 2001

Roncoli, C.; Ingram, K.; Jost , C.

This IK note compares tradit ional and scient ific rainfall forecast methods, showing that farmers rely on both , indigenous and modern forecast ing approaches.

6, 8

40 Maternal Health Care in Rural Uganda: Leveraging Tradit ional and Modern Knowledge Systems ; J anuary 2002

Musoke, M. G. N.

The UNFPA-supported Rural Extended Services and Care for Ult imate Emergency Relief P roject improved the refer ral service for pregnant women by train ing Tradit ional Bir th Attendant s, equipping them with walkie-t alkies, t ranspor t and regular blood supply. Mor tality rates have dropped by 50 percent in three years.

3, 4, 10

41 Er it rea: Eliminat ing a Harmful Tradit ional P ract ice; February 2002

Wolff, P . H . The pract ice of female genital mut ilat ion is common in many Afr ican communit ies and histor ically, affected women have often approved of it for var ious reasons. The exper ience of the Er it rea liberat ion forces suggests that imposing sanct ions against the pract ice is ineffect ive as th is alienates the communit ies and dr ives the pract ice underground. Working with Tradit ional Birth At tendants, educat ing them about inherent health r isks have proven to be more appropr iate and effect ive.

6

42 Developing Indigenous Knowledge in Francophone Afr ica - A Four -Nat ion Overview; March 2002

Easton, P .; Nikiema, E.; Essama, S.

Ethnic diversity, nat ional policies and their implementat ion, and the role of NGOs determine the in tegrat ion of IK in to development . Local inst itut ions, (e.g., schools) should play a bigger role to engage in IK-related act ivit ies in the context of par t icipat ion and decentralizat ion effort s of governments to foster IK in tegrat ion for bet ter development results.

4

43 Rural Seed Fairs Southern Tanzania - Why Southern Zone Rural Seed Fairs?; Apr il 2002

Mponda, O.K.K.; Kafir it i, E.M.

Rural Seed Fairs in Tanzania help build a network of researchers, extension agent s, small farmers, breeders and nat ional seed producers. The short , medium and long-term benefits are an increase in the availability of crop var iet ies, enhanced regional cooperat ion, increased agr icultural product ivity and food secur ity, h igher income and indigenous knowledge exchange.

2, 6


44 Uganda: The Contr ibut ion of Indigenous Vegetables to Household Food Security; May 2002

Rubaihayo, E. B.

Tradit ional vegetables grown most ly by women in kit chen or home gardens or collected are part of the st aple diet in rural households in many Afr ican countr ies. P olicies on household food security, however , do not emphasize their cult ivat ion. Urban and rural consumers would benefit from understanding their impact on health , the local economy and environment .

4, 6

45 Using Indigenous Knowledge to Raise Agr icultural P roduct ivity: An example from India; J une 2002

Prakash, S. Farmers collaborated to raise agr icultural product ivity in the farmer dr iven Sodic Lands Reclamat ion project in Uttar P radesh. By building on their own exper iences, they reclaimed sodic land for re-cult ivat ion. As a result , cropping in tensity increased mult i-fold, economic act ivit ies expanded, wage rates doubled, out-migrat ion declined and land value increased.

4, 6, 7

46 Managing Natural Resources along the Mozambican Shoreline: The Role of Myths and Rites; J u ly 2002

Easton, P .; Dava, F.; Ahmed, Z.

Mozambique has r ich natural resources but urbanizat ion, falling crop pr ices, economic decline and severe climate changes affect sustainability of natural r esources. Local inst itu t ions, informal regulat ions, myths and r ituals and a collect ive management system have been cr it ical in managing natural resources. A successful case is the management of the dense mussel colonies through a combinat ion of family supervision and community council monitor ing, point ing to significant differences between indigenous and ‘modern’ approaches to NRM.

3, 7

47 Using the Indigenous Knowledge of Jat ropha: The use of J atropha curcas oil as raw mater ial and fuel; August 2002

Henning, R. K.

The ‘J atropha Curcas’ plant in it iat ive promotes economic, ecological and energy development . The in it iat ive proposes to preserve the local knowledge and pract ice of the mult iple uses of J at ropha in erosion cont rol and soil improvement , pover ty reduct ion and foster ing of renewable energy by promot ing women as knowledge bearers.

6

48 Ethiopia: P otent ial of Tradit ional Social Insurance for Suppor t ing Health Care; September 2002

Haile, D. ‘Eder’ is an established community-based indigenous inst itu t ion that serves as a ‘social financing mechanism’ in Ethiopia. In many rural areas, Eder provides medical assist ance to local families. These non-profit inst itu t ions build on pr inciples of solidar ity, fr iendship and mutual assist ance, provide incent ives to participate and enforce cert ain community norms.

6, 7

49 Farmer Exper imenters: Self-developed Technology; October 2002

Bunch, R; Canas, M.

The Associat ion of Advisors for a Sustainable, Ecological and P eople-Centered agr iculture documents the large and significant number of farmer innovat ions in technology. The IK N otes discusses, what kind of technologies farmers exper iment with ; what t echnologies are successful; and what kind of farmer ’s network and market suppor t is required.

6, 8

50 Er it rea: Collect ive Responsibility for War Orphans; November 2002

Wolff, P . H . The indigenous community networks that took responsibility for orphans and dest itu te children were dest royed dur ing the conflict years in Er it rea. The IK Notes discusses the significance of ‘grassroots safety nets’ for children and the nat ion-wide in it iat ive of the Social Service Agency. The in it iat ive emphasizes reunificat ions of war orphans with their extended families. For those children whose families cannot be located, the plan suppor ts the creat ion of group homes.

9

51 Tradit ional Medicine in Tanga Today - The Ancient and Modern Wor lds Meet ; December 2002

Scheinman, D.

Tradit ional healers, modern physicians, and health workers have created the Tanga AIDS working group. The NGO builds on indigenous and modern medicinal knowledge to address HIV/AIDS. The local herbalists have developed affordable and effect ive t reatments for opportunist ic diseases of HIV/AIDS. TAWG is seeking in ternat ional collaborat ion for the scient ific validat ion of the medicinal plants.

4, 5, 6, 8

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52 Ethiopia: A Qualit at ive Understanding of Local Tradit ional Knowledge and Medicinal P lant Use; J anuary 2003

Fassil, H . A study conducted in Ethiopia aimed to gain insight in to the local dist r ibut ion of knowledge related to t radit ional health and the uses of var ious medicinal plant s among men and women in rural communit ies. IK is not only residing with the professional t r adit ional healer s but also with women who provide the first line of health care to their families. The study calls for a community-or iented, mult idisciplinary research approach to th is subject

6

53 The Economics of Afr ican Indigenous Knowledge; February 2003

Nwokeabia, H.

Lack of incent ives for individual healer s and t radit ions have led to lack of knowledge shar ing with in local communit ies and result ant slow innovat ion processes. Oppor tunity cost , disclosure of secrets, monopoly rent , innovat ion and discovery are determinant s for the decision making of t radit ional healers when consider ing to share their knowledge.

2

54 Tradit ional Medicine P ract ice in Contemporary Uganda; March 2003

Weisheit , A.; Moses, M

The authors propose a h igher integrat ion of t r adit ional medicine in to the public pr imary health care system and support to its development . The key strat egies out lined are: conservat ion of rare medical plants and informat ion exchange; development of legal and inst itut ional frameworks for the in tegrat ion of tr adit ional pract ices in to the mainst ream health pract ices; product st andardizat ion, processing and packaging; and train ing of t radit ional healers as community educators.

5, 6

55 Indigenous Knowledge: the East Afr ica-South Asia Learning Exchange - An example of South-South Cooperat ion; Apr il 2003

Prakash, S. An Asia - Afr ica par tnership promoted by the Afr ica Region of The Wor ld Bank is an effor t to document and disseminate local knowledge across communit ies and regions. Lessons learned are in tegrated in to the project s of the par t icipant s.

6

56 Ghana: Kanye Ndu Bowi - An Indigenous P hilosophical Context for Conflict Management ; May 2003

Fred-Mensah, B. K.

The ‘Buem’ community sustains harmony within the social system despite ongoing conflict s and implements through a conflict r esolut ion system that imposes int r insic rewards and sanct ions. The main recommendat ion is to synthesize relevant aspect s of modern and indigenous in conflict management in tervent ions.

9

57 Cultural Rights for Zimbabwe's Sui Gener is Legislat ion; J une 2003

Frommer , C. The study of plant genet ic resources and t radit ional medicinal knowledge highlights the role of indigenous knowledge and how it is accessed, preserved, used, shared and valued in both customary and non-customary ways in Afr ica.

6

58 Grassroot s’ Women’s Approach to Capacity Building; J uly 2003

Shroff-Mehta P .

A woman farmer and livestock keeper cont r ibutes to t ransforming the economic act ivit ies and livelihood st rategies of her village and surrounding areas in Gujarat , India. The example of her thr iving local livestock enterpr ise management demonstrates her understanding of community context , needs and const raints and her ability to find unique and sustainable solut ions; and the building of community capacity by linking local and external knowledge.

2, 4, 6

59 Adzina: An Indigenous System of Tr ial by J ury on the Ghana-Togo Border ; August 2003

Fred-Mensah, B. K.

Bate Kate and Adzina are inst itu t ional mechanisms developed by local communit ies in the Buem tradit ional area in Ghana. They represent an indigenous system of tr ial-by-jury on the Ghana-Togo border with it s own procedural, inst itu t ional and community dimensions of dispute set t lement and conflict resolut ion. The presence and in tervent ions of community elders with ‘supernatural wisdom’ and opinions of community members is cr it ical in arbit rat ion and resolut ion of civil and cr iminal disputes.

9

60 Inst itu t ional Const rain ts in P romot ing IK: Community Access to Social Networks and Formal Inst itu t ions; September 2003

Shroff-Mehta P .

The analysis of sixteen case studies of community innovators shows how community innovators overcome family/community, seasonal and inst itut ional const rain t s and out lines their pr imary st rategy: collaborat ion with social networks represent ing NGOs, government agencies, academic inst itut ions and other communit ies in the region.

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IK Notes 1October 1998

Rural people in Africa have alwaysmaintained a certain formidable powerthat guards their indigenous institu-tions and knowledge systems, therebymaintaining some level of self-reliance.This measurable power is based uponthe capacity to resist what they do nothave a voice in. Recent reports from do-nor agencies documenting the failure ofprojects over the past twenty years toinitiate sustainable action and make apositive difference in poverty levels inAfrica tend to substantiate this thesis.These decades of failed visions did nothappen because donor agency staffwere uncommitted, nor because Afri-can communities were uninterested.They happened because local people’svoices—their involvement and controlwere thought to be part of the goal ofdevelopment, rather than the processof development.

The power of the rural people to re-sist the development projects that re-gard them in this manner, and includethem as only “beneficiaries,” but not as“actors,” is admittedly a power that hasnot expanded their resource base; andthere is now, of course, an increasingfragility of this resource base in termsof environmental and economic dete-rioration. Despite these almost paralyz-ing problems, many people and groupsthroughout Africa strongly believe that

positive new development can happen,but only if the people themselves stayin control of their resources, econo-mies, and culture.

This capacity for local control onlyhappens, however, when people are al-lowed to internally work from, expand,and change their own institutions andknowledge systems. Thus, the opportu-nities surrounding initiatives to bringtogether indigenous knowledge sys-tems and natural resource conserva-tion are immense—however, so are thedangers. The opportunity is the possi-bility of working from within, conse-quently establishing expandable natu-ral resource initiatives which are con-gruent, and therefore sustainable, withexisting institutions and systems. Thedanger is that indigenous knowledgeitems or outputs—identification ofplans, or methods of planting, for in-stance—may be identified with no re-gard for their other components ofrules and roles—which are no less im-portant because they often seem invis-ible to the outsider. When this particu-lar incorporation happens, the owner-ship factors that are critical to bothsustainability and self-reliance begin tofade away; and local people find them-selves even more bereft of their self-re-liant heritage.

Indigenous Knowledge Systemsin Sub-Saharan Africa: An OverviewThis article was written by Paula Donnelly-Roark, who was Senior Social Scientist in the World Bank’s Africa Region.

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It is the intent of this article then to briefly define some ofthe dangers so that they may be avoided, and define some ofthe opportunities so that they may be more thoroughly andsolidly developed. To accomplish this objective, some issuesare briefly outlined below which seem to contain strong ele-ments of both danger and opportunity.

Defining how far we have come

Over the past 40 years, the international development com-munity has primarily operated on the premise that input-output development models which offer fast, efficient trans-fer of goods and structural entities, were the key elementsin a country’s economic and social development. However,failure of these programs and institutions to achieve sus-tainability and effectiveness, assumed to be dependable by-products of the input-output model, has finally brought intoserious question the efficacy of this approach. Expandingperception of this new reality has initiated a paradigmchange away from mechanistic top-down models primarilyconcerned with economic development, toward dynamicparticipatory approaches concerned with all facets of hu-man development. The power of this paradigm shift is thatit not only provides new solutions; it also provides new in-sights as to what are the problems.

The key to understanding how far we have come in em-bracing these new perceptions is to focus on how much haschanged in terms of defining what the problems are. Herethe “necessity for sustainability” has accomplished what“equity” and “basic human needs” concepts, despite theirefforts over several decades, have been unable to do — makethe case that people-oriented, participatory development isnot only preferable from a social justice perspective, but isalso necessary from an effectiveness standpoint. However,this emerging consensus on what are the nature of the prob-lems, does not necessarily indicate similar agreement onhow to solve these problems, and indeed there is no suchagreement.

The danger here is of two kinds. First, those who havebeen advocating these changes for so many decades maycontinue to assume that there has been no success becauseit has not been total; not realizing that while enduring poli-cies of the input-output era may not have yet changed,“voice” has indeed been achieved for an alternative view-point. The alternative danger is to assume that becausethere is emerging consensus on what the problems are,there will be a similar consensus on how to solve these prob-lems. Thus, it seems the opportunity and the way forwarddepends upon keeping in mind two things: on the one hand

because “voice” has been achieved and therefore people arelistening and willing to collaborate, increased efforts need tobe placed on the how-to; on the other hand, pilot “how-to”modalities cannot assume that people who now agree onwhat needs to change, have similar perspectives on howthings need to be changed. Therefore, these pilot initiativesfeaturing indigenous knowledge systems and institutionswill need to spell out very clearly both the conceptual frame-works and power/control implications so that differences inperceptions and approach can be recognized and mutuallyattended to, rather than buried in a barrage of rhetoric.

Assumptions make a difference

The critical difference in defining how to go about change isdependent upon whether one assumes tha economic and so-cial development can be internally initiated or whether onebelieves that it must be externally induced. The interna-tional development community and African governments,with their long-standing preferences for input-output mod-els have obviously ascribed to externally induced modes andmodels. As the notion of sustainability began to emphasizethe importance of participant ownership and the resultingresponsibility, participation initiatives have become increas-ingly popular. Here, however, donor organizations have of-ten assumed that participation processes were to be used toinduct marginalized groups of people into the presentlydominant Western-type economic and cultural systems—but with more sensitivity and within their own time-frames.This essentially leaves the assumptions surrounding the ne-cessity for externally induced change untouched andunreflected upon.

The possibility that existing indigenous African institu-tions—often distinguished as “customary” or “informal”—could be a base for internally initiated development hasbeen only rarely explored. However, the recent developmentfocus on capacity and institution building has begun to ini-tiate re-evaluation of the efficacy of these institutions. Forinstance, Mamadou Dia, in a 1991 paper on “why culturematters” proposed that recognition and utilization ofAfrica’s own institutions are essential to the continent’s fu-ture progress. A subsequent regional study entitled AfricanManagement for the 90s (AM90s)” was designed to investi-gate the efficacy of utilizing indigenous institutions, in par-ticular the management and organization practices. Thestudy’s results shed definitive light on how culture and in-digenous institutions matter in terms of effecting more posi-tive governance emphasizing participatory processes, creat-ing efficient but culturally congruent productivity, and

74 IK Notes Number

implementing equitable growth strategies. At the sametime, the results begin to point to expanding levels of dis-connect at all formal institutional levels and African civilsociety.

The danger that is faced here is that of unwittingly com-pounding the existing level of disconnect. This is a strongpossibility if attempts are made to utilize indigenous natu-ral resource systems, without explicitly eschewing externalchange models at both the micro and macro levels. On theother hand, while opportunities abound for necessary re-connect activities and expansion of indigenous knowledgesystems, for this to be successful, conceptual frameworksmust change, and the actual work will be, to a great extent,complex and uncharted.

Distinguishing among participation strategies

Approaches used to achieve grassroots participation are nu-merous and diverse in their objectives, operational strate-gies, and results. Assessing levels of control, and resultingsustainability, provides participation standards that sepa-rate action from rhetoric. This categorization, in turn, pro-vides a measurement typology that allows facilitating agen-cies to be honest about participation initiatives and results.This capacity is particularly crucial when groups decide toset aside externally-induced models of development and be-gin working from internal initiatives and institutions.

To create basic standards, participation strategies are di-vided into four major categories. They are then further clas-sified according to the amount of control which rests withthe actor/participants. This classification, based upon mea-surement of power/control transfer, explains how differentparticipatory strategies work and what they can be expectedto accomplish from the perspective of both the “actor/par-ticipant” and the “external agent.” The basic strategies andcontrol focus are as follows.

Mobilization strategyThe project of development action is chosen and designed byoutsiders, usually by specialists within the initiating donoror government institutions, before people’s involvement be-gins. The program leadership then “mobilizes” the “tar-geted beneficiaries” to endorse, collaborate with, and adoptthe decisions taken. This strategy leaves full control in thehands of the external agent.

Community/institutions development strategySocial surveys are carried out or meetings held to achieve abetter understanding of community/institutional percep-tions about a specific problem which has been identified as aconstraint to development. Local groups may then be in-volved, using participatory techniques, in planning and car-rying out solutions to a problem. Actor/participants sharespecified amounts of control with the external agent, but de-cisions as to the actual amount often rests externally.

Organizing strategyMarginalized groups organize themselves, or are organized,to increase their strength and influence in areas of decision-making that affect them. Cooperatives, rural unions, andsome community-based NGOs are examples of this strategy.Actor/participants share specified amounts of control withexternal agents or with elected office holders.

Empowerment strategyCommunity-based groups, often assisted by an outside fa-cilitator, initiate a learning/empowerment process that en-ables them to define their own goals and objectives; assessthe implications of options open to them; decide and assumeresponsibility for actions to achieve their agreed to objec-tives. The empowerment strategy places control in thehands of the actor/participants, who claim both their rightsand responsibilities.

For sustainable results, the critical question is: Wheredoes the control rest? The strategy of “mobilization” keepsthe control solely in the hands of project managers and istherefore easy to initiate and manage. But, because localcontrol is so minimal, this approach seldom engenders asustainable base. “Community development” and “organiz-ing strategies” share some levels of control with partici-pants and are therefore capable of generating adequate lev-els of sustainability, but only if (a) project management pro-cesses adequately match indigenous styles; and (b) theproject output meets a strong community need, such as im-proved water supply. “Empowerment” strategies enable theparticipants to create and design their own initiatives aswell as implement them, thereby placing maximum controland responsibility in participant hands, with consequenthigh levels of local sustainability. But maximum control canalso increase marginalization.

Each of these participation strategies, in addition to theircontrol quotient, has what we may call an “action intent.”In selecting a strategy it is essential to clarify this basic ac-tion intent. And critical to the success of a project is an un-

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derstanding of how the action intent is preserved or dis-torted during implementation. Mobilization strategies useonly specified portions of the participatory process to con-sult; both the community and organizing strategies use it tonegotiate; and empowerment strategies use it to create au-tonomy. Understanding the action intent of the various par-ticipation strategies, and often subtle but critical differencesbetween them, can help us to decide where the locus of con-trol needs to rest for the maximum sustainability, and howwe can keep it there.

The danger here is that to work effectively with indig-enous knowledge systems, both negotiation and empower-ment strategies must be used and sustained for long periodsof time, not only at the grassroots level, but also at thepolicy levels. Sustaining one or the other of these two modeswithout slipping back to consultation levels is most difficult.On the other hand, the opportunity is that the necessity ofthis objective will engender extensive new “how-to” knowl-edge that will make future efforts in this area much easierto accomplish.

Conclusion

In summary, participatory approaches necessary for effec-tively working with rather than against indigenous knowl-edge systems do not make for easy analysis or simple solu-tions. However, these participatory processes do capture thecomplexity and inter-dependency of the issues themselves.And they effectively outline the required complex problem-solving processes for sustainable solutions. More impor-tantly, it is a first step in returning African development ini-tiatives to internal rather than external forces.

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IK Notes 2November 1998

Sustainable Indigenous KnowledgeSystems in Agriculture

Zimbabwe Case Study

This study researched IndigenousKnowledge Systems (IKS) in agricul-ture in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, focus-ing on crop farming in the Tonga ofBinga District in Matebeleland’s NorthProvince, and livestock in the Kalangatribe of the Plumtree District inMatebeleland’s South Province. Thestudy aimed to uncover some of theknowledge that indigenous people usedto survive under the harsh climatic andphysical conditions of the region.

Specific goals in both the Binga andPlumtree Districts were: (i) to uncoverthe socio-political, religious, economicand environmental implications of IKSin farming; (ii) to identify and analyzethe methods of natural resources man-agement; and (iii) to assess the valueand limitations of IKS in agriculture.

Methodology

Information was collected through lit-erature review, personal interviewswith farmers, site visits, group discus-sions, and the use of Village-Based Re-searchers (VBR). The VBRs preparedthe community for the field study andfacilitated discussions. The field studyin Binga District at Kamaziyo visitedabout 40 homes; in Plumtree, about100 homes were covered.

Resource utilization

In the Binga District, the men controlthe family resources and they must seethat these resources are distributedand used well. These resources includeland, water, vegetation, livestock, andfamily labor. Land is distributed to newfamilies by the chief of the area who, inconsultation with other elders, distrib-utes the land for settlement and farm-ing. The management of the land re-sources in the Binga district is done bythe Village Development Committeesset up by the government in the 1980s.

People in the Plumtree District aremainly engaged in subsistence farmingand animal husbandry. While timber isabundant, the residents feel that theseresources are not being used effectivelyto generate employment and provide asource of income. It is used primarilyfor firewood and the construction ofhouses and fences.

IKS practices

IKS exist in both areas and are still sus-taining local people in crop farming—including land preparation, grain selec-tion, planting, harvesting, as well asgrain storage and livestock manage-ment. Typical of Kalanga IKS practice

This article was written by Harold Sibanda, Corporate Planner at the Organization of Rural Associations forProgress in Bulwayo, Zimbabwe. It is reproduced in its original form from the publication, Perspectives on Indig-enous Knowledge Systems in Southern Africa by Jeri Larson, April 1998, Discussion Paper No. 3, EnvironmentGroup, Africa Region, World Bank,in collaboration with the World Conservation Union (IUCN). For more informa-tion, please contact Jeri Larson, Rm. J8-120, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington D.C., 20433. Tel. no.:(202) 4734333; e-mail address: [email protected]

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was their indigenous knowledge of grasses and soils to allo-cate grazing pastures. Family heads converged at the chief’splace every spring to discuss grazing arrangements for thatseason. The beginning and ending dates of grazing in speci-fied pastures were also established. Headmen and kraal-heads then monitored villager compliance with these rules.

Both the Binga and Plumtree communities placed threevalues on IKS. First, knowledge is power. People who havestayed in Plumtree for a number of years knew the rainfallpatterns and when to plant crops to produce better yields.The second value of IKS was that of a knowledge base thatdetermines the supply and distribution of food, as well asthe division of labor. The third importance of IKS was at-tributable to the continuous supply of resources for sustain-able life.

Conclusions

During his field research, the author discovered the valuethat indigenous communities place on IKS. Both the Tongasand Kalangas value IKS as a knowledge base and for deter-mining food production and labor division between genderand age groups, and as part of community survival. He rec-ommends that IKS should complement, rather than com-pete with Western kowledge systems in the implementationof projects. The lesson for development agencies should beto investigate first what indigenous people know and have,then develop and improve upon indigenous technologies.

In the Plumtree District, the people indicated that the re-current droughts—and lack of grass in grazing lands—havemade it difficult to rotate grazing as is the traditional prac-tice. Westernization was also threatening IKS. The BingaDistrict pointed out that indigenous farming methods havebeen substituted with Western methods of farming; cropsthey traditionally grew have been replaced by cash crops.

One of the major limiting factors of IKS is its lack of docu-mentation. African knowledge of indigenous plants andtheir African names is declining rapidly. IKS is also limitedby its lack of proven scientific procedural explanations. Oneonly hears that it is taboo to do certain things. IKS is also ina precarious position because it depends on those who havethe knowledge sharing it with others. It is also viewed bymany young people as obsolete and out of date comparedwith Western cultural knowledge and practices.

The study recommends the following:• Build strong awareness programs to appreciate IKS and

its role in resources utilization management.• Research, document, and disseminate detailed informa-

tion on IKS.• Promote and transfer IKS to areas with similar character-

istics. Exchange visits between groups working on similarprojects are one way of achieving this, as are workshopson important IKS issues.

• Publish literature on IKS, particularly in the local lan-guage of the targeted communities.

• Train development agency staff, especially those thatwork directly with the indigenous communities.

• Capacity building and empowerment of local people torecognize the value of IKS andpromote these systemsthrough: traditional community gatherings; training inresearch, documentation and the dissemination of IKS;and support from the formal sector, for the indigenouscommunities to develop IKS themselves.

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Senegalese Women Remake Their Culture

IK Notes 3December 1998

Although for decades the capital ofFrench West Africa, Senegal, like othercountries of the Sahel, remains pre-dominantly rural. And while 62 percentof the people reside in rural areas, morethan 85 percent of the wealth is in ur-ban centers. As in many countries, dis-advantage accumulates at the level ofwomen and girls. In 1995, female lit-eracy countrywide was just over halfthe rate for men (23 percent comparedto 44 percent), and the discrepancy wasstill greater in rural areas.

TOSTAN, literally means “breakingout of the egg” in Wolof, the languagespoken by the majority of Senegal’s 7.9million people and is among a numberof innovative rural development andwomen’s education initiatives that areaddressing the problem at its source. Itoffers an 18-month learning programthat combines basic education in na-tional languages with practical develop-ment issues, and provides rural peoplewith the resources to improve theirstandard of living while fostering in-creased confidence in their way of life.More than literacy, this breakthroughprogram offers participants the tools totackle such community issues ashealth, hygiene and the environment.The program uses six modules that linkliteracy to life skills in a highly partici-

patory process of problem solving.TOSTAN successfully sustains the linkbetween basic education and rural de-velopment, giving adult learners notonly literacy and numeracy skills intheir national languages but the meansto understand and solve local problems.

Several years ago, the TOSTAN NGO

responded to the solicitations of villageauthorities in Malicounda who hadseen the impact of its training pro-grams on women in neighboring com-munities and helped this Bambaracommunity of west central Senegal tocreate its own center. The programplaced special emphasis on the identifi-cation and resolution of common prob-lems, and one of the last training mod-ules in the series addressed issues ofwomen’s health and sexuality. Its popu-larity among rural women participantsbroke all records. Shortly after com-pleting their training, the newly liter-ate women of Malicounda decided thatthe problem they wished to addresswas the custom of female circumci-sion—a longstanding pattern in theBambara/Mandigue and Pulaar com-munities. By informing themselves onpractices elsewhere and on the effectsof circumcision on girls’ health andsexual life, they developed an arsenal ofarguments that eventually convinced

This article is based on research conducted by Senegalese researchers with the support and technical supervision ofPeter Easton, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, and with the ac-tive collaboration of the concerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis of theClub du Sahel/OECD, the CILSS and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).

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the village council to abolish the practice officially. In themonths May to July 1997—the traditional period for genitalcutting on young girls—no such operations were performedin Malicounda for the first time in the community’s history.

TOSTAN and UNICEF supported the women by organizinga visit from twenty Senegalese journalists to interview themabout their stand. The women performed a play for the visi-tors to illustrate the reasons why they had made this deci-sion and the arguments they had used with other villagers.The visit brought publicity to the issue, but also attractedsome threatening comments and criticism from surround-ing communities of the same ethnic group. Saddened butbasically undaunted, the group from Malicounda decided toorganize a delegation to two neighboring villages to con-vince women there of the importance of a local decision toabolish genital mutilation.

In one of these—the community of Ngerin Bambara—women who had just completed the Tostan program decidedto endorse the “oath of Malicounda.” The President of theirWomen’s Association, herself the daughter of a traditionalcircumciser, said that her own daughter had hemorrhagedseriously during the operation and that it was time tochange.

Inhabitants of the second community, Ker Simbara, de-cided that they could not put a stop to the practice withoutconsulting kin in a whole network of neighboring villages.So for a period of eight weeks, two men who had taken partin the TOSTAN program—one a TOSTAN facilitator and theother a 66 year-old Imam (a senior Muslim priest)—trav-eled from village to village to discuss the negative effects offemale circumcision with local people. The men originallyhad feared that they would be chased out of many of thecommunities. Instead they discovered that the news ofMalicounda opened doors and hearts, and they heard shock-ing stories from women, speaking out for the first timeabout what they had experienced.

The men returned convinced of the importance of whatthey had heard and what they were doing. They assisted thewomen of Malicounda, Ngerin and Ker Simbara in organiz-ing a intervillage conference in Diabougou for all those in-terested. In February 1998, three representatives—the vil-lage chief and two women representatives—from thirteendifferent villages met for two days to discuss the problemand formulated the “Diabougou Declaration,” an engage-ment on the part of 8,000 villagers to cease henceforth geni-tal circumcision of girls.

Word of this initiative next traveled to the Casamance re-gion of southern Senegal, where another group of villages—these all of Pulaar lineage, an ethnic group practicing geni-tal circumcision on 88 percent of girls—banded together for

a similar conference and declaration. Their conference wasattended by representatives from 18 communities, byhealth workers and by the highly respected Imam of MedinaCherif, who assured the women that the Muslim religiondoes not require girls’ circumcision and guaranteeswomen’s rights to health and human dignity. Many womenspoke of the harm wrought by this practice. One lamentedthe death of her two girls following the operation; and a tra-ditional “cutter” admitted that a girl had died in her villagethe year before. Other women spoke of problems at child-birth and of painful sexual relationships. The group con-cluded their meeting by issuing their own declaration re-nouncing the practice.

The initiative has continued to spread. Early in the pro-cess, President Abdou Diouf of Senegal himself proposedthe “Oath of Malicounda” as a model for national adoption.On the heels of the meetings in the Casamance, women inthe St. Louis region of Senegal are now preparing for an in-ter-village convocation of their own, to be held in February1999.

The sort of “active learning” promoted among women bythe TOSTAN program in Senegal seems to have resulted infar-reaching cultural change. Elements that contribute toTOSTAN’s successful impact in education and sustainabledevelopment are further examined below.

Issues

Cultural roots. Combined with the use of national lan-guages, a deep valuing of African culture is the foundationof TOSTAN’s educational program, showing the practicaland profound relationship between culture and education.

National languages. Although French is Senegal’s officiallanguage, the government has increasingly encouraged theuse of national languages in literacy programs, recognizingthat learning is easier and more effective in the affective do-main of one’s own tongue and is likely to facilitate the tran-sition to international languages. Learning in the mothertongue inspires pride, empowering women to speak up intheir homes and communities; and pride of place, encourag-ing men to invest in their community rather than migrateto the cities. As well, it eliminates the dissonance that chil-dren educated solely in French often feel within the villagehousehold, thereby facilitating intergenerational communi-cation and solidarity.

Problem solving is the program’s backbone and provides astrong motivator for literacy acquisition. Skills taught inthis five-step process include (i) identifying and analyzingthe problem; (ii) studying adapted solutions based on avail-

80 IK Notes Number

able financial, material and human resources, as well as thetime factor; (iii) planning the solution: what needs to be ac-complished? when do the steps have to be completed? who isresponsible? what human, material and financial resourcesare necessary? what are the possible obstacles? (iv) imple-menting the solution; and (v) evaluating the results: Did wesolve the problem?

Participation. TOSTAN was developed with villagers in ahighly participative ten- year process. Curricular moduleswere based on the stories, proverbs, songs, and cultural tra-ditions of each place gathered by traveling from village tovillage, listening and recording the oral tradition. The in-structional method maintains a participatory approach andlearners often involve their family and the community inthe process of problem- solving.

Women. With a female illiteracy rate in 1990 of 74.9 per-cent, women are the least educated group in Senegal.Women particularly have been benefiting from TOSTAN’swhole language approach that begins with concrete, rel-evant experiences from their daily lives rather than abstrac-tions. TOSTAN has become a training ground for leadershipas women gain confidence, begin to identify problems suchas the retrieval of water, and start to make changes in theircommunities. Yet men are not excluded: nearly one-third ofthe participants are male, and—as the story of Ker Simbaraillustrates—they may take many of the initiatives critical toalleviating the burdens that women bear.

Process of developing approaches

Besides the participatory processes mentioned, learnerswere also involved in the development of the contents of theprogram through a method of testing, dialogue and feed-back. This was costly at the start but ultimately provedcost-effective due to the success rate of adaptation by otherNGOs. Basic education, a UNESCO brochure on TOSTAN

points out, “strikes a deeper chord in peoples lives than astraightforward literacy project. Understanding how eachmodule will contribute to changing their lives and environ-ment is a powerful motivating factor for learners”. Theproblem-solving process is basic to the TOSTAN approachand easily adapted to varied environments.

Problems encountered

In 1987 there were no basic education programs in nationallanguages in Senegal, and two government ministriesshared responsibility for literacy programs which oftenfloundered. Existing programs were little connected to prac-tical life and functioned in a non-literate environment,where skills learned and not practiced were soon lost. TheTOSTAN basic education program addressed another basicproblem, boredom, by relating literacy to community andpersonal life and developing attractive materials from localconcerns. Finding qualified facilitators was not easy at theoutset, and there was resistance from participants to theidea of paying the facilitators from local resources. Theypreferred to use that money for materials or classroom con-struction. TOSTAN graduates are now themselves trained tobe facilitators and provide the bulk of staffing.

Conclusions

The problem-solving skills presented in the first module areused throughout the following modules, which deal succes-sively with hygiene activities, uses of oral rehydrationtherapy and vaccinations, financial and material manage-ment skills, management of human resources, and feasibil-ity studies and income-generating projects. Using theseskills, women participants have started a number of smallbusinesses. The TOSTAN methodology has also been used toreach out-of-school children with a curriculum that coversreading, writing, math, problem solving, health and hy-giene, nutrition, family management, children’s rights, his-tory, geography, education for peace, leadership skills andgroup dynamics. Using the participatory approach, adoles-cents learn to produce their own texts.

The UNESCO flyer on TOSTAN draws an apt conclusion:“The availability of a comprehensive program that offersparticipants problem-solving tools and deals with the cru-cial problems of health, hygiene, and the environment is anasset for many regions of Africa faced with high illiteracyrates, especially among women. More focus needs to be puton implementing these well-studied and tested programsrather than developing new ones. TOSTAN has shown thatindividuals without any formal education, from villageswith minimal resources, can improve their lives and envi-ronment through a solid program leading to greater au-tonomy and self-sufficiency.”

3

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IK Notes 4January 1999

From“ Sacrilege ” to Sustainability—Reforestation and Organic Farming

Ghana

Forikrom, a community of 6,000 peoplein the Techiman District (Brong Ahaforegion) of Ghana, is located in an areaof open grassland that its inhabitantsclaim was once thick forest. Farming,the main occupation, concentrates onmaize, yam, plantain, and cassava forown-consumption and sale at theTechiman market, and for cash cropson tobacco, palm nut and, more re-cently, cashew. The area once producedcocoa, but this practice ended in 1983after fires destroyed most of the cocoaplantations. Further deforestation re-sulted from inappropriate farmingmethods—especially highly mecha-nized cultivation practiced during the1960s but now abandoned—which un-dermined soil fertility and dried up riv-ers and streams.

Forikrom has now turned the cornerto reforestation of its environment, butthe initiative did not succeed withoutsignificant cultural conflict and couldnot have reached the level it has with-out the impetus for new solutions thatthe conflict produced.

A religious dispute over water

The problem began with disputesabout access to “Asukantia,” thestream that had always supplied the

town with water, but was beginning todry up. It was designated a sacred areaby long tradition, and local taboo for-bade visiting the stream on Tuesdays.The restriction was religiously ob-served until 1989, a particularly dryyear in that region of Ghana. Duringthe summer, a new religious sect in thecommunity declared the practiceanachronistic and advised its membersto disobey the rule. This “sacrilege” im-mediately led to conflict between thenew sect and the community’s tradi-tional authorities, who were respon-sible for enforcing regulations en-shrined in local tradition. The authori-ties charged the sect with offending thegods and provoking the drying-up ofthe water source; the latter in turn de-nounced the heathen practices of thevillage hierarchy.

Matters had reached a flashpointwhen a group of young men came for-ward. They wanted to restore peace;and they were also more knowledge-able than their elders about environ-mental relationships, like those be-tween deforestation, drought, and de-clining soil fertility.

Led by the organizing secretary (OS)of the local “Mobisquad”—a youngpeople’s association formed under theNational Mobilization Program in 1983to help communities carry out local im-

This article was written on the basis of research conducted by Ghanaian, Canadian, and Americaninvestigators with the support and technical supervision of Peter Easton, Associate Professor, Gradu-ate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, and with the collaboration of the concernedcommunities. Funding was supplied by the Club du Sahel/OECD, the CILSS and the Association forthe Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).

82 IK Notes Number 4

provement programs and respond to natural disasters—thegroup proposed to the community that it try growing treesaround the stream’s source as one way of restoring itshealth. However, this idea did not find favor with the chiefand elders, who continued to feel slighted by the sect and re-solved to seek redress in the courts.

Still convinced that the solution lay in planting trees atthe source, the group decided to try to follow up on its ownidea. Fortunately, they enjoyed the advantage of some dy-namic leadership. The OS’s mix of schooling and practicalexperience gave him a critical and innovative perspective onlocal problems. He had been through primary, middle andvocational training and had served in positions as varied asteacher, government paymaster around Ghana, and sales-man in Nigeria. In addition, he himself had evangelical “cre-dentials” as a literature specialist for a missionary society. Itsoon became apparent, however, that neither he nor theother group members had enough knowledge about the spe-cific challenges of tree farming to succeed in their effort.Their inexperience also made it difficult to win over the tra-ditional authorities.

Gaining the knowledge to make a new start

Conscious of this handicap, the OS persuaded his colleaguesto seek out the knowledge and skills that they lacked. Theyturned first to a senior staff member at the Institute ofAdult Education’s regional office at Sunyani responsible forextension work in the Brong Ahafo region. He visited thevillage and subsequently helped the group to make severalvisits to the Forestry School and the Department of Forestryat Sunyani, about 100 km from Forikrom. Each time theyreturned home, they discussed what they had learned withthe community, especially with the chief and elders. By theend of 1989 the group had convinced the traditional au-thorities that litigation was not a solution to thecommunity’s difficulties. It had also secured support fromthe Forestry School and the Department of Forestry to startan afforestation project.

The project was formally launched in 1990, at a commu-nity forum organized by the group in collaboration with theSunyani office of the Institute of Adult Education. At thismeeting, experts from the Forestry School at Sunyani andfrom Department of Forestry offices at Sunyani andKumasi, with whom the group had been working, tookturns explaining the importance of afforestation. They em-phasized its utility as a means to create a shelter beltaround water sources, protect against the vagaries of cli-mate, serve as wind breaks and fire belts around the com-

munity, help protect the fertility of the soil, and providefuelwood resources.

Convinced by this presentation, the community’s adultsendorsed the idea of launching an afforestation project, andthereafter took part in initial lessons on nursery practicesgiven by two forestry officers from Sunyani who served asresource persons. During a series of regular, six-hour fieldtraining visits that the officers provided over a period of sixmonths, groups of 30 individuals were taken through the es-sentials of how to prepare land and raise beds, nurse seed-lings, and transplant and tend young plants. A total ofabout 2,000 people, the bulk of Forikrom’s adult population,participated in this training.

With technical support from the resource people and amodicum of outside funding from organizations like theUnited Nations Development Program (UNDP) and theAdventist Development and Relief Agency, the group nextcreated a nursery to grow new trees, initially for reforesta-tion purposes but increasingly for commercial farming aswell. Cashew, palm, and teak were offered for communitymembers to plant on their own farms. By October 1993, theproject had distributed 15,000 seedlings free of charge tomany groups that came from other areas to visit the farm.In the process, the OS and ten others acquired sufficientknowledge to become valued resource persons in their ownright. The project progressively became a major center offorestry extension for the immediate region.

In late 1995, having successfully created a market forteak, palm, and cashew trees, species with very good salesprospects, the project decided to make production and dis-tribution of seedlings a commercial activity; and in early1996 it saw its first sales of palm trees. Demand for teakseemed likely to expand as farmers in the area continued toplant stands to serve as firebreaks and, looking ahead, asgeneral demand for telegraph and electricity poles ex-panded. As for cashew, its cultivation has generated veryconsiderable interest in and around Forikrom. Within thecommunity, farmers have in recent years planted more than100 acres, with cashew sales beginning to pick up as thetrees reach maturity.

Broadening the impact: environmental protection andorganic farming

The initiative that sprang from conflict over water sourceshas had other positive consequences as well. The ForikromEnvironmental Protection Association (EPA), an off-shootof the afforestation project, gained a measure of celebritywhen the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana used

83

the Forikrom branch as a base from which to extend itsmessage of sound environmental practices to communitieslying between Techiman and Nkoranza. Starting in 1994,the Forikrom branch of the EPA was invited to a series ofworkshops on nursery practices and tree maintenance orga-nized by the agency in Kumasi. They then reproduced thesefor local clientele, and Forikrom gradually became the sitefor a whole series of natural resource management and for-estry training events sponsored by varied donors.

A second offshoot of the conflict over water rights hasbeen creation of the Abrono Organic Farming Project(ABOFAP). Conceived in 1992 by the OS and his colleagues,the project was designed to deal with the concerns aboutdeclining fertility that underlay the “Asukantia” conflict. Itsspecific objectives were to train young farmers in organiccrop production, to promote the use of composite manure toimprove soil quality (and discourage use of chemicals), dry-season methods of vegetable gardening, and mushroom pro-duction.

During the latter part of 1990, the OS, accompanied by anunemployed woman from Forikrom (a middle schoolleaver), attended a five-day training session in Kumasi orga-nized by the Africa 2000 Program. Combining twelve hoursof classroom study with eighteen hours of practical workand observation on demonstration fields, their learning cov-ered nursery practices, agroforestry, and composite manuremaking. This experience was followed by participation in anumber of other workshops and site visits that added totheir advance knowledge of organic farming methods.

The OS concurrently started demonstration farms on hisland at Forikrom in order to stimulate interest in organicfarming among young people. He began with twenty train-ees—ten male and ten female—all unemployed schoolleavers between the ages of 17 and 25. He divided them intogroups of four and set each group working plots near theAsukantia stream

By 1996 ABOFAP had trained 130 young people (75 menand 55 women), for the most part unemployed middleschool leavers living with their parents, in organic and dry-season vegetable gardening. The three months of trainingthat these individuals received opened an important door toself-employment for them. During the first three-monthcycle, for example, the initial cohort of twenty trainees pro-duced a gross income of ¢200,000, or $355, from the sale ofvegetables, sharing equally a net income of ¢160,000, or$308 (the exchange rate in December 1992 was¢519=$1.00).

Except for about 10 percent of the trainees who foundfarming too difficult and gave up, all participants are nowon their own and are doing well. The initial trainees havebranched into cashew farming and are very hopeful aboutthe future. Nearly 200 of them have organized themselvesinto cooperatives of 6–10 persons each to engage in blockfarming of 1–2 acre plots along the stream.

Interestingly, the OS has not assumed a leading positionin any of the organizations that he formed and nurtured.Rather, he has encouraged others to participate in theirleadership. For example, an elderly non-literate farmer ispresident of the 2000-member Forikrom AfforestationProject, while the OS serves as secretary and, with threeothers, as a member of the Executive Committee. Likewise,a 60-year-old farmer who holds a Middle School LeavingCertificate is president of the 90-member Forikrom Envi-ronmental Protection Association. And a 23 year-old sec-ondary school graduate serves as secretary of the 20-mem-ber ABOFAP.

Making peace with the communityand the environment

Major progress has been made in Forikrom in less than a de-cade. New sources of wealth have been developed. But themost important consequences of the Forikrom initiativehave in fact been qualitative in nature. The first of these issocial comity. Community divisions sown by the dispute be-tween the sect and traditional authorities subsided after thewhole community joined hands to develop a shelter beltaround the Asukantia stream. The excitement generated inthe community over tree growing, new cash crops, improvedimplements, and the recognition of their hard work by out-side institutions has helped everyone to forget about the ini-tial divisive episode that started it all.

No less important has been the emergence of an environ-mentally-conscious community that serves as a model forother towns in the region. During the past six years an effec-tive shelter belt, with four acres of teak and three acres ofleucenea, has developed around the Asukantia source andstream. There is now abundant water in the stream, somuch so that in recent years people have felt confidentenough to use it for dry season gardening as well. In addi-tion, local authorities report that people no longer burn thebush carelessly and, as a result, there have been no bushfires since 1990.

84

Literacy for the “Little Ones” in NomganaBurkina Faso

Nomgana is the hub community of avery active inter-village federation inthe district of Loumbila, located 30 ki-lometers east of Ouagadougou, thecapital of Burkina Faso. A local associa-tion dubbed Manegbzanga (“Develop-ment for All” in the Mooré language)was created in the region over a decadeago by the joint efforts of emigrants re-turning from neighboring Côte d’Ivoireand a local person who had gone towork for the Swiss NGO, OrganismeSuisse d’Entraide Ouvrière (OSEO). Inrecent years, the association haslaunched an experimental program us-ing Mooré language literacy as the ba-sis for learning French. This hasevolved over the past several years andtransformed itself into an alternativestrategy of primary schooling.

From adult literacy to alternativeschooling

The effort began, however, with adults.The Manegbzanga Association wasconfronted early on with the problemof equipping its members—many ofwhom had had limited or no school-ing— to manage their own growing af-fairs and deal with suppliers of agricul-tural inputs and clients for their prod-

This article was written on the basis of research conducted by Burkinabe, Congolese and Americaninvestigators with the support and technical supervision of Peter Easton, Associate Professor, GraduateStudies in Adult Education, Florida State University, and with the collaboration of the concerned com-munities. Funding was supplied by the Club du Sahel/OECD, the CILSS and the Association for theDevelopment of Education in Africa.

ucts in the vicinity of Ouagadougou. Aperson from the community who hadbecome a civil servant and subse-quently become field director for aSwiss NGO, began working with thevillagers in 1988 to create an instruc-tional system that would enable adultstrained in literacy centers to advancefrom written Mooré to learning spokenand written French.

The program achieved a good deal ofsuccess and was soon faced with in-creasing demand for enrollment fromyoung people—children and adoles-cents—who had missed primaryschooling or had been forced to dropout. The village literacy committee de-cided at last to accept the challenge ofcreating a program of “literacy for thelittle ones” (alphabétisation des toutpetits). The instructional strategy wasdeveloped with the assistance of lin-guists from the University ofOuagadougou. It proceeds from the ac-quisition of reading, writing and arith-metic skills in Mooré to learningFrench and study of the entire primaryschool curriculum. Participating chil-dren complete the equivalent of the pri-mary school program in four years, in-stead of the six prescribed (and oftenexceeded, due to grade repetition). Inaddition, they acquire mastery of thewritten form of their own language.

IK Notes 5February 1999

85

Surprising results

Tests administered in December 1996 both in the Moorélanguage school and in the neighboring primary schooldemonstrated that pupils at the center were ahead of thoseat the area’s formal primary school in French and math-ematics, and had in addition, of course, a good mastery ofthe written form of their mother tongue. Interestingly, thelevel of achievement of the girls in the group (who com-prised a slight majority) was well above that of the boys inthe formal primary school, though below that of boys in theexperimental center. These results were further confirmedthe following year when the first cohort from the Mooré lan-guage school sat for the primary school certificate. The suc-cess rates among the 53 students who took the exam was 53percent (62 percent for the boys and 44 percent for the girls)compared to a national average of 42 percent for all formalprimary schools in Burkina Faso (47 percent in theOubritenga province) and a higher level of gender inequity.

While both the organizers and the community leaders aresatisfied with the results of the program to date, they pointout several handicaps created by their effort to conform tothe formal primary school regime and ensure full equiva-lence with its diplomas.

The rigidity of pre-established schedules and time alloca-tions to different subject matters required for accreditationin the formal system worked against some of the most im-portant things that the Nomgana center was experiment-ing—such as the inclusion of local materials and resourcepeople in the curriculum, and direct involvement in farmwork.• Some of the content of French-language textbooks turned

out to be quite inappropriate for use once translated intoMooré.

• To match the rhythm and requirements of the official cur-riculum—and to complete it in the reduced time allot-ted—the teaching staff had to largely abandon instructiondirectly in Mooré after the second year, despite the factthat some of the most encouraging learning results wereappearing in classes taught in the mother tongue. In fact,in many cases, those students who did least well in theFrench-language portion of the curriculum and the subse-quent certification tests turned out to be those who hadnot had sufficient “grounding” in Mooré literacy beforeenrolling.

“Our working hypothesis,” explains the professor of lin-guistics at the University of Ouagadougou, who helped de-velop the program, “is that knowledge of an African lan-guage and use of literacy in that language significantly fa-cilitate acquisition of the skills that schooling is design—ashortening of the time required to complete the primaryprogram, and an improvement in pass rates on the primaryschool certificate exams. But the program of the Nomganacenters was also developed with an eye to several other as-pects of school quality. A systematic attempt was made toinclude both agricultural production activities and researchinto local culture in the curriculum, parents were given anespecially active role in school management, and local “re-source people”—artisans and griots (traditional historiansand story tellers) in particular—were invited to teachclasses.

Catering to the leftover children

Teaching duties were assumed by previously unemployedyoung people of the locality who had at least partial second-ary education, though no previous teaching experience.They were trained in the method by the supervisory stafffrom the University of Ouagadougou. Students were drawnessentially from the children of Nomgana and the neighbor-ing village Goué who had never enrolled in the local primaryschool, generally because their families had chosen anothersibling to attend. They were therefore well beyond the theo-retical limit age for admission to primary schooling (7), av-eraging over 10 years of age at their entry into the programand, sociologically speaking, had been labeled “less likely tosucceed.” The organizers made sure that an almost exactlyequal number of girls and boys were admitted to the pro-gram. Overall, 55 children took part in the first cohort, di-vided into two classes, with a student-teacher ratio of 28:1.All were required as preparation to complete an accelerated(6 month) literacy course in the Mooré language.

The first two years of instruction were carried on inMooré, though the French language was taught as a subject.By the third year, students were using the same Frenchtexts as their peers in formal primary education. In addi-tion, they ran an animal farm which realized—in the 1997–1998 school year—net profits of 233,000 CFA francs (ap-proximately $425) and grew both peanuts and niébé (cow-peas) as part of their curriculum. There were no dropoutsfrom the program, whereas the average rate of attrition be-tween the first and last years of formal primary education inBurkina Faso is over 40 percent.

86 IK Notes Number

Local endorsement

On the other hand, stakeholders were virtually unanimousthat the effort had been successful where, for the time be-ing, it counted most: in enabling “leftover” local children togain formal certification while strengthening their capaci-ties in their own language and culture; and in demonstrat-ing the viability and instructional worth of African-lan-guage approaches to learning French and to mastering pri-mary school contents. The relatively favored circumstancesof the experimental school must of course be kept in mindwhen comparing results from the two types of classes—par-ticularly the adequate supply of instructional materials andthe fact that none of the children attending came, as a pro-portion of those in rural primary schools generally do, fromother communities or were forced to make a long daily com-mute on foot. But the difference in the two series of data,which in fact take no account of the locally focused curriculain which the alternative school excelled, at least stronglysuggest that such methods can produce results at least on apar with current formal schooling.

The linguistics professor referred to earlier puts the mat-ter succinctly: “We hope that this experiment will contrib-ute to overcoming obstacles to the use of African languagesin our education system, both as a means of shortening theduration and broadening access to primary schooling, andas a new bridge between formal and nonformal education.”

“At the same time,” he adds, “the experience can help usrethink ways of handling our multilingualism, one of theunavoidable realities of an African environment. Shorten-ing the primary cycle leaves time for mastering and using awritten national language in the school curriculum.… Ourlanguages have been quite simply the victim of prejudicesingrained by the colonial experience, (for) the oppositionwhich some insist on drawing between African languagesand French is finally pointless.”

5

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IK Notes 6March 1999

Village Bankers: The Experience of FandèneSenegal

This article is based on research conducted by Senegalese researchers with the support and technical supervisionof Peter Easton, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, and with theactive collaboration of the concerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis ofthe Club du Sahel/OECD, the CILSS and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).

Fandène, a Serere and Wolof village lo-cated six kilometers from Thiès,Senegal in the country’s peanut-grow-ing region, is the seat of a locally-cre-ated credit and savings institution witha remarkable career. It now covers 34villages throughout the region, hasamassed over thirty million francs CFAof capital (around $60,000) and grantedmore than 1500 loans to people in thosecommunities. Yet the structure grewessentially from local responses to theproblems of drought and diminishingfarm fertility experienced throughoutcentral Senegal.

Fandène itself is the product of his-torical interaction between Serrere andWolof ethnic groups. The village islargely Christian and was for years thesite of a Catholic mission and commu-nity center (“Maison FamilialeRurale”), but it shares the dwindlingresources of the neighboring valley andseasonal river beds with Islamic andanimist communities of several differ-ent ethnic groups. Recent local develop-ment initiatives stem in part from thereaction of emigrants from Fandène tothe trauma of the great Saheliandrought of the early 1970s. In an effortto help their home community find so-lutions to the crisis and to avoid a com-plete depletion of the population,young people who had left for school orwork took part in creating, in 1972, the

“Association des Jeunes de Fandène”(AJF)—The Fandène Young People’sAssociation.

From culture to agriculture

For the first fifteen years of its exist-ence, the AJF concentrated on sponsor-ing cultural events that would interestyoung people in sticking with, or re-turning to, their home community andwould provide, at the same time, a wayof reasserting cultural identity. Littlewas done with development projects,but AJF activities did lead to severalwell-educated young adults taking upresidence again in the village and be-ginning to constitute themselves as asort of “modern” (and critical) peas-antry. This group grew gradually dis-satisfied with an AJF program limitedto cultural events and with leadershipprincipally exercised by outsiders.

In 1987, therefore, the Associationstarted on a new tack. Concerned bythe cyclical recurrence of food short-ages in the area, members of the Asso-ciation began a series of “action-re-search” inquiries with other populationgroups in the vicinity in order to betterunderstand the nature of the problemand of possible remedies. Three find-ings of this locally-conducted studystood out:


• The group noted that there were already in fact a host ofsmall initiatives afoot, undertaken by peasant groupsthemselves—initiatives which had great promise for di-versifying the local economy and improving the naturalresource base, but that had all been hampered by inad-equate access to credit and resources for developing theirpotential.

• Lack of credit stemmed in good part from lack of collateraland of an institutional structure that would give the localpeople credibility and clout.

• At the same time, the AJC members studied the natureand results of recent NGO-sponsored projects in the sameregion, concluding that most failed because they were de-signed elsewhere and were not based on the existing ef-forts of the local population.

Resolving the bottleneck of credit

The decision was to address these problems by establishingsome sort of nonformal local savings and loan institution.The beginnings were modest, to say the least: associationmembers each contributed 250 FCFA (about $1 at the time)to a common fund and started making small loans to villag-ers with worthwhile projects, charging the equivalent of 15percent interest per annum., while seeking other ways todevelop their capital endowment. One of these was to ex-pand membership to new communities in the immediate re-gion. Not much marketing was required. The initiative metsuch a sorely-felt need that inhabitants of other villagessoon got wind of what was going on and began themselvesinquiring about taking part.

In this manner, the savings and loan network graduallyspread to all 34 communities of the Fandène region and be-came increasingly well structured. Each branch of the insti-tution—19 in all—was outfitted with a women’s section anda men’s section, and leaders of each were trained in simpleaccounting, credit worthiness assessment and loan manage-ment. Inhabitants of the communities involved were en-couraged to make written applications for credit throughtheir local section officials, and leadership of the institutiongradually trained itself in carrying out formal feasibility as-sessment of proposed loans and providing would-be borrow-ers with technical assistance in ensuring the credit worthi-ness of their ventures. Eventually an assessment team wascreated to help local savings and loan committees learn theropes of evaluating loan applications and of identifying andbrokering responses to the technical needs of small entre-preneurs.

Supporting local economic innovation

The enlarged savings and loan association placed particularemphasis on supporting farmers and small businesses withinnovative approaches to the revitalization of agricultureand the marketing of local products. The following are ex-amples of ventures underwritten in the first five years ofoperations:• Women’s producer groups were assisted in developing

marketing schemes for bypassing middlemen and sellingbissap fruit harvested from nearby forests and basketsmade from local plants directly on the Dakar market aswell as to other village associations of the region. By 1995a thousand baskets a week were being produced in thismanner.

• The Association granted loans to farmers interested in re-introducing the cultivation and sale of manioc to the areaand expanding planting and use of cowpeas.

• Credit was extended to women’s groups for establishing asoap-manufacturing cooperative and selling its products.

• The savings and loans institutions made numerous loansfor boring of wells, development of irrigated gardeningand sale of the produce.

As activities developed and capital endowment grew, thesize and volume of loans also increased. Over the first fiveyears of operation, average yearly outlays fell into the fol-lowing categories:

Livestock development and marketing—5,600,000FCFASmall commerce and industry—2,800,000 FCFAImproved farming—500,000 FCFAWell drilling—500,000 FCFA.

Yearly profits from loan administration likewise rose fromless than 100,000 FCFA in 1991 to over 700,000 in 1994 andby 1998 the capital endowment of the intervillage savingsand loan association had risen to more than 30 millionFCFA, or nearly $60,000.

Weaving a new social and economic fabric

Most impressive, though, were the institution-building re-sults of these activities and the new horizontal linkagesamong Senegalese communities and varied populationgroups that they nurtured. The thirty-four villages of theFandène area are Christian, Islamic and animist in religiousorientation and of varied ethnic composition (Serere, Wolof,

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Bambara, Fulani). Yet they have worked together very suc-cessfully in the creation of new savings and loans institu-tions and shared governance of their activities and re-sources. Women and men’s branches of the association haveexercised equal weight throughout.

In addition, the association has developed marketing ar-rangements with peasant federations in other regions ofSenegal whereby many of their products are sold and manyof their inputs are acquired by this sort of lateral exchange.Perhaps most interestingly, the Fandène association hascreated technical teams to provide support to nascentgroups in poor neighborhoods of the nearby city of Thièsand the national capital, Dakar that wish to begin their ownsavings and loan programs—reverse technical assistancefrom rural to urban areas!

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This article was written on the basis of research conducted by Ghanaian, Canadianand American investigators with the support and technical supervision of Peter Easton,Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University.Funding was supplied by the Club du Sahel/OECD, the CILSS and the Association forthe Development of Adult Education in Africa (ADEA).

IK Notes 7April 1999

Literacy and Local Governancein a Rural Community

Nwodua, Ghana

Nwodua is a small town of 640 resi-dents located 20 km from the city ofTamale in northern Ghana, and 3 kmby what was previously a dirt pathfrom the Tamale-Kumbungu highway.Until the early 1980s, Nwodua re-mained largely cut off from regionalcommerce and had few community fa-cilities and no schools. The route link-ing Nwodua to the highway is nowpaved, and the town has a pipe-bornewater system. The community also fea-tures a tree nursery, two grinding millsthat produce weaning food for infants,a primary school, an adult vocationaltraining center, much-increased agri-cultural production and an innovativemode of community governance. Thislast accomplishment may be a, if notthe, key to all the others.

In 1979, an illiterate farmer fromNwodua decided that it was time tobring instruction in the ways of mod-ern Ghana to his community. Hestarted by convincing a middle schoolleaver from a nearby village to come de-velop literacy in Nwodua. Instructionwas given in the mother tongue, whichdid not satisfy most of the young peoplerecruited. They wanted English anddropped out. But the farmer respon-sible for getting the program going anda close friend persisted, remuneratingthe teacher by working on his fieldswhen they could offer him no salary.

Making literacy work

The first teacher soon left to attendTeacher Training School and get a bet-ter job. His two students simply re-cruited another in his place and man-aged at the same time to bring some ofthe dropouts back into the fold. Theyused this moderate success as leverageto convince the Bishopric of the Catho-lic Church to establish a primary schoolin Nwodua in 1984. Two years later,both were able to pass the national lit-eracy test and qualify to open their ownliteracy centers in the vicinity.

Their success in the effort led to fur-ther responsibility and opportunity.The two were chosen as field supervi-sors by the new Dagbani FunctionalLiteracy Project just then getting un-der way and soon had seventy-sixclasses going in communities through-out the region. By virtue of its role asliteracy headquarters for the region,Nwodua was able to open in 1989 a full-scale Adult Primary School wheremore than fifty residents of the com-munity succeeded during the followingyears in getting their primary leavingcertificate, some continuing on to sec-ondary education . At the same time,the literacy effort increasingly becamethe fulcrum for a whole series of localdevelopment activities.

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First among these was the establishment of a PrimaryHealth Care Committee, which sent a team of residents fortraining with the National Health Service in Tamale andthereafter sponsored campaigns to eliminate malnutritionand childhood convulsions. These efforts attracted atten-tion from Unicef, which assisted the Committee in estab-lishing a grinding mill to prepare weaning mixture for in-fants. The Committee made sure at the same time that pro-ceeds from rental of the mill and sale of its products paid fora second unit,thus launching the community towards a self-sustaining food processing industry.

Restoring the environment

The next initiative was in the area of agro-forestry and like-wise stemmed from lessons learned and topics explored inthe literacy and Adult Primary Education centers. Five par-ticipants attended a UNDP-sponsored seminar in Tamaleon the problems of desertification in northern Ghana andwhat local communities could do in the way of reforestation.On their return to Nwodua, they convinced a critical massof their co-residents to undertake the establishment of anursery for tree seedlings. Though all the groundwork wasaccomplished in 1991 and 1992, it soon became evident thatthe initiative would fail from water scarcity if a way werenot found to bring more water to the community.

The Nwodua Young Farmers’ Club enlisted the leadershipof the Dagbani Literacy Program in approaching UNDPwith a proposal for extending the water pipelines supplyingTamale to Nwodua itself, a distance of about 5 km. UNDPagreed to underwrite the effort and the villagers dug 5 km oftrenches to prepare the way. The hookup was successful andthe Nwodua Water Committee manages to pay monthly feesfrom the Sewerage Commission by levying fees on eachhousehold in the village using water. At the same time, wa-ter availability removed the main bottleneck to the develop-ment of the Nwodua nursery and reforestation effort. Thenursery began distributing seedlings of a variety of commer-cial and shade trees to Nwodua residents free of charge andselling them to outsiders. In 1995, for example, more than2000 grafted mango and 4000 cashew seedlings were placedwith groups and individuals throughout the immediate re-gion, including institutions like the Kumbungu Sub-districtAssembly. The nursery now has a growing capital fund forthe initiation of new projects.

This increased commerce with the exterior made it im-perative to upgrade the track leading from Nwodua to theTamale road. A Road Committee was formed in 1991 and bythe following year World Bank officials had been ap-

proached and convinced to support construction of amotorable road over the 3 km link, provided that the villagewould furnish manual labor and board for the specializedworkers and technicians sent in to work on the job. Theroad was successfully completed the following year and theRoad Committee made responsible for its maintenance andfor planning new improvements to access routes.

Starting with adults

The ease in exporting products from Nwodua meant alsoease in accessing it, and the community began, in a series ofways to play a role as hub of extension activities in its imme-diate region. An additional one was the constitution in 1999of an impressive vocational-technical center funded by Dan-ish foreign aid. With its advent, the village boasted quite acluster of educational facilities – three for adults (the lit-eracy center, the Adult Primary School and the Vocational-Technical Center) flanking a more modest public elemen-tary school for children.

The Nwodua Development Committees are frequentlyasked why their educational program thus far seems to havegiven more importance to adults than to children. Their re-sponse is simple: It’s the best way to go in previously poorrural communities like ours. If more adults start encounter-ing new opportunity and learning how to benefit from it,more will be eager to send their children to primary school.

Renewed governance at the core

As remarkable as these diverse efforts are, the heart of inno-vation at Nwodua lies at their core—in the renewed form ofcommunity governance gradually elaborated by village au-thorities and the young participants in the new initiatives toprovide a basis for managing and extending their activities.The initial leaders of the literacy movement sought concur-rence from the traditional chief of Nwodua and his councilto set up a General Development Committee (GDC) withoverall responsibility for ensuring orderly implementationof the projects and preservation of community interest. Thisgroup in turn has established the working committees thattake care of each of the sectors of local development and re-port back to it. The GDC is chaired by a sixty-five year-oldilliterate farmer well respected in the community, but of theother eight members only one is over forty-five and sevenare graduates of literacy or adult primary school classes.

The GDC works through eight sectoral committees, oneeach for adult literacy, primary health care, food processing,agro-forestry, vocational instruction, agricultural training

92 IK Notes Number

and road construction/maintenance. In the process of devel-oping this networked structure of oversight, two thingshave happened. First, the sustainability of initiatives hasbeen virtually ensured by this monitoring and sponsorshipmechanism. Second, by incremental steps, the GDC has be-come the operational village government in Nwodua—though not the ceremonial one —and has succeeded in cre-ating an environment that both facilitates local entrepre-neurial initiative and is supportive of improved public ser-vice delivery.

But the success of the GDC must in turn be traced back totwo other factors—on the one hand, the rich stimulus forchange created by the succession of adult training and non-formal education sessions held in and around the village;and, on the other, the driving force furnished by the two pre-viously illiterate residents who started the whole process al-most twenty years ago and refused to be defeated by ob-stacles. Individual initiative plus the continuing availabilityof new training and opportunities to apply it provided thefuel for successes in local development that seemed impos-sible twenty years ago. But the invention of new forms oflocal governance furnished a framework without whichnone of this might have come to pass.

7

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IK Notes 8May 1999

Nurturing the Environmenton Senegal’s West CoastThis article is based on research conducted by Senegalese researchers with the support andtechnical supervision of Peter Easton, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education,Florida State University, with the active collaboration of the concerned African communities. Theresearch was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the CILSS and theAssociation for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).

The Natural Reserve of Kër Cupaam issituated in the “Petite Côte” region ofSenegal, 45 kilometers south of Dakaralong the Atlantic coast. This fragmentof a former national forest coveringroughly 100 hectares was set aside bygovernment decree in the early 1980sin order to protect the wintering site ofthe blue grackle and the rock grackle,two endangered species, and to shelterthe migratory route of birds that followthe Atlantic coast of West Africa. Thecliffs that border the seashore in thisregion provide prized nesting and feed-ing grounds for many species.

Both the flora and the fauna of thisarea had been severely damaged overpreceding years by the effects ofdrought, increased grazing, and fire-wood harvest. The coast nearPopenguine nonetheless is a favoritetourist destination for people fromDakar as well as a renowned center ofreligious pilgrimage for Catholics. Butthis activity has not greatly benefitedlocal people, and a growing populationhas put heavier pressure on a deterio-rating resource base.

Taking up the challenge

Though constitution of the nature re-serve in the early 1980s helped to stop

further degradation of the environ-ment, the vegetation of the region hadalready been so severely damaged thatmore intensive efforts were clearly re-quired to restore its ecology and attractthe sort of tourist activity that wouldbenefit the local population. That, inany case, was the conclusion reached bya group of women from the village ofPopenguine, who decided in 1988 tocreate the Association of Women ofPopenguine for the Protection of theEnvironment (Regroupement desFemmes de Popenguine pour la Protec-tion de la Nature or «RFPPN»). Thegroup was composed initially of 119women and one man, who just hap-pened to be present at the inauguralmeeting. They selected as their matrondeity Mame Cumba Cupaam, «theguiding spirit of coastal fisherman.»

During the following eight years, theRFPPN used first its own resourcesand then additional ones provided bydonor organizations interested in thisnovel form of natural resource manage-ment to restore the vegetation of thereserve and the surrounding territory.Measures implemented by the associa-tion included constitution of green fire-breaks around the entire perimeter, re-planting of native species furnished bya nursery that the women establishedat the same time, and organization of

94 IK Notes Number

workshops where young volunteers from neighboring ruraland urban areas were brought in to learn nature conserva-tion and perform much of the physical labor required.

Going to the root of the matter

In addition, RFPPN members rapidly put their finger onthe leading threat to restoration and preservation of the en-vironment: deforestation due to collection of firewood bythe population of villages throughout the area. The womenresolved on a series of measures to provide alternate sourcesof energy and make their communities self-sufficient incooking fuel.• First, they established a cooperative distribution network

for wood, charcoal and gas to regulate consumption andhelp their members provide for household needs.

• Second, they established a village tree nursery and a com-munity forest to begin enhancing the supply of local com-bustibles.

• Finally, they organized the collection of household wastesand trash for composting both in order to stem publichealth threats arising from inadequate disposal facilitiesand to produce compost for the nursery.

• In this manner, the women not only succeeded in progres-sively reconstituting local bio-diversity and restoring thenatural vegetation of the area, but their efforts also ap-parently contributed materially to the reappearance ofanimal species not seen in those parts for years: numer-ous types of birds plus porcupines, mongoose, the patasmonkey, jackals, civet cats, and even antelope.

Building a network

Their efforts soon reached a level where restoration of theregional environment could not be guaranteed withoutbroader participation from surrounding villages. The pro-gram and the example of RFPPN had, in fact, awakened anincreasing amount of interest among people in neighboringcommunities. Rather than simply expand the RFPPN,members of the Popenguine association decided to encour-age women in nearby villages to start their own organiza-tions and establish their own nurseries, work details andfuel distribution networks. Eight communities eventuallyaffiliated with Popenguine under the guidance of a com-monly-elected coordinating committee, and the overallmembership grew from the 119 members initially involved

to over 1500. Tens of thousands of new tree seedlings arenow produced each year by this network of associations.

At the same time, the women’s groups added new dimen-sions of activity to their program. Three complementary di-rections have developed, thanks in part to substantial sup-port from the European Economic Community (EEC).

Credit and banking: To help alleviate the pervasive pov-erty that led to repeated degradation of the environment,the associations began creating cereal banks, credit mutualsand small irrigated vegetable farming enterprises in eachvillage. The last provided an additional incentive to keep upthe waste collection and composting effort.

Tourist and training infrastructure: Given the growinginterest in the Popenguine experiment throughout Senegaland even abroad, the women decided to build a simple infra-structure for hosting delegations and visitors, followed bythe development of a «Center for Training in EcologicalManagement.» They have now had groups of visitors fromseveral foreign countries intrigued by this example of suc-cessful «ecodevelopment.»

Youth employment: To help stem the out-migration ofschool leavers and remedy the lack of opportunity for pro-ductive employment of young people throughout the region,the associations put a premium on inducting youth into thevarious functions and economic activities created aroundthe new reserve. Volunteers from surrounding villages andnearby urban areas have been recruited to help with resto-ration of the reserve and learn principles of goodecomanagement, in many cases leading to new lasting em-ployment. Much of the recruitment is handled bySenegalese young people’s clubs affiliated with the NicolasHulot Foundation, a French NGO dedicated to environmen-tal preservation.

A model to emulate

The reserve and the surrounding protected areas now coverover 50 square miles and provide more economic opportuni-ties for all the bordering communities. This coexistence be-tween an African national preserve and its human neigh-bors is at the same time emblematic of a new and hopefulstyle of environmental conservation. The RFFPN has of-fered Senegal and interested groups in other African coun-

8

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IK Notes 9June 1999

The Development of an Agricultural Union:Increasing Levels of Local Empowerment

Mali

In the early 1990s, the members of thevillage associations (associationsvillageoises, or AV) in the Koutiala re-gion of southern Mali had an issue tosort out with the Malian Textile Com-pany (Compagnie Malienne des Tex-tiles, CMDT). A rumor was circulatingthat the CMDT planned to increase thepay of its field staff (i.e. their share ofthe profit from cotton), without raisingthe price paid to producers. Represen-tatives of the different regional associa-tions had already joined forces in 1989to demand annulment of a policyadopted by the CMDT regarding the fi-nancial responsibility of producers’ as-sociations, a case that the producerseventually won.

Encouraged by this success, theyunited efforts again to address the pric-ing problem and created the Coordina-tion Committee for the Village Associa-tions and Tòns of Koutiala, composedof representatives of the various localassociations. Members of the coordi-nating committee included farmerstrained in literacy courses and experi-enced in the movement for local take-over of markets under way in southernMali since the 1970s, plus a few repre-sentatives of a new stratum of thepopulation that had appeared over thepreceding decade: graduates of second-ary or post-secondary education who

had returned to their home communi-ties to start their own farms.

Changing the institutionallandscape of rural areas

A series of meetings and local hearingsled the group to draw up an official listof claims and grievances. At the sametime, the political events shaking Malitriggered upheaval in the village asso-ciations, diminishing already-narrowprofit margins on the sale of the cropand impelling the committee to action.In 1991, the group decided to delegatethe most highly educated of its mem-bers, a graduate of a post-secondary ag-ricultural institute who had returnedto farming, to speak to members of thevillage associations, calm their fearsand present their claims and questionsto the CMDT. The initiative directed atthe AVs was very successful: the asso-ciation representatives gave their fullsupport to the coordinating committee.But CMDT management, worried bythe unstable political conditions, re-fused any negotiation with the peasantmovement. As a consequence, the com-mittee called for a strike by cotton pro-ducers, and its members canvassed thezone to rally the AVs to its cause. Fortwo months, the associations refused to

This article is based on data gathered by Peter Easton, Guy Belloncle, Cheibane Coulibaly, Simon Fass, LaoualiMalam Moussa and five national research teams during conduct of the PADLOS-Education Study, an inquiry into“Decentralization and Local Capacity Building in West Africa” funded by the Club du Sahel/OECD and the CILSS.For copies of the full study, contact Peter Easton, Center for Policy Studies in Education, 312 STB, College of Educa-tion, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA; phone (850) 644-5042; fax (850) 644-1595; e-mail:[email protected]


deliver their cotton to the CMDT, until the Minister of Ru-ral Development came to Koutiala in person to mediate theconflict. The outcome of the negotiations was that theCMDT accepted the principle of collective bargaining by anon-governmental organization representing cotton pro-ducers and agreed as well to its participation on the Na-tional Agricultural Pricing Board.

In this manner, SYCOV (Syndicat des Producteurs duCoton et du Vivrier or Union of Cotton and Food Crops Pro-ducers) was born, though it was not legally established foranother year, due to the administrative formalities re-quired. Its leaders immediately took care to open the doorsof the new agricultural union to all of the village associa-tions of southern Mali, and even decided, to withdraw, withhis consent, the candidacy of the principal leader of the 1991movement for presidency of the new organization in favor ofa representative from one of the regions that had not previ-ously been involved. The Union, which operates bilingually(Bambara-French), has continued to grow, notwithstandingsome resistance by the CMDT and internal difficultiescaused by the uncertain evolution of the AVs themselves,some questionable decisions of the leadership and rifts be-tween local and central levels. It is now a part of the institu-tional and political landscape of Mali, incarnating at a na-tional level the legally-established right of peasants to par-ticipate in all decisions that concern them. SYCOV is alsoorganizing training courses in oral and written French forBambara-literate representatives of the AVs and has re-quired bilingualism in all documents it uses and all sessionsin which it takes part.

Roots of change: the transfer of economic powerinto local hands

In fact, with all its strengths and shortcomings, the SYCOVexperiment already represents a second stage in local em-powerment in rural areas of southern Mali and illustratessome of the benefits possible through the actual transfer ofeconomic authority into the hands of farmers’ associations.While cotton has been cultivated and marketed in these ar-eas for over thirty years, the situation has evolved, in thespace of the last fifteen, from one where staff of large cottonfirms like the CMDT and its affiliates controlled the pur-chase of farm output at the local level and its transport toprocessing centers, to a system where these functions havebeen almost entirely assumed by village organizations. Rep-resentatives of these local associations or their federationsare now fully responsible for weighing the crop, paying pro-ducers, stocking the products, transporting them to pro-

cessing centers, and reselling them to the processors, as wellas for the necessary organizational and accounting tasksand the establishment of related policy. The feat was accom-plished thanks in large measure to literacy and nonformaleducation programs implemented with the support of thecotton companies themselves (or sometimes inherited fromearlier government and NGO efforts), which enabled a coreof adolescents and adults having little previous schooling toacquire reading, writing and accounting skills in their ownlanguages and to master vernacular or bilingual manage-ment systems.

It is no exaggeration to say that such efforts have savedcotton companies billions of CFA francs (approximately 500CFA = $1 US). A sizeable portion of the proceeds has re-turned to the community organizations and been appor-tioned by them between individual rebates to farmers andcollective investment funds. The latter, in turn, have stimu-lated a whole series of other investments such as the estab-lishment of credit and savings unions, purchase of more so-phisticated agricultural equipment, drilling of new wells,construction of community clinics and schools, etc. Thisphenomenon of local takeover is not unrelated to the majorincrease in cotton production in Sub-Saharan Africa overthe course of the last decade, a development that has movedthe region into fourth position on the world market and re-plenished national budgets severely strained by the de-mands of structural adjustment programs.

Cotton can scarcely be considered the ideal driving forcefor sustainable development, given the devastating effects ithas had on soil fertility, at least under the very deficient re-gime of crop rotation and soil conservation applied in WestAfrica. Nevertheless, the cotton experience served to dem-onstrate, on a large scale, the ability of local-level producersto organize commercial and management operations them-selves—provided appropriate training was made availableat the same time. And it has given birth to a set of reinforcedrural institutions that are providing “templates” for localdevelopment in a number of other domains.

A favorable context: the interaction of economicchallenge and social capital

The village associations in fact arose from the confluence oftwo factors, one “traditional” and the other modern; andthe interweaving of the two currents accounts for much ofthe impressive results. Southern Malian communities aregenerally organized into “tòn” (the Bambara-Malinké term)or equivalent structures among neighboring ethnic groups.These age-stratified initiation groups are often very

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strongly knit together and internally regulated to a high de-gree. The “tòn” were the associations that became directlyor indirectly responsible for the assumption of marketingand reinvestment responsibilities when the CMDT under-took its experiment; and their new functions promptedthem to evolve in new directions, developing in the processsystems of accountability and training far in advance ofthose that characterized the traditional initiation groups.

In a sense, the failures, successes and pioneering efforts ofSYCOV represent simply a “second tier” in the campaignfor local capacity development and increased empowermentof village organizations that began with the reorganizationof the cotton marketing system several years ago, anddriven by the mobilization of existing social structures. Andat the same time they have helped fuel other initiatives.

Carrying local development to the second tier

Another telling example: to improve their management per-formance, the village associations of southern Mali, with thesupport of the CMDT and foreign aid, created in 1993 an in-stitution charged with auditing their accounts and provid-ing technical assistance to local leaders in financial matters.The unit was named the “Koutiala Management Center”;several additional branches have been established since that

time. The center is staffed by personnel recruited from thevillage associations, who are responsible for providing third-party audit of AV accounts. Local staff are trained and sup-ported in turn by external technical assistance, which is de-signed to play a diminishing role. Policy oversight of theCenter is carried out by an Administrative Council, which islinked in turn to the Federation of Village Associations ofsouthern Mali. Theoretically, the center is supposed to oper-ate entirely on a budget funded by the revenues generatedfrom sale of its services to the village associations. It is thushalf-way between being a “wholly owned subsidiary” of theFederation and a private auditing firm.

In reality, the Center was created, and is still partially de-pendent, on external funding. But it does seem to have sur-vived a first phase of establishment, operation and prelimi-nary institutionalization and is in fact providing needed ser-vices and generating revenues. The Management Centerthus demonstrates the ability of local associations to moveup a substantial notch in the sequence of activities requiredto become financially independent. It also reveals an impor-tant niche and opportunity for second-tier organizationsthat are able to provide critical technical support to the newenterprises of civil society. The seeds sown by the actualtransfer of resources and marketing responsibility to villagestructures has thus begun to yield multiple fruits.

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Indigenous Healing of War-AffectedChildren in Africa

IK Notes 10July 1999

This article was written by Edward C. Green, Ph.D, and Alcinda Honwana, Ph.D. The authors would liketo thank the Christian Childrens Fund, Save the Children (USA), the Children and War Project and theDisplaced Children and Orphans Fund, USAID, for use of information from their programs. We wouldalso like to thank Mike Wessells for useful comments and suggestions. Edward C. Green can be contactedat: [email protected]. Alcinda Honwana can be contacted at [email protected]

Children in war-torn countries of Af-rica and elsewhere are often direct orindirect victims of violence, and/or wit-nesses to various horrors associatedwith war. Children as young as seven oreight are forcibly conscripted and in-doctrinated as child soldiers or portersin several African countries. Girls aswell as boys often suffer, some beingforced into sexual or other service atearly ages. In conflicts where terroriz-ing civilians has become a routinemeans to political and military ends,women and children are deliberatelytargeted for torture and death. Glo-bally, there are at least one million chil-dren separated from their parents be-cause of war, and there are many thou-sands who have been traumatized evenmore directly by war. Child victims ofthis sort often exhibit symptoms ofpost–traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),to use the Western psychiatric label.Symptoms of PTSD and related stressreactions common in children include:avoidance/numbing, as in cutting off offeelings and avoidance of situationsthat provide reminders of traumaticevents; insomnia, inability to concen-trate, “intrusive re-experiencing,” suchas nightmares and flashbacks; lethargy,confusion, fear, aggressive behavior, so-cial isolation, and hopelessness in rela-

tion to the future, and hyper–arousal asevidenced in hyper–vigilance and exag-gerated startle responses.

In recent years, UNICEF, USAID,and various private, voluntary organi-zations such as Save the Children andthe Christian Children’s Fund have de-veloped various types of so-called psy-chosocial programs to assistwar-affected children. Yet therapeutictechniques for war-affected children re-main at a very preliminary stage of de-velopment. It is not known to what ex-tent western psychotherapeutic tech-niques for PTSD—which were origi-nally developed to treat American vet-erans of the Vietnam war—would beappropriate and effective for childrenin Africa and other less-developed ar-eas. One of the concerns with thePTSD is the very notion of post-trau-matic stress disorder. In these contexts,it is problematic to talk about traumaas the past (post), if one understandsthe notion of violence to be broaderthan direct exposure to war situations(military attacks, landmines, etc.), andto encompass spheres like poverty, hun-ger, displacement and the like. Anotherconcern with the PTSD lies in its thera-peutic techniques which are centeredon the individual patient. Such focusignores local beliefs in the role that an-

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cestral and malevolent spiritual forces play in the causationand healing of the affliction. It also undermines family andcommunity involvement and active participation in thehealing process.

During early psychosocial programs for war-affected chil-dren in Mozambique and Angola, community leaders, tradi-tional healers and families showed tremendous knowledgeof how to heal the ‘social wounds of war in war–affectedchildren and adults. Such disorders are in fact quite treat-able by traditional healers, based on indigenous under-standings of how war affects the minds and behavior of indi-viduals, and on shared beliefs of how spiritual forces inter-vene in such processes. During the implementation of theseprograms, people expressed no need for help in addressingchildren’s’ specific mental or behavioral manifestations.What they needed, they said, was help in finding missingfamily members and in establishing schools, pre-schools,creating jobs opportunities for the youth, and promoting astable social environment in which to function.

There is evidence from throughout Africa that mental orpsychiatric disorders are among the conditions for whichmodern or western medical help is least likely to be sought.African people generally turn to indigenous forms oftherapy in case of mental health. Empirical studies of therelative effectiveness of different forms of western psycho-therapy in fact show that virtually all psychotherapies dothe patient some good and all are potentially effective whenembedded within social and cultural specificities. This maysuggest that as psychotherapists, indigenous African heal-ers may be at least as effective as modern medical special-ists, especially among those who share a common Africanculture.

Anthropological research done in Mozambique andAngola shows that war related psychological trauma is di-rectly linked to the power and anger of the spirits of thedead. The impossibility of performing proper burials intimes of war does not allow for these spirits to be placed intheir proper positions in the world of the ancestors, so theyare considered to be bitter and potentially harmful to theirkillers and passers-by. Social pollution may arise for being incontact with death and bloodshed. Individuals who havebeen in a war, who killed or were around killings are be-lieved to be potential contaminators of the social body.Thus, cleansing and purification rituals are essential fortheir reintegration in the communities.

In 1994, during the first project in Angola specifically tohelp war-traumatized children, it was found that childrenwere already being helped by indigenous psychotherapy,provided by indigenous healers in the form of ritual purifi-cation ceremonies. This was provided for both

ex-combatants and children who had either participated inor witnessed bloodshed. The earlier Children and Warproject in Mozambique found similar treatments for chil-dren. In both countries, these therapies appeared to be ef-fective, at least in the short-term. Traditional healing forwar-affected children in Angola and Mozambique seems toconsist principally of purification or cleansing rituals, at-tended by family members and the broader community, dur-ing which a child is purged and purified of the “contamina-tion” of war and death, as well as of sin, guilt, and avengingspirits of those killed by a child soldier. These ceremoniesare replete with ritual and symbolism whose details are dis-tinctive to the particular ethnolinguistic group, but whosegeneral themes are common to all groups.

In the day of his arrival his relatives took him to thendumba (the house of the spirits). There he was presentedto the ancestral spirits of the family. The boy’s grandfatheraddressed the spirits informing them that his grandchildhad returned and thanked the spirits for their protection ashis grandson was able to return alive (...) A few days later aspirit medium was invited by the family to help them per-form the cleansing rituals for the boy. The practitioner tookthe boy to the bush, and there a small hut covered with drygrass was build. The boy, dressed with the dirty clothes hebrought from the RENAMO camp, entered the hut and un-dressed himself. Then fire was set to the hut, and an adultrelative helped out the boy. The hut, the clothes and every-thing else that the boy brought from the camp had to beburned. A chicken was sacrificed for the spirits of the deadand the blood spread around the ritual place After that theboy had to inhale the smoke of some herbal remedies, andbath himself with water treated with medicine (Fieldnotes,Mozambique).

This healing ritual brings together a series of symbolicmeanings aimed at cutting the child’s link with the past (thewar). While modern psychotherapeutic practices emphasizeverbal exteriorization of the affliction, here through sym-bolic meanings the past is locked away. This is seen in theburning of the hut and the clothes and the cleansing of thebody. To talk and recall the past is not necessarily seen as aprelude to healing or diminishing pain. Indeed, it is oftenbelieved to open the space for the malevolent forces to inter-vene. This is also apparent in the following case from Uige(Angola).

When the child or young man returns home, he is made towait on the outskirts of the village. The oldest woman fromthe village throws maize flour at the boy and anoints his en-tire body with a chicken. He is only able to enter the villageafter this ritual is complete. After the ritual, he is allowed togreet his family in the village. Once the greeting is over, he

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must kill a chicken, which is subsequently cooked andserved to the family. For the first eight days after the home-coming, he is not allowed to sleep in his own bed, only on arush mat on the floor. During this time, he is taken to theriver and water is poured on his head and he is given maniocto eat. As he leaves the site of the ritual, he must not lookbehind him.

This case emphasizes the non-interaction with family andfriends before ritual cleansing. The child is kept out of thevillage until the ritual is performed, and cannot greet peopleand sleep in his bed until the ritual proceedings are over. Asmentioned above, although children may be asked aboutwar experiences as part of treatment, this is not a funda-mental condition for healing. The ceremony aims at sym-bolically cleansing the polluted child and putting the warexperience behind him, to “forget” (note the symbolism ofbeing forbidden to look back, in the example from Uige).Food taboos and other kinds of ritual restrictions are ap-plied. In the Uige, for example, fish and fowl must beavoided by the cleansed person for 1-2 months, after whichthe person must be reintroduced to the food by the tradi-tional healer who officiated at the ceremony.

The Okupiolissa ritual from Huila in Angola clearlyshows the active participation of the community in theserituals, and stresses the idea of cleansing from ‘impurities.

The community and family members are usually excitedand pleased at the homecoming. Women prepare them-selves for a greeting ceremony (...) Some of the flour used topaint the women’s foreheads is thrown at the child and arespected older woman of the village throws a gourd filledwith ashes at the child’s feet. At the same time, clean wateris thrown over him as a means of purification (...) thewomen of the village dance around the child, gesturing withhands and arms to ward away undesirable spirits or influ-ences. (...) they each touch him with both hands from headto foot to cleanse him of impurities. The dance is known as:Ululando-w-w-w. When the ritual is complete, the child istaken to his village and the villagers celebrate his return. Aparty is held in his home where only traditional beverages(...) The child must be formally presented to the chiefs byhis parents (...) the child sits beside the chiefs, drinking andtalking to them, and this act marks his change of status inthe village.

These cleansing and purification rituals involving childsoldiers have the appearance of what anthropologists callrites of transition. That is, the child undergoes a symbolicchange of status from someone who has existed in a realm ofsanctioned norm-violation or norm-suspension (i.e., killing,war) to someone who must now live in a realm of peacefulbehavioral and social norms, and conform to these. In the

case presented above from Huila, the purified child acquiresa new status which allows him to sit besides the chiefs andinteract with them. Until the transition is complete(through ritual performance), the child is considered to bein a dangerous state, a marginal, “betwixt and between,”liminal, ambiguous state. For this reason, a child cannot re-turn to his family or hut, or sleep in his bed, or perhaps evenenter his village, until the rituals have been completed.

Manifest symptoms associated with PTSD and relatedstress disorders reportedly disappear shortly after these cer-emonies, after which the family, indigenous healers and lo-cal chiefs direct attention toward helping to establish an en-during, trusting relationship between the traumatized childand family members, and with adults of good character.These ritual interventions are also intended to re-establishspiritual harmony, notably that between the child and itsancestor spirits. The re-establishment of normal relation-ships and activities with other children may not be part—ora major part—of these indigenous healing rituals. But, heal-ers, village elders, teachers and other child caregiversreadily understand this when presented with the idea dur-ing project-supported training seminars, in both Angola andMozambique. Play therapy, drawing, drama, dance andstory-telling are some of the techniques introduced in theseseminars.

There is no doubt that these rituals are instrumental inbuilding family cohesion and solidarity, and in dealing withthe psychosocial and emotional side of these children s prob-lems. The fact is, however, that they return to an impover-ished countryside struggling with basic survival needs, andmany with no schools, hospitals, no vocational training orjob opportunities which would allow them to envisage theprospects of a better future. Thus, while these rituals areimportant they need to be complemented by community de-velopment programs to sustain the gains achieved in thepsychosocial and emotional sphere, and which cannot bedissociated from the rest.

Therefore, the approach of donor organizations, NGO andother organizations involved in humanitarian aid for war-affected children should take into account local understand-ings of war trauma and indigenous strategies for dealingwith it. They should work towards promoting stable, secure,culturally-familiar environments in which children can gaina sense of competence and security in a more predictableworld by encouraging self-reliance through reliable commu-nity development projects. their families, or with appropri-ate foster families if necessary.

The project of the Christian Children’s Fund in Angolatries to build upon existing indigenous healing practices andstrengths, and complementing these with its psychosocial

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interventions such as those just described. Evaluations ofthis project and the earlier “Children and War” project inMozambique have shown that such an informal partnershipbetween indigenous healers, with their ritualistic therapies,and donor-assisted programs, with emphasis on the familyand social adjustment of the child, may provide a model ofhow indigenous and Western-scientific approaches can bepursued together to provide maximum benefit to children inneed. Furthermore, such a model of cooperation and shar-ing of responsibility serves to validate indigenous healingand beliefs, which tends to energize and mobilize localpeople who, ultimately, need to develop sustainable, cultur-ally acceptable solutions to help themselves.

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IK Notes 11August 1999

Education and Koranic Literacyin West AfricaThis article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and techni-cal supervision of Peter Easton, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education,Florida State University, with the active collaboration of the concerned African communities.The research was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the CILSSand the Association for the Development of education in Africa (ADEA).

What are the .practical. and literateskills that students acquire at differentlevels of West African Koranic school-ing? What are the various daily uses towhich suchknowledge is put and thenetworks through which it is developedand applied? Koranic schooling in itsmany forms constitutes a long-stand-ing parallel system of educationthroughout much of the African conti-nent one that has operated for centu-ries, yet remains relatively unknown todevelopment planners and is thereforeseldom taken into explicit account intheir policies and strategies.

Islam has an extended history inWest Africa and Islamic educationalsystems have in fact operated there formuch longer than have Western ones.The Islamic faith first spread acrossNorth Africa in the 7th century. By the10th century, communities of Muslimmerchants and scholars had been es-tablished in several commercial centersof the Western Sahara and the Sahel.By the 11th or 12th century, the rulersof kingdoms such as Takrur, AncientGhana and Gao had converted to Islamand had appointed Muslims who wereliterate in Arabic as advisors.

Trans-Saharan trade flourished inpre-colonial times and carried mostofthe considerable merchandise ex-

changed between Africa and Europefrom the 11th to the 16th centuries .until, that is, the arrival of Euro-peanvessels on the West African coastand the institution of the trans.Atlanticslave trade and the triangular com-merce among Africa, Europe and theNew World that it fueled. The back-bone of trans.Saharan commerce ini-tially consisted of networks of towns es-tablished along trade routes by itiner-ant merchants from North Africa,gradually sedentarized and/or replacedby local groups. The proceeds of thistrade furnished much of the revenueneeded for state-building.

The structure of a submergedsystem

The system of Islamic learning acrossWest Africa is several-tiered thoughless rigidly structured than its Westerncounterpart. In addition, it now in-cludes a traditional track (the Koranicsequence per se), a formal school or.modern. equivalent (Franco-Arabschools, sometimes called médersa),and intermediate orihybrid forms oftenreferred to as improved Koranic school-ing. At the base of the traditional net-work are the maktabor Koranic schools,

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the primary level of the system, where children begin, start-ing somewhere between the ages of 3 and 10, to learn theKoran and the basic duties of Islamic life. Next come themadris or secondary schools where those who have essen-tially memorized and transcribedlarge portions (at least) ofthe Koran progress to a study of what is referred to as Islamicscience. (ilm), including the written traditions of the religionand a variable amount of other didactic material. A few selectstudents proceed beyond this level to advanced study eitherwith famed imamsand marabouts of the region or at Islamicuniversities in North Africa and other Muslim countries.

At least in its elementary forms—represented by localKoranic schools—Islamic learning is widespread through-out West Africa. An estimate of the number of such schoolsin Niger alone in 1990 put them at 40,000. This form of edu-cation constitutes in reality an alternate and (to official andWestern ideas) largely hidden knowledge culture rivaling,and frequently intersecting or hybridizing with the officialone, even though in most African countries the basic insti-tutions of the system—the maktab—have not been consid-ered as schools at all. Yet Koranic students, teachers andbelievers in general throughout the region are highly awareof the long history of the faith in West Africa and of many ofits greatest scholars and teachers, some of whom exercisemajor political and economic power, particularly in Sahelianregions. Those involved for years in the cash crop trade inNiger, Mali and Senegal, for example, have developed well-capitalized commercial networks with ramifications in ur-ban real estate and industry, and increasingly abroad. Allthis considerably strengthens the attraction of differentforms of Koranic education as gateways to an alternate andsometimes thriving economic and political system. In short,there is a strong trans-national culture at work.

Variable quality, extensive coverage

Despite these tendencies toward uniformity in underlyingreligious culture and basic orientation, the nature and qual-ity of instruction in Koranic schools and the Islamic systemas a whole vary noticeably from one region to another. Inareas of Islamic allegiance, the vast majority of children at-tend Koranic school. They learn principally through memo-rization of the sacred text. Boys predominate in the studentbody, but frequently in ratios of no more than 3/2 or 2/1 inthe early grades. In a few regions, like Guinean Futa Jalon,enrollment rates are virtually the same by gender.

The depth of Islamic instruction in these regions is quitevariable, but in general a significant proportion of male stu-dents who remain beyond the initial Koranic lessons do con-

tinue to some level of higher study. Since understanding ofeither modern or classical Arabic over and beyond theKoranic texts themselves is quite rare, (except among thosehaving pursued studies in Arabic-speaking countries), thehighest levels of practical literacy—that is, ability to readand write correspondence, keep records and generally com-municate in writing—are most frequently found in thoseareas like upland Guinea, the Sine Saloum of Senegal, andthe Hausa-speaking regions of Niger, where there is a devel-oped system for transcribing African language with Arabiccharacters (called ajami in the Hausa and Fulani cases). InGuinea, 93 percent of a sample of 77 male Koranic .alumni.interviewed claimed reading and writing capacity in ajami.In Senegal, between 25 and 75 percent of male adults in vil-lages contacted, and between 10 and 25 percent of womenclaimed the same level of learning. In all cases, the propor-tions were well, if not multiples, above the literacy rate inFrench for the same predominantly rural communities.

On the other hand, only 26 percent of the Guinean sampleof former Koranic students considered themselves numer-ate, as compared to 93 percent who considered themselvesable to write texts in ajami. A majority of marabouts andimams seem nonetheless to have acquired numerical skillsin one way or another, which helps in understanding the fre-quency with which they are found to be handling account-ing responsibilities in community affairs.

While vocational initiation is not an explicit curricularcomponent of Koranic schooling, most students who con-tinue beyond the most elementary level do end up workingin some apprenticed position either to the marabout or to anaffiliated craftsman or merchant, if only to help pay for hisor her upkeep and tuition. Koranic schooling tends to in-clude a practical element integrated into the community,though only systematized as real vocational instruction inexceptional cases; and Koranic students are imbued withthe notion that they will need to fend for themselves or findappropriate sponsorship beyond a certain age. This promptsone Senegalese researcher to remark, “L’école coraniqueforme des créateurs d’activités, alors que le système formelforme des demandeurs d.emploi.” (Koranic schools trainemployment-creators, while the formal system trains em-ployment-seekers.)

Applications of Koranic training

The most frequent secular application of Koranic learningat the individual level is writing and correspondence, andthe most prominent career destination of accomplishedKoranic students is to become themselves marabouts or

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imams because there is considerable demand for teachersand dispensers of religious and incantatory services, giventhe rapid expansion of West African Islam in recent years.Over a quarter of the Guinean respondents, however,citedthe exercise of local public functions as a practical out-come of their training, and similar trends are evident acrossthe region.

However, collective and communal applications are noless frequent. Islamic morality, jurisprudence and authorityhave been used as the backbone of traditional governancefor centuries throughout the Sahel. In fact, most of the vo-cabulary in major Sahelian languages having to do not justwith religion, but with laws, local administration, diplo-macy and higher learning as well is derived or directly bor-rowed from Arabic.

Conclusion: Alternate avenues to knowledge

The consequence of these factors is that basic Islamic in-struction—of the kind dispensed in local Koranic schools—has three essential dimensions of practical application andimpact in West Africa today:

• It constitutes an introduction to the technology of writingmand to a lesser extent that of numeracy, for a sizable propor-tion of the population, both men and women, many ofwhom would otherwise have little or no schooling. Thosewho proceed far enough to gain fluency in reading, writing,and calculating for daily practical purposes (generally insome African language, as functional knowledge ofArabicitself is even more restricted) constitute overall a minority,though a sizable one in some areas. Moreover, literacy inArabic script has become a point of reference in many ruraland small town settings thought of as largely illiterate inWestern terms.

• It is a training as well for local leadership, since solid Is-lamic instruction is generally accepted to be an indicatorof morality, honesty and discipline and therefore a pri-mary qualification for assuming positions of responsibil-ity. In addition, it has always been—and, given recent dis-affection with formal schooling, has increasingly be-come—an avenue for social and economic advancementbecause of the close relationship between Islamic net-works and traditional commercial ones throughout theregion. Koranic school graduates are more likely to findemployment or apprenticeship with traditional mer-chants and in informal sector marketing operations.

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IK Notes 12September 1999

Cultural Resources and Maternal HealthMali

This article was written by Lydia Clemmons and Yaya Coulibaly.

In a culture where pregnancy has tradi-tionally been a taboo subject and wasrarely discussed at the household level,the Africare’s Child Survival Project inthe district of Dioro in the Segou Re-gion of Southern Mali (1989–998) suc-cessfully increased communication andhealth-seeking behavior during preg-nancy. The overall goal of the projectwas to reduce morbidity and mortalityrates among children and women of re-productive age The project’s strategy,which used indigenous knowledge andcultural resources, is being widely usedthroughout the district of Dioro, hasspread to other parts of the country,and has been recognized internation-ally. Of special note was the pendelu, atraditional undergarment for women inMali which, when colored green, tookon new symbolic meaning and was usedto signal pregnancy. Specific interven-tions included: maternal health, nutri-tion and growth monitoring; diarrheadisease control, immunization services,family planning services, and educationabout AIDS and sexually transmitteddiseases.

In 1992, Africare, a US-based PrivateVoluntary Organization working incommunity development, constructeda new maternity ward in the Dioro dis-trict in the sector of Koila, 17 kilome-

ters from Dioro. The communities ofKoila had expressed the need for thematernity ward and governmenthealth professionals saw it as a key ser-vice delivery point. Prior to its con-struction, only three health facilitiesserved the entire district of Dioro, apopulation of nearly 90,000. Neverthe-less, the maternity ward’s utilizationrates were only 20-30 percent of whatthey should have been.

Let’s not discuss it

To improve their understanding of thereasons for the under-utilization of thematernity ward, the Dioro project staffdesigned an action-oriented qualitativeresearch project to investigate knowl-edge, attitudes and practices regardingmaternal health (Clemmons andCoulibaly, 1994). The research soughtto illuminate the overall context ofpregnancy and childbirth in the projectarea, and to identify both resources andobstacles related to improved maternalhealth and care seeking.

Focus group discussions and in-depthinterviews revealed somel key findings:• Women and men were not only

aware of the dangers associated withpregnancy and childbirth, they werealso worried about the outcome:

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- “As soon as a woman becomes pregnant, she worriesabout her health throughout the pregnancy and aboutthe conditions in which she will give birth” [Female fo-cus group participant].

- “Every time my wife is pregnant, I’ve been afraid ofwhat could happen during the delivery” [Male focusgroup participant].

• The local culture placed a strong value on husbands play-ing a supportive role during their wives’ pregnancy. Bothwomen and men said that the husband of a pregnantwoman should act as her principal advisor and protector.- Although men lacked basic information about caring for

pregnant women, they demonstrated a great deal of in-terest in the development of the pregnancy and saidthat they feel responsible for a safe outcome.

• One of the most important cultural obstacles to women’smaternal health care-seeking behaviors was the absenceof discussion about pregnancy at the household level, par-ticularly between husbands and wives. Both men andwomen participants cited shame and embarrassment asthe primary reason for the lack of verbal communicationon this topic:- A woman is generally ashamed, from the very beginning,

of people around her finding out that she is pregnant.- A woman is embarrassed to inform her husband that she

is pregnant, particularly if it is her first pregnancy.- During the entire pregnancy, a woman will only discuss

her pregnancy with her husband as a last resort: whenshe has a problem that she is unable to resolve herself,whether that be material, financial or health-related.

- A man would rather discuss [pregnancy] and other prob-lems related to sexual relations with a friend or some-one other than his wife.

Husbands and wives were not only embarrassed to dis-cuss pregnancy between themselves, but also women withother women, including their mothers-in-law, co-wives andfriends. The lack of discussion at the household level aboutpregnancy can thus block information sharing betweenfamily members about high-risk pregnancies and warningsigns. It can also inhibit the decision-making process neces-sary for the allocation of family resources and the adoptionof behaviors beneficial to maternal health. Although womenin the Koila sector desired maternal health services, one ofthe reasons they could not take advantage of them was thatthey could not initiate discussions and solicit the consentand financial support of their husbands, who are consideredthe heads of the household and the principal decision-mak-ers about family matters in Malian culture. How then coulda project hope to communicate with communities and pro-

mote the adoption of behaviors that are beneficial to mater-nal health if pregnancy itself was a topic that evoked feel-ings of silent shame and embarrassment among bothwomen and men?

Let’s start discussing pregnancy: tappinginto cultural resources

Health educators typically attempt to get people to changetheir behaviors by appealing to reason through argumentsbased on logic or practical issues. As evidenced by the lowimpact of many health IEC (Information, Education andCommunication) strategies, however, this approach has notbeen effective. Traditional communication channels, includ-ing stories, songs, proverbs, praise-poetry and epics, providean important alternative for health IEC strategies. Thesecultural resources offer the most direct path to sensitivetopics and personal issues through people’s values, atti-tudes and motivations (Hale and Stoller, 1985; Mutasa,1994) and can successfully promote behavior change, atboth individual and social levels, by appealing to people’semotions, by informing and educating them. For these rea-sons, and within the socio-cultural context described above,the project staff designed a maternal health campaign thatutilized three traditional communication channels: (i) a tra-ditional article of women’s clothing; (ii) a griot and (iii) asong.

The Green Pendelu

The little pagne (pendelu in Bambara) is a short cloth un-dergarment resembling a half-slip and worn underneath theclothing. According to social dictates, only married womencan wear the pendelu, for in addition to serving as their inti-mate apparel, it is also used by a couple to wipe away bodyfluids following sexual intercourse. Although considerederotic clothing (much as a black negligee would be perceivedin the United States), the pendelu, traditionally made ofwhite cotton, has a far deeper cultural significance. It isboth perceived as a symbol of marital roles, duties and privi-leges and interpreted as a non-verbal signal or cue for gen-der-specific attitudes and behaviors between husbands andwives. When a wife wraps the pendelu around her waist, theemotions associated with the act of wearing this traditionalattire range from simply feeling womanly and attractive tofeeling confident and in control of a situation that she is cre-ating. A woman will wear the pendelu in front of her hus-band in the privacy of the bedroom, discreetly yet sugges-tively, because she wears it to attract his attention, to arouse

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his desire, and to initiate an interaction that goes beyondthe realm of sex. For when a husband notices his wife wear-ing a pendelu, he is reminded not only of his role as a sexualpartner, but also as his wife’s advisor, protector, and pro-vider. The sight of his wife wearing a pendelu makes a manfeel virile, wise, strong, concerned and responsible. Womensay that it is there, in the intimacy of the bedroom, with thependelu wrapped provocatively around their waists or lyingclose at hand, that wives are most able to express their con-cerns and special requests, and husbands are most inclinedto listen. The pendelu, a subtle yet powerful symbol, is con-sequently an effective traditional non-verbal communica-tion channel used by married couples. It initiates bothphysical and emotional intimacy and signals in women andmen culture-specific and gender-specific roles and responsi-bilities. Chiwome(1994), has demonstrated elsewhere thatoften, in Africa, the deliberate use of gestures and other non-verbal communication channels are an effective substitutefor words, particularly in a setting where words would beinappropriate.

The project staff placed a special order with local tailors toproduce three hundred pendelu to distribute during a pilotmaternal health campaign. An important modification ofthe pendelu was to color-code this intimate apparel and dyethe traditional white cotton fabric a brilliant green, to sym-bolize pregnancy and to signal the husband’s cultural roleas protector, advisor and supporter. As Comaroff (1985) hasnoted, “blue and green, hues of rain, water, freshness andgrowth... are linked to activating power... (and) connote fe-cundity... Green specifically signifies origins or points ofgrowth.”

The Griot

Griots are bards whose traditional role in Malian culture isa combination of oral historian, praise-singer and social me-diator. Bakary Koita is a griot who has lived in Dioro-ville allof his life and is well known throughout the Dioro district.He is a member of one of the major griot families in Mali andlearned his profession from his father. Accompanying him-self on a traditional guitar, he is equally at ease with praisesinging, storytelling, and singing new songs that he com-poses himself.

The decision to enlist Bakary Koita’s services for the ma-ternal health campaign was arrived at through a good un-derstanding of the griot’s role in Malian society. Griots havebeen recognized as social psychologists, mediators/concilia-tors, historians, artists, diplomats, possessors of supernatu-ral, powerful forces, preservers of culture, and educators as

well as entertainers. Throughout history, griots have consis-tently demonstrated their effectiveness as social catalysts,using the power of words to dramatically influence people’sbehavior through their emotions (Conrad and Frank; Haleand Stoller; Finnegan; Johnson; Okpewho; Peek; Sienaertand Cowper-Lewis).

Knowing the names, family history, personalities andeven the mundane affairs of nearly everyone in the commu-nity, griots enjoy the socially-sanctioned privilege of beingable to say directly to anyone what no one else in the com-munity would dare to say, regardless of an individual’s age,gender, ethnicity or social standing. Griots use personal cha-risma and the power of words to mediate social relations-between members of the same family, between neighbors,and even between communities. In Mali, only a griot couldeffectively promote discussion of the sensitive topics of preg-nancy and the pendelu in both the public and privatespheres without being considered obscene or inappropriateby rural communities.

The song

Over a period of two weeks, Mr. Koita worked with theproject staff to compose a song that educated people aboutmaternal health care and also promoted the intended use ofthe green pendelu, following a technical outline developedby the project staff, which contained key maternal healthcare messages. The technical outline also called for the pro-motion of the green pendelu as a symbol of pregnancy andcouple communication and identified husbands, wives andwives’ mothers-in-law as target audiences for the song. Tocounteract the shame, fear and helplessness described byboth men and women in the focus group discussions, theproject staff also requested Mr. Koita to associate the ap-pearance of the green pendelu with feelings of happiness,pride, responsibility and confidence. The primary objectivesof the song were to(i) inform married men, married women,and women’s mothers-in-law about high-risk pregnancies,warning signs during pregnancy, and risk-reduction behav-iors; (ii) increase communication about pregnancy and ma-ternal health care at the household level, particularly be-tween husbands and wives; and (iii) increase pregnantwomen’s utilization of the maternal health care servicesand facilities offered by qualified providers.

The Maternal Health IEC Campaign

Africare conducted a pilot maternal health IEC campaign inseven villages in the Koila sector of the Dioro district to test

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the effectiveness of the traditional media. A total of 600adults (three hundred men and three hundred women) par-ticipated in the campaign. The campaign format consistedof men’s and women’s assemblies during which maternalhealth information was communicated by staff, and facili-tated by “modern” media, such as videos, flipcharts andbadges, as well as by the three identified cultural resources.

During the women’s assemblies, the project staff distrib-uted a total of three hundred green pendelu to all marriedwomen of reproductive age in each of the seven villages.

Impact

The project staff conducted an evaluation three months af-ter the campaign to measure the impact of the greenpendelu and other communication channels used duringthe -behavior change communication campaign, includingthe song written by the griot, the video, and a badge pro-moting the project community-based activities. Theproject’s final evaluation Knowledge-Practice-CoverageSurvey further measured the impact of the IEC campaign.

The impact evaluation consisted of a survey of 320 people,including 205 individuals who had participated directly inthe various activities of the campaign and 115 who had notparticipated. The sample included 130 married women ofreproductive age (referred to as wives), 127 married men(referred to as husbands) and 63 older women with marriedsons (referred to as mothers-in law). The average age of re-spondents was 36.5 years.

According to the survey results, the campaign dramati-cally increased the level of communication between hus-bands and wives concerning maternal health; overall, 65.5percent of all survey participants said they discussed preg-nancy and maternal health issues after the campaign. Priorto the campaign, approximately 3 percent of the populationhad discussed maternal health with their spouses.

Among all of the means of communication used duringthe campaign, the green pendelu was the element that theparticipants found the most interesting (83.9 percent). A to-tal of 94.4 percent of survey respondents had heard of it.

Remarkably, 85 percent of those interviewed who had notparticipated in the campaign had heard of the greenpendelu, indicating a rapid and effective spread of this inno-vative concept. Indeed, the impact evaluation indicates thatalthough only 600 people (10 percent of the population overthe age of 15 years) had participated in the IEC campaign,nearly 5000 people (89 percent of the population) had seenor heard about the green pendelu three months later.

Nearly all of those interviewed knew that the greenpendelu represented pregnancy: 89.9 percent of husbands,79 percent of wives and 76.9 percent of mothers-in-law.

The IEC campaign led to more positive attitudes and be-haviors related to pregnancy at the household level, includ-ing husbands supporting their wives by reducing theirworkloads, improving their nutrition, and urging them toseek medical attention and maternal health services.

The evaluation survey results indicates that the innova-tive use of traditional communication channels was not onlyeffective in promoting non-verbal and verbal communica-tion between husbands, wives and mothers-in-law, but alsofacilitated social change. Pregnancy is no longer a tabootopic in the Koila sector, and indeed, discussion about preg-nancy and maternal health care is now a common occur-rence at both the household and community levels. In theyear during and after the awareness-raising campaign, theproject surpassed its objective of assuring that 60 percent ofbirths were assisted by a trained birth attendant or healthcare professional, up from less than 20 percent at the begin-ning of the project. Approximately 77 percent of births wereassisted and more than half of pregnant women sought pre-natal consultations.

Conclusion

The green pendelu was an ideal innovation within an indig-enous knowledge system because its cultural meaning anduse were already well understood in the project area. Allthat was necessary to explain was the meaning of the colorgreen (pregnancy) and to associate it with specific actionsbeneficial to maternal health. Although the meaning of thegreen pendelu was new, the setting (bedroom), circum-stances (physical and emotional intimacy), users (wives)and intended audience (husbands) remained the same asthose for the traditional pendelu. Women in the Koila sectoreasily adapted to wearing the green pendelu during preg-nancy because they used a familiar “body technique.”

In addition, the role of the griot was crucial: ...it is pre-cisely because the bard... conveys a tradition which goes backmany centuries that he may be able to contribute in a ratherunique way to the kinds of social changes most needed forthe survival of many African peoples today. (Hale andStoller, 1985)

Of the various media and methods used to inform, edu-cate and communicate about pregnancy and maternalhealth, the DCSP impact evaluation survey showed that thethree traditional media were by far the most remembered

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by the communities. Nearly all respondents rememberedthe green pendelu, the griot, and the song. Hence, althoughpendelu, griots and songs are traditional channels of com-munication in Mali, their utilization can be effectively inno-vated to adapt them to modern needs. Mutasa (1994) drawssimilar conclusions in his discussion of the modern use ofold proverbs in South Africa:

Changing times and situations require solutions whichthe traditional forms can no longer supply. However, it isoften sufficient to adapt an antiquated item to a moderncontext or constructions. This process of innovation be-comes a living proof of continuity of the traditional forms.

Many development projects tend to ignore or undervaluecultural resources, turning instead to new technology and“modern” resources. Africare’s maternal health IEC cam-paign in Dioro, Mali, illustrates the potential that indig-enous knowledge and other cultural resources have for con-tributing to the health and welfare of rural communities inAfrica.

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Sahelian Languages, Indigenous Knowledgeand Self-ManagementThis article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technical supervision of PeterEaston, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, with the collaboration ofthe concerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD,the Interstate Committee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comite Inter-etat de Lutte Contre la Secheresse(CILSS) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa ( ADEA).

Africa is a continent of many languages—over 2,000, in fact, by recent count—though many are related and a numberare inter-comprehensible to a greateror lesser degree. It is also a continent ofmultilinguism, where a relatively highproportion of the population speaks orunderstands more than one language.In addition, the distribution of lan-guages is far from uniform. West Africais a case in point. Coastal areas are forthe most part characterized by a largenumber of native languages, many notwidely distributed. Interior regions,and the Sahel in particular, on theother hand, are characterized by asmaller number of languages of broaddiffusion.

The reasons are both topographicaland political. Dense forests, numerousrivers and the ever-present tsetse flymade lateral communications andhorse-born transport very difficult incoastal regions and gave rise to a multi-tude of ethnic groups and small lan-guage communities. However, in the in-land areas of savanna and desert-edgeplains, travel was easier over long dis-tances. Empires arose to regulate andtax the flourishing trans-Sahara tradeand at the same time spread vehicularAfrican languages like Bambara, Wolofand Mooré over wide spaces. It is there-

fore said that one can go from Dakar toLake Chad overland using only threeAfrican languages—Wolof, Bambaraand Hausa—whereas a trip of equal dis-tance down the coast to Nigeria wouldrequire more than 300.

In the Gulmu region of Burkina Faso,located in little-developed areas of theextreme east bordering Benin, TinTua, a local NGO established in 1985by community members to resuscitatea generally unsuccessful state-sup-ported literacy campaign, has created anetwork of literacy centers devoted toinstruction in the Gulmancéma lan-guage, a minority language in BurkinaFaso, but one spoken nonetheless byover 500,000 people. The centers cover31 villages of the region, all of which(with the exception of the district capi-tal) lacked primary schools at the in-ception of the program. It now servesabout 15,000 adolescent and adultlearners annually, of whom 41 percentare women. Tin Tua has also launcheda monthly Gulmancéma newspaper,“Labaali,” which has 3,000 subscribersand employs journalists equipped withmotor bikes and tape recorders in all ofthe villages covered.

On the strength of the results ofthese literacy programs, the associationbegan, several years ago, creating com-

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munity primary schools where the initial grades of instruc-tion are given in Gulmancéma and French is gradually in-troduced. Two years ago, the first cohort of students trainedin these community schools reached the watershed of theprimary education completion exams, which must be takenin French and govern admission to secondary schooling.The children who had started education in their mothertongue performed, on average, significantly better than thegraduates of standard primary schools. The curriculum de-signer from Tin Tua tries to explain their success: “Whenyou consider the environment in which all this is happeningand the fact that there is only one instructor per school whospeaks French, what is surprising is the speed of learning. Isit because the mother tongue serves as a springboard forperformance in French, or is it the motivation of these stu-dents, the active instructional method used or the devotionof the instructor?”

African languages as an accounting tool

Now move west several hundred kilometers into southernMali, a cotton-growing region where rates of schooling arestill little over 20 percent.. In the last two decades, a stringof village associations centered around Koutiala andBougouni has progressively taken over full responsibilityfor the marketing of agricultural crops, the management offarm credit, and the reinvestment of proceeds from theseoperations. And they have done it in large part by masteringaccounting and administrative systems developed directlyin the Bambara language. The story is much the same fur-ther north in the inland Niger delta, where rice is the com-mercial crop. In the village of Niono Coloni, local leaders or-ganize examinations to ensure that candidates to the demo-cratically-elected positions of responsibility in the farm co-operative all have the requisite basic level in writtenBambara, though the accounting forms used are in fact bi-lingual and include French labeling as well. Koranic stu-dents and primary school dropouts interested in applyingfor the positions generally enroll in the local adult literacycenter to develop proficiency in the phonetic transcriptionof Bambara.

These are not isolated examples. Throughout much ofSahelian West Africa (countries bordering the southernedge of the Sahara Desert), the written form of African lan-guage is being used to an increasing extent as a vehicle oflocal, if not nation-wide, communication and a means of ex-pressing indigenous culture.

The change is most pronounced in the Francophone coun-tries , where relatively little recognition was given to Afri-

can languages, considered “dialects” and potentially disrup-tive of national unity and international communication.

Slow but sure change

Several factors have contributed to this change, includingthe advent of more representative governments and onesmore tolerant of civil society, the spread of African lan-guages brought about by internal migration and interethniccontact, and a gradual shift towards recognizing the value ofindigenous knowledge and of African culture. At the sametime, experience and research have increasingly demon-strated that children starting school instruction in theirmother tongue or a language already well known to themstand a better chance of success ¾ including success at mas-tering a second language of written communication likeFrench or English ¾ than those who are forced to assimilatea totally foreign language from the outset. Adults, too, seemto acquire second language facility most easily through awritten knowledge of their own language.

Change has been slow in coming, particularly at the cen-tral level, where more has been said than done. The intro-duction of African languages into primary school education,for example, has remained for years at the “experimental”level in countries like Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegaland there has been little commerce between agencies ofnon-formal education, which used national languages, andthose of formal education, which did not.

Over the 1990s, however, momentum has been building atthe local level. It has been fueled in large part by the devel-opment of new income-generating enterprises—the coop-eratives, businesses, non-governmental associations and lo-cal community governments that have taken root in an eraof demographic pressure and relative economic liberaliza-tion. To manage these enterprises themselves, local peopleneed at least a core of literate staff ; to ensure some degreeof democratic accountability in the effort, they need ameans to ensure larger numbers of members at least a mo-dicum of literacy and numeracy. African languages—most ofwhich are now written in Romanized or Arabic script—pro-vide a much more accessible means of attaining this goalthan instruction in English, French, Arabic or Portuguese.

Literacy gains in Burkina Faso

Examples are numerous in Burkina Faso, a country whosename itself is an amalgam of two prominent African lan-guages. “Burkina” is Mooré for “honest person” and “Faso”is Jula and Fulfulde for “nation”—a nation of honest

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people. In Bouloulou, a small village in the northern tier ofthe country not far from Ouahigouya, women are flockingto a literacy center opened for them at the demand of theirown economic development association. In the capital itself,Ouagadougou, a group of newly literate women of theGoughin district have banded together to create “SongTaaba,” a cooperative devoted to the manufacture and saleof soap and peanut butter. After an initial failed attempt atentrusting management responsibility in the few memberswith the rudiments of primary schooling, they ended up de-veloping accounting and management systems in the Moorélanguage and have since created a nationwide network oflocal women’s businesses.

In fact, across the country, the numbers completing lit-eracy courses have begun to rival those completing primaryschooling, a form of education still restricted by lack ofFrench-language trained teachers and outside funding. By1996, there were, in round figures, 4,000 literacy centerscompared to 3,000 primary schools. In that same year,46,000 out of 72,000 literacy students tested were declared“literate” in one of the national languages of the country,whereas only 11,000 of the 86,000 entrants in sixth grademoved on to middle school. Interestingly, 52 percent of thesuccessful literacy students were women, whereas only 40percent of the sixth grade enrollees, and only 8.5 percent ofthe middle school matriculants, were girls. Nine out of tenof the newly literate women, according to the National In-stitute of Literacy, were active members of local women’s as-sociations and cooperatives.

Articulating indigenous knowledge

Twenty-five years ago, when the first wave of national lit-eracy campaigns was dying out in Sahelian countries andthe first hints of locally-supported literacy were appearing,a wide-ranging evaluation was conducted of literacy’s conse-quences in western Mali. Research was carried out by casestudy, and the team of Malian evaluators happened to spendseveral days in a village named Sirakoro, south of Kita.Though government support of the program had been ir-regular, they found there some remarkable results.

The first group of young people made literate in the vil-lage, who then occupied positions monitoring transactionsin the local peanut market, themselves trained a second co-hort. Shortly thereafter, the majority of adults in the villagehad learned to read and write in Bambara/Malinké, and thevillage authorities decided that attention should be given tochildren’s education. They resolved that no child shouldhenceforth reach the age of twenty without knowing how to

read and write in his or her own language. Because there wasno formal primary school within walking distance, the villagecreated its own independently and proceeded to build cur-ricula for its program. Among other things, the literateyoung people took it upon themselves to write down the his-tory of the village and its region and teach it to their pupils.

This pattern has been increasingly repeated over the inter-vening years in different parts of the Sahel. African lan-guages are acquiring written form and being used as ameans both of managing local enterprise and recording in-digenous knowledge. After two or three decades of highlyvariable success when directed top-down in “national cam-paigns,” literacy classes began in the 1980s to aquire mo-mentum even as they were taken over by local associationsand non-governmental associations for their own uses. Andthey have led in a variety of ways to the better articulationof local culture.

Functional trilingualism

One difference between the first wave of literacy action andthis more recent history is local ownership. Another impor-tant one derives from the fact that African language literacyis now not generally presented as an alternative to compe-tence in international languages like English and French, asa form of “rural education” or “Bantu schooling” for thosenot entitled to the “real thing”—but rather as both a cul-tural and political asset by itself and a springboard into sec-ond language learning.

In addition, a new complementarity among different lan-guages is gradually emerging, one sometimes called “func-tional trilinguism.” This three-tiered scheme targets every-one becoming literate in their own mother tongue, thenmastering an African language of wider communication(like Mooré, Wolof or Bambara), and finally acquiring a lan-guage of international communication like English, Frenchor Arabic. The approach seems counter-intuitive for mono-lingual speakers of northern countries but is not difficult toconceive, or witness, on a continent where over 50 percentof the population already speaks at least two languages.

Giving voice to minority culture

Burkina Faso again provides a case in point. Situated on theboundary between the Sahelian and coastal regions, thecountry counts no fewer than 71 languages, though fully 75percent of the population speaks one or another of the threemost widely-spread (Mooré, Jula and Fulani) as a secondlanguage of communication if not mother tongue. All but a

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few of the “Burkinabè” languages (adjectival form of thecountry’s name) are now transcribed and used in writtenform. Increasingly, therefore, a speaker of Gourmancéma islikely to learn Mooré or Fulani plus French in the course ofhis or her education, whether that training follows formalschooling or non-formal education in literacy classes.

For this reason, the locally-rising tide of Sahelian lan-guage use has also been a rallying point for minority cul-tures in West Africa that wish to affirm their own identity aspart and parcel of the nation and preserve traditions whileopening bridges to wider society. The Tin Tua association il-lustrates the point. So, too, does a remarkable experience inthe Podor region of northwestern Senegal.

Since 1986 the organization “ARED” (Association for Re-search on Education) has dedicated itself to the publicationof reading materials in the Pulaar language for learners inthe departments of Senegal bordering the sea betweenDakar and St. Louis. Pulaar is a regionally-specific versionof the Fulani, Peulh or Fulfulde language, found through-out Sahelian countries but nowhere a majority culture out-side of sections of northern Cameroon and the Futa Djalonmountains of Guinea. ARED’s program is actually only oneof a series of efforts, including another coordinated by APESS

(Association Peulh pour l’Education et la Science) in BurkinaFaso, that have been devoted in recent years to promoting theuse of different regional variants of Fulfuldé.

The activities of ARED have been energetically supportedby associations of Pulaar speakers who have emigrated toSaudi Arabia, Egypt, the Maghreb and Europe. This sup-port has enabled ARED to produce a whole series of booksand newspapers in Pulaar and to give a new impetus to lit-eracy courses for adults. ARED has at the same time pub-lished manuals on a variety of local development, agricul-tural and action research topics in Pulaar. Achieving lit-eracy in Pulaar has become a symbol of honor in village soci-ety in this part of Senegal, and literacy campaigns launchedon this basis have greatly contributed to a cultural renewalthroughout the region.

This is precisely the sort of “indigenous” effort at knowl-edge construction that is now cropping up more frequentlyacross the region. What form it will take in the future is un-clear. But it does seem more likely to survive than the cul-tural and literacy campaigns of the early decades of inde-pendence, precisely because it is “owned” by local actorsand founded on local economic and social necessity.

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Grassroots Dissemination of Research in Africa:Collecting and ConnectingThis article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technical supervision of PeterEaston, Associate professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, with the collaboration ofthe concerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD,the Interstate Committee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comite Inter-etat Contre la Secheresse (CILSS) andthe Association for the development of Education in Africa.

How often does the still-limited quan-tity of research done by African re-searchers actually reach an African au-dience that is ready to use its results?By what channels does this communi-cation pass and by what means can ithave the most positive effect?

Methods for grassroots dissemina-tion of the results of African researchare being worked out at local levelsthrough a USAID-funded endeavor, theABEL Project (Achieving Basic Educa-tion and Literacy),

The project involves disseminatingstudies carried out by African research-ers around the theme “decentralizationand local capacity-building,” but doingso in a manner that includes both thedisseminators and the target audiencein critiquing the studies, documentingand analyzing their own related experi-ence, and drawing practical policy con-clusions from the results.

Carrying out research worthdisseminating

The original studies for this experi-ment were conducted between 1996and 1998, through previous ABELfunding, by teams of African research-ers in several countries. This approach

was innovative in a number of respects,notably by the highly developed form ofsubcontracting. Rather than engagethe researchers as “hired guns” tocarry out studies directed by a north-ern institution, the entity with theABEL contract (the Florida State Uni-versity) contracted with researchteams on a fixed-price basis to proposeand carry out studies on a series of top-ics. The topics were drawn from a list ofpriority research targets established bythe Working Group on Nonformal Edu-cation (WG/NFE) of the Association forthe Development of Education in Africa(ADEA).

ADEA is a consortium of all AfricanMinisters of Education and representa-tives of all principal donor agencies. Itfunctions primarily through workinggroups of different sub-sectors of edu-cation directed by consortia of Africaneducators and donor representatives.The Working Group on NonformalEducation and Training—establishedafter the ADEA biennial meeting of1995 and sponsored jointly by theSwiss Agency of International Coopera-tion and the Ministers of Education ofGhana, Mali and Senegal—met for itsfirst plenary in spring 1996 in Dakarand adopted a list of priority topics forresearch.

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The policy adopted was to invite African research teamsto submit proposals on one or more of the topics selected,and to enter into agreements with those able to do researchthrough a performance contract mechanism. This approachrequired the researchers to produce work of agreed-uponquality within definite time limits and gave them a greatdeal of flexibility — so necessary under the uncertain condi-tions for research that exist in Africa — in order to decidehow best to allocate the sums to achieve those ends. Strictaccountability for expenditures was required ex post, butteams did not have to adhere to the originally proposed bud-getary breakdown.

A number of very interesting studies were conducted, sev-eral of them spanning more than one country and includingportions carried out by separate research teams, who thenhad an opportunity to compare results. Subjects investi-gated included (a) the acquisition of skills in the informalsector of the urban economy, (b) the practical uses ofKoranic literacy, (c) means for building competencies inwomen’s cooperatives, (d) new formulas for NGO-govern-ment cooperation in providing nonformal education, and (e)experiments in informal primary schooling.

Getting the word out

The question now was how to disseminate this research tothose at the local level who would use it. With ABEL fund-ing, a series of studies on skill acquisition in women’s coop-eratives and the problems encountered in meeting theirmanagement challenges had been done in rural Ghana andMali in 1996-1997. The results were compiled, written up,reported in conferences, and made available both in hardcopy in the two countries and via the Internet. But thesemodes of distribution did little for women in similar situa-tions across West Africa who might benefit from the Ghana-ian and Malian experience, but who evidently neither at-tended professional conferences, nor perhaps had access tothe Internet.

Project staff therefore decided to think “outside the box”in developing the dissemination phase of the activity. Theidea was to involve researchers in other potentially inter-ested African countries in• culling through the studies• identifying studies most relevant to local problems in each

country• proposing target audiences who might benefit from the

research results• developing a methodology for making these people aware

of the results and helping them to compare and draw con-clusions from the Ghanaian and Malian experiences.

The intermediate institutional structure to accomplishthis task was the newly formed National Working Group onNonformal Education — a consortium of public and privateagencies (NGOs) involved with nonformal education and af-filiated with the Association for the Development of Educa-tion in Africa (ADEA).

Results in Benin

In Benin, the embryonic Working Group on NonformalEducation went through the entire collection of studiesdone by African researchers under Phase I of the ABELProject and selected three of interest to local educators: (a)skill creation in women’s cooperatives, (b) the practical usesof Koranic literacy (described in IK Notes 11, August 1999),and (c) knowledge acquisition in the informal sector of theurban economy. It then invited its own constituent groupsand other teams of researchers within Benin to proposemethods for disseminating these studies in the field. TheBenin NGO “RAMPE” proposed taking the Malian andGhanaian studies on women’s cooperatives to officers andmembers of similar institutions in the Toviklin region ofnorthern Benin who, despite initial successes, were havingdifficulty developing their own movement.

Researchers took a summary of the nature and results ofthe study to leaders of the different cooperatives, and madea first discovery. Out of more than 100 entities listed asmembers of the network, only 21 actually were women-di-rected enterprises. Out of these, the research team identi-fied ten that would be interested in the exercise and avail-able to carry it out. They proceeded to develop a methodol-ogy for presenting the essential nature and results of theMalian and Ghanaian studies to members of each of the tencooperatives. They then gathered their leaders to discusshow the experience of these two other countries comparedwith that of Toviklin and what practical conclusions mightbe drawn from the exercise.

The activity provoked a genuine effort of self-evaluationand situational analysis by the Beninois groups, which wereso fascinated by news of progress made by their “sisters” inthese two neighboring countries that they moved to identifyseveral areas of blockage in their own situation that hadprevented them from achieving autonomy. Principal amongthese was a deficiency in training and a consequent inabilityto handle the fiscal management of their new enterprises.They resolved to seek early integration—on their own terms—into a centrally sponsored literacy campaign then under-way in northern Benin, and to decide on securing trainingfor their elected officials. A number of details regarding theorganization of women’s cooperatives in Mali and Ghana —

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and the roles played in them by men—were also discussedand compared with conditions in Benin.

Social marketing as a two-edged sword

This approach has evolved into both a means for social mar-keting and action research and a strategy for disseminatinginnovation. Its strength lies in the active involvement of tar-get groups and their appropriation and ownership of thesubject material—as well as in the potential cascading ef-fects and learning consequences. But experience in bothphases of the ABEL studies demonstrates that it has an im-pact at two levels: within the communities involved, andamong the cadre of researchers responsible for facilitatingthe exercise.

This research is different than that usually taught andpracticed. It is research as a conversation about indigenousknowledge, its refinement, and its practical applications.Those responsible for the work must struggle to make exist-ing studies understandable in practical terms and help their“clients” recognize the fruit of their own experience as re-search worth comparing with work done elsewhere. In addi-tion, a difficult and innovative aspect of the undertakingwas the degree of management responsibility, includingbudgetary oversight and accountability, devolving to the re-searchers involved. Deploying staff to accomplish objectivesas complex and integrated with local reality as the ones as-signed to this dissemination scheme was an adventure in itsown right, since few of the participating researchers had ex-perience managing such an intervention. However, the re-sponsibility was motivating, and the challenge instructive.

The style of dissemination in Benin has not been the onlyone developed. In Botswana, the National Working Groupperformed similar activities—selecting once again a set ofstudies by African researchers that spoke to issues of localinterest—but resorting instead to a strategy of bringingleaders of NGOs together around each topic to pool nationalexperience and compare it with the data and conclusions ofthe studies. Though a step more removed from the field,this approach had the virtue of creating a setting favorableto policy decisions and new forms of collaboration amongthe actors involved.

Where next?

Next efforts are under way in September/October 1999 inThe Gambia and Chad, and focused on studies conducted infive other West African countries around the theme of de-centralization and local capacity building—that is, how localcommunities, enterprises and associations have acquiredthe competence to assume new development functions in anera of government decentralization. Gambian and Chadianresearchers—drawn this time both from the countries’nonformal education working groups and from the ranks oftheir Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development—started by doing an inventory of the many sites where localgroups had begun identifying those that might participatein dissemination and comparison. Results will be availableby the end of the year.

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This article is a slightly modified version of the article entitled “Moving On: Less Description, More Prescriptionfor Human Health” by Katy Moran, in Ecoforum, Journal of the Environment Liaison Center International, Vol.21, No. 4, January 1998. For more information on this subject, please contact Katy Moran, Executive Director,The Healing Forest Conservancy 3521 S Street, NW—Washington, DC 20007; e-mail: [email protected]


Indigenous Knowledge, Equitable BenefitsHealth

Since the Convention on Biological Di-versity (CBD) was introduced in Rio(June 1992), we have learned muchfrom describing the new relationshipsthat the CBD catalyzed. Biodiversity-rich countries, indigenous cultureswith their knowledge of the use ofbioresources as medicines and compa-nies that seek to discover new thera-peutics through medicinal plants andtraditional knowledge now share com-mon interests. The value of plants formedicines is more widely recognizedand the “intellectual property rights”(IPR) connected with their use havebeen debated worldwide. Indeed, IPRhave become a metaphor to describe in-digenous ownership of traditionalknowledge also, generating options forcontractual mechanisms to ensure ben-efits return to source cultures andcountries (Mays, et al., 1997). But, astime passes, the extinction rate of spe-cies and cultures continues to acceler-ate and human health further deterio-rates from diseases for which no curesyet exist. How can we apply CBD les-sons and more quickly move on tomethods to implement it? Can coun-tries facilitate access and encourage re-search and investment by companies,which, in turn, provide countries andcultures with a fair bargain from prod-ucts that are commercialized? Have

any case studies emerged that demon-strate this, and what questions stillneed answers?

Plants as medicines

The IPR debate illuminates the vitalityof biodiversity for human health. Fromancient to modern times, plants havebeen the cornerstone of pharmacy. Spe-cies from tropical countries are valu-able for the richness of their biologicaland chemical diversity, due, in part, toclimatic conditions. In temperate cli-mates, winter kills many plant preda-tors, and temperate plants flourish inthe spring before predator populationsincrease. But since tropical specieshave minimal seasonal respite frompredators, many have evolved chemicalprotection from countless predators.The plant chemicals that have evolvedto increase plant resistance againstbacteria and other infectious organ-isms of tropical plants may also provideprotection and be therapeutically use-ful for human health. Today, one-fourth of our drugs are based on, or de-rived from, plants. In lesser developedcountries, eighty percent of the popula-tion depend on plants for their primaryhealth care.


Countries

Most biodiversity-rich countries are located in the tropics ofthe South, but technology-rich countries, with resources tosustainably develop biodiversity, are primarily in the tem-perate North. Before the CBD codified the sovereignty ofnations over their biodiversity, it was considered “the com-mon heritage of mankind.” Free access to biotic resourceswas available to all, with minimal legalized procedures toreturn benefits from commercialized products to sourcecountries. The CBD now attempts to balance how all inter-est groups involved can gain from the sustainable use ofbiodiversity and its components. Northern countries can ac-cess the biodiversity of Southern countries by sharing tech-nology and benefits that arise from its commercial use. It isthe responsibility of each CBD Contracting Party, 169 na-tions to date, to devise a national biodiversity policy to docu-ment how this will work in their country, including a legalframework to implement it. India’s state-funded Council ofScientific and Industrial Research, for example, has re-cently embarked on a patent program to protect its accumu-lated knowledge of herbal medicines.

Companies

Since the CBD was introduced, a pharmaceutical productfrom tropical countries using traditional knowledge has yetto be commercialized. Economic profits have yet to be real-ized. Drug development generally requires expensive andtime consuming studies to secure government regulatoryapproval before any drug may be marketed. In the US, aproduct typically takes from 10-15 years to materialize, af-ter an investment of over $300 million by the company andinvestors who take the financial risk to develop, test andmarket a new drug. For a new company, infrastructuresuch as buildings, equipment and research scientists’ sala-ries must be paid before any product generates any rev-enues. To raise this huge amount of money to fund drug re-search and development (R & D), companies depend on ven-ture capital, stock offerings, partnerships and the like—in-vestments by outsiders into a company’s high-risk, buthigh-gain ventures. Investors range from individuals to or-ganizations and their investments are secured by patents.Patents provide intellectual property protection for the in-vention of the company, enabling investors to regain thefunds they risked for R & D, if and when a product is com-mercialized. It is unlikely that any company or any investorwill risk capital to discover or develop a drug unless theirinvestment is protected from competing companies by apatent.

Cultures

Seventy-four percent of the main 121 plant derived drugshave the same, or similar, use by native cultures. Ratherthan randomly collecting and screening plants, it is a moreefficient strategy for some companies to use indigenousknowledge as a lead to pinpoint promising plants for newmedicines. But few strategies directly address how indig-enous knowledge can be accessed and equitable benefits canbe distributed in a culturally sensitive manner that sustainsthe social systems that nurtured it. The difference betweena market economy, based on individual ownership, and acommunal economy, which typically shares its biologicaland cultural resources internally, means the culture groupas a whole must benefit. Even fewer indigenous groups havebeen included in national discussions on these issues, or oninterpretation and implementation of the CBD in theircountries.

A case study: Nigeria

In practice, a case study of how countries, companies andcultures can cooperate is that of Shaman Pharmaceuticals,Inc. in Nigeria. According to physician, Tom Carlson, SeniorDirector of Ethnobiomedical Field Research at Shaman, “Inthis West African country, rich in both biological and cul-tural diversity, indigenous medicinal systems thrive alongwith Western medical facilities. In 1995, the Nigerian gov-ernment officially integrated traditional healers into thestate-run national health service as health care providersand today, two-thirds of the health care practitioners aretraditional healers of one sort or another” (Carlson et al.,1997).

Professor Maurice Iwu—a scientist and Director of theBioresources Development and Conservation Programme(BDCP), a Nigerian NGO—explains, “the BDCP was orga-nized in 1991 as a focal point for collaborative research rela-tionships that build technical skills in Nigeria sobioresources are a viable vehicle for sustainable develop-ment. Improved skills generate pharmaceutical leads thattarget therapeutic categories for tropical diseases sufferedin Nigeria such as malaria, leishmaniasis, and trypanoso-miasis” (Iwu, 1996).

Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc. entered this setting in 1990and, through the BDCP established a research relationshipwith Nigerian scientific institutions, village communities,and traditional healers and their organizations. The smallCalifornia-based company began operations focusing on the

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discovery and development of novel pharmaceuticals fromplants with a history of native use. Lisa Conte, Presidentand founder of the company describes it, “As implied by itsname, Shaman uses the science of ethnobotany, as well asisolation and natural products chemistry, medicine andpharmacology to create a more efficient drug discovery pro-cess. At the time of its incorporation as a for-profit corpora-tion, Shaman also founded the Healing Forest Conservancy,a non-profit foundation established specifically to developand implement a process to return benefits to Shaman’s col-laborating countries and cultures after a product is com-mercialized.” Although the young company has not yetmarketed a product, the use of ethnobotanical leadsbrought potential products to clinical trials within a recordtime frame (King, et al., 1996).

Immediate and medium-term benefits distributedin NigeriaIwu and another Nigerian scientist, Cosmos Obialor, pro-posed initial discussions with healers and traditional lead-ers to talk about a collaborative relationship with Shamanwell before the CBD was introduced in Rio in 1992. “We vis-ited communities where we had worked for several years al-ready,” said Iwu, “including the villages where Obialor and Iwere born. Typically, each community, or village state, is au-tonomous with its own chief and government. Their com-munity decision-making process includes the village chief,his advisors, traditional healers and the elders,” Iwu added.After lengthy discussions, the groups felt that Shamanshared a common purpose with them consistent with theircultural values concerning human health. Out of these andother early discussions, the prior informed consent andcompensation policies of the company were formulated.Prior informed consent discussions covered topics such asthe intentions and goals of the project; how and where theplants would be analyzed; their potential for commercializa-tion and benefit-sharing.

“Since then, four ethnobotanical field expeditions havebeen conducted,” said Steven King, Senior Vice-presidentfor Ethnobotany and Conservation at Shaman. “By choiceof Nigerian collaborators, benefits have taken the form ofworkshops and training programs on public health, botany,conservation and ethnobotany; support for a medicinalplant reserve; supplies for village schools; botanical collec-tion supplies for a herbarium; laboratory equipment for sci-entific research on plants that treat parasitic diseasesprevalent in West Africa and support for Nigerian scientiststo apply modern analytical techniques. Fulfilling companypolicy, immediate and medium term benefits, such as thoseabove, totaling over US$200,000 (two hundred thousanddollars) have been distributed through programs to the

various stakeholders in the collaboration as the expeditionsoccur.”

Iwu added, “The company reports laboratory results backto participating communities regularly. General literature ispublished on medicinal plants from Nigeria, supplying pub-lic recognition of the benefits of traditional knowledge fromNigeria to society and human health. ”

Long-term benefitsAfter a product is commercialized, Shaman will donate apercentage of profits back to Nigeria and all other companycollaborators through the Healing Forest Conservancy (theConservancy) for as long as Shaman has a profit. The Con-servancy will distribute these benefits, equally, to all thecountries and cultures that are Shaman collaborators, re-gardless of where the plant sample or traditional knowledgethat was commercialized originated. In a financially unpre-dictable industry such as this, spreading the benefits andrisks among all Shaman collaborators increases opportuni-ties for compensation (Moran, 1997).

Shaman and the Conservancy follow the CBD principlethat when local custodians of biodiversity benefit from thesustainable use of their medicinal plants by others, conser-vation opportunities are increased. To resist pressure fromother economic interests that may have adverse impacts onbiodiversity, benefits to conserve it must be available at thelocal level. However, the absence of applicable models leavesthis precept largely untested. To test the feasibility of usingtrust agreements as a vehicle for benefit sharing, the Con-servancy donated $40,000 (forty thousand dollars) to a trustfund in Nigeria for a pilot project.

The Fund for Integrated Rural Development and Tradi-tional Medicine (FIRD-TM), an independent trust fund,was established by the BDCP as the financial mechanismfor sustainable development of rural areas and to distributebenefits among Nigerian stakeholders. The board is bal-anced to reflect these interest groups, composed of leadersof traditional healers’ associations, senior government offi-cials, representatives of village councils from various ethnicgroups and technical experts from scientific institutions.Chairman of the Board of Management of the Fund, HisRoyal Highness Eze E. Njemanze of Owerri, is a highly re-spected traditional ruler. The predominance of traditionalsolidarity systems, such as tribal associations and profes-sional guilds of healers supplies a social structure to ensurecommunity participation. Diverse culture groups in Nigeriawill receive funds through traditional healers’ organizationsand villages consistent with their governing customs. Townassociations, village heads and professional guilds of healersare empowered to make decisions regarding projects in theirlocalities. Those funded will follow the criteria of promoting

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conservation of biodiversity and drug development, as well asthe socioeconomic well-being of rural cultures. At the locallevel, technical skills gained from benefit-sharing help stan-dardize and promote phytomedicines, disseminating andsharing information that benefits traditional healers and thehealth of the communities they serve.

Inauguration of the FIRD-TM was announced in Abuja,Nigeria, on September 30, 1997, during an internationalworkshop on medicinal plants attended by five Nigerianministers and several heads of Nigerian government agen-cies, including the Director General of the Federal Environ-mental Protection Agency. The Honorable Minister of theFederal Capital Territory of Abuja stated, “...the skills of thetraditional medical practitioners who are also the custodi-ans of our native medical culture are now being accordedthe right place in society.”

The trust fund concept offers the added value of attract-ing and managing sources of financing from other NGOs,foundations or companies interested in contributing to astable fund. When the Conservancy donation was an-nounced, the Association of Indigenous PharmaceuticalManufacturers and the Orange Drug Company of Nigeriapledged additional monies to complement the donation.Next year, the project will be evaluated and used to guidethe Conservancy in developing a template trust fund pro-cess for use by all Shaman collaborators, other companiesand foundations.

Remaining issuesThe case study of Shaman in Nigeria offers an example ofhow countries, culture groups and companies can cooperatefor the benefit of all stakeholders to sustainably developbiodiversity for human health. It is but one of the ways toaccomplish the goals of the CBD and each participantshould continue to seek, identify and prescribe new tech-niques and paradigms that are best suited for conditions ineach situation. The countries, cultures and companies in-volved are so diverse that actions can be effective only byaddressing them in their unique cultural, economic and en-vironmental contexts. The following issues have yet to beresolved.• Nigeria offered a strategic alliance for Shaman, with in-

tact institutional capacities, particularly at the villagelevel. These autonomous systems, with their own chiefsand functioning governments, chose to use their tradi-tional knowledge in the outside world to reach goals thatthey, as a group, decided were important to them. Differ-ent indigenous groups hold different beliefs about entre-preneurship and have different visions of what is a mar-ket. These differences should never be an excuse to ex-

clude indigenous groups from the sustainable use ofbiodiversity, for this is their, and only their, decision tomake, and not non-indigenous NGOs, as it is often thecase, who claim to represent indigenous views in decidingthese matters.

• Article 8 (j) is the CBD section that addresses mainte-nance and respect for indigenous knowledge. But it offersonly weak protection for culture groups and subordinatesCBD obligations to national legislation. Legally, it is theContracting Parties of the CBD, not companies’ policies,that hold sovereign authority to decide if and how the sus-tainable development of biodiversity will be accomplishedwithin their borders. The political climate of States underwhich indigenous groups live is critical to its success.Since indigenous groups are huge stakeholders in the is-sues put forth under the CBD, they must be included intheir national discussions on interpreting and implement-ing the CBD. To ensure continuation of their cultural sys-tems, they must fully participate and advocate for them-selves and their own interests. If States are to be effectiveat conserving the worlds’ species, their strategies must bebuilt up through participation by the custodians ofbiodiversity, not imposed from the capital down.

• The affiliation of indigenous peoples with traditional ter-ritories sanctions and governs their ecological practices.Legal recognition of territorial rights by governmentsprovides authority for indigenous groups to deny or per-mit outsiders access to them — the first step inbiodiversity conservation through traditional land and re-source management. But this priority issue was givenonly minimal attention at a recent CBD workshop inMadrid attended by both governments and indigenousgroups. A lost opportunity, many stated. Others saw themeeting as a first step where progressive prescriptions forbiodiversity conservation through territorial rights, suchas Act No. 8371, a recent federal statute in the Philip-pines, could be announced. It remains to be seen in thenext forum whether biodiversity conservation throughterritorial rights will again be subsumed by competingagendas (Burgiel, et al., 1997).

• Accurate information is essential. It is incumbent upon allCBD stakeholders to develop a clear understanding of ex-actly what IPR are and what they are not. They are not asurrogate legal right for land and human rights and frus-trations arise from attempting to use IPR in ways notoriginally intended. What will succeed is for countries,cultures and companies to share their experiences coop-eratively, since no single paradigm will work for all. Theconservation and sustainable development of biodiversityrequire a diversity of approaches.

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Grassroots Democracy in ActionSenegal

This article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technicalsupervision of Peter Easton, Associate professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education., FloridaState University, with the active collaboration of the concerned African communities. Theresearch was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the InterstateCommittee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comité Inter-état Contre la Sécheresse (CILSS)and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

In villages of the Wolof-speakinggroundnut basin and the Fulani-speak-ing Fouta Toro in Senegal, “democ-racy” is fast becoming a household ex-pression. The Senegalese NGO“Tostan” (a Wolof name that means“breaking out of the egg”), a ruralwomen’s non-formal education pro-gram has been developing for over twoyears a brand of local training in demo-cratic principles and behaviors. Theinitiative got under way on the heels ofa training and empowerment programthat the NGO had been promotingthroughout central Senegal for the lastdecade. The effort was open to all, butit specifically targeted women and in-cluded lessons in problem-solving, in-come generation, African-language lit-eracy and child health. In order to meetemerging felt needs, and as the pro-gram grew, new modules were devel-oped with the beneficiaries One of thelast of these was a module on women’shealth, including some sharing and dis-cussion of a long-taboo subject—women’s sexuality—which broke allrecords for participation throughoutthose rural areas. Tostan staff discov-ered that one strong and unsuspectedsource of interest in this module wasthe emphasis put on human rights,particularly the rights of women and

children to be free from discriminationand the threat of violence. Peoplewanted to know more.

Democracy from the familyto the state

Before developing any new modules,however, staff decided to undertakesome participatory research into justwhat most concerned people in thisrealm and what they most needed tolearn. The results were surprising. Re-spondents very much wanted to expandon the issue of human rights and to ex-amine the conditions, even the kind ofsociety, in which these could be moredurably ensured. The term “democ-racy” surfaced on a number of occa-sions, overheard from national politicaldiscourse, but no one was too sure ex-actly what it meant. Staff resolvedtherefore to try out a training sequencethat would use “democracy” as a coverterm for the kind of social arrange-ments under which human rights couldbe effectively guaranteed and people ofall groups and ages could play an activerole in determining their own destiny.The module that resulted from thesemonths of effort included information,discussion, role-playing and applied ac-tivities all focusing on what human


rights society must protect, how individual and group valuesare balanced, by what means those who have been deprived ofrights can assert them, how conflict is healed, and the sort ofgovernance strategies such goals require. Organizers found itworthwhile to go back to the root meaning of “democracy” inGreek—government by the people—and to facilitate wide-spread discussion of just what this implied and how it relatedto the assertion of human rights and the resolution of conflict.Democracy was interpreted and discussed as an arrange-ment affecting family life, local associations and village orga-nization every bit as much as it did politics at the regional ornational level. The debate and exchange that these topicsprompted in participating communities was extremely livelyand soon reached well beyond the confines of the non-formaleducation course. A remarkable amount of dialogue betweenmen and women, between young people and their elders, andeven among ethnic groups ensued in most areas involved.

Keeping the faith

Organizers were careful to associate village authorities andreligious leaders in the process. In fact, perhaps the greatestimpetus to the effort was given by its interaction with reli-gious values, mostly Islamic in the areas concerned. Thewidespread reaction among the faithful was that the rightsand democratic principles in question were a better reflec-tion of true Islamic values than much of contemporary soci-ety or customary practice.

Palpable results were soon evident on a number of fronts.Much of the momentum seems to have come from a dy-namic much like Gandhian nonviolence—that is, from de-liberate efforts to bring contradictions between values andbehavior into the light of collective awareness. Violenceagainst women and children in the family provides a case inpoint. Participants in the Tostan democracy education pro-gram were quick to denounce the practice of allowing thebeating of wives and children within the family. Cases werebrought out and discussed in community after community.As a male head of household in the village of Ngaparou putit, “We all knew it was not right to beat women. We just gotaway with it. But you have to change now, because thewhole matter has gone public.” Going public — though usu-ally in a non-aggressive way—has to all appearances been akey arm of the movement.

Children’s rights constitute another principal focus.Groups in the town of Thies who went through the studythen identified the lack of birth certificates for a major pro-portion of children born in their community as one of themost serious abuses of human rights to be remedied. It ef-fectively excluded these children from schooling and a series

of life opportunities. Program participants went on to lobbyfor new procedures and to obtain certification for a largenumber of young people. In a number of locations across theregion, the problem of early marriage without the consentof girls was posed in no uncertain terms and widely debated.The increased focus on girls’ rights added new impetus tothe grassroots movement to ban female circumcision high-lighted in IK Notes 3 on the Oath of Malicounda.

Habits of accountability

The democracy debate appears also to be having major ef-fects on practice within local associations and communities.Notions of accountability, transparency, leadership qualifi-cations, interest representation and effective governancewere much discussed in the curriculum, as were means forresolving the conflicts that increased claims on social recog-nition and equity inevitably produce. Staff now find formerparticipants maintaining that there has been a majorchange in procedures and even in personnel within commu-nity associations as a result of the training. “We now knowbetter what a leader should be,” they say; and there is a no-ticeable increase in women’s access to leadership functions.Women also speak of no longer tolerating customary situa-tions where the leader—of either gender—makes decisionsfor the membership. And, in several areas, conflict resolu-tion clinics have been established by women who finishedthe democracy module.

Further political ramifications cannot be excluded. Par-ticipants suggest that a much larger proportion of women isinterested in voting than ever before - and few are willing toaccept the frequent pattern where the male head of thehousehold dictates how all family members shall vote. (Infact, in a number of villages it was the chief who decidedhow all residents would vote.) The discussion of leaderqualifications has led in several places to new criteria forevaluating political candidacies, a sort of local “checklist” ofdesirable characteristics and an indigenous litmus test fordemocratic intentions. Women in the Fouta Toro region re-solved to monitor more closely national legislation onwomen’s rights.

A growth industry

Demand for the democracy module has been increasing andprompting a sort of local campaign spirit, particularly at theintersection between this populism and the issues ofwomen’s rights. Participants from the islands of SineSaloum canoed this summer from community to community

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in order to organize women in a region-wide front against fe-male circumcision. Over eighty villages, covering nearly theentire arrondissement of Dabo, have joined the movement oftheir own volition. And in the Toucouleur areas of the FoutaToro, participants in the training program have organizedtheir own “road show” to take from village to village through-out adjoining rural areas.

Results are showing up in some farther-flung areas aswell. Participants from the region of Ngirin Bamba started agarden project by asking plots from the men of the village onthe principle of “land to the tiller,”and then posted a signreading “the right to land” at the gate to their vegetable andfruit cooperative.

Notions of “democracy”—adapted to local Senegalese condi-tions—are thus woven in and among these various assertionsof human rights. The word itself has been assimilated di-rectly into the Wolof and Fulani/Pulaar languages and cropsup now in arguments, proclamations and jokes throughoutthe villages involved. As a women in Ker Simbara explainedto training staff on a follow-up visit, “We had to change theway we ran our cooperative meetings, because it wasn’t con-sistent with ‘democracy!” At a time when the fate of nationalrepresentative government still hangs very much in the bal-ance across the sub-region, a locally-grown variety seemsunexpectedly to be laying some of the groundwork for futurechange.

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Regional Planning, Local Visions:Participatory Futuring in West AfricaThis article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technical supervision of PeterEaston, Associate professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education., Florida State University, with the active collabo-ration of the concerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the Interstate Committee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comité Inter-état Contre la Sécheresse(CILSS) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

Starting in 1990, the Club du Sahel—abranch of the Organization for Eco-nomic Cooperation and Developmentresponsible for coordinating northerndonor agencies in support of food secu-rity and natural resource managementin the desert-edge portions of West Af-rica—undertook to update existinglong-term planning for the region. Itcooperated in this effort with the Inter-state Committee for Struggle AgainstDrought in the Sahel (“CILSS” by itsfrancophone acronym), an organizationaffiliating Ministries of Agriculture andother government agencies of sevenSahelian countries in pursuit of similargoals, headquartered in Ouagadougou.

The work was chiefly carried out byeconomists and political scientists en-gaged by the Club du Sahel, who usedexisting studies and available data onregional trends to project alternate sce-narios for the next thirty years of WestAfrican development. The resultingdocument, popularly known as the“West African Long-Term PerspectivesStudy” or “WALTPS,” stirred a gooddeal of controversy. There were dis-agreements between Europeans whofavored urban-oriented scenarios andNorth Americans who were more in-clined toward rural-oriented ones, andbetween Northerners who did most of

the analysis and African researcherswho felt a little shortchanged. The en-tire project seemed for a while to bemired in disagreements that obscuredthe usefulness of the data gathered.

Taking it to the field

The impasse was overcome in part byturning to West African farmers for ar-bitration. The Club and the CILSShappened to be collaborating at thesame time on a participatory study ofdecentralization and local capacity-building in five countries of the region:Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger andSenegal. It involved case studies of localcommunities and associations whichhad assumed major new developmentand management responsibilities ontheir own. Organizers of the five-coun-try research effort suggested that oneway to get beyond the stalemate overthe WALTPS Study would be to take itsbasic questions, observations and con-clusions to the field and ask membersof these same communities what theythought about the matter, since theyarguably represented the most impor-tant stakeholders of such long-rangeplanning. The specialists expressedsome skepticism at such a “populist”

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approach: did local people have the necessary breadth of vi-sion and distance from daily concerns required to contrib-ute to such futuring? Proponents countered that nearly ev-ery village had people who had either traveled extensively inthe region or were currently away working in coastal cities,if not overseas, and that the combination of this experiencewith first-hand knowledge of local conditions made them es-sential counterparts.

In the end, it was decided to undertake a local consulta-tion on long-range planning across the five countries. TheAfrican and international researchers involved developed atrial methodology for inviting debate and analysis of the fu-ture of the immediate community and the larger region ineach of the areas visited. It entailed enlisting representa-tives from a variety of local social groups in the data collec-tion, discussion and forecasting process.

Protocols for local debate

The work covered five sequential steps:1. Examine the most important changes that have oc-

curred in the immediate community, the surrounding coun-try and the West African region as a whole over the lastthirty years, concentrating on five related dimensions ofdaily life:• Environment• Demography• Economy• Society and culture• Politics.

The researchers prepared a digest of the essential find-ings of the WALTPS Study, but also took care to solicit localviewpoints. The essential question was simply, “How havethings changed in your community and its surroundingsfrom these five points of view since the time when today’syoung adults were themselves babies?”

2. Consider the underlying factors that seem to accountfor or explain these changes, their relations to each other,and the longer-term trends that they reveal.

3. Imagine the situation that might obtain in anotherthirty years—in all five areas just named—if the sametrends and factors continued to operate in much the samemanner.

4. Discuss future scenarios and conditions that the groupmight prefer to this forecast—that is, the type of future thatthey would like to deed to their children.

5. Consider what might need to be done at local, nationaland international levels to move the situation toward thesepreferred futures.

The methodology used to launch the process and guide de-bate varied significantly from one country to another:• In Ghana, for example, the research team took care to en-

large the sample of local associations and businesses vis-ited in order to include a few secondary schools andhigher training institutes where they might get the per-spective of the next generation of West African leaders.(The methods used in Ghana are presented more fully in asection at the end of this appendix.)

• In Niger and in Mali, the research teams put together Af-rican language versions of the facilitator’s manual anddiscussion guide.

• In Burkina Faso, researchers decided to ask each commu-nity to name a “panel” of participants, sampled by ageand gender, and worked exclusively with this focus group.

• In Senegal, national researchers gave each local researchteam a set of simple facilitator’s aids, including a map ofAfrica, a map of Senegal and a flip chart with butcher pa-per and felt-tip markers. The participatory dimension ofthe exercise was also given the greatest prominence inSenegal, where the national research team invited inter-ested local associations to organize the debates them-selves, trained the staff that they selected and establishedcontracts with these local institutions for direction of thework.

Local visions

The exercise stirred a great deal of interest in all communi-ties that took part—fifty-six of them in total across the fivecountries. Substantive results of the experiment can besummarized as follows:

1.The leaders and members of the local associations in-volved—both women and men—turned out to be very inter-ested in the idea of forecasting and discussing the future oftheir community, country and region—and quite capable ofplaying an active role in the exercise. They were particularlygratified by:• the feeling of having for the first time the opportunity to

play a part in political deliberations about developmentstrategy and the future of their environment;

• the chance to get a “systems view” of the evolution oftheir environment and to question local practices thatseemed incompatible with sustainable development;

• this pilot-testing of a procedure that might enable localassociations to do more systematic long-term planningand to visualize their relationships with their larger socialenvironment.


2. Their analyses of the changes that have occurred at thelocal level, of the trends underlying them, and of likely andpossible futures coincide often, but not entirely, with thoseof the authors of the different reference studies. The follow-ing themes stood out in the debates:• The biggest changes and the most disturbing trends iden-

tified were those in the ecological and economic domains,concerning agriculture in particular. Widespread and verypronounced awareness of the deterioration of the envi-ronment and of the role that human activity (populationincrease, farming methods, natural resource use) plays init were everywhere evident.

• Though it is recognized that population is on the increasenearly everywhere and that interaction among social andethnic groups has intensified at the same time, neitherfact is universally interpreted as a problem or a source ofconflict. Opinions regarding family planning differ mark-edly, particularly between mature and older men, on theone hand, and young people and women on the other. Thesecond group generally supports family planning; the firsttends to reject it. One peasant woman in Senegal insiststhat “we are not machines for manufacturing children.”Yet a pater familias in a neighboring community bases hisarguments on the far greater population density in areasof Europe: given adequate resources, there should be noproblem in handling population growth.

• Local participants give particular emphasis to the rela-tions between urban and rural areas but speak ofcomplementarity, two-way flow, even reverse migrationmore often than do the authors of the reference studies.Some speakers in towns and cities stress the need for in-creased investment in rural areas, where most of themcontinue to have close ties.

• There is general recognition, most pronounced in land-locked countries like Mali and Niger, that it will be neces-sary henceforth to rely to a greater extent on local re-sources and ingenuity and that, given growing xenopho-bia in host countries, out-migration is no longer a goodsolution.

• Exception is widely taken to the reference studies for nothaving paid greater attention to the deterioration of socialvalues and to the ethnical and moral side of currenttrends. The breakup of traditional family structure andan increase in individualism are mentioned in both urbanand rural areas.

3. There is a tendency to paint the past (represented forthe purposes of this exercise by the 1960s) in somewhat ide-alized colors: the soil was then fertile, wildlife was abun-dant, people were content, etc. On the other hand, current

circumstances are seen as extremely critical and everyonespeaks of seeking remedies.

4. In the political realm, participants gave good marks tothe beginnings of democratic processes experienced in re-cent years but reproached the political parties with creatingdissension. Their prescriptions for the future included giv-ing much greater prominence to local governance. Particu-lar importance was attached by nearly all to the phenomenaof locally managed associations, cooperative businesses, andintervillage federations. The problem of linking thesegrassroots movements with the official decentralization anddemocratization programs now under way was also fre-quently mentioned.

5. The researchers who coordinated the exercise drew at-tention to some major resistance to decentralization at thelocal level among groups that benefit from the present situ-ation and call for clearer policies regarding the proceduresto be followed. Better coupling of the top-down forms of de-centralization with the bottom-up movements now develop-ing in the field offers perhaps the simplest way of both cir-cumventing local resistance and creating a solid base for de-centralization efforts, they felt.

6. Better regional integration and cooperation among theSahelian countries was mentioned frequently by all partici-pants, but one important qualification to this conclusionstands out. It was recognized that, to a certain degree, thename “Sahel” itself and the membership of the CILSS des-ignate a critical dimension of the problem, not the solution.Economic development in West Africa depends in good mea-sure upon better coordination between landlocked andcoastal areas along the north-south axes of precolonial com-merce that fueled the development of the regions’ great em-pires but were later broken by colonial patterns. Long-termsolutions to economic stagnation seem therefore to requirenew alignments between Sahelian countries and coastal ar-eas like Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea andLiberia—and across Francophone/Anglophone divides—that CILSS can help facilitate but cannot realize withinstrictly within its own framework.

Methodological lessons

At the same time, the “local long-range planning study” wasa methodological experiment as much as a substantive in-quiry into citizens’ perceptions of the West African future.

Participants in the concluding workshop felt that thelong-term payoff to the methodology tried out in the courseof the exercise lies with its transformation into a strategyand a set of tools for self-assessment and strategic planning

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of the different types of local associations and businessesthat took part. This kind of instrumentation seems sorelylacking in many associations, which rarely have a methodfor self-evaluation, information storage and retrieval orplanning.

The results show one other thing of major importance aswell, and this is the pressing need for better tools and prac-tices of “horizon scanning,” strategic planning and informa-tion use within these organizations. Paradoxically, at a timewhen project planning methodologies are either falling intodisuse or becoming the target of justifiable criticism in aidagencies themselves, some of the most rudimentary andmuch-used of these tools may turn out to be “just theticket” in local associations, communities and enterprises.

One of the research teams was asked to propose a simpleproject planning methodology to a local association involvedin the futuring exercise and, somewhat sheepishly, couldcome up with nothing other on the spot than the ancient“logframe matrix.” To the surprise of the researchers, thiswas an instant hit, because it at least offered a “template”for organizing local reflection about possible futures andworthwhile investments. Perhaps its shortcomings were asmuch a consequence of being used at the wrong level (verycentrally rather than more locally) as they were a functionof its inherent invalidity. How much of donor organizationand government agency practice now criticized might provecatalytic if transposed into the hands of local actors?

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Participatory Management and Local Culture:Proverbs and ParadigmsThis article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technical supervision of Peter Easton,Associate professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education., Florida State University, with the active collaboration of the con-cerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the InterstateCommittee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comité Inter-état Contre la Sécheresse (CILSS) and the Association for theDevelopment of Education in Africa.

Evaluation is often considered an activ-ity required by donors but fundamen-tally foreign to local culture — an expe-rience and a way of thinking that arelargely alien, if not downright threaten-ing, to program beneficiaries and staffalike.

Much has been done in recent yearsto develop participatory and empower-ing modes of program evaluation thatgive local staff and stakeholders an ac-tive role and a definite say in howevaluation is carried out and in how itsresults are interpreted. Creative wayshave been found to reconcile this popu-lar participation with reasonable rigorin results and even to increase the reli-ability, validity and the representativenature of findings through more sub-stantial stakeholder input. In addition,there has been increased recognitionthat high caliber evaluations of pro-gram impact are necessarily built oncareful day-by-day monitoring and de-scription of actual processes by thoseinvolved, and that the meaning ofquantitative results is equivocal at bestuntil they are interpreted—sometimescontradictorily—by the different stake-holder groups concerned.

Evaluation: Outside mandate orlocal reflex?

All these trends give enhanced impor-tance to local participation in and“ownership” of evaluation efforts. Yetthey may leave the heart of the matterlargely untouched. Are notions of ac-countability, performance assessmentand data-based decision making out-side impositions or do they bear analo-gies to “indigenous” concerns? And, ifso, what are the relationships and howare they best tapped to make evalua-tion a local tool, an appropriate tech-nology? The question is of no small sig-nificance in an era of increasing “de-centralization” in administration andeducation, where successful ap-proaches to genuine self-managementare at a premium.

In fact, one of the unanticipated re-sults of participatory evaluation prac-tice in West Africa has been to bring tolight local attitudes and approaches toevaluation, thus creating a basis for thedevelopment of appropriate evaluationmethodology. And one of the means forthat discovery has been the use of prov-erbs that encapsulate local attitudesand insight with regard to evaluation-related issues like accountability, per-formance and social responsibility.

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Proverbs: Tradition in motion

Throughout the region, proverbs provide a highly con-densed, often poetic window on human experience and onlocal understandings of the world. The word for “proverb”itself is illustrative of the point in many cultural traditions.In the Hausa language, for example, the term is “karinmagana,” which literally means “folded speech.” Africanproverbs are in fact a finely-wrought form of expressionwhere meanings are tightly interleaved, creating associa-tions between apparently disparate realms of experiencethat throw new light on events and order perception. Nowonder these expressions so often require, for the uniniti-ated, what modern criticism would call careful “unpack-ing.” They can be spare and evocative as a poem, and as cen-tral to establishing shared understandings of collective phe-nomena as any political assembly.

African proverbs are both new and old. They scarcely con-stitute a fixed canon of wisdom. New ones are being in-vented all the time and old ones are falling into disuse, aconstant process of what linguists would call “lexical cre-ativity.” At the same time, they are not oracles: for everyproverb, it is said, there is another asserting the oppositepoint of view. Proverbs are more like a language of thought.But they afford a capital means for linking current concernswith the historical experience of the group and helping toensure continuity and coherence in the value systems andmotivations that underlie new initiatives. As an Ewe sayingfrom eastern Ghana makes clear, Ka xoxoa nu wogbia yeyeaðo—“A new rope is plaited at the end of the old.”

Evaluation and performance

To imagine that there was no accountability for resources atthe local level prior to the intervention of official develop-ment programs is like presuming that no one learned any-thing before formal schools were established or that agricul-ture was non-existent prior to the arrival of the extensionagent. As a Nigérien proverb reminds us: Kunkuru ya sanmakamar matarshi: “The tortoise knows how to embracehis wife.”

In short, certain things may seem incomprehensible tothe outside observer, but insofar as they concern people’sessential health and welfare, you can be sure that those in-volved worked out solutions to their at least interim satis-faction long ago.

Flash back to an evaluation of functional literacy in theRepublic of Mali over two decades ago. In frustration overthe difficulties of tracking a program where advertised re-

sults sometimes seemed leagues away from field-level reality,one of the members of the team dredged up a proverb fromneighboring Niger that seemed to sum up the situation withtrenchant good humor:

Da an ce da kare tuwo ya yi yawa a gidan biki, ya ce ‘Magani a kas!: “When the dog was told that there was food foreveryone at the wedding feast, he replied, ‘We’ll check thatout at the ground level!’”

In truth, there can be all kinds of nourishment on thetable at a feast, but unless and until it gets down to theground the dog has no part in it. So it is with many a devel-opment program: the inflated rhetoric does not much matchthe benefits for local participants, and it is just this realityand disparity that evaluation should help examine.

The interesting point here is not just the pertinence of theproverb when applied to evaluation concerns, but equallythe fact that its relevance and poignancy were so immedi-ately understood and appreciated by people of a neighboringethnic group. The expression became a sort of motto for theevaluation.

Accountability and efficiency

Accountability may appear to be another imported notion.But a Hausa expression of long vintage sums up perspec-tives familiar in most West African cultures:

In ba k’ira, me ya ci gawai?: “If nothing has been forged,then what happened to the charcoal?”

Blacksmithing is still carried on in many areas of WestAfrica over charcoal fires. But if that valuable resource isconsumed and nothing is produced, there is real cause forconcern.

Effectiveness is likewise a frequent focus. The Beti ofCameroun put the matter quite simply: Fà è tèbé nèbài èdùgàn à àbam : “If the machete doesn’t want to cut brush,it had best sneak back to the sheath.”

“Efficiency” itself is scarcely a foreign notion. Numerouslocal expressions highlight the problem of social processesthat give poor or no results, the downside of operationswhere the ratio of inputs to outputs is «suboptimal,» to usethe dialect of planners. One of the most colorful comes fromthe Wolof language of Senegal. “Ten digging, ten filling—lotsof dust, no hole.” A commentary is scarcely needed!

Collective decision-making

Arguably, evaluation is at its best a form of collective deci-sion-making about the use of resources and appropriategoals for community life. Participatory evaluation makes


this goal a leitmotif. And West African culture is extremelyrich in wisdom and insight regarding both the necessity ofcooperation in decision-making and the ways to obtain it.The Hausa language puts the case in few words:

Shawara d’awkar d’aki. “Making a decision is [like] put-ting the roof on a hut.” In short, everyone must bend downand lift together!

An Ewe expression puts another critical spin on the issue,and one particularly relevant to evaluation: «Nunyaavemexevie ame ðeka me len o. “Knowledge is like the birdof the forest: one person alone can never catch it.”

At the same time, proverbs frequently make it clear thatdiffering points of view are an essential component of deci-sion-making and that nothing is subject to one single inter-pretation. Sira kelen sira tè, the Malinké people say: “Oneway is no way at all.”

And the Hausa language has two marvelous ways to illus-trate the diplomacy and gentleness with which consensus-building must be approached: Girma da arziki kan sa jan sada abawa: “It’s respect and kindness that allow one to leada bull with a tiny piece of thread.”

Makiyayen kwad’i ya yi hankali da sandarshi! “Theshepherd of a herd of toads must be very patient with hisrod!” Toads do not move very quickly or all in the same di-rection, but they also are soft-skinned and vulnerable crea-tures—and if the one responsible for herding them gets an-gry and starts laying about with his staff, he is sure to crusha few.

Empiricism and causal analysis

Evidence is scarcely less important in the local cultures ofWest Africa than it is in the Western scientific tradition,though it may not always be marshaled in the same ways. Infact, as Levi Strauss maintained in his classic La Science duconcret, “traditional” culture is, if anything, more tied tothe “hard data” of experience than is the academic one. Lo-cal practices are typically the results of generations of obser-vation, trial and experiment.

These reflexes are obviously important in evaluation andare expressed in a variety of proverbs and sayings through-out the region. To test, among other things, policy optionsand the often extravagant claims made by politicians, theHausa people comment quite simply, Ba a gardamar nomaga damana:. “There’s no point debating agricultural skillsin the rainy [growing] season!” In short, let each one use hisor her own methods to cultivate their field, and we will seesoon enough what the real results are.

A popular Ewe saying stresses the importance of compar-ing information across contexts: “The farmer who has neverventured beyond his field says his own methods are thebest.” And another Hausa insight emphasizes the contex-tual circumstances that must be understood to explain eventhe most unanticipated behavior. Abin da ya ka’da kusuwuta, ya hi wuta zahi: “Whatever caused the mouse to jumpinto the fire must be hotter than fire itself.”

At the same time, the relativity of all explanations ofevents, and the importance of triangulating among inter-pretations—including those of the least well represented—are eloquently evoked in another proverb from the Africancontinent, this one from Zimbabwe: «The stories of the huntwill be tales of glory until the day when the animals havetheir own historians!»

Self-governance and self-assessment

Self-assessment is arguably a key component skill in genu-ine self-governance, and African proverbs offer numerousrelated insights. A Moré saying from Burkina Faso uses astriking image to remind us that we are never independentwithout our own tools and resources: “The one who sleepson a borrowed mat should realize he is sleeping on the cold,cold ground.”

The Wolof put the same idea a little differently, but withno less effect: Ku la abal i tànk, nga dem fa ko neex: “Bor-row a man’s legs and you go where he wants you to go.”

But to take charge of one’s destiny requires competence:Barawon kakaki ba ya da iko ya busa shi, they say inHausa: “The one who steals the chief’s trumpet doesn’thave the strength to blow it.” And it requires an ability andwillingness to measure and correct one’s faults.

Sa kògòlen be dogo, in the Bambara language: “The hid-den serpent grows large.” That is, the failings and weak-nesses we don’t correct only get worse.

And the Hausa language adds Ranar wanka ba a b’oyoncibiya. “On the day of the bath, there is no point in hidingthe belly button!”

A language for mobilizing local insight

The use of local proverbs in evaluation has typically servedtwo purposes. First, it can shed new light on the social dy-namics that influence program operations, insofar as thesedistillates of local culture—many of which are quite similarand recognizable across ethnic groups—illustrate factorsthat impinge on individual and collective behavior.

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Still more important, however, the proverbs and sayingsoffer a way of demonstrating that evaluation and account-ability and a host of similar notions of increasing impor-tance in movements for decentralization and local develop-ment are not unfamiliar activities but simply ramificationsof concerns as old as the culture itself. And this attitude cre-ates the basis for helping beneficiaries develop a culturally-appropriate technology of democratic self-governance and—more important still—authoring it themselves.

Gyorgy Szèll has pointed out that a common denominatorcredo in the participatory management movements of mod-ern industry has been the notion that “the expert in regardto a worker’s work is finally the worker him or herself.” AHausa proverb puts it a bit differently, but with much thesame import: Kome ya ke cikin aikin d’an tsako, shaho yadade da saninsh:. “Whatever concerns the habits of littlechicks, [you can be quite sure that] the hawk started learn-ing it long ago.”

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Indigenous Knowledge and IntellectualProperty RightsThis article was written by Siddhartha Prakash of the Africa Region, World Bank. It is reproduced in an abridgedversion with the permission of the original publisher: “Towards a synergy between biodiversity and intellectualproperty rights” by S. Prakash, September 1999, Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol. 2, No. 5.

International trade in genetic re-sources, often referred to as bio-tradeinvolves high economic stakes today.The sale of drugs based on traditionalmedicines alone amounts to over US$32 billion (1 billion equals 1,000 mil-lion) a year. It has been estimated thatby consulting indigenous peoples, bio-prospectors can increase the success ra-tio in trials from one in 10,000 samplesto one in two. In the experience of an-other expert, traditional knowledge in-creases the efficiency of screeningplants for medicinal properties by morethan 400 percent. Without the input ofindigenous knowledge, many valuablemedical products used extensively to-day, would not exist.

Prior to 1992, traditional knowledgeand resources were seen as the com-mon heritage of mankind. There wereno international (and in most countriesnational) laws regulating access to ge-netic resources As a result, there wasan increase in the commercial use ofthe knowledge and biological resourcesof indigenous peoples. The rapid deple-tion of environmental resources andthe need to reward both users and pro-viders, gave rise to the Convention onBiological Diversity (CBD), which forthe first time acknowledged the value

of indigenous knowledge and re-sources. It established a framework forproviding access to genetic resourcesand a means for fair and equitable ben-efit sharing.

Intellectual property is a means of ac-quiring ownership over a particular re-source that is intangible in nature. Itusually involves the protection of someform of invention created by the hu-man mind. This includes a wide varietyof creations, ranging from new music,novels, drugs, to computer softwareand products obtained from the use ofindigenous knowledge.

The CBD introduced the notion of in-tellectual property rights as a strategyfor conserving biodiversity by grantingcountries sovereign rights over theirresources. This was complemented bythe Agreement on Trade-Related Intel-lectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Theinclusion of TRIPS into the main-stream of the WTO system establishednew disciplines for many countries inpatents, copyrights, geographical indi-cations, trademarks and industrial de-signs. The main objective of the agree-ment is to create an international stan-dard for minimum intellectual prop-erty rights (IPR) protection.

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Intellectual property rights: conflict or synergy?

Does the protection of indigenous knowledge and resourcesthrough the establishment of IPRs promote or hinder thechanneling of equitable economic benefits to the custodi-ans? Critics argue that IPRs are a threat to biodiversity bylimiting access to resources and the products derived fromthem. They encourage companies to patent inventions de-rived from indigenous knowledge and resources, withoutequitably sharing the commercial rewards with these com-munities. The advocates of TRIPS claim that it encouragestechnology transfer, which could be one strategy for equi-table benefit sharing. There are several other issues thatarise in this debate which will be dealt with and reconciledby examining strategies for working within existing IPR re-gimes and widening their scope where necessary, to con-serve indigenous knowledge and biodiversity.

Problems of applicability

The individualistic nature of IPRs creates several complica-tions, when applied to local communities. They fail to takeinto account the fact that these communities have a holisticapproach to their environment. Such communities find itdifficult to separate the resources from which their liveli-hood stems into distinct economic and social assets.

As far as IPR is concerned, this leads to another criticalproblem. How does one define an innovation and a benefi-ciary in local communities, given the need to prove noveltyand non-obviousness. In most traditional communities,knowledge is acquired over time and passed on from onegeneration to the next. Through this process it keeps evolv-ing and changing in character. Therefore, it is difficult to es-tablish when such knowledge was actually discovered andwhen it entered the public domain.

The second aspect of the dilemma involves the commu-nity aspect of indigenous knowledge. It is developed by be-ing shared amongst the members of the community such asthe elders who have the wisdom of years of experiencewhich adds further value to knowledge. In this sense it hasalways been in the public domain of the community andtherefore fails to meet the non-obviousness criteria of apatent. And when an entire community is involved in theevolution of traditional knowledge, how does one identifythe inventor? The problem is further complicated in caseswhere the same indigenous knowledge is used by differentcommunities across the world. For instance, if a particularherb is used by the Maasai in Kenya, as well as by the Ama-zonian Indians, how does one identify the rightful inventor?

Towards a synergy

These issues may be reconciled by working within theframework of TRIPS through the use of different forms ofintellectual property rights. These include geographical in-dications which are more applicable to community based in-ventions. Another possibility is to widen the scope of IPRsto include the notion of community based rights. This mayinclude sui generis (of its own kind; constituting a classalone) forms of protection which are more innovative thanthe use of patents.

Some suggest that patent laws be modified to ensure thatall patent applications disclose the country of origin of bio-logical materials and traditional knowledge used to developthe invention. A related issue involving the patenting of in-digenous practices is the need to document them. The prob-lem with most indigenous practices is that they are passedon from one generation to the next through oral traditionsand not written records. In order to prevent traditionalknowledge that is already in the public domain from beingpatented as a new invention in another country, it is vital toprovide written documentation of such practices. This way,indigenous communities can challenge patents beinggranted to others for practices that are traditionally theirown. The World Bank’s Indigenous Knowledge databaseand a similar initiative by WIPO to register traditional prac-tices are initiatives in this direction.

In addition, the creation of national, regional and interna-tional registries of traditional knowledge could support ben-efit sharing among industry and local communities. Theycould support IPR- related measures such as strengtheningtraditional knowledge’s status as prior art, enabling ‘defen-sive publications’.

Aside from patents, there are other possible mechanismsfor establishing intellectual property rights over indigenousknowledge and resources. These include the use of geo-graphical indications (place names or words associated witha place to identify the origin, type and quality of a product—for example “Darjeeling tea”). These are unique in theirability to reward collective traditions while allowing for evo-lution. They emphasize the relationships between humancultures and their local environment and can be maintainedas long as the collective tradition survives. It is immaterialwhether the inventor is an individual, family or large corpo-ration. Indigenous communities claim their knowledge isnot to be freely bought or sold. Similarly, a geographical in-dication lacks the typical private property characteristic ofbeing freely transferable.

Other forms of protection include copyrights and trade se-crets. Copyrights are often used to protect traditional folk-lore from unauthorized duplication. WIPO has protected

134 IK Notes Number

folklore from different parts of the world as copyrights.Trade secrets are a means to protect confidential informa-tion that can give others such as a business firm a competi-tive advantage. They could be an effective way of protectingindigenous knowledge. Local communities could restrict ac-cess to their territories and information to outsidersthrough agreements that secure confidentiality and eco-nomic benefits. Such practices have been initiated in coun-tries such as Ecuador with the support of the Inter-Ameri-can Development Bank.

Sui generis: access and equitable benefit sharing

Some of the biggest controversies surrounding IPRs con-cern the protection of local plant species. The TRIPS agree-ment states that members may exclude from patentabil-ity…

“Plants and animals other than micro-organisms andessentially biological processes for the production of plantsand animals other than non-biological and microbiologi-cal processes. However, Members shall provide for the pro-tection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effectivesui generis system or by any combination thereof.”—(Ar-ticle 27.3b)

Sui generis refers to methods of protection other than theuse of a patent. The most common form of sui generis pro-tection for new varieties of plants involves some kind of“plant breeders rights”. At the international level, a num-ber of countries have joined together in the InternationalUnion for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants(UPOV), and negotiated an International Convention forthe Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The Conventionlays down minimum standards of protection that nationalsystems should accord. It enables breeders to enjoy the so-called “breeder’s privilege” which gives them the freedom touse protected plant varieties in their breeding programs togenerate other (derived) varieties.

Such forms of protection have generated some concernsamongst developing countries, most of which seem to be un-founded. The fear, for example, that farmers will no longerbe allowed to carry on with their traditional farming prac-tices as a result of a patent or sui generis form of protectionbeing issued for a product that has been used by them over along period of time, is misplaced. A product or process thathas been used publicly is not new and therefore cannot bepatented. Only new plant varieties will be eligible for pro-tection and even then, the onus is on the breeder to seekprotection. It is not compulsory. Thus, farmers will be ableto retain seed from their harvest for sowing on their land(this has come to be known as the “farmers’ privilege”).

Sui generis offers the possibility to move beyond tradi-tional forms of IPR and examine other mechanisms forregulating access to resources and equitable benefit shar-ing. These could include contracts between the users andcustodians of these resources, such as Material TransferAgreements. In Cameroon, for instance, the US NationalCancer Institute signed a contract with the government fol-lowing the discovery of a forest plant species with a poten-tial anti-AIDS chemical. Cameroon provides plant samplesin return for payments which are used for indigenous com-munity development projects to conserve the forests.

Others argue that sui generis systems that allow for con-siderable innovation in the form of protection offered needto be expanded even further to include community-basedrights and traditional resources rights. NGOs such as theThird World Network advocate an alternative rights regimethat reflects the culture and value system of local communi-ties. They argue that, to take into account the dynamic na-ture of traditional knowledge, the concept of ‘innovation’needs to be redefined beyond what typifies industrial inno-vations. This could be embodied in community-based rights.

Academics have advanced a more holistic approach thatintegrates property rights with customary laws and prac-tices. They claim that indigenous knowledge cannot beseparated from other indigenous rights such as humanrights, rights to land and self government. One possible so-lution could be an integrated rights approach through theestablishment of traditional resource rights which couldprovide a framework of principles upholding the rights oftraditional communities. These can serve as guidelines forother rights such as sui generis property rights.

Conclusion

Intellectual property rights can provide an effective meansof protecting indigenous knowledge systems and plant vari-eties. This note emphasizes the critical importance of docu-menting indigenous knowledge in writing, which can thenbe used to challenge a patent claim on knowledge that is al-ready in the public domain. Second, it highlights the useful-ness of other forms of intellectual property rights than pat-ents such as geographical indications. These may be of moreuse to indigenous communities seeking to regulate accessover their resources, as they can be applied to knowledgethat evolves over time and with the input of the local com-munity at large. This offers the possibility of widening theTRIPS agreement to ensure that patents disclose the originof genetic resources and use of indigenous knowledge andconsider sui generis forms of intellectual property such ascommunity based rights to secure equitable benefit sharing.

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IK Notes 20May 2000

Reinventing Apprenticeship and Rites of PassageAn Entry into the Urban Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article is based on research conducted by local researchers with the support and technical supervision of Peter Easton,Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University, with the active collaboration of theconcerned African communities. The research was carried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, theInterstate Committee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comite Inter-etat Contre la Secheresse (CILSS) and the Associa-tion for the Development of Education in Africa.

Most traditional societies in sub-Sa-haran Africa have developed well-builtsystems for initiation of young peopleinto the routines, skills and under-standings of adult life. These includeage-group organizations, initiatoryrites of passage, and trade apprentice-ship patterns.

Traditional arrangements for ap-prenticeship and initiation remainstrongest in rural communities and aremuch less in evidence on the urban pe-riphery among those whom hunger, un-employment, or simply the lure of abetter life have motivated to movetownward. Many ties between the twoareas remain, and associations for out-migrants from specific villages and re-gions are well known in the cities.

A generation left to its own devices

On the whole, however, rural out-mi-gration has contributed materially tobreaking down the relevance andstrength of initiatory and apprentice-ship customs over the years since “flagindependence.” The most extreme ex-ample of the dissolution of social guar-antees for rites of passage probably liesin the situation of street children, thoseyoung people without schooling, occu-

pation and often fixed residence whohaunt the highways and byways of ur-ban Africa.

United Nations agencies and manyNGOs concerned with the issue con-sider street children as one sub-cat-egory of working children—that is,young people below the age of legal orsocial maturity in their host cultureswho are working in conditions detri-mental to their growth and develop-ment. Most children in developing soci-eties, it is true, do and will work. Thechallenge is much less one of prohibit-ing all forms of labor by those underage than it is ensuring that children arenot forced into inappropriate andharmful work by the pressures of sur-vival, and that they have opportunitiesfor a positive transition to adult life.

But the plight of street children doesthrow into relief an important aspect ofthe situation in the urban peripherythat is more than just economic, even ifit is solidly rooted in resource depriva-tion: the lack of socially-sponsored av-enues for displaced young people to de-velop an adult identity. Carbon copiesof traditional associations are unlikelyto work. As a Hausa proverb puts thematter, “In rawa ta sake, ki’di ita masai ta sake.” When the beat of the drumchanges, the dance step must change as


well. What are the new beats that make sense in terms ofexisting social capital and cultural rhythms, as well as thechanged conditions that challenge them? Three examplesfrom Africa and one from the Caribbean offer some ideas.

Stemming the tide of street children: the Undugu Society in Kenya

The Undugu Society was established through the efforts ofa Dutch priest who moved to Nairobi in 1972 after 17 yearsof experience in rural Tanzania and who there began a min-istry for urban youth. Few young people turned up for hischurch-based programs, but he observed that the streets ofNairobi were overflowing with unemployed youth, most vis-ibly the city’s “parking boys” who sought gratuities frommotorists for guarding or washing their cars in Nairobi’scrowded central district.

In 1973, the priest began spending most of his time on thestreets developing rapport with the boys, talking to themabout their daily lives and about their aspirations. He foundmany of them to be primary school dropouts whose aban-donment of school and home had often been because theirfamilies could not pay school fees or buy the necessary uni-forms and materials. Most, as an Undugu “housefather”points out, responded to queries about their needs with“Nataka kusoma”—Kiswahili for “I want education.”1

For these reasons, the priest initially decided that effortsin support of the street children should concentrate on get-ting them back into school, and he set out to find the fundsto pay fees and material costs for as many of them as pos-sible. He soon discovered, however, that school directors forthe most part could not take the children or did not wantthem back. They feared by and large that the same factorsthat had forced these young people out of school the firsttime would do so again or that the street had worked char-acter changes which would make it impossible for them toconform to standard classroom routine.

A learning processThis first reversal was followed by a series of new depar-tures, failed initiatives and learning experiences that led theUndugu Society to gradually develop an innovative and pro-gressively more successful approach to the situation of de-prived youth in Nairobi. That model had four clear steps.The first was a network of “informal schools” located inslum communities in and around Nairobi. They targetedboys and girls aged 10–16 who had not entered or been ableto stay in primary school and were thus at risk of becoming

street and working children, if they had not already done so.The program was designed to last three years, give basic lit-eracy and survival skills plus a heightened sense of theirown self-worth, and allow those who wished, to return toformal education or move into vocational training.

This initiation to formal education or appropriate voca-tional skills constituted phase two of the process and occu-pied an additional year. Those who remained in the pro-gram—or returned to it after a period in formal schooling—had an opportunity to experiment with trades that wereprominent in Nairobi’s informal economy and for whichUndugu possessed adequate workshop facilitites: princi-pally carpentry, tailoring, auto mechanics and metal-working.

Finding a place in society

The third phase involved transition to employment andadult economic roles. Young people who had developed atrade preference were assisted in identifying an informal-sector artisan with whom they might apprentice for a yearin order to gain further training and experience. Unduguwas partner to this negotiation and developed certain crite-ria for the selection of “host” artisans as well as a procedurefor periodic inspection of their facilities to help ensure thatthe apprentices were being trained and that working condi-tions were not exploitative. During this year of appren-ticeship, the young people involved come in weekly to theworkshops at Undugu headquarters for “skill upgrading.”This consisted of targeted training with equipment and ontechnical skills that most local artisans could not offer,training designed at the same time to prepare them to takethe first government trade test in their vocational area atthe end of the year.

Placement of Undugu trade graduates in jobs or, more fre-quently, in situations of profitable self-employment in theinformal sector was the final and fourth phase. Undugu’sBusiness Advisory Unit provides business training andloans to the program’s graduates in order to help them setthemselves up in their trade. The Society has also estab-lished an Industrial Design department to work on improv-ing the design and marketing of goods and services pro-duced by the informal sector, and specifically in the tradesthat Undugu supports and by the artisans with whomapprentices have been placed. Staff of the industrial designunit hold workshops for the informal sector artisans whoare collaborating with Undugu on the design and marketingof their products, in effect using Undugu apprentices as avector or vehicle for progressive technical upgrading of in-formal sector production.

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A variety of other approaches

The SKI Courier Service in Khartoum. A different but re-lated approach has been taken by the non-governmental or-ganization (NGO) Street Kids International in its work inKhartoum, Sudan. The problem of how to secure for theseyoung people an insertion into urban society and the urbaneconomy led the organization’s staff and the young peoplethemselves to reflect on the “comparative advantage” thatstreet children might have on the urban market. One oftheir skills is that they do in fact know the streets—i.e., thehighways and byways of a conurbation like Khartoum—andare able to handle themselves effectively in what othersmight find to be an intimidating environment. Staff andstreet children put this fact up against what economists callcurrent “rigidities” in the urban economy, and in particularthe difficulty of getting important packages and materialsfrom one side to another of Khartoum’s sprawling trafficjams. And they came up with the idea of a Street ChildrenCourier Service.

As developed, this initiative involved• Procuring bicycles for the cadre of couriers, which each

child could then reimburse from their work proceeds• Training the children in the delivery scheme and appro-

priate safety measures• Helping to establish the central organization and ac-

counting measures that would make the activity feasible.

It was, in fact, a considerable success; and the model wasreplicated with good effect by SKI in Banglore, India a fewyears later.

Artisans’ Associations in Senegal (ENDA/GRAF). Initia-tives supported by ENDA (Environment and Development)Third World in the urban area of Dakar, Senegal, started ina sense at the other end of the stick. ENDA staff were in-volved in helping informal sector artisans—in carpentry,leather working and beverage manufacturing—to formtheir own associations in the interests of upgrading theirtechnology and resolving common problems of supply andmarketing. Each activity began, however, with a thorough“reconnaissance” of the local environment. It is ENDA’spractice, and particularly the habit of its action researchunit (Groupe recherche-action-formation or “GRAF”), tobase all local development work in urban slums upon actionresearch carried out with the beneficiaries. One of the primeissues identified in this exercise by the artisans themselveswas the situation of the numerous out-of-school youth onfoot in their neighborhoods.

As a consequence, the associations resolved to create theirown apprenticeship system to provide avenues for socializa-

tion into the workplace and adult life for these youngpeople. The Carpenters’ Cooperative was the most active inthis regard and has developed a system for rotating the out-of-school youth whom it adopts as apprentices among a se-ries of master craftsmen to learn different aspects of theirtrade and then—with ENDA/GRAF’s help—initiating themas well into accounting and management for small business.

SERVOL in Trinidad. A final example of note is takenfrom a location well off the African continent, but linked toit in numerous historical and cultural ways: the island ofTrinidad in the West Indies. Problems of youth-adult transi-tion in urban environments are every bit as pronouncedthere as in the three cases just examined—and in a sense,the origins of one of the best known programs that hassought to deal with them, SERVOL (“Service Volunteeredfor All”), were similar as well. Like the Undugu Society,SERVOL was founded by a Catholic priest concerned withdeteriorating conditions for youth in the city. Like Undugu,it has grown into an organization that offers not just em-ployment but alternate paths of socialization into adult lifefor its charges. Prime among these are the SERVOL “LifeCentres.”

As the name implies, the Life Centres are much morethan vocational training facilities. To begin with, they arebuilt by their adolescent members to house workshops,classrooms and community facilities. Each serves as a pre-school center as well, and all participants must take someresponsibility for the infants. Then, too, a major emphasis ison peer counseling and opportunities for young people totalk through the varied social and emotional challengesthey face, in a context imbued with values from the island’sthree religious traditions: Christian, Muslim and Hindu.The young people participate in development of their own“SPICES” curriculum: Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual,Cultural and Emotional savvy. From there, participantsmay move into vocational training and employment orqualify for modest loan funds to start as entrepreneurs ontheir own. The program drop-out rate is only 5 percent, thepost-training employment or successful self-employmentrate over 75 percent.

Essential ingredients: employment, meaningand self-direction

All these examples represent efforts to fill the void in ap-prenticeship of adult roles for impoverished young peoplethrown out of a traditional framework and into the vortex ofAfrican cities. And they seem to succeed best where theymanage to “recreate tradition”, infusing the customary cat-

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egories of apprentice and age-group association with neweconomic direction and increased self-direction and defini-tion by the participants.

A few other lessons emerge from this rapid overview of ef-forts to assist Africa’s impoverished youth in building newidentities:• An “adult education” approach works best, insofar as it

involves building on the experience and skills that youngpeople already have and giving them a determining role inguiding the program.

• Gainful and meaningful employment is a cornerstone ofnew identities, but not the cement. That is provided by avision of the future—whether religious, cultural or politi-cal—and the opportunity to apply it to one’s own life. Peercounseling is a frequent element of successful programs.

• Traditional forms of apprenticeship and youth associationshould be used as repertoire and resource, but also be cri-tiqued. Such programs are typically a crucible for manyneighboring cultures.

• Discovery of one’s environment—and advocacy forchange—are critical complements to any effort.

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IK Notes 21June 2000

Indigenous Knowledge for Development ProgramTwo Years Down the Road

This IK Note was written by Siddhartha Prakash of the Africa Region, World Bank.

Knowledge as a vehicle for develop-ment is under-used. In the past, mostAfrican nations adopted economic poli-cies with a view to modernizing societyand transforming the productive sec-tors. Indigenous knowledge that couldhave supported this process, or in somecases, offered an alternative perspec-tive, was often relegated to the backwa-ters. However, the 1992 Rio EarthSummit, through the notion of sustain-able development, catapulted thesepractices to the forefront of the devel-opment discourse. Policymakers world-wide, through conferences and work-shops, have begun to highlight thecritical role of indigenous knowledge inthe development process. The first ofthese was the Global Knowledge Con-ference held in Toronto in June 1997.

Under the auspices of the Partner-ship for Information and Communica-tion Technology for Africa (PICTA), theWorld Bank was encouraged to lead theIndigenous Knowledge (IK) for Devel-opment Initiative in collaboration withother organizations such as UNESCO,ITU and WIPO. The Initiative aims tofacilitate a multilateral dialogue be-tween indigenous communities, NGOs,governments, civil society and the pri-vate sector. The objective is to main-stream indigenous knowledge into de-velopment activities and optimize the

benefits of development assistance, es-pecially to the poor. The Bank adopteda framework for action, which is beingimplemented in conjunction with itspartner organizations.

Two years down the road, its time toreview the Bank’s progress in achiev-ing these goals. Has the IK Develop-ment Initiative been effective in dis-seminating information; facilitating in-formation exchange among developingcommunities; applying IndigenousKnowledge in the development process;establishing partnerships?

Disseminating information

Since its inception, the initiative hasdeveloped a database of indigenousknowledge and practices with over 100case studies on the web. Each onedraws upon the lessons learned fromthe experiences of a particular commu-nity in dealing with an aspect of devel-opment. The case studies are notmeant to be a repository of knowledge,but a referral database on IK. Theycover a wide range of activities—in-cluding indigenous financial practicesamong farming communities in Nige-ria, AIDs prevention through involvingtraditional healers in awareness cam-paigns, reintroducing local architecture


IK Practice No: 12Country: NIGERIADomain: Rural FinanceTechnology: Savings and LoansApplication: Indigenous financial practices amongfarming communitiesSummary: Farming communities in Nigeria havedeveloped various systems of saving and lending.Normally farmers would form savings associationswith an emphasis on savings and access to theresources on a rotational basis. Some of the asso-ciations would formulate regulations and by-lawswhile the majority has strong but undocumentedformal rules and regulations. Once a member, savingis compulsory and expected on a regular basis,usually related to market days. The loans are usedfor non-consumables, but also for payment of schoolfees or farm labor. Repayment is ensured throughsocial control. Usually members do not receiveinterest on deposits, loans are granted on favorableterms. No mention is made of dealing with defaulters;it is assumed that social control is sufficient toensure a sustainable S/L association. However, thesavings base is too small for accumulation or forcredits to finance major investments. So far there hasbeen little recognition by the formal credit institutionsof the existing indigenous financial practices.Lesson: Existing indigenous rural savings and loanassociations are yet to be recognized by the formalcredit sector. Collaboration on an equitable basiswould increase the impact of formal institutions andincrease the investment potential in rural areas.Source: Nweze, N.J. IK Monitor 2(2) August 1994External Link: IK Monitor

in Egypt, common water resource management in BurkinaFaso, and indigenous healing of war-affected children else-where in Africa.

The range and complexity of subjects that can be effec-tively dealt with through the application of indigenousknowledge and practices are being documented in a series ofIK Notes. These are published electronically and in print inthree languages, reaching over 20,000 readers. Each of the19 IK Notes to date explores in some detail sensitive issues,such as female circumcision, and describes locally driven so-lutions. These range from the efforts of indigenous women’sNGOs that have successfully campaigned against such prac-tices to lobbying the government to introduce new laws.Each case reinforces the success of a bottom-up approach todevelopment. In cases, where international agencies such asUnicef have assisted, they have merely provided backupsupport via financial assistance and international recogni-tion. In each case, the initiative is always “home grown” andlocally owned. This has in turn strengthened local institu-tions and led to some cutting edge work in areas such aseducation and Koranic literacy in West Africa.

The IK Notes have shown that “individuals without anyformal education, from villages with minimal resources, canimprove their lives and environment through a solid pro-gram leading to greater autonomy and self sufficiency”.These success stories endorse the universality of indigenousknowledge, which can play a key role in the process of em-powering local communities, at the regional, national andglobal level.

Facilitating exchange

The World Bank has supported eight IK Resource Centersin Africa, by improving their capacity to share information.This has taken many forms. In Cameroon, Tanzania, Ethio-pia and Zimbabwe, the project facilitated the capturing ofIK through stimulating research into IK practices by localcenters. In Burkina Faso and Uganda, the project improvedthe connectivity and networking capacity of local telecom-munications. As a result, rural community Telecenters arenow being used to obtain information from local communi-ties and disseminate the knowledge generated to other re-gions.

Applying Indigenous Knowledge

One of the greatest achievements of the IK Initiative hasbeen its initial success in mainstreaming the use of IK in de-velopment programs and projects. It supported Uganda in

formulating a national policy on IK, Ghana in the use of IK toimprove agricultural practices, Burkina Faso in highlightingthe role of traditional hunters in natural resource manage-ment.

In July 1999, the Bank initiated a study in collaborationwith UNCST to explore the diversity of IK in Uganda in re-lation to agriculture, health sciences and technology. Thisformed the basis of a national strategy that would includeall the stakeholders, from indigenous healers to civil society,as well as policy makers.

Six months later, a national workshop involving these keyplayers was held to draft a national strategy and frameworkfor action. This was the genesis of the Kampala Declarationon IK for sustainable development. The Declaration urgesthe government to support the development of IK and plan-ners to include IK in the national planning process. This isbeing implemented in several ways, such as including IKinto Uganda’s Comprehensive Development Framework(CDF), led by the Ministry of Planning. This is a joint part-nership between donors and governments aimed at accelerat-

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ing the pace of growth in Africa. In Uganda, one of the goals israising agricultural productivity. The IK Initiative hasplayed a facilitating role by establishing a Steering Commit-tee to monitor the implementation process and a Secretariatto coordinate activities specifically related to IK.

The IK Initiative is moving beyond policy making intoproject management. It has begun advising the UgandanNational Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) onthe use of IK in Bank supported Agriculture, Research andTraining Projects (ARTP). The second phase of the ongoingARTP (II) project is aimed at supporting long term technol-ogy development and dissemination. The IK Initiative’s roleis to provide the methodological input to transfer relevanttechnologies and IK and improved cultural practices tofarmers’ fields and promote their adoption. Examples ofsuch practices include the improved cultural managementof Matoke to reduce the harmful effects of the Sigatoka dis-ease and small farm implements designed for the smallercattle of Uganda such as the improved Ugandan plow. Al-though, the project is still in its infancy, it is hoped that itssuccess can be used to mainstream and replicate the use ofIK in the development of new projects.

Establishing partnerships

The project has expanded its support base by establishingclose partnerships with several development organizations,NGOs and IK Centers. More than 75 percent of the best prac-tices disseminated on the web were provided by these part-

ners. The initiative is growing beyond PICTA members. Ithas for instance, begun to work with WIPO to address the in-tellectual property rights aspect of IK. At the grass roots, theInitiative has begun to engage local communities and learnfrom their experiences. By supporting NGOs and institu-tions such as UNCST, the Bank has played an enabling rolein bringing together traditional healers, academics, minis-ters, civil society and the church. As a result, indigenous or-ganizations such as Traditional Herbalists Associations areable to pursue a two-way dialogue, with government institu-tions on a level playing field. By creating channels for localcommunities to voice their concerns at the regional and in-ternational level, the project has made significant progresstowards mainstreaming IK into the development process inAfrica.

Next steps

The challenges ahead include:• Intensified efforts to mainstream IK into the development

process• Greater donor involvement and active participation• Facilitating interactive exchanges through establishing

communities of practice (through various fora—e.g.,Development Marketplace)

• Forming local alliances around topics such as IPRs tofacilitate enablement and empowerment.

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Indigenous Knowledge Goes to SchoolPotential and Perils of Community Education in the Western Sahel

This article was co-authored by by Peter Easton (Florida State University), Chris Capacci (CommunitySchools/Kolondiéba, Mali) and Lamine Kane (ANAFA/Senegal). The research was carried out under the jointaegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the Interstate Committee for Combating Drought in the Sahel/ComitéInter-état Contre la Sécheresse ( CILSS ) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

For indigenous knowledge to have sig-nificant bearing on the future of WestAfrican societies, it must gain somecurrency in schools, the social institu-tion officially chartered to organizelearning, certify knowledge and trainthe next generation of citizens. And yetacross the region education has beenthe sector least likely to embrace localknowledge or to regard indigenous sci-ence as a legitimate source of inspira-tion. Exceptions to the rule havemostly occurred in nonformal educa-tion and literacy programs, which aremore frequently conducted in Africanlanguages and focused on local commu-nity needs.

New ways of schooling

Changes that have taken placethroughout West Africa in the situationof formal primary education over thelast twenty years, however, have begunto breach the wall that separatedschooling and local society. They are atthe same time creating a space for newcurricula. Prime examples:• Universal primary education re-

mains an elusive goal. By reducingresources available for education andrestricting public sector employment,

the structural adjustment policies ap-plied to West African countries begin-ning in the 1980s put a dent both inpopular motivation for schooling andthe capacity of the State to provide it.Gross enrollment ratios at the pri-mary level, which averaged under 30percent for Sahelian countries in1980, progressed very little over theensuing decade—negative growth inMali, (-3 percent), barely 4 percent inNiger, and between 1 and 2 percent ayear in Burkina Faso, Mauritaniaand Senegal. Coverage shrank inmost rural areas.

• Governments have begun turning toalternate formulas and supplymechanisms to reverse enrollmenttrends, achieve coverage and/or in-crease relevance. These include com-munity schools, increased support fornonformal education, and a variety ofexperimental programs.

• Traditional formal schooling hasbeen subject to increased culturalcompetition and critique from othermodels: some centered on “appropri-ate development,” others on religiousinstruction, adult education ap-proaches or African-language cur-ricula. Reform of primary and sec-ondary schooling is nearly every-where on the agenda.

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• Civil society is playing an enhanced role in educational sup-ply. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), privatefoundations and local associations are increasingly autho-rized and encouraged to create their own schools. Govern-ment is less and less concerned with exercising monopolyrights in the area of education, though it conserves keyregulatory functions.

• The formal educational system itself is being decentral-ized to an unaccustomed degree, with greater discretion-ary powers being placed in the hands of regional inspec-tors and local educational councils.

It is this diversification in provision and search for cul-tural identity that has opened the door, however hesitantly,to new curricula and new sources of inspiration and has cre-ated new opportunities for the recognition of indigenousknowledge.

A history of experimentation

In one sense, of course, the search for alternate forms ofschooling is not new to West Africa. In fact, the very notionof “indigenous curricula” is heavily tainted with remem-brances from colonial times, when terms like these werecode words for distinguishing the kind of education judgedappropriate for rural or “native” populations from the kindreserved for an urban elite. Excess demand for formalschooling, however, or its perceived shortcomings led to avariety of alternative educational delivery models in post-independence Africa. The Harambee movement in Kenya isa prime example of the former: schools created by communi-ties in the absence of State provision, though subsequentlytaken over by the government in many cases. The SeroweBrigades in Botswana and “Enseignement moyen pratique”in Senegal exemplify the latter: attempts to make schoolcurricula relevant to local development by infusions of ap-propriate technology training, practical business experienceand local cultural reference.

There are, though, some important quantitative andqualitative differences between the varied experiments inalternative schooling or community sponsorship launchedover the early decades of West African independence and thesituation obtaining today. In quantitative terms, alternativeand community-based schooling has become, for the firsttime, a significant slice of the overall national system in anumber of countries like Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso.Such efforts were traditionally “pilot projects,” destined—itseemed—never to expand beyond their select locations.They have broken out of this enclosure to an increasing de-

gree, accounting presently for nearly a quarter of all elemen-tary schools in rural Mali and are projected to total 20 percentof those in Senegal in the next few years. Qualitatively, alter-native education is no longer necessarily second class, thoughissues of equivalency with traditional diplomas and promo-tion schemes (discussed below) remain acute. The increasinglegitimacy of instruction in African languages, gradual shiftsin power toward local actors under slowly decentralizing re-gimes and changes in the employment prospects of schoolleavers have all eroded the hegemony of the single standardWestern curriculum and opened space for different andcomplementary approaches.

The search for alternatives has taken a variety of forms—State-sponsored community schools; NGO-sponsored com-munity schools; State-sponsored pilot or reform schools(generally traditional elementary schools selected to adoptone or more of the innovative methods of communityschooling and to apply it within a formal educational frame-work); increased interest in Koranic schooling or hybrid Is-lamic-Western forms; and private or “wildcat” schoolsstarted by individuals or entrepreneurs, particularly in ur-ban areas.

The community involvement model

In the Sahel as elsewhere around the African continent,community schools are premised on the notion of greaterparental and community involvement in the governanceand delivery of education. Local “ownership” of schooling isdeveloped and expressed in several ways:• Financial participation: Contributions to the construc-

tion and equipment of classes, to school operating ex-penses and to teacher stipends.

• Administrative participation: Involvement in decision-making concerning school administration and regula-tions.

• Curricular participation: An increased role for parentsand community members in choosing and specifying cur-ricula, in teaching classes and assessing student learning.

Curricular participation is evidently the variety of com-munity input of greatest relevance to the inclusion of indig-enous knowledge in schooling, though financial and admin-istrative participation may be necessary to make it effective.Among the measures proposed for achieving it in the case ofoutside-sponsored community schools are use of the locallanguages for instruction; adoption of local artisans as re-sources for instruction, either through their actual teachingof courses or visits by children to their places of work; record-

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ing and teaching of local history along with other subjectmatters; and inclusion of locally-inspired religious or moraleducation.

In addition, some of the NGOs and civil society institu-tions involved in sponsoring community schools are ani-mated by an explicit desire to create new curricula more ap-propriate to the challenges of local development in 21st cen-tury Africa. The Institut d’Education Populaire in Kati,Mali, for example, has labored long and hard on the elabora-tion of an elementary school “Ciwara” program (theBambara word for the antelope-head totem symbolic ofMalian identity) focusing on the acquisition of “leadership”skills—in short, young people’s ability to play a decisive rolein the development of their own communities.

In both Senegal and Mali, moreover, the civil society part-ners involved in support for community schools tend to beassociations with parallel involvements in other sectors oflocal development, like natural resource management,health and agriculture. CEWIGAP in northern Mali (“Com-munity Education, Water and Income Generating Activi-ties”) and organizations like Tostan and ANAFA in theDjourbel region of Senegal, for example, combine theirschool sponsorship with a variety of other projects. Thiscross-breeding creates increased opportunities for introduc-ing local development topics into the curriculum of elemen-tary and secondary schooling, along with local sources of re-lated knowledge.

Difficulties of implementation

Unfortunately, a great deal is still more said than done inthis realm. The indigenous knowledge elements in the com-munity school model tend to be those least frequentlyimplemented, for they require the most imagination andenergy, not to say willingness to break with existing norms.In fact, there is a general tendency for schools of this sort tobecome simply low-cost if not low-quality replicas of exist-ing primary schooling, due principally to the resource con-straints that they face.

Human resource constraints. Teachers generally haveminimal training and may have limited education. In somemodels, literate villagers or parents are selected by the com-munity itself to undergo a few days of training; in another,volunteers paid by donated funds are recruited from amongunemployed school leavers and assigned to villages.

Financial constraints. Community education models aredesigned to be inexpensive, a solution to the prohibitivecosts of generalizing the existing school infrastructure.They count, to the extent possible, on local materials and

funds, and these are often scarce. Areas where communitiesare expected to pay teachers often experience particularproblems.

Technical constraints. Building an alternative curriculumtakes experience and insight that are often in short supply.The biggest challenge is reconciling local content with a pro-gram of studies that enables some, at least, to continue tofurther formal education should they desire to do so. Thissynthesis, called “pédagogie convergente” in Mali, dependsto a great extent on finding a way to teach the internationallanguage used in secondary and higher education from a ba-sis of literacy in the local or national language, and doing sowith the assistance of teaching personnel who themselvesoften do not have a mastery of the former. The effort typi-cally takes such energy that little is left for developing theindigenous knowledge inputs into the curriculum.

Political constraints. The success of community schools ispartly contingent on the possibility of building institutionalbridges to subsequent formal schooling, what are called“passerelles” in the Franchophone countries. This terraintends to be heavily guarded by the proponents (and prod-ucts) of traditional primary and secondary education. Ironi-cally, as provision of alternate education is expanded anddelegated to local associations and NGOs, there is often in-creased stasis on this political front, because local associa-tions feel less “empowered” to challenge the existing educa-tional constabulary on this terrain than might ministerialrepresentatives or large international organizations.

Concerns for quality

“Quality” and “equity” are keywords in the debate aboutthe future of community schools in Sahelian West Africa.The former invokes the criticism most often leveled at themovement: education is made available to new communitiesand students, but what education? Can poorly supervisedteachers who are unable to handle the lingua franca of theformal system and schools without textbooks or amenitiesoffer children anything worth having? And doesn’t this sortof provision pose as much of an equity problem as it re-solves—by creating a two-tiered system, where the ruraland urban poor get only the caricature of a “real educa-tion”?

These days proponents of community schools are veryaware of the issue, and internal evaluations within organi-zations sponsoring schools tend to focus increasingly onquality concerns. At the same time, proponents typicallyhave two rejoinders that at least serve to broaden the de-bate. First, what exactly is meant by “quality”? Do commu-

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nity involvement, literacy in the local language, incorpora-tion of cultural contents and direct relationship to develop-ment concerns in other sectors figure in the definition, orare standardized test scores and passage rates to secondaryschool the only criteria? Second, in respect to equity, whatare the tradeoffs between local gender equity and increasedparity between city and countryside? Community schools doat least have on average a distinctly better record of femaleparticipation than their formal sector counterparts.

Education by all?

Both the community school movement and the attempt togive indigenous knowledge a place in local schooling there-fore face formidable obstacles. Community schools nonethe-less constitute one of the most massive opportunities forgreater recognition of indigenous knowledge to have arisenso far in Sahelian West Africa and already have several ma-jor accomplishments to their credit. As evaluation surveysin both Senegal and Mali reveal, they are generally well ap-preciated by consumers—that is, parents and local authori-ties—principally because of their use of African languagesand their potential congruence with local culture.

The recent move toward NGO and local association spon-sorship has also meant a closer link with other realms of lo-cal development where indigenous knowledge is bothneeded and used. And the movement constitutes a sizeablewedge for reform of schooling in general—as witness thenumber of times that its example has been invoked in the“Estates General” (or national assemblies on education)convoked by Sahelian countries in recent years to addressissues of educational reform. Community education in factembodies one potential form of “Education BY All,” a strat-egy” critically needed to complement increasing emphasison “Education FOR All”—and it represents a venue withinwhich indigenous knowledge might come into its own.

At the same time, the perils and potentials of the commu-nity school movement illustrate the kinds of policy changesthat will be required to achieve the systematic promotion ofindigenous knowledge in contemporary West Africa.

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Seeds of Life: Women and AgriculturalBiodiversity in AfricaThis article was written by co-authored by Peter Easton and Margaret Ronald, Florida State University.The research was caried out under the joint aegis of the Club du Sahel/OECD, the Interstate Committeefor Combating Drought in the Sahel/Comité Inter-état Contre la Sécheresse (CILSS) and the Associationfor the Development of Education in Africa.

Agricultural development worldwidehas caused, as one of its downsides, thereplacement of native plant species bymarketable crops and a parallel reduc-tion in the diversity of the seed stock.The disappearance of plants with po-tential medicinal uses, particularly inareas of high biodiversity like tropicalrain forests, has been headlined in re-cent years; but crowding out of thenatural diversity of edible species bystandard, and sometimes genetically al-tered, cash crops—and the replacementof “landraces” (indigenous plant types)by commercial farming—constitute anequally serious problem.

Efforts are now being made to consti-tute reserves and pools of threatenedvarieties of food crops. Indigenousknowledge of edible plants is one key“pool” of biodiversity in Africa—andone in which women play a vital role.

Bean farming in Kenya

Bean farming among the Kikuyu inKenya provides a case in point. Avail-able evidence indicates that inprecolonial times a large variety of dif-ferent bean species was cultivated inthe Kenyan uplands. Beans moreoverconstituted a critical element of the

diet of rural people, furnishing a richsource of protein to complement maizeconsumption and other available food-stuffs. In particular, the varieties of in-digenous black beans termed “njahe”in Kikuyu (largely Lablab niger andDolichos lablab by their scientificnames, and “lablab beans” in English),which were cultivated by women, con-stituted a good proportion of the har-vest. Njahe had, moreover, specialmeaning for women, as the bean wasconsidered to increase fertility and tohave curative virtues for post-partummothers. It was at the same time aquasi-sacred food. It grew on the OlDonyo Sabuk mountain, the secondmost important dwelling place of theCreator in Kikuyu religion, and it waswidely used in divination ceremonies.

Beans in Kenya are predominantly asmall landholder crop, largely farmedby women to feed their families. Tradi-tionally, women tended to grow mul-tiple varieties on the same field—and toconserve multiple seed stocks—as ahedge against disease and unpredict-able climate. Local dishes, like“githeri” and “irio,” also were based onmultiple types of beans.

These patterns began to change incolonial times. The British administra-tion was principally interested in in-

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creasing maize production, which provided the least expen-sive supply of food to feed railroad construction workers,and in introducing other cash crops like cotton and sisal toensure tax payments. The strategy developed for advancingthis agenda included providing financial incentives and fa-vorable pricing for maize cultivation, on the one hand; and,on the other, introducing new varieties of white and redbeans with export potential (to Europe in particular) in or-der to replace the njahe and other “native” species. Thougha considerable variety of bean species was experimentedwith over the years by the colonial agricultural extensionservice, few proved adapted to Kenyan conditions or accept-able in local diets. Those that did—Canadian kidney, rosecoco and Phaseolus vulgaris, in particular—gradually tookover the market and began pushing njahe out of production.The colonial agricultural extension service also carried outpurification campaigns to eliminate multicropping of mixedbeans and to ensure a practice of “one variety per loca-tion”—generally an exportable variety. Pure or sorted beanswere priced at two or three times above mixed crops.

The costs of monocropping

The phenomenon had real consequences for nutrition, foragricultural biodiversity in the Kenyan highlands, for soilfertility, and for women farmers themselves. Replacementof beans by maize in local diets began a downward spiral inthe food intake of the rural population which, while scarcelyattributable only to this factor, has continued unabated. Atthe same time, elimination of many of the multiple varietiesof beans cultivated in precolonial times had, for parallel ef-fect, impoverishment of the agricultural genetic stock, de-veloped over thousands of years of human agriculture inEast Africa. Intensive “maize mining” and neglect of the ni-trogen-fixing properties of legumes like njahe resulted inthe progressive impoverishment of soils. Beanmonocropping led in turn to higher susceptibility of thesecrop stands to disease. Finally, since bean cultivation consti-tuted an important element in the economic activity ofwomen and their capacity to nourish their families, thepressure to produce income and abandon beans inevitablycontributed to the increasing out-migration of women tourban areas.

Colonial policies were in effect extended into the period ofKenyan independence, by default if not by design. Contin-ued preoccupation with cash crop and export production,monopoly of these activities by men, and economic pres-sures from taxes and the need to pay school fees all kept at-tention away from women’s roles in bean production and

the conservation of seed diversity. Not until the 1970s didthe prejudice against traditional bean species begin to relax,as Kenyan agricultural policy underwent gradual re-Africanization.

Examples across Africa

The situation described in Kenya is scarcely an isolated phe-nomenon. Across Africa, similar stories could be evoked—stories of the gradual impoverishment of seed stocks underthe pressure of cash cropping and of the parallel negligenceof women’s roles in agriculture and their key function asguardians of biodiversity. In fact, Africa is one of the world’sregions with the lowest quotient of original to imported seedstock—a characteristic typical elsewhere of zones of settlerimplantation, like North America and Australia. Seedstocks and germ plasm constitute a kind of botanical reposi-tory of indigenous knowledge. Because of their responsibil-ity for family subsistence, women have for millenia beencentral to the breeding of food crop species, the preservationof seeds and the domestication and use of wild edible plants.Concerns with susceptibility to disease and insuranceagainst crop failure under climatic stress andunpredictability have led them to diversify these stocks andcultivation patterns.

• In Burkina Faso and throughout the West AfricanSahel, for example, rural women carefully collect the fruit,leaves and roots of native plants like the baobab tree (Adan-sonia digitata), red sorrel leaves (Hibiscus saddarifa),kapok leaves (Ceiba pentandra) and tigernut tubers(Cyperus esculentus L) for use in the diet of their families,supplementing the agricultural grains (millet, sorghum)that provide only one part of the nutritional spectrum andmay fail in any given year. More than 800 species of ediblewild plants have been catalogued across the Sahel.

• In southern Sudan, women are directly responsible forthe selection of all sorghum seeds saved for planting eachyear. They cull seeds and preserve a spread of varieties thatwill ensure resistance to the variety of conditions that mayarise in any given growing season.

The role of women farmers worldwide

Equivalent stories can be recounted about gender and agri-cultural biodiversity in other regions of the world as well. Inagricultural societies around the globe, women have tendedto be the custodians of biodiversity.

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• Researchers from the Wageningen Agricultural Univer-sity of the Netherlands have found that women in theKalasin region of northern Thailand play a critical role inmanaging the interface between wild and domesticated spe-cies of edible plants. They have both brought new species ofwild plants under cultivation in recent years and spurredtheir communities to carefully regulate collection rights inthe face of increasing commercialization.

• Women in the Dalwangan and Mammbong communi-ties, Bukidnon province, Mindanao (the Philippines) haveplayed an active role in constituing a “memory bank” of in-digenous germplasm with agricultural researchers, becausethey share the concern for diversity. “I cultivate differentkinds [of sweet potatoes], as many as I can get cuttings of,”one farmer commented, “ because each has its use and noneis proof to all disasters.”

• In northern India, an elderly woman farmer puts thematter succinctly as she selects seeds for storage: “It takes asharp eye, a sensitive hand and a lot of patience to tell thedifference between these seeds. But these are not the thingsthat are honored any more.”

• In the United States, genetic modification of tomatoesby agro industry has led to species that have a long “shelflife”—i.e., ability to ripen in transit or in grocery stores af-ter being harvested green—and even a square form that fa-cilitates packing in crates. These characteristics make to-mato-farming a more profitable activity and one easier tocarry out on a large scale, but have had for parallel conse-quence poorer taste and loss of genetic diversity. A minormarket has sprung up in “heirloom tomatoes”—species pre-served in many cases by women gardeners and now con-served and reproduced for the organic customer.

Turning the tide

Is there still time in countries such as Kenya ? Yes, but notto waste. The diminishing diversity of seed stocks puts foodsecurity at risk, because of the greater vulnerability of anarrow band of species to climate change and other environ-mental events. And it seems unlikely that the situation canbe turned around without paying much closer attention tothe means by which traditional farmers have nurtured seedstocks and indigenous species, and the key role that womenhave played in this enterprise.

The njahe bean itself has nonetheless recouped a part ofthe terrain lost over the last century. With the abandon-ment of export ambitions for white beans, African tastes forred and black varieties have begun to reassert themselves.But dried beans—and the female labor that traditionallyensured their volume and diversity—remain subsidiary inthe Kenyan economy.

Increased sensitivity to issues of biodiversity—triggeredby the rain forest and the example of disappearing specieswith medical significance—has sown new seeds of hope inthis realm, however, both for Africa and for other develop-ing regions. The International Center for Tropical Agricul-ture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia is coordinating a multiyearparticipatory research program on gender roles in agricul-ture and participatory plant breeding (Participatory Re-search and Gender Analysis: “PRGA” , on the web at http://www.prgaprogram.org). One branch office has been estab-lished in Uganda for the African Highlands Initiative, anexplotation of participatory gender research in East Africa.At the same time, the West African Rice Development Asso-ciation (WARDA), headquartered in Bouaké, Ivory Coast,has given increasing attention to the preservation ofbiodiversity among rice farmers of the Sahel and has spon-sored research into related practices in southwestern Mali.(See http://www.cgiar.org/warda/)

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Strengthening Traditional Technical Knowledge:The Sugar Cane Wine ExampleThis article has been excerpted from the original in French by LUZIETOSO Nguala Ph.D (GREDA), BOM KHONDEPaul Charles Ph.D (GREDA), and BAZABANA Jean Jacques Magloire Ph.D (GREDA). GREDA stands for Groupede Recherche et d’Expertise sur la valorisation des savoir-faire locaux pour le Développement en Afrique.

African countries are endowed withconsiderable potential for processing alarge variety of plants (fruits, leaves,roots, tubers, stems, flowers), to makefood and drinks (fruit juices, wines,etc.). In the context of globalization, lo-cal products already in high demand intheir region of origin could also be suc-cessfully marketed nationally and in-ternationally. Although a few of thesetraditional products are found in somelocal markets, most of them remainlittle known. Sugar cane wine is one ofthem.

In Angola, Congo, and the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo (DRC), sugarcane has three main uses. First, it isconsumed as a “canne de bouche ” (lit-erally, cane for the mouth), to quenchone’s thirst, and/or to assuage one’shunger. Consumers peel the cane witha knife, chew on the tender part, suckon it, swallow the juice and get rid ofthe bagasse (the fibrous portion of thesugar cane remaining after the juicehas been extracted). Second, it is usedas a raw material to produce sugar.Third, it is used in the preparation ofsugar cane wine, called “lungwila.”

This article examines the knowledgeprocess used to make sugar cane wine,a traditional product in the three coun-tries mentioned. There are several rea-

sons for this choice: (i) the wine-mak-ing traditional process is an ancestralpractice, transmitted from one genera-tion to the next; (ii) sugar cane wineconsumption is growing substantiallyin rural as well as urban areas. Indeed,the product is known and well-appreci-ated in the capital cities of the threecountries mentioned, with approxi-mately 9 millions inhabitants (2 millionin Luanda, 600,000 in Brazzaville, and6 million in Kinshasa), as well as inother less populated cities and towns;and (iii) the market for sugar cane wineis therefore potentially important, andsugar cane (traditional) processing con-tributes to job creation and constitutesa source of income for small food pro-cessing enterprises, established mainlyin the rural areas and suburban zones.The knowledge used is specific to thelocal populations of Northern Angola,Southern Congo and the WesternDemocratic Republic of Congo, allow-ing entrepreneurs from these regionsto enjoy a comparative advantage. Inaddition, the growing demand for sugarcane wine has a stimulus effect onsugar cane production, and is increas-ing the need for the equipment andpackaging.

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Building on traditional knowledge

Sugar cane technologyThe expansion of the sugar cane wine market has helped toimprove production plant and work organization. InKimbongo, an area of intense activity, wine processors haveformed associations in order to reduce the difficulty of thework. They use bagasse as a fermentation substrate. To re-place the one-lever press, they invented a manual two-leverpress, and then a mechanical press. In 1997, Mexican tech-nology was imported and introduced in the various regionswhere the wine is produced. It was adopted because it short-ens the transformation process, reduces the difficulties inthe work process, and improves the rate of juice extraction.However, its use remains limited because of its high cost,and local artisans are developing a local version.

Knowledge transmissionThe sugar cane winemaking process comes from the ancientkingdom of Congo. Descendants of various communitieswho use to live there are now found in some regions ofAngola, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This knowledge is held by men only—usually elders— andraw material is usually self-supplied. Women are active inthe final stage, i.e., in the marketing of the finished product.Historically, the knowledge is transmitted within clans andfamilies, from one generation to the next. With urbaniza-tion and the introduction of sugar cane wine in some mar-kets, other forms of transmission have emerged, particu-larly within producer groups and associations as well as inperi-urban environments.

Small business owners transmit it to their employees,who, usually, are their relatives. Within wine-making asso-ciations, the learning system that prevails is relatively differ-ent, with two coexisting modes of apprenticeship: elder toyounger transmission, and knowledge sharing.

The first method of apprenticeship (elder to younger) is theone found in family-owned businesses, where the main ben-eficiaries are the younger, or those untrained personswho wish to start their own business.

The second method is based on knowledge sharing. It is asystem where members of associations exchange theirknow-how. A member who masters a specific operation (fer-mentation for example) will share it with his peers, and willreceive in exchange some other knowledge. These ex-changes contribute to improving the skills of the producersgroup as a whole.

Unlike other formal learning systems, beneficiaries fromtraditional training do not have to pay to acquire it. This is asolidarity system inherited from ancient traditions. For en-trepreneurs, this system has numerous advantages:

It reduces starting costs. Indeed, the entrepreneur whowishes to produce sugar cane wine can easily acquire the re-lated knowledge. In Kimbongo for example, hundreds ofprocessors start their businesses without having to gothrough the usual administrative steps, and without infor-mation and training costs.

In addition, every entrepreneur who becomes part of aproducers association in urban as well as rural areas, canimprove his knowledge through the custom of experience-sharing between members. This can be considered as a formof continuing vocational training developed by local commu-nities as well as collective innovation management withoutthe support of the usual formal appropriate institutions.

ProspectsIndigenous technical knowledge is often under-estimated bydevelopment researchers, decision-makers, and practitio-ners. This situation has had a negative impact on the designand implementation of policies.

The example of sugar wine making in the DRC highlightssome important lessons regarding indigenous technicalknowledge and its importance for African economic develop-ment. Some issues need to be highlighted. The productionprocess is characterized by low productivity, disrupted activ-ity, shortages in raw materials and supplies (due to the sea-sonal harvesting of sugar cane), storage problems for largequantities of wine, etc. This situation creates regular wineshortages on the supply side.

In addition, traditional technical knowledge does not per-mit the exploitation of by-products (bagasse, peelings).Moreover, not to recycle these waste products aggravatespollution in the workshop surroundings. Finally, the tradi-tional production process lacks the packaging and bottlingtechniques adapted needed for remote markets.

Regarding these constraints, it is crucial that develop-ment agents (entrepreneurs, researchers, NGOs, public au-thorities, etc.) try to both understand traditional technicalknowledge and strengthen it. In this instance, the focusneeds to be on developing appropriate packaging, recyclingwaste, and improving production plant facilities, etc.

Strengthening indigenous technical knowledge

Development practitioners seem to be paying more atten-tion to the objectives and functions of scientific indigenousknowledge. This does not mean that external assistance isnot useful or needed - it means that these practitionersshould built on their indigenous knowledge and skills. Thecombination of traditional and exogenous techniques (non-traditional but also traditional, emanating from other com-

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munities), may contribute to improving the production pro-cess. This approach is quite different from the one that pro-claims that development agents know “everything” andconstitute the best transfer mechanism for science andtechnology from research and development institutes to lo-cal communities. The producers and users of local knowl-edge are often the real “experts”. Scientists and technolo-gists, when involved in development, should listen to themand make the most of their knowledge and experience, andfind ways to complement each other’s knowledge.

In spite of the technical difficulties that they encounterand their relative exclusion from the national productionsystem, users of traditional knowledge are technically ca-pable of responding to changes in production conditions andfinding innovative solutions to their problems. It has oftenbeen noticed that the more critical their situation, the moreinventive they become. Indeed, local communities often re-sort to a wide range of traditional knowledge to adapt theirproduction techniques in order to ensure a good quality fortheir final product.

Research and development organizations have a criticalrole to play in the acknowledgment of indigenous technicalknowledge, and the promotion of development programsaiming at their valorization. Indigenous technical knowl-edge may be revitalized by decentralized forms of govern-ment emphasizing a policy of local development. In addi-tion, the current trend in favor of so-called “ethnic prod-ucts” opens a new way to the development (through export)of products born from traditional activities.

Promoting indigenous technical knowledge

The current globalization of exchanges requires a reorganiza-tion of African economies. This requirement is becomingmore and more necessary and raises problems that the cen-tralized approaches (of the Keynesian type) are unable tohelp solve. Decentralization at the regional and local levelsallows the application of economic solutions to problemsthat are better apprehended by a decentralized entity, closerto those who are supposed to devise these solutions, applythem and benefit from them. The creation of businesses re-lying on indigenous technical knowledge also means jobscreation at a local level. This approach would trigger a newdynamism of economic activity based on local human, physi-cal, and financial resources. Such local initiatives may resultin the emergence of a local industrial structure comprisingof small businesses. This would of course need an enablingenvironment and appropriate assistance.

Development agents can promote these activities throughfocusing on innovation processes in collaboration with pro-ducers organizations. These organizations can also formpartnerships within the framework of decentralized coop-eration structures. Government awareness of the social andeconomic impact of these activities is essential, in order todesign and implement an incentive-based policy to promotethe commercial development of local products.

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Mali

Indigenous Knowledge:Blending the New and the Old

How is indigenous knowledge broughtout of the traditional closet, into syn-ergy with new technologies and into ap-plication on new development tasks?What are the “pedagogies” by which itis elicited, relearned and reworked? Anexperience more than two decades oldfrom the Republic of Mali suggestssome valuable lessons.

Hidden structure, hiddenknowledge

In Mali, as in many Sub-Saharan Afri-can countries, there has been a strongbifurcation between the customs andknowledge of traditional rural cultureson the one hand and the systems andtechnologies of official urban society onthe other.

In the late 1970s, a team of Malianresearchers assisted by the author con-ducted a thoroughgoing evaluation offunctional adult literacy in the Westernand peanut-growing regions of thecountry. The region was then under theagricultural guidance of a parastatalcorporation, the Opération Arachideset Cultures Vivrières (Peanut and FoodCrops Operation or “OACV”), whichwas charged with developing produc-tion and upgrading farm technology. In

fact, the literacy program itself was ad-ministered under OACV tutelage andconcentrated—at least in theory—onthe skills that rural residents needed toimprove production and take increasedresponsibility for credit and market op-erations. In fact, however, OACV had,up to that point, done little to transferauthority and resources for local opera-tions to communities that demon-strated literate competence.

The results of the first year of evalua-tion demonstrated that, if the literacyprogram had attained its full quantita-tive objectives in only a few localities,the vast majority of participating com-munities had nonetheless managed toproduce a “nucleus” of literatepeople—generally from 5 to 8 youngadults. These villagers were thencharged by the others with principallyshadowing the marketing teams sentout to buy commercial crops by OACV,in order to protect against fraud, andmonitoring tax bills and remissions. Asthe evaluation team remarked aftercloser inspection, the result seemed theconsequence of a very accurate assess-ment by local people of the nature andmagnitude of literacy’s uses in the ru-ral environment. Market and tax moni-toring were important, but not fre-quent enough from an individual point

This article was written by Peter Easton (Florida State University) and Guy Belloncle(Universityof Tours). For more information, e-mail Peter Easton at: [email protected]

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of view to justify each person or family mastering the newskills. Once “collectivized” and assigned to a small team ofvillage residents, however, they made for critical and profit-able work.

On the strength of its assessment, the evaluation teamsucceeded in convincing OACV officials to approve thetransfer of marketing functions—and of a portion of the profitmargin on commercial crop sales—to villages having a suffi-cient number of new literates to handle the tasks. And theteam was then responsible, during its own trip around ruralareas at the outset of the following year’s literacy campaign,for explaining the policy change and the modalities of its ap-plication to village leaders.

An interesting thing then transpired. During colonialtimes, villages throughout the Malian countryside hadadopted the habit of naming a fictitious chief and set ofcounselors to meet with the French administration when-ever it came visiting. Contacts with the colonial administra-tion were considered, for the most part, beneath the dignityof the true traditional authorities and seldom relevant tothe village’s lasting interests. The same pattern persisted inmany areas after “flag” independence in 1960, because rep-resentatives of the modern Malian state were felt to be noless foreign to traditional culture and scarcely more sup-portive of its conservation and well-being. In more than onevillage, therefore, the evaluation team began presenting thenew policy and its implications to a first set of local notables.As soon as the village counterparts realized that a serioustransfer of power and resources was under discussion, how-ever, they asked to be excused and then, as if on a revolvingstage, a second set of negotiators took their place: the realtraditional authorities.

Priming a social process

How are traditional culture and its store of knowledge genu-inely “engaged” in development projects? A perception oftrue interest, like the one that intervened in those discus-sions of the transfer of marketing functions, is obviously akey ingredient. But indigenous science may be trickier toflush out of cover and express than the simple perception ofself-interest. As an Ewe proverb puts the matter, “The birdof knowledge – one person alone can never catch it.” Knowl-edge that is social in nature and culturally transmitted typi-cally comes forth in social situations, where groups of peopleform to resolve what they perceive to be important prob-lems or to communicate wisdom across generations.

Methods for priming this process were developed in Mali bythe same group of researchers in connection with an effortundertaken to create other uses for literacy. With WorldBank support, the Ministry of Education sponsored in themonths to follow a study of new directions for nonformalbasic education, premised on the notion that newly acquiredliteracy should be considered a starting point for new train-ing relevant to rural development as much as a goalachieved. The research team devised three training se-quences for newly literate young adults – one on agricul-tural fertility, one on accounting systems for village enter-prise, and one on the diagnosis and prevention of prevalentinfectious diseases.

Methods for eliciting local knowledge

This was training with a difference, however. The research-ers wished to blend outside technical knowledge in each do-main with the insights of local culture and tradition — andto do so by involving those most aware of the latter: the el-ders in each community. They therefore worked out a proce-dure with several distinct steps:

First, the researchers met with village authorities to asktheir permission to discuss with the elders current localproblems and possible solutions in the area under consider-ation (declining soil fertility, rampant river blindness, or dif-ficulties in starting local enterprise). Since communitieswere chosen in localities where one or another of these prob-lems was already particularly acute, agreement was rapidlyreached in most cases.

During the session subsequently held with the village el-ders, the research team took care to dwell on (a) the natureand importance of the problem, as perceived by the commu-nity itself; (b) the availability of new technical methods that—if adapted and appropriately applied—might offer hope ofeffective solutions; and (c) the presence of young peoplenewly literate in Bambara who potentially had the tools andinquisitiveness to learn new approaches and share themwith others.

The researchers then proposed the idea of holding in thevillage a training workshop to analyze the problem and testnew solutions. They promised, in this case, to bring studymaterials, information on the new technologies and somematerial for trying them out. And they requested that theelders sponsor the initiative and delegate the young peopleto attend and report back to them on the applicability of thenew methods. Three villages ended up accepting the chal-lenge and sponsoring the training, one on each of the topics.

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Ingredients in the recipe

The key challenge was then organizing the experience sothat it was not just an opportunity for the dissemination oftechnical material and advanced training of the youngpeople involved, but an occasion and stimulus for the ex-pression of related local knowledge. To ensure this outcome,the training sessions, which lasted two weeks each, had fiveclosely-related elements:

• Technical content. Researchers served as trainers butmade sure that at least one highly skilled technical resourceperson was associated with each of the sessions. The teamdeveloped the initial curriculum, based on the Bambaratranslation of available dissemination materials.

• Hands-on developmental work. Each training included“laboratory” work with some tools and new technologies ofrelevance to the problem. Researchers responsible for theinfectious disease program, for example, came armed withsimple microscopes with which trainees could examinesamples .

• Field inquiry or local needs assessment. Each trainingalso entailed survey of the extent and nature of the problemin the locality by the trainees themselves.

• Comparison with indigenous knowledge. Researchersexplicitly and systematically created occasions for express-ing local knowledge about the problems under study andcomparing these insights with the dissemination material.

• Experimental trial and analysis. Each training was de-signed to identify issues regarding the actual trial of newmethods and based on the observation of their results.

The critical interaction with indigenous knowledge washandled in two ways. First, during the phase of field inquiryinto current practices and needs, the trainees were carefulto survey not just the problems people were encounteringbut also their understandings of root causes and their meth-ods for addressing the issue. Still more importantly, theevening of each day was devoted to a feedback and discus-sion session with village elders. At this time, the youngtrainees reported on events that had transpired and lessonslearned during the day and sought reactions and sugges-tions from their elders about what these results meant andwhere to go next. This collective reflection proved to be theideal venue for bringing out elements of traditional knowl-edge, comparing it to the “scientific” notions introduced inthe training and bringing both to bear on the resolution ofproblems.

Local knowledge of water-borne diseases

Though all three training episodes followed this generalmodel, actual details of the sessions differed from one loca-tion to another as a function both of differences in the prob-lem situations and differences in the social context. Each ex-perience, though, shed new light on the methodology itself.

Training on infectious diseases was conducted in the vil-lage of Fasa, close to the Baloue River basin, a fertile farm-ing area largely abandoned over the preceding years due tothe high incidence of river blindness (onchocerciasis) andschistosomiasis. People in various stages of river blindnesswere quite evident in the village itself; and the communitychose to focus on these two water-borne infections. A fullcensus of those affected throughout the community was car-ried out by the trainees, who discovered that almost 25 per-cent of the population carried the onchocerciasis tumor andmore than a third of those were already in at least the incipi-ent stages of sight loss.

The local knowledge of the hosts regarding the parasitesand the stages in their life cycle turned out to be consider-able. The technical assistant to this training—a doctor fromthe University of Marseille—was astounded to find that thevillage elders knew things about the life cycle of the schisto-some parasite that he believed only to have been discoveredin French laboratories two years previously.

Understanding soil fertility

The training session focusing on soil fertility was held in thevillage of Suransan Tumoto, north of the town of Kita in thepeanut-growing regions of western Mali. The soils here hadbeen depleted by successive commercial crops and the yieldshad begun to plummet. After an initial study of soil chemis-try, the trainees set about their work by interviewing eldersregarding the types of soil found in the village environmentand the plants that had traditionally grown on each. Theythen carefully surveyed the topography and condition ofthis flora around the village with the help of an agriculturaltechnician from the national research institute and broughtback results for discussion with the entire community.

A comparison of agricultural extension themes on soil fer-tility with local knowledge of soil conditions and associatedplant led to the decision to create an experimental farm sta-tion to test different methods for improving agriculturalyields. Unfortunately, this initiative was thereafter stoppedby a conservative reaction from OACV, which judged it inad-missible to try out with local farmers types of experimenta-tion its own extension agents had not mastered.

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Indigenous accounting systems

The training workshop on accounting and village enter-prises was held in the cotton-growing region of the country,where crop marketing by newly literate personnel from lo-cal communities had opened the way to a certain amount ofeconomic diversification. The movement, though, had en-countered a serious obstacle: lack of Bambara language ac-counting systems that would allow local staff to assume fullcontrol of crop markets and to create other enterprises withthe proceeds of this activity.

Here, after studying accounting methods, trainees inter-viewed elders concerning traditional means for ensuring ac-countability and carried out a workshop to inventory andcreate an appropriate Bambara-language terminology forthe various steps in the process. The workshop concludedwith the production and testing of an entire series ofBambara-language accounting forms and with a presenta-tion to the assembled community of a locally-conducted au-dit of its financial operations.

A pedagogy for expressing indigenous knowledge

The common denominator in all the sessions was the sys-tematic attempt to take account of local knowledge and tobring it to bear on the design of new solutions to the devel-opment problems in question. This was accomplished by ajudicious and creative application of long-standing adulteducation principles:

• Focus on felt needs• Start with what people already know• Associate them as teachers in the learning enterprise• Create a context for collective reflection and recall of rel-

evant experiential data• Vary modes of instruction• Follow through to application or resolution of problems.

But the key factors in mobilizing indigenous knowledge inthese experiments—or turning the “revolving stage” pic-tured in the opening anecdote—were the middle ones in thelist above. They involved ways of affiliating the “reposito-ries” of that knowledge in commissioning training, then intaking part themselves in the search for solutions, all withina social scenario that lent itself to group reflection. The ap-proach borrowed something from two sources—from thetraditional African social structure, which assigns delibera-tive roles to the elders, management tasks to the household-ers and technical ones to the young people in a mannermeant to be synergistic and complementary; and from par-ticipatory action research, which entails organizing learn-ing around the tasks required to solve a problem.

Under these circumstances, the comparison and interac-tion with “modern science” became a stimulus rather thanan inhibition to the expression of indigenous knowledge.Much of traditional knowledge—as of any scientific sys-tem—is fundamentally taxonomic: accumulated observa-tion and organization of the different types of naturally oc-curring phenomena and their inter-correlations. The reser-voir is rich, but the lack of means to record and compare in-dividual variations or test and analyze planned interven-tions have left the agenda (sympathetic mastery of naturalforces) incomplete. The kind of training organized in Maliand described here creates an opportunity not only to ex-press indigenous knowledge and bring it to bear on develop-ment problems, but also to fulfill its own potential for im-proving the human condition through comparison and col-laboration with a tradition that is more systematicallybased on the analysis of natural and planned variation.

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Traditional Medicine and AIDSThis article is reproduced in its entirety, with permission, from Lancet, 8th April 2000, Volume355, page 1284. The original title of the article was “ A Regional Task Force on TraditionalMedicine and AIDS”. The authors are Gerard Bodeker, Donna Kabatesi, Rachel, King, JacquesHomsy, Green College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6HG, UK; THETA, Uganda; andMedecins Sans Frontieres, Uganda. COPYRIGHT 2000 The Lancet Ltd. in association withThe Gale Group and LookSmart. COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group.

A regional task force on traditionalmedicine and AIDS in east and south-ern Africa will be (sic) inaugurated inKampala, Uganda, on April 10, 2000.The task force will coordinate activityrelated to the widespread use of tradi-tional medicine by people with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the role of tradi-tional healers in AIDS prevention. Thenine-member task force of east andsouthern African non-governmental or-ganizations (NGOs), international or-ganizations, and west African observerdelegations, will share information,generate an inventory of activitiesabout traditional medicine, documentand distribute best practices, promoteresearch in traditional medicine, andmobilize resources. The task force willrecognize the fact that in Africa, thehigh cost and scarcity of many essentialdrugs, including antiretroviral drugs,means that most people with HIV/AIDS use traditional herbal treatmentsfor HIV-related conditions includingopportunistic infections. In Uganda,there is one traditional health practitio-ners for every 200–400 people, whereasthe availability of trained medical per-sonnel is typically one per 20,000people.

The plan to establish the task forcearose from a UNAIDS-sponsored con-

ference in Kampala, in February, 2000.100 delegates from 17 African coun-tries met to review the effect of tradi-tional healers on HIV prevention andcare. The meeting was hosted by Tradi-tional and Modern Health Practitio-ners Together Against AIDS (THETA),a Ugandan NGO that promotes col-laboration between traditional andmodern health practitioners in thefight against AIDS. Support was pro-vided by UNAIDS and the Associationfor the Promotion of Traditional Medi-cine (PROMETRA), an internationalNGO based in Senegal. THETA hastaken the lead in east Africa in develop-ing partnerships between biomedicaland traditional health sectors.

Many of the conference delegates ar-gued at the Kampala meeting that, inview of its widespread use, traditionalmedicine is in a real sense carrying theburden of clinical care for the AIDS epi-demic in Africa, a trend largely over-looked by health ministries, interna-tional agencies, and donors. Delegatesfocused on collaboration between thetraditional and modern health sectors.They identified projects that meet cri-teria for “best practice” responses tothe AIDS epidemic in Africa. Mostcountries in the region reported someinitiatives involving traditional medi-

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cine and practitioners. Dr Sandra Anderson of UNAIDS,South Africa, noted that “traditional health practitionersoccupy a critical role in African societies and are making avaluable contribution to AIDS prevention and care”.THETA director, Dr Donna Kabatesi, cited clinical data onUgandan herbal treatments effective against herpes zosterand HIV-associated chronic diarrhea and weight loss. Pro-fessor Charles Wambebe, head of Nigeria’s National Insti-tute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, re-ported preliminary clinical data on a Nigerian herbal medi-cine that seems to increase CD4-cell counts and lead to im-provements in HIV-related illness; controlled clinical trialsare now underway. Dr Mberesero Firmina of the TangaAIDS Working Group presented findings on Tanzanianherbal treatments for HIV-related fungal infections.

Although traditional health systems are locally accessibleand culturally relevant, they must first be rendered safe.Most importantly, poor documentation, a lack of standard-ization, and the absence of regulatory mechanisms for tradi-tional health-care practice in many countries were seen aschallenges to be overcome if traditional medicine is to bemore systematically included as a key player in AIDS pre-vention and care. Mutual misunderstanding between mod-ern and traditional practitioners, weak organization of heal-ers, and sensationalist media reporting all contribute to themarginal status of traditional medicine in African countries.Despite many governments and international agencies call-ing for “recognition” of traditional medicine, the lack of se-rious commitment and action on this issue was seen as a keyimpediment to identifying effective indigenous approachesto AIDS prevention and care and to building strong partner-ships for an integrated strategy against HIV/AIDS. As a re-sult, scores of medicinal plants that are used daily in Africaand may have potential effectiveness against opportunisticinfections or HIV remain unknown or uninvestigated, whilemost Africans with HIV/AIDS cannot afford modern drugswith proven effectiveness.

Noting the need for a regional network of organizationscurrently working in isolation with traditional medicine andHIV/AIDS, the meeting proposed the establishment of thetask force, for which THETA will serve as the Secretariat.Task-force members include the Traditional Health Practi-tioners Association of Zambia, and the Zimbabwean Na-tional Traditional Healers Association. There will be ob-server groups from the west African nations of Ghana, Ni-geria, and Cameroon. International partners are UNAIDS,WHO/AFRO, and the Global Initiative For Traditional Sys-tems (GIFTS) of Health and its partner organization theCommonwealth Working Group on Traditional andComplementary Health Systems. GIFTS has accepted re-sponsibility to lay the groundwork for a network of re-searchers and institutions to build a research program thatwill identify, assess, and develop safe and effective localtreatments for HIV-related illnesses. The program will usesimplified but controlled clinical protocols to conduct rapidinvestigations of promising treatments. It will build data-bases for information sharing on the successes and failuresof local treatments. The program will be based on an intel-lectual property rights framework to protect the rights oflocal knowledge holders, learning lessons from a few exist-ing programs in Africa. Recognizing the global, unsustain-able pressure on wild stocks of medicinal plants, sustainablehorticulture will be promoted for priority species. A solidgovernment research infrastructure, backed by interna-tional agencies, will need to be developed to ensure a rapidresearch response to positive preliminary findings. Thisstrategy will be designed to guide promising herbal treat-ments through to the stages of development of safe, effec-tive, and affordable medicines. It will emphasize, where ap-plicable, the local production and dissemination of usefulherbs at the national, community, and family level, towardsan African solution for combating AIDS in Africa.

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Uganda

Information Technology and Rural Development:The Nakaseke Multi-Purpose TelecenterThis report was written by Siddhartha Prakash of the World Bank, and is based on a field visitto the Nakaseke Multi-Purpose Tele-Center in May 2000.

It is often said that modern technologytends to bypass local communitiesfound in remote regions. However,some recent technological advance-ments in communications have begunto blur geographical distances and in-fra-structural bottlenecks. Located 50kilometers north of Kampala, Ugandain a remote village, the NakasekeMulti-Purpose Community Tele-centerhas introduced new information andcommunication technologies to this ru-ral area. In three years, the telecenterhas catalyzed a number of developmentactivities in the region.

Nakaseke sub-county has a popula-tion of over 38,953 of which 18,617 arewomen. Nakaseke town itself has apopulation of 3,000 people, most ofwhom are the Baganda—the biggesttribe in central Uganda. The commu-nity is largely oral and does not have aestablished reading culture. Till thetelecenter started in 1997, newspaperswere only available in the next town 16kilometers away and connected by arough road.

The Nakaseke Telecenter is part of achain of five donor (UNESCO/IDRC/ITU) supported telecenter projects ini-tiated in Benin, Mali, Mozambique andTanzania. The overall objective of theproject is to stimulate rural develop-ment by facilitating access to informa-

tion, learning resources and communi-cation technologies by the Nakasekeand Kasangombe communities andsupport improved medical servicesthrough telemedicine.

Current activities include computerapplications training, and Internet, e-mail, telephone, fax, library, and photo-copying services, an Open LearningCenter (for outreach), topical videoshows and audio recordings and com-munity listening and newspapers, aswell as leisure and sports activities foryoung people.

While the telecenter aims at servingthe entire communities of Nakasekeand Kasangombe, it focuses on the fol-lowing core user groups: women,youth, children, medical, workers,teaching staff, farmers and local lead-ers. The content and programming forthe telecenter is therefore tailored to-wards meeting primarily the needs andaspirations of these groups.

Implementation strategy

The participation and involvement ofthe community is central to the imple-mentation of the telecenter’s activities.Since it was started, the communityhas been at the center of the planningand execution of the all activities. A localsteering committee was elected from

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and by the community representing each of the core targetgroups to:• Supervise the telecenter’s daily activities• Liaise with the management committee• Mobilize the community to participate in all activities

and programs• Steer community ownership programs and involve the

community in any activities that promote thesustainability of the telecenter, including organizingfundraising activities.

Impact

The community has access to a modern library/resourcecenter, telephone connectivity and an information commu-nications technology (ICT) core unit for all ICT-related ac-tivities/services.

The multi-purpose telecenter has transformed the livesof the local community. It has provided internet, telephoneand fax services that are being utilized to conduct local busi-ness activities. Computer training has provided jobs for theyouth, who now have access to a fully-fledged library withmajor international journals and books. Farmers have be-gun to engage in on-line trading and use the telecenter tocapture and disseminate information about local farmingtechniques and crop prices. The telecenter has begun toimplement an Indigenous Knowledge Program in collabora-tion with local farmers, which could be utilized as an affec-tive focal point to conduct community to community ex-changes. Farmers are now requesting for market rates andgeneral trends regarding the crops they grow.

The school community (7,000 school children) as well ascommunity workers and medical officers have benefitedfrom the resource center. The community (42 villages and3,000 households) is gradually appreciating the importanceof information as evidenced by the growing number ofpeople inquiring about information on a variety of issues.The daily newspapers available at the telecenter have alsohelped to keep the community up to date with what is goingon in the rest of the country.

Agricultural project utilizes indigenous knowledge

While Uganda’s population is expected to double over thenext 30 years however, a necessary and corresponding in-crease in agricultural growth is a cause for concern. Thepresent low agricultural growth has been attributed, amongother things, to poor research-extension–farmer linkages andineffective technology delivery systems, including poor or in-

efficient information and communication packaging and de-livery systems.

The agricultural project aims to:• Increase overall agricultural productivity and household

incomes in Nakaseke and Kasangombe Sub- counties.• Support agricultural extension workers in providing

information and guidance to the farming community.• Directly link research work and farmers’ units, thereby

enhancing the flow of information from both sides.International, national and local institutions will belinked to the telecenter as the hub for agri-consulting.

• Provide a forum for experimentation on the use of ICTto deliver timely agricultural information and dissemina-tion of research results.

From the beginning, the project incorporated local com-munity knowledge into its organizational structure andframework. It established a special section in the library togather and disseminate IK-related information, which wasused to increase the responsiveness of local farmers tochanges in government policy with a view to raising agricul-tural productivity at the regional level. A photographic dis-play shed light on traditional approaches to natural re-source management, savings and informal transfers and lo-cal medicinal approaches and applications.

Over the last three years, through a process of trial anderror, all actors involved have been trained to demonstrate ahigh degree of adaptability. Several community-based work-shops and study tours were organized to train local farmersto understand and anticipate fast-moving trends so as toadopt the correct response strategies.

Field research was conducted to understand and appreci-ate indigenous approaches to farming, which focused on thecomplexity, diversity and risk prone approaches of manyfarming systems. The study tours effectively showcased theknowledge, professionalism and rationality of small andpoor farmers. A series of formal and informal discussionsbrought out their experimental mindset behavior and abil-ity to conduct their own analysis.

The accessibility, diversity and timely relevance of infor-mation were key elements for enabling all parties to adaptand make a change for the better. Different modes of com-munication such as internet, telephone and fax determinedthe extent to which the process of dialogue, negotiation andcommunication, between the different parties involved, wasstrengthened. The telecenter played a key role as a facilita-tor, by connecting Nakaseke to other parts of the country/world and vice-versa. For the first time, the local commu-nity could engage in an ongoing dialogue with other commu-nities and share their experiences.

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Impact

• Extension agents, NGOs and farmers are well-trained inthe use of ICT.

• Relevant agricultural information are accessed anddeveloped in collaboration with at least three researchinstitutions. Technologies and crops include post har-vest, banana, coffee, horticulture, root crops and cereals.

• Training manuals, information brochures, guides leafletsand posters are developed.

• At least 65 percent of farmers in Nakaseke andKasangombe are exposed to this approach and 98percent of agricultural extension agents and communitydevelopment workers are involved.

In addition to agriculture, the Nakaseke Telecenter hasdeveloped a series of projects that utilize the knowledge andexpertise of local communities particularly in the fields ofeducation, gender and healthcare. This includes an innova-tive Tele-Medicine Program being developed in collabora-tion with the Nakaseke Hospital. Once in operation, theidea is to be able to link local patients with medical practi-tioners in Kampala and other cities and vice-versa. Thiscould prove to be an effective forum to mainstream the useof traditional medicine being practiced widely across Africa.In this way, Tele-centers could serve as a platform for cap-turing and documenting indigenous knowledge and dis-seminating it from one local community to another.

Lessons learned

Involving the community at an early stage in the planningand implementation of the project helped to mainstreamtelecenter issues into the general activities of the commu-nity. Localizing the ICT applications to a level that is under-standable to all community members helped to sell thetelecenter concept. This was achieved through translatinginformation packages into Luganda — the dominant locallanguage of the community. Illustration of new conceptsand programs is the key to deep appreciation and under-standing, especially if it concerns an illiterate community. Itis vital to recruit local “sons and daughters of the soil” tomanage the daily operations. They know the communitybetter than any other expert and communicate in the ‘lan-guage’ that the people understand.

Nakaseke is a successful example of transferring the main-tenance costs from donors to the local communities, therebymoving towards sustainable local ownership. The commu-nity has successfully, out of their own tax collections elected apermanent building for the telecenter and found othersources of funding to support the construction work. It alsolobbied the government for a new telecom tower to facilitatethe connection of over 50 new telephone lines in the region.This confirms the extent to which rural communities appre-ciate the value of information in the development process.

The challenges ahead

In a new nitiative like the telecenter, there is a critical needfor documentation. It offers numerous tools that could be ef-fectively used to document the rich diversity of indigenousknowledge in the region. The process has begun by trainingresearchers in ethnographic research methods and develop-ing a methodology for data gathering and recording in adatabank. This is being achieved through the use of audio-visuals and by recording views in written documentary.

The next step is to develop a framework for informationdissemination, sharing and networking. The process has be-gun through forging practical linkages within ICT initia-tives in and out of the country. The telecenter has a plan toshare documentation systems and record keeping withother telecenters involved in the pilot within the country.

Additional programs are being developed to mainstreamthe knowledge captured by the Tele-center, including oneon community trade and business practices. The programwill empower local traders with the ability and insight to ap-preciate and critically analyze their commercial environ-ment, with a view to cultivate a savings culture and controlexpenditure. The focus will be on documenting andmainstreaming indigenous entrepreneurial practices andapplications.

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Indigenous Knowledge and Local Power:Negotiating Change in West Africa

Alhough the development, articulationand systematization of indigenousknowledge in Africa are most oftenseen as issues of culture and local epis-temology (the study of the nature andgrounds of knowledge), they have at thesame time critical power dimensions.The relation between local knowledgebases—and practitioners—on the onehand and central or Westernized oneson the other is manifestly a high-power/low-power situation, a matter most oftenquite acutely and accurately perceivedby local people themselves. Until andunless the “terms of trade” betweenthese two spheres are significantly al-tered, or at least cast in a frameworkthat promises some renegotiation, it isentirely understandable that the reposi-tories of indigenous science would chooseto keep it “off the market.”

Telltale patterns of literacyacquisition

A story from an evaluation of func-tional literacy in Mali two decades agoillustrates the point and provides a ba-sis for further examining the problem.In the late 1970s an effort was under-taken—with joint Ministry of Educa-

tion, Ministry of Rural Developmentand World Bank funding—to inventoryand assess results from several years offunctional literacy classes in the vil-lages of the western portion of thecountry. The literacy program had beenestablished through the parastatal ag-ricultural operation responsible for thedevelopment of cash and food cropfarming in the region, as a means ofgaining local farmer confidence andproviding people with ways of scruti-nizing commercial transactions. Theresults were mixed. Two aspects of the“balance sheet” of outcomes drawn upby the team responsible for the partici-patory evaluation effort clearly illus-trated the concerns of villagers withpower relations.

The first lay in the figures on thatbalance sheet themselves. In the initialdesign of the Bambara-language lit-eracy program, it was assumed thateach community would create a train-ing center, enroll and make literatesome twenty adults, then create an-other class and train a second group ofsimilar or larger size. By the end of fouryears, somewhere between thirty andfifty newly literate participants shouldhave been on the rolls in each commu-nity concerned.

This article was written by Peter Easton (Florida State University) and Guy Belloncle (University ofTours, retired). For more information, e-mail Peter Easton at: [email protected]


The actual results both fell well short of this objective andturned out, upon closer examination, to be highly significant.Almost nowhere across the entire region did one find a com-munity where more than ten “new literates” had beentrained. On the other hand, it was equally rare—excepting afew cases of major implementation failure—to find villageswhere no one had learned anything. In case after case, theprogram seemed to have resulted—after several years of ef-fort, an appropriate amount of rhetoric and a generally weakrecord of material support by government agencies—in theemergence of a nucleus of new literates, generally betweenfour and seven young men. Why this number and so seldomless or more?

Interpreting the record

The answer seemed to lie in the real uses to which literacyin Bambara could be put under circumstances then apply-ing in western Mali. Though the program was publicizedwith all the appropriate rhetoric about the importance oflearning and the functional value of the new learning, inpoint of fact there were few opportunities to apply knowl-edge of written Bambara in the rural environment. Whatformal schools existed were all conducted in French, few ifany publications in written African language could befound, and the medium of writing in Bambara was not usedto any practical ends by either the local government or theagricultural operation itself. Moreover, there was an acutelack of credit or investment opportunities that might havemade the creation of locally run enterprises a viable.

But to say that there were few outlets for the use of liter-ate and numerate competence did not mean that there werenone. Control of tax transactions with the government andoversight of farm marketing functions were two issues ofmajor interest to local actors, because they saw themselvesas being so regularly exploited in these areas. Viewed froman individual perspective, the monitoring of tax remittancesand agricultural marketing was not a frequent enough ac-tivity to justify each adult becoming literate and, perhapsmore importantly, “numerate.” However, when these func-tions were “collectivized” and confided in a handful of (gen-erally young male) villagers, they made for valuable, regularand sometimes remunerated work undertaken in defense ofthe community as a whole. As a consequence, in village aftervillage, the evaluators found that the training programs hadresulted in the creation of a nucleus of four to seven new lit-erates who organized and assumed these functions. The lo-cal people seemed to have accurately assessed the magni-tude of opportunities for use of the new knowledge as well

as the imperative of better collective self-defense and to havethus modulated their response to the programs.

Results from the first year’s participatory assessment werecommunicated to officials of the agricultural operation todemonstrate the existence of core groups of literate farmersacross the region. This was done in the hope of motivatingthem to offer communities with this sort of nucleus—and thedemonstrated capacity to train the number of people that neweconomic and political opportunity justified—the chance totake over larger portions of agricultural marketing responsi-bility and to receive, in return, a significant slice of the profitmargin on the sale of the crop for rebate to individual farmersor collective reinvestment in locally-directed developmentprojects. After some negotiation, agreement was finallyreached on this major change of policy and the evaluationteam set out, on the eve of the following agricultural market-ing season, to communicate this news to local authoritiesalong with a summary of the results of the initial round of theparticipatory literacy evaluation. The effort produced the sec-ond major lesson about local knowledge and collective self-de-fense.

Distinguishing “for show” and “for go”

First, though, a word of background. During the period ofFrench colonial rule, throughout rural areas of the westernSahel, local communities became accustomed to dealingquite circumspectly with representatives of the central re-gime. Each village named, in effect, its own puppet govern-ment—that is, a set of fictional local authorities who wouldmeet with the French whenever that was required, gatherinformation to be relayed back, if necessary, to the real vil-lage chief and his counselors and generally relieve them ofthe necessity of dealing directly with colonial agents. Thispattern was maintained well into the period of African inde-pendence, because the representatives of the new nationalregimes were often perceived as no less alien or inimical tolocal interests than their colonial predecessors.

This attitude was clearly if subtly manifested during thefirst year of evaluation work on more than one occasion.One of the Malian evaluators involved in discussions withlocal authorities noted that the word they themselves usedin Bambara for the cooperatives set up by the national gov-ernment to handle farm production and marketing wassomething more than what it seemed to be—a deformationof the French term “coopérative.” He asked people to repeatwhat they were saying, listened respectfully and made a fewdiscreet inquiries after the discussion was over. What peoplewere actually saying was “ko-fara-tinti,” a Bambara pun on

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the French term that meant, literally, “skin the back andplunge in a dagger.” It was, in effect, an eloquent and lapi-dary commentary on how local people then saw the underly-ing objective of State agricultural policy.

Given this level of suspicion, it was no surprise that theevaluation team ended up meeting—both in the first yearand during the dissemination efforts at the beginning of thesecond—with puppet authorities in most communities vis-ited, even if these people were indistinguishable, to an un-practiced eye, from the true local officials. But something ofgreat interest transpired early in the second year when theevaluators came back to relay the news of the government’sdecision about the transfer of marketing responsibility andrelated resources into local hands. No sooner had these top-ics been broached than their interlocutors asked for a pausein discussions. They quietly disappeared from the sceneand, after a short interval, were replaced, as if on a revolvingstage, by a new set of counterparts—the true village au-thorities. If there was a chance that real transfer of powerand resource was in the offing, then it was time to bring in-digenous culture and authority into the balance.

Four decades of experience

The lesson is reinforced by experience in other countries ofthe region—Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger and the Cen-tral African Republic—with literacy and agricultural man-agement programs. By far the most success in the rapid ac-quisition of new skills and mobilization of local knowledgein related efforts of institutional development have been re-corded in circumstances of durable transfer of authorityand resources into local hands. In fact, programs based onparticipatory design of the knowledge systems and local lan-guage tools required to effectively manage new economicactivity and political jurisdiction seem to provide an idealmedium for “inventorying” and articulating related indig-enous knowledge—because they create an environment inwhich it is clear (or at least clearer) that the cultural trea-sures exhumed and deployed will serve local interests andremain under local control. And, under these circum-stances, literacy training itself turns out to be an excellentmedium for mobilizing local knowledge, because it providesan opportunity and tool for “renaming” development andfor reconfiguring the details of its implementation.

This proved true, for example, in a series of experimentswith the local management of rural enterprise in which the

authors took part: in central Niger in the late 1960s, again inBurkina Faso in the 1970s, in northern Cameroon in the1980s and among the livestock herders of the Central AfricanRepublic in the early 1990s. The Cameroonian case involvedthe creation of an entire accounting system in the Massa lan-guage, whereas the Central African Republic experience wasbased on training Fulani herders already literate in religiousArabic script in the Romanized transcription of their own lan-guage. The literate training itself took as little as three orfour weeks of intensive instruction developed with—andmonitored by—the local population; but the follow-up periodof assumption of new powers and management responsibili-ties was critical and more prolonged.

Who controls the knowledge?

Similar conclusions could be drawn from the experiencewith participatory agricultural experimentation and exten-sion work undertaken in Mali on the heels of the literacyevaluation described above. There the incentive for localparticipants was the chance to take charge of agriculturalexperimentation themselves, while both learning the newskills required and assessing the store of local knowledgerelevant to the endeavor. No small part of the motivationsprang from the opportunity to “turn the tables” on tradi-tional agricultural extension work—where resources, meth-ods and paradigms remained under the strict control of gov-ernment agents and were devoted to producing productsand procedures in official experimental stations for top-down dissemination to farmers. Local authorities were veryresponsive when invited—and enabled—to draw up the ex-perimental designs themselves and name people who wouldundergo related training. However, the undertaking waseventually undermined by the firm opposition of the officialagricultural extension services to this kind of contestationand decentralization of their rights and privileges.

Articulating and expressing local knowledge, as these ex-amples illustrate, is therefore much more than an “episte-mological” and cultural undertaking. It is hedged about byquestions of power and the “terms of trade” between localand central societies that are simply reconfirmed—in an-other particular sphere—by recent concerns for the copy-right and patent protection of indigenous pharmaceutical orbotanical lore. Devising strategies that mediate these con-flicts and weave creative transfer of authority and resourceinto reconstruction of local knowledge is the true challenge.

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West African Languages: Medium and MessageThis article was written by Peter Easton, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult and Continuing Education,Florida State University. For more information, please e-mail [email protected]

Indigenous knowledge in Africa, andthe world over, is expressed in lan-guage, and usually in an “indigenous”language—in short, the mother tongueof inhabitants of the locality, or a lin-gua franca in regular usage by them.Are these languages simply a neutralmedium? Are they just instrumental“vehicles” for the expression of localknowledge and daily life? Or do the lan-guages themselves play some role, bytheir very structure and usage, in whatis thought and known?

Language is very important in Africa.There are upwards of 2,000 languageson the continent, the number varyingas a function of the way in which dis-tinctions are drawn among neighboringor related speech traditions. Africancultures have been largely oral ones forcenturies though varieties of writing(Western, Arabic and a few codes of Af-rican origin) have become increasinglywell known. In many areas, the statusand role of “praise-singer” or “griot” isinstitutionalized to the point where anentire caste of people devotes its life tolearning and orally declaiming the his-tory and traditions of the locality and ofits leading inhabitants. African cul-tures also typically place great empha-sis on social relations and communica-tion, all of which adds to the critical

role played by language in the organi-zation of community and of knowledge.

The examples in the paragraphs tofollow are principally drawn fromHausa, the second most widespreadtongue in Africa (after Swahili) and amember of the “Chadic” group of lan-guages. It is principally spoken innorthern Nigeria and central Niger, butis used as well in several other coun-tries of the region. The patterns arenonetheless roughly representative of ahost of western and central African lan-guage traditions.

Language as “capital”

Hausa speakers give every bit as muchimportance to spoken expression andlanguage as suggested above. Maganajari ce a traditional saying maintains:“Language is capital.” In the Hausalexicon, the word hausa itself signifiesnot just the speech of that particularpopulation group, but “language” ingeneral and underlying “meaning.” Mene ne Hausarka? people will ask:“What language do you speak?”, or, lit-erally “What is your ‘Hausa?’” Bangane ba Hausarshi is a common way ofsaying that “I don’t understand whathe means.”1

1 Northern Hausa is used throughout all these examples and quoted expressions.

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Verb aspect Example Meaning in Hausa English equivalentHausa phrase Meaning “Tense”

Completive Yaa tahi His leaving can be regarded “He left” Pasttenseas completed. (Commitmentis accomplished.)

Continative Ya naa tahiya He is in the process of leaving “He is leaving” Present tenseor going. (The intention is being or “going”accomplished.)

Projected Zay tahiya He plans to leave or go “He will go” Future tense

Potential Yaà tahi “He MAY go.” “He will very likely go Weak future(His commitment is real if circumstances permit” (no equivalent tense)but conditional.)

Intentional Yà tahi He should or must go. «Let him go» or Subjunctive(Others’ —or his «that he go»own—intentions areclear but not executed.)

Habitual Ya kan tahi He is in the habit of going More or less No equivalent tense«he usually goes»

At least three levels of Hausa language may have a bear-ing on how thought is formulated and knowledge expressed:the grammar of the language, its lexicon and the social pat-terns governing its usage.

The deep structure of grammar?

One of the first things to strike a non-Hausa speaker—and anon-African in particular—in going beyond the fundamen-tals of the language is that the verb system is not really or-ganized into tenses. In other words, the primary informa-tion that the grammatical form of the verb phrase conveysis less when something happened or will happen than it ishow that action is viewed by the people involved and whatthe nature of their intentions is with respect to it. Thoughthe divisions of the verb parallel to some degree the tensesof many non-African languages, they are better described as“aspects.” Action is thus linguistically divided into the cat-egories listed below.*

Once again, the primary information conveyed by thisaspectual organization of the verb concerns the state of hu-man intention and commitment with respect to the action,not the time, even if there are analogies with a tense system.Someone who is leaving a party or house will therefore sayto their host Naa—which, translated as a temporal state-ment, would signify (nonsensically) “I have left.” What is

meant, however, is that the person has decided to leave, andtherefore the act is as good as done in the intentional realm.

A focus on intention

In a similar vein, the principal concern of the Hausa speakeris often with the nature of one’s resolution or commitmentto perform an act and with the process of decision itself,rather than with the exact date and duration of the act’sperformance. Hausa speakers sometimes express frustra-tion with Westerners’ frequent use of the word “perhaps”(watakila in Hausa) in their conversation and planning.The habit is seen as a way of avoiding commitment. A popu-lar saying puts the point succinctly: Watakila abin da yahana ma nasara karya! “Perhaps is the word that saves [lit-erally “prevents”] the Westerner from lying.”

Such patterns of expression by no means exclude atten-tion to schedules and timing, and temporal planning con-cerns have certainly become a more prominent fact ofSahelian life in the last half-century. At the same time, thisperspective or “paradigm” may not be so poorly adapted tocircumstances where logistics have long been highly unpre-dictable and lasting commitment has been essential to get-ting things done—and it may have relevance to the futureneeds of African society as well.

* The transcription used for Hausa words and phrases throughout this article is, in general, the one currently prescribed by UNESCO. The table and para-graph to follow are one exception. Long sounds are represented by doubled vowels, as was formerly the case, because there is no other handy way to bringout differences among the verb aspects. A “grave” accent indicates a low tone, and such an accent on the second vowel in a cluster indicates a falling tone.


Using words where it counts

The notion that language does not just express thought, butalso shapes or influences it to some extent, has a long his-tory in western linguistic and cultural thought and remainshotly debated. Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir wereamong the first to articulate it, and the “Whorfian” or“Wharf-Sapir hypothesis” still stirs controversy. Withoutsteering toward those particular shoals, one can at least en-tertain the idea that the form of a language is part and par-cel of indigenous knowledge and a factor to be studied—andsavored—in the attempt to preserve it.

Whorf himself paid attention not just to the structure oflanguages but to their lexical properties as well—i.e., the vo-cabulary, and, more specifically, the differences between theareas of experience that different languages seem to empha-size by the richness of their lexicon. He was fond of remark-ing that Eskimo languages have multiple words for differ-ent varieties of snow, but only one for all types of motorizedconveyance; whereas in English it is nearer the reverse.Critics have aptly pointed out that ski enthusiasts likewisehave multiple terms in English for varying snow conditions.But the idea that the relative development of different areasof experience in the lexicon of a language says somethingabout the distinctions that are important to its speakersstill merits consideration.

An examination of a Hausa dictionary brings some simi-lar ideas to mind. Once again, there are relatively few tradi-tional words for motorized tool—though a number of intro-duced ones—but the terminology for varieties of relation-ships among people (both consanguineous and covenantal)and for shades of behavior is extremely developed. Three ex-amples: (a) nurkurkusa—which can best be rendered as“continually putting off paying someone”; kwakyara for“blurting out what ought not to have been said”; and santi(or fanya)—which designates “saying something ordinaryduring a group meal that, due to general pleasure with thequality of the food, sends everyone into peals of laughter”!

Lexical creativity

Any African language can be used, of course, to say what-ever one wants, and assimilation of new ideas and terms isno less prevalent in these languages than it is in English,French or Chinese—an example of what social scientists call“lexical creativity.” Hausa is no exception to the rule. Newterms have been created over the years for a host of initiallyforeign concepts, with sometimes poetic results. The UnitedNations was dubbed majalisar dinkin duniya or “the as-

sembly to unite [literally, ‘sew together’] the world.”The small French-made Solex motorbike—a simple con-

traption where the motor rode on top of the front wheel,driving it by friction — was baptized in Hausa kare yadauko tukunya: “the dog carrying a cooking pot.” And itsslightly larger cousin, the “mobylette,” was christened moreonomatopoetically dan bututu. (The letter “d ” being whatlinguists call an “implosive” sound.) There is, in fact, aHausa Language Board in northern Nigeria that rules—much like the Académie Française—on neologisms and ap-propriate ways of expressing new ideas. But what a lan-guage community has traditonally—if implicitly—chosen torepresent by a single specialized term as opposed to a longerexplanation says something about the ideas and perspec-tives that re-occur most often in thought patterns and ex-pression.

Speech behaviors

If language has some influence on thought and expression,it is shaped in turn by patterns of usage—the roles peopleplay in employing it and the ends to which they put it. Thisis, of course, the domain par excellence of socio-linguists.Deborah Tannen has written some works well known in theUnited States about variations in the speech behavior ofAmerican men and women, including striking differencesby gender in the meaning of interruptions and overlapping:breaking into what someone else is saying or completing itfor them. Stated most simply, for men it tends to be an ag-gressive and competitive act, for women it can be a kind ofsupport.

An interesting aspect of speech patterns among theHausa is the frequency—and the role—of similar kinds of“overlapping.” The author was once responsible for tran-scribing word for word the proceedings of a village confer-ence on livestock conducted in Hausa. When the discussionshad been recorded and transferred to paper, an interestingthing appeared, something we all knew but had never paidmuch attention to. A number of very pertinent suggestionsabout how to stable cattle in the village and provide for theirfodder (something not traditionally done in that region)came out during the sessions. On close examination of thetranscript and audition of the tapes, however, it was clearthat nearly no one had expressed a complete or well-formedidea on the topic. Rather, one person would utter the begin-nings of a sentence or thought, someone else would add to it,a third would round it out or reformulate it; and the dis-course bounced around the straw enclosure with few, if any,disquisitions or even individually-completed sentences. Yet,

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through this medium, some useful ideas and resolutionstook form.

From talking the talk to walking the walk

There are many parallels to this practice of group or inter-personal complementarity in the social life of the region aswell. Another story will illustrate the point. At a similarstage in (personal) prehistory, this author was responsiblefor setting up the first film projector ever seen in the town ofMadaoua, Niger. It required, of course, an electrical genera-tor to boot, as there was no electricity in the town. Unfortu-nately, once delivered over 500 kilometers of washboard lat-erite road, neither piece of machinery showed any sign oflife and both resisted the best ministrations. The only re-course was the garage of the local arrondissement, or countyseat, where a crew of barefoot mechanics worked under anadobe mud shelter behind the administrative offices withfew tools to repair a small fleet of battered Land Rovers.

The mechanics were glad to oblige, but as they startedwork our qualms grew. The group of them—five or six—pro-ceeded to squat around the equipment and to poke and pull

at it from various angles, while keeping up a rapid andsometimes raucous dialogue about what they were doing.One thought at this point that the projector was history. Butwithin fifteen minutes they had both pieces of equipmentrunning perfectly. Somehow they had managed to use thecomplementary experience and intuition of all group mem-bers—mediated through language—to solve a problem theyhad never encountered before. In an era when internationalbusiness headlines the critical—and generally deficient—skills of teamwork and “organizational learning” within theworkforce, these very habits, partly built into languageform and usage, may turn out once again to be quite appli-cable.

Food for thought

None of these anecdotal examples should be taken too far orgiven too much weight. The underlying argument and expe-rience, though, seem worthy of the attention of those inter-ested in indigenous knowledge: part of that knowledge liesin, or is at least supported by, the medium of language itself.

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Indigenous Knowledge and HIV/AIDS

This article has been written by Maja Naur, Ph.D. in sociology, consultant to the World Bank. The projects referred to are: Zambia:Environmental Support Program, report no. 16239-ZA, and Ghana: Northern Savanna Biodiversity Conservation Project, projectdocument on a proposed grant from the Global Environmental Facility Trust Fund. The author wants to thank the concernedTask Managers, Yves Prevost and Hassan M. Hassan and not least John Lambert for his work on medicinal plants. The socialstudies for the projects have been undertaken by the author and funded by the Danish Trust Fund. For more information, e-mail:[email protected]

It has always been difficult to reachpoor people with development aid, par-ticularly in health where most re-sources benefit the middle classes inurban hospitals. For the rural poor, andincreasingly also for the urban poor, of-ten the only affordable and accessibleform of health care is provided by tradi-tional healers. Zambia with an esti-mated 20-25 percent of the populationHIV-positive has only 900 western-educated doctors (600 of whom are for-eign) but has 40,000 registered tradi-tional healers for a population of 10million. Ghana, with 5 percent of thepopulation being HIV-positive, has1,200 western educated doctors but anestimated 50,000 traditional healers fora population of 20 million. Thus, theratio of doctor to traditional healer is1:44 in Zambia and 1:42 in Ghana.Given the central cultural role of tradi-tional healers in communities, theyprovide one of the best hopes for treat-ing and stemming the spread of AIDS.But healers rely on medicinal plantsand there has been a significant de-crease in the abundance of many im-portant medicinal plant species as theirhabitat are lost through deforestation,cultivation, overgrazing, burning,droughts, desertification, etc. Thisproblem has been exacerbated by the

unmanaged local and international de-mand for medicinal plants. Further-more, traditional healers have identi-fied as an important issue, the loss ofindigenous knowledge regarding tradi-tional medicine, which forms part ofthe cultural heritage of local communi-ties and is usually transmitted orally.This knowledge is often undervaluedby the younger generations, at least inpart because traditional medicine sel-dom brings high economic returns tothe practitioner.

In recognition of the importance topreserve and protect this ethnomedicalknowledge, and the plant species onwhich it is based, the governments ofZambia and Ghana, with support fromthe World Bank, are in the process ofestablishing a bridge between environ-ment and health in fighting HIV/AIDS.In Zambia the executing agency is theTraditional Health Practitioners Asso-ciation of Zambia (THPAZ) throughthe Environmental Support Program(ESP) under the Ministry of Environ-ment and Natural Resources. InGhana, the effort will be part of theNorthern Savanna Biodiversity Con-servation Project (NSBCP) under theMinistry of Land, Forestry and Mines.Basically, the two projects have thesame approach although they differ in

Ghana and Zambia

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design: in Zambia the initiative has been retrofitted into analready existing program while in Ghana the activities willbe part of on-going project design. What follows is first ashort description of the AIDS component involving tradi-tional healers under the Zambian ESP; second, a compari-son of the sociocultural findings particularly concerninggender differences related to traditional medicine in the twocountries; and third, some of the difficulties experiencedduring the process of establishing this cross-sector initiativeinvolving agriculture, environment, health, and rural devel-opment.

Under the Zambian initiative, “Protection and Sustain-able Use of Biodiversity for Medicinal Value: An Initiative toCombat HIV/AIDS” there are three main activities. Thefirst activity, “Conservation of Biodiversity for HIV/AIDSPrevention and Treatment” includes the establishment ofbotanic gardens, forest reserves for medicinal plants, and aherbarium with medicinal plants. Some of the seeds, cut-tings and tubers for planting will come from Spiritual For-ests, which have considerable biodiversity and contain rarespecies of plants and trees, which have been preserved be-cause of the traditional rules, norms, and taboos associatedwith them. The second activity “Training and CapacityBuilding” is directed towards the traditional healers and in-cludes a long list of topics from behavior modification in re-lation to HIV/AIDS, understanding ecosystems, nutrition,toxicology, basic virology, epidemics, and immunology. In ad-dition to the environmental and medical aspects there willalso be legal training so that healers do not infringe the law,such as the Witchcraft Act, and get a better understandingof human rights. The third activity “Dissemination of Infor-mation/Knowledge on Biodiversity and HIV/AIDS” will setup a communication strategy to be implemented throughnewsletters, radio programs, TV, drama/plays and leaflets.This activity will also include an electronic database on me-dicinal plants and publication of a handbook for traditionalhealers to be used in their practice. All training materials,programs, and publications will be in the major local lan-guages and a basic literacy program will be added to makethe (often) -illiterate healers capable of registering their pa-tients, and documenting their indigenous knowledge.

Whereas gender analysis has been essential for project de-sign in both Zambia and Ghana the role of women are verydifferent in the two countries. Generally the gender divisionof labor has been stronger in Ghana than in Zambia. Thishas had an effect on the position of female traditional heal-ers as well as their ability to participate in project activities.Some of the sociocultural differences are analyzed here. InZambia, traditional healers have received donor help to beorganized on a national basis, and 60 percent of the regis-

tered traditional healers are women. The number of womenhealers is even said to be growing in response to the increas-ing number of AIDS patients. People call HIV/AIDS“Kalaye noko,” meaning “go and say goodbye to yourmother,” because most people die in their villages in theirmothers’ homes. Although women in Ghana are also theones to care for the ill, the contrast is striking when it comesto practicing healing. In Ghana, there is no functional na-tional traditional healers’ association, and the three north-ern regions have less than one-fifth of the estimated heal-ers’ registered. Of these (few) registered members, less than10 percent are women except for one minor sub-regionwhere an active healer has managed to raise the figure to 49percent. However, the low figure in Ghana is more a reflec-tion of local beliefs than of the actual number of womenhealers. Also, the Bank-assisted initiative might have unin-tentionally cemented already existing gender bias by, for ex-ample, only training the registered healers, who are over-whelmingly male. According to one female healer in Ghana,women, if they openly practice traditional medicine “aretermed witches and every misfortune is blamed on them; inmost cases these women are disowned and sent out of theirsocieties. For this reason it is only the queen of witches whois known to heal, because she is so powerful that it is impos-sible for any member of the society to challenge her.”

In both countries it was extremely rare to find traditionalhealers who cultivated medicinal plants, and when it didhappen, it was almost exclusively funded by donors. In Zam-bia, women healers often referred to a spirit guiding them tothe medicinal plants, which they collected and prepared formedicine themselves. In Ghana, there was substantial gen-der bias related to the collection of plants, preparation ofmedicine, and even to sexuality, which had a positive influ-ence on males but a negative influence on women. Fewer fe-male healers in Ghana were married than were male heal-ers, which one female healer explained by saying that shewould not be able to heal if her husband was living with her.Neither would healers, who used traditional African reli-gious rituals in the healing process, send their daughtersinto the bush to get the plants, because “people would thinkthey were witches.” And husbands would not let their wiveshelp to make the medicine “because the medicine would notwork” if prepared by a woman. An obvious rationale for thistaboo was patrilineal location and succession which meantthat a woman at marriage would move to her husband’shouse, and the family’s secret knowledge on plants and itsmedical use, would thereby be in danger of being uncoveredby another family. Healers in Ghana were also reluctant toteach their daughters traditional medicine, but little girlsalso have eyes and ears, and many women practice medi-

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cine, although not openly. That obviously had a negative in-fluence on women’s options for income generation throughtheir practice. Only traditional birth attendants (TBA) werealmost exclusively women, and most TBAs received someremuneration for their services. But most traditional heal-ers earn their main income from farming and remunerationfor healing was in farm products. In Zambia, the decliningeconomy had forced many healers to give up payment inkind, and healers had increasingly turned to (their indi-vidual) standard payments for each disease. The highestprice was always a cure for infertility, which had to be paidat the arrival of an infant son. The strong division of laborin Ghana gives a unique opportunity through the project tosupport women and families in HIV/AIDS prevention andpoverty reduction, thereby enhancing the prospects of suc-cess for the project as a whole. The long-term goal ofbiodiversity conservation could seem abstract to communi-ties suffering from food shortages and hunger; however,short-term income generation through the cultivation andselling of medicinal plants and vegetables leading to im-provements in, particularly, children’s health could have acatalytic effect on the success of the project.

Traditional healers, both male and female, expressed aneagerness to be trained to improve their practice. In Ghana,the mass communication program on HIV/AIDS had suc-ceeded in disseminating information on transmission of thedisease from one person to another via blood, sexual inter-course, infected needles, and so forth. But communities’knowledge on how it is transmitted was not always com-plete or accurate. Some communities referred to the dangerof eating or bathing together with an AIDS-infected person;even shaking hands or using the same clothes was men-tioned as a possible way to be infected. None of the commu-nities admitted that there were any affected individuals intheir village, and in both Zambia and Ghana, severe stigmawas attached to a person with AIDS. Thus, people were lesslikely to admit infection and treat HIV/AIDS as a common,but serious, disease. Poverty and cultural norms also makeAfrica the continent with the highest proportion of womento men infected with AIDS. In the fight against AIDS, tradi-tional healers need training as they provide health care forabout 70 percent of the population. And TBAs, according tothe World Health Organization, deliver 95 percent of babiesin the rural areas, which makes them particularly criticalcare-givers but also renders them more vulnerable to HIV/

AIDS. In the long run, the health infrastructure provided bythe traditional healers and their organizations could pro-vide the distribution network for AIDS medicines whenthey become available at a reasonable price. Traditionalhealers have a unique position as educators and potentialdistributors of AIDS medicine—for example in handling pa-tients’ doses. No African government has the resources orhealth personnel in the numbers needed to fight the AIDSepidemic.

Governments in Ghana or Zambia do not support tradi-tional healers financially as they do their (modern) medicalassociations, and in neither country is traditional medicinepart of the curriculum at medical faculties. In this respect,African countries are far behind countries such as Chinaand India where alternative medicine is an integrated partof modern medicine practiced at hospitals. However, Ghanaand Zambia both have staff in their Ministries of Health tocoordinate policies to traditional healers, and both govern-ments want healers to be registered. Ghana has shown apositive attitude towards the conservation of medicinalplants and has acknowledged traditional healers by passinga Traditional Medicine Practice Act in 2000. In Zambia, onthe other hand, it was when more than one-fifth of thepopulation became infected with AIDS that traditional heal-ers were invited to become part of the Technical Committeeon Natural Remedies for HIV and Other Related Diseases,placed directly under the Head of State. The Ministry ofEnvironment and Natural Resources, under which the ESPis located, was initially very reluctant to involve civil societyin natural resource management, and particularly THPAZ,which is the country’s largest NGO. Traditional healerswere considered to be irrelevant to modernity and thereforeto be excluded from development. A similar reluctance wasinitially found in the World Bank where traditional healers’practices were often perceived as lacking scientific valida-tion, and hence legitimacy. This view was also widespreadamong western doctors, although traditional health prac-tice predates modern medical practice just as the use ofherbs and medicinal plants predates the present pharmaco-logical practice. Gradually, however, this attitude haschanged and today it is acknowledged that initiatives likethe ones in Zambia and Ghana are benefiting the poor di-rectly and have considerable potential in treating AIDS-re-lated diseases.

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This article was co-authored by Peter Easton, Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult andContinuing Education, EFPS, and Dr. Karen Monkman, Assistant Professor of InternationalEducation, both of Florida State University.

Malicounda-Bambara: The SequelThe Journey of a Local Revolution

In the space of less than four years, alocally-impelled movement to abandonthe practice of female genital cutting(FGC) has spread from a single villagein central Senegal to over 200 commu-nities nationwide, and to several otherAfrican countries as well. The path andmode of its dissemination carry a hostof lessons and questions, about how in-digenous culture renews itself.

The experience of the village ofMalicounda-Bambara in the Thies re-gion of central Senegal and its immedi-ate aftermath were recounted in anearlier issue of IK Notes (“SenegaleseWomen Remake Their Culture,” Octo-ber 1998, no. 3). But the “rest of thestory” has been immensely instructive.

A brief reminder of the dimensions ofthe original initiative, and of the criti-cal events that shaped its aftermath,will help to situate the story.

In at the creation

Between 1995 and 1997, women and afew men in the village of Malicounda-Bambara took part in a nonformal edu-cation program sponsored by theSenegal-based NGO “Tostan.” Theprogram focused on methods of prob-lem-solving, themes of women’s healthand human rights, and the beginningsof literacy.

The participants in Malicounda-Bambara decided that they had a prior-ity objective apart from the develop-ment of income-generating activities,establishment of well-baby programs,launching village hygiene initiativesand so forth : get their village to aban-don FGC once and for all. Bambarapeople are among the sizeable minorityof Senegalese ethnic groups that ob-serve the practice. In the course of thetraining, women had shared with eachother painful personal experiences onthis taboo topic and had confrontedthem with their renewed sense ofwomen’s rights. As a consequence, theyapproached local authorities and othervillagers to win their support for a com-mon declaration of intent to abandonthe practice. And they were successful.On July 31, 1997 the villagers ofMalicounda-Bambara made a state-ment renouncing the practice in perpe-tuity in front of twenty Senegalesejournalists invited for the occasion.

The event made a minor splash, per-haps greater through word-of-mouthdissemination in local culture than inprint and audio media. There was someimmediate vocal opposition to what thewomen of Malicounda had done, asmuch in reaction to the “shame” oftalking this publicly about a taboo topicas to the substance of the declaration.


Despite the controversy, a second nearby village also under-going the Tostan training program—Nguerigne-Bambara—decided to imitate Malicounda-Bambara’s example, led by awoman who was herself a traditional “cutter”; and yet an-other, Kër Simbara, began actively discussing the idea.Then a critical event occurred.

The turning point

The Imam of Kër Simbara—a 66-year old religious leadermuch respected in the region—became very concerned atthe events, and he came to talk with Tostan representativesand the women of Malicounda-Bambara. He was not op-posed to the abandonment of FGC. In fact, the controversyhad prompted him to talk to his female relatives about theirown experience and feelings regarding FGC for the firsttime, and he ended up a strong supporter. But he felt thatthere were two major problems with the way in whichthings were being done.

First, a single village cannot do this alone, the Imam said.“We are part of an inter-marrying community, and unlessall the villages involved take part, you are asking parents toforfeit the chance of their daughters getting married.” Sec-ond, there was a real problem of language and approach.These are taboo topics, he pointed out, and they should notbe discussed lightly or inconsiderately. The people who cru-saded against FGC in the past used terms that villagers con-sider unmentionable and showed images and pictures thatshocked them. They treated the practice as a disease toeradicate and its practitioners as social pariahs. That is noway to change a culture, or to help it change itself, the Imamsaid.

His interlocutors agreed: It was time to think thingsthrough a good deal more carefully. Together, they outlineda strategy:• Go to all the villages in the inter-marrying community.

Start by reaffirming personal relationships.• Don’t tell the villagers what to do. Tell them what

Malicounda-Bambara and Nguerigne-Bambara havedone, and why. Then let them tell their own stories andmake their own decisions.

• Avoid using graphic terms or demonstrations for tabooactivities. Refer to FGC simply as “the custom.” Everyonewill know what is meant. In Senegalese Bambara, “cus-toms” in the plural refers to a whole set of cultural tradi-tions; “the custom” in the singular refers to FGC alone.

• Avoid condemning practitioners either implicitly or ex-plicitly. They have been performing in good faith.

On the basis of these agreements, the Imam set out onfoot, accompanied by the woman cutter from Kër Simbaraand his own nephew, to visit ten other villages in that mar-riage community. It was a ground-shaking experience.Women opened up—they told stories of daughters who haddied from hemorrhage, others who had contracted infec-tions or long-term psychic distress from the FGC trauma.Those who performed the practice talked, too—about why,and about changing customs. Men joined in with their re-flections.

Before it was over, all ten villages had decided to join theranks of those declaring against FGC. With representativesof Malicounda-Bambara, Nguerigne-Bambara and KërSimbara itself, they met at the village of Diabougou, fiftystrong representing 8,000 rural people, and declared “neveragain” on February 15, 1998. The news continued to spread.

The movement next jumped to the southern region ofSenegal below the Gambia, where the Fulani ethnic grouphas traditionally practiced FGC. A first group of fourteenvillages studied the Tostan curriculum, listened to news ofMalicounda-Bambara, resolved to take action in their ownenvironment, and enlisted four additional communitieswithin their socio-marital network to make a joint declara-tion, promulgated in the village of Medina Cherif on June12, 1998.

An indigenous strategy for dissemination

It is worth stopping a moment at this point to reflect on ex-actly what had happened because it explains much of therest of the dissemination story—successes, opposition en-countered, and lessons yet to be learned.

Essentially, the strategy that developed from local re-sponse and input had three distinct elements.

The first was that it was collective in nature, ratherthan—or in addition to being—individual. The approach ex-plicitly recognized that families cannot abandon a long-rooted cultural practice if there is not a collective will tochange the incentive structures and at least some of the ob-jective conditions that hold it in place. When thirteen re-lated villages became affiliated, those involved in effectchanged the marriage market and created conditions inwhich people could comply, and do so out of solidarity withtheir own community.

Second, the approach was grounded in the local contextand evoked some of strongest values and practices of ambi-ent culture—parental love, Koranic piety—to challenge oth-ers. It therefore came across more as a movement for inter-nal consistency and liberation than as an outside condem-

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nation. No one talks of the “eradication” of FGC, as if itwere a plague to be stamped out, but rather of its “abandon-ment”—a conscious act by those most concerned. The pres-ence of an Imam who could remind people that Islam neverdictated such a practice was highly instrumental. And menwere in no way excluded. In fact, their support was criticalto the development of the movement.

Finally, the method was empowering—that is, whilerooted in personal testimony and the transmission of newinformation, it left resolution and action up to the initiativeof each community and its members. It cast the problem ofFGC in the larger frame of women’s health and humanrights, topics with which men too are vitally concerned. Theresult was not only that people chose to follow of their ownfree will, but that they were ready to spread the word.

Beating two tracks

From that point on, the evolution of the movement has es-sentially followed two axes: one out front in the media andinternational fora, and the other on the ground. For once,though, the out-front publicity has not outstripped the localreality, and the activity has remained largely wedded to itsvillage manifestations.

Media attention was quick in coming, both in Senegal andabroad. Notice appeared in short order in the Senegalesepress. In October 1997, a feature article on the “Oath ofMalicounda-Bambara” came out in Le Monde in Paris.Tostan representatives have since been invited to numerousconferences, assemblies, and events to relate the story of themovement against FGC. In almost every instance, promot-ers have made sure that local women and men spoke forthemselves—through interpreters, where necessary. The lo-cal champions of the movement—the elderly Imam and thewomen cutters and organizers—have made presentations tothe British Parliament, to the German Ministry of Develop-ment and Cooperation, to the European Union in Brussels,to a Women’s Rights Conference in Washington, and tocommittees of the United Nations in New York. More sig-nificantly still, they have traveled to neighboring countries,Burkina Faso and Mali, to talk with other women facingsimilar problems.

But outside attention had its downside as well. Endorse-ment of the Oath of Malicounda by the Senegalese Presi-dent Abdou Diouf—significant, even if he was himself fromthe majority Wolof, who do not practice FGC—was eventu-ally followed by a move in the country’s AssembléeNationale (Parliament) to pass a law abolishing the practiceand dictating severe penalties for violators. The allies ofTostan were immediately concerned and went to Dakar to

testify against the law, not, obviously, because they wantedto maintain FGC, but because they firmly believed officialabolition and sanction were not the way to go. The law, theyfelt, should follow and model a change in practice developedin the field, not attempt to dictate it. As the Imam from KërSimbara put it in reference to his own ethnic group, “Try totell Bambara people what they must do about their own cus-toms and you have a fight on your hands.”

The premonitions proved right. The law was passed, de-spite these words of caution from the field, and a generaloutcry ensued. In protest, one traditional cutter in the re-gion of Tambacounda made a point of performing no fewerthan 120 “circumcisions” in the days following.

Keeping the local movement alive

Developments on the ground pursued quite a different path.The Imam and former cutter from Kër Simbara andNguerigne-Bambara launched out into another group oftwelve villages in central Senegal. The local women who hadbeen ringleaders in the Kolda region expanded their effortsto neighboring communities, parlaying support from theImam of Medina Cherif into a religiously endorsed move-ment. At the same time, they undertook to transpose the ef-fort to the Futa Toro region of northwestern Senegal, anarea of Toucouleur culture over 250 kilometers away thatspeaks the same Fulani language.

In addition, one of the villages that had participated in theDiabougou declaration—Samba Dia—took initiatives of itsown. Samba Dia was in fact of “SerereNiominka” lineage,an offshoot of the Serere ethnic group that had historicallycommingled with Mandinka and Bambara speakers. Thewomen of Samba Dia decided that the word had to be spreadamong their own people, fisherfolk inhabiting the islands ofSine Saloum on the Senegalese coast southeast of Dakar.Women and men got some support for transport costs fromTostan and started canoeing around from island to island,visiting twenty-six insular communities throughout the ar-chipelago.

In the Futa Toro, there was fierce opposition from sometraditional religious and cultural authorities. The womenand their allies felt that they could not make a proclamationabout FGC under these circumstances, but they found a dy-namic alternative. No less than eighty-seven villages sentrepresentatives to a meeting at Aere Lao in the Podor region(east of St. Louis) where, on November 4, 2000, they signeda solemn declaration foreswearing all practices harmful towomen’s health and development. By “retreating” to theground of human rights, they outflanked the opposition.

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Farther south in the Sine Saloum islands, representativesof the twenty-six villages contacted by boat—none of whomhad yet undergone the Tostan training program—as-sembled of their own volition on the island of Niodior onApril 7, 2000 to draw up their own declaration of abandon-ment of the practice and to make arrangements for startingtheir own classes. And in the region of Kolda, the number ofcommunities making declarations and undertaking traininghas continued to grow, progressing from the original eigh-teen to thirty that took part in the Tostan program and, bythe end of last year, to an additional seventy-five neighbor-ing communities. Tostan representatives report that in Feb-ruary 2001 word came in from yet another group of localwomen who had completed the training and succeeded inaligning all communities of their entire rural “county” (thecommunauté rurale of Mampatim) behind the effort: nearly100 additional villages, which have scheduled their procla-mation for March 2001.

Following the local lead

No one can say exactly what subsequent stages in this localgroundswell will bring. As the Director of Tostan puts it,“Much of this caught us by surprise. We are followingthem.” But a number of results beyond the simple statisticsof villages mobilized and groups renouncing FGC are al-ready evident:

• Connections are being made everywhere between the lo-cally motivated abandonment of FGC and concerns of de-mocracy and human rights. In fact, the key issues havebeen cast in these larger terms and have led to a variety ofassociated efforts: public examination of domestic vio-lence, local assertion of girls’ rights to schooling, requestsfor increased accountability in local governance.

• Men have become a vital part of the effort, both in classesand out “on the campaign trail.” Even in programs focus-ing in good part on women’s health and rights, male par-ticipation remains at nearly 30 percent.

• The public declaration model has been adopted in a num-ber of other areas of locally driven rural development,from resolutions about domestic violence to others re-nouncing the practice of brush fires as a land-clearingtechnique.

• And the effort has begun to go continent-wide. Initiativesmodeled on the Senegalese example, but modified for eachcultural context, are now underway in Burkina Faso, Maliand Sudan, and there have been inquiries from as faraway as East Africa. The women and men working on theground in Senegal have been the principal ambassadors,while Tostan is itself planning a training center in Thiesfor those from other countries who would like to visit,share with and learn from the women’s rights cohorts inSenegalese villages.

As a West African proverb succinctly says, “Once the sunhas risen, the palm of your hand can no longer cover it.”

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IK Notes 32May 2001

African Traditional Healers:The Economics of HealingThis article was written by Kenneth L. Leonard, Department of Economics, ColumbiaUniversity, Mail Code 3308, 420 W 118th Street, New York, NY 10027; e-mail address:[email protected]

Traditional healers are a source ofhealth care for which Africans have al-ways paid. Even with the expansion ofmodern medicine, healers are stillpopular and command fees exceedingthe average treatment cost at mostmodern practitioners. Are traditionalhealers miracle workers or are theycharlatans? Clearly either view is tooextreme. Traditional healers are notperfect: although we have all heard sto-ries of miraculous cures, the health sta-tus of the average African peasant can-not be reconciled with omnipotenthealers. Nor, however, can they be char-latans: people cannot be continuouslyignorant about the capacity of someonewho lives among them. This article ad-vances a view of traditional healersthat relies on neither supernaturalpower nor manifest ignorance. It sug-gests that healers remain popular de-spite abundant modern medicine be-cause they have wisely used an impor-tant economic contract to the mutualbenefit of their practice and the popula-tion they serve.

While the contrasts between tradi-tional medicine and modern medicineare many, the article focuses on the dif-ferences in the way traditional andmodern healers are paid. An importantelement of their practice has been pre-

viously ignored: traditional healers re-ceive the bulk of their payment only ifthe patient is cured.

Economic theory

When consumers purchase a servicewhere quality matters but cannot be di-rectly observed or evaluated, economictheory raises the possibility of a marketfailure. Health care is a classic exampleof this type of failure, commonly re-ferred to as agency. Patients choose tovisit physicians precisely because phy-sicians know more than patients do.The patient cannot evaluate what thedoctor is doing for her sake, nor can sheinfer physician effort from the out-come. Patients are often cured despitepoor quality care, or fail to be cured de-spite expert care. If patients cannot tellwhat doctors are doing, then doctorshave fewer reasons to exert extraordi-nary effort on the patient’s behalf.Thus, although patients are willing topay for high-quality care and physi-cians are able to provide it, the marketmay fail and high-quality health carewould not be delivered.

The standard economic solution is toforce the agent (the person performingthe unobservable services) to face the


loss or gain of his/her actions. Thus, salespersons are paidon commission, and CEOs receive stock options. The healthcounterpart is the pay-only-if-cured or outcome-contingent(since payments are contingent on outcomes) contract. Ifpatients paid their doctors only if they were cured, or moreif they were cured than if they were not, the economic costof agency would be reduced.

Despite the fact that health care suffers from a problemwidely identified in theory, health economics as a whole hasdismissed the economic solution to the problem as inappli-cable to health care. Non-contractibility is one of the mostwidely cited reasons for dismissing this solution. Contract-ibility means that agreements about payments are enforce-able. The outcome-contingent contract is considered non-contractible because patients can simply lie about the out-come of treatment and the doctor would be unable to provehis case to a third party. The definitions of cured and notcured are inherently subjective and subject to deliberatemisrepresentation.

Economic practices of traditional healers in Africa

This “ideal” but previously unobserved economic contractis exactly the method by which traditional healers in Africado business. Patients pay traditional healers more if theyare cured than if they are not cured. The results of inter-views with healers in Cameroon, Tanzania, and Ethiopia re-ported in a publication by this author are summarized here.The healers spoken with received an initial payment and, inaddition, negotiated with the patient over a payment to bemade in the future. In all cases, if the treatment did not re-sult in improvement of the condition, the patient paid noth-ing beyond the initial payment.

When asked about the practice of “cursing” patients fornon-payment, many healers were adamant that they neverengaged in the practice, though almost all admitted thattheir ancestors or, specifically, parents had done so. Thepractice traditionally operated as follows: when a patientrefused to pay, the healer would either invoke a curse on thepatient or revoke the cure. This practice invokes near-uni-versal fear in rural populations, and most non-healers be-lieved that if they failed to pay they would be cursed. Allhealers told stories of patients leaving without paying andthen returning, sometimes years later, begging to be allowedto pay. Patients believe cursing is still practiced, allowinghealers to wait until after the treatment to collect paymentwithout fear that the patient will refuse to pay.

The outcome-contingent contract means that healershave strong incentives to provide quality care even if thepatient cannot evaluate or observe this quality. But what of

the non-contractibility concern? How can traditional heal-ers agree to accept payment when the patient could lieabout the outcome and refuse to make any payments? Tworeasons are advanced: first, healers live in the same villageas many of their patients and can therefore observe whatpatients are doing; second, patients believe that healersknow whether they are cured.

In contrast, outcome-contingent contracts are not used inthe practices of modern medicine anywhere in the world.Instead, patients pay a fixed fee for all services deliveredwhether they are cured or not. No one expects this type ofpayment scheme to deliver quality. Instead, the assumptionis that quality care is assured by restrictions on the activityof practitioners that come from other sources (including,but not limited to medical associations, referral networks,hospital networks and direct regulation of the practitioner.)In Africa, physicians at modern facilities such as govern-ment or not-for-profit health systems (primarily church-op-erated) are regulated through hierarchical supervision,where physicians evaluate the quality of other physiciansand employment status or bonuses depend on the result ofthe evaluation. Since the payment (or well-being) of thepractitioner depends, not on the outcome, but the effort s/heexerts, this is referred to as an effort-contingent contract.Note that in order to regulate another doctor you need to beat least as well trained as s/he is: only doctors can regulateother doctors.

Comparing outcome-contingent toeffort-contingent contracts

The outcome-contingent contract of traditional healersgives them good reason to exert effort in the treatment ofpatients even if the patient cannot evaluate what the healeris doing. However, if a modern physician practices in an or-ganization that cares about quality, s/he will also have agood reason to produce high-quality care; her/his employerswill insure that s/he does. Thus, while it would appear thatthe contract of the traditional healer does not offer any ad-ditional benefit over a well-implemented contract at anymodern provider, this is not quite true.

The fact that healers contract on outcomes rather thaneffort has important repercussions on their practices. Take,for example, a patient with asthma who smokes. A moderndoctor treating this patient can be evaluated based on whats/he does for this patient by another physician who knowswhat s/he is supposed to do. S/he can be evaluated on testsordered, treatments prescribed, or advice given but will notbe evaluated on whether the patient is cured (or in this case,whether his/her symptoms are alleviated). If the patient re-

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fuses to quit smoking s/he will not be cured, but this doesnot matter to the modern physician.

The traditional healer, on the other hand, has no chanceof being paid if the patient does not quit smoking. If he isunable to convince the patient to quit, he could refuse totake the case, or at the very least, refuse to accept the out-come-contingent contract. The difference between the twotypes of contracts emerges not from the amount of medicaleffort finally delivered, but from the difference in the rela-tionship between the efforts of practitioners and the effortsof patients. Because outcomes (and not inputs) matter, atraditional healer cares more than the modern doctor aboutthe actions that patients take.

Patient perception of the practice of healers

Economic theory suggests that the contract used by healerswill lead them to provide high-quality effort in health care.Modern practitioners may also provide high-quality effort,but they will not work as well with patients in situationswhere patient effort is important to outcomes.

How do patients use traditional healers? If the theory iscorrect, traditional healers should have an advantage (hold-ing other factors constant) when patients suffer from ill-nesses that require both medical and patient effort. Theywill not have an advantage in situations in which specialequipment or skills are required. Contrast the example ofasthma with malaria and appendicitis. Malaria is compara-tively easy to diagnose and does not require extensive efforton the part of either physicians or patients—instead, it re-quires widely available medication. Patients should visit theleast expensive provider who has the appropriate medicinewithout concern for quality. Appendicitis, on the otherhand, requires surgery—a service for which hospitals aremuch better equipped than traditional healers; patientsshould seek skilled treatment.

Indeed, across Africa there are consistent patterns in thechoice of health care practitioner according to illness condi-tion: certain conditions tend to lead to visits to certain prac-titioners. This author tested these patterns to see if they fitthe patterns that would be predicted by theory. In order todo this, each individual illness condition is examined byphysicians who evaluated the degree to which the outcomedepends on the efforts of the practitioner and the efforts ofthe patient.

In the southwest province of Cameroon, patients aremore likely to visit a mission facility over a government fa-cility when they suffer from conditions that require sub-stantial amounts of medical effort. Since mission facilities

are well regulated compared to government facilities, thismakes sense; patients seek and are willing to pay for thisparticular measure of quality only when they deem that itreally matters. In addition, as would be predicted by eco-nomic theory, patients are more likely to visit a traditionalhealer (even over the high-quality mission facility) whenthey suffer from a condition that requires large amounts ofboth medical and patient effort. Patient behavior follows thepatterns predicted by an economic understanding of thepayment scheme used at traditional healers.

Conclusion

While traditional healers perform many roles in their societ-ies, this article focuses on one important feature of theirpractices: they use an economically rational tool in theirpractices and their behavior and the behavior of patientsreflects the use and benefits of this tool. The pay-only-if-cured or outcome-contingent contract provides traditionalhealers with the right incentives to provide high-qualitycare, and patients behave as if they are aware of the implica-tions of this contract. Importantly, the magical or mysteri-ous elements of their practices are essential to the properfunctioning of this contract. Without the belief that healersknow the outcome of treatments, the outcome-contingentcontract would be non-contractible. Thus, although thiscontract appears to be very successful for healers, it cannotbe widely adopted.

Traditional healers, far from duping a gullible population,behave as if they are rational and serving a rational popula-tion. As long as modern medicine is delivered in a context inwhich quality is uncertain, traditional healers will continueto attract patients.

Selected references

Leonard, Kenneth L., “African Traditional Healers andOutcome-Contingent Contracts in Health Care,” mimeo(available on-line at www.columbia.edu/~kl206/research.html), Columbia University 2000.

—, “Incentives and Rural Health Care Delivery,” in DavidK. Leonard, ed., Africa’s Changing Markets for Humanand Animal Health Services, London: Macmillan, 2000,chapter 4.

—, “When States and Markets Fail: Asymmetric Informa-tion and the Role of NGOs in African Health Care,”mimeo (available on-line at www.columbia.edu/~kl206/research.html), Columbia University 2000.

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Repairing the Ravages of War in MozambiqueInitiation Societies and Community Schooling

This article was co-authored by Agostinho Mamade, Zuber Ahmed and Peter Easton who are respectively: Executive Director,Associação Criança, Família e Desenvolvimento, Training and Development Consultant, and Associate Professor of AdultEducation, Florida State University. Further information can be obtained from Criança, Família e Desenvolvimento; e-mail:[email protected], or from Agostinho Mamade, e-mail [email protected], Fax: 258–1–493345.

Indigenous healing has shown itself tobe an effective treatment for thetrauma suffered by children in war-torn countries of Africa (see IK NoteNo. 10). Recent experience in Mozam-bique demonstrates that other dimen-sions of local culture may be just as im-portant in socially “grounding” a gen-eration of young people uprooted byarmed conflict and repairing the rav-ages of war.

The years of civil strife in that coun-try left rural children and their com-munities wounded in a number ofways. Children lost their parents. Oth-ers were separated from their familiesin the rush to escape the fighting andended up living with adoptive parentsor in military camps for long periods oftime. Young people were also woundedor abused. And some were conscriptedinto the rebel army and forced to com-mit acts of violence.

At the same time, rural communitieswere largely devastated and stripped ofthe little infrastructure they possessed.Schools have typically been few and farbetween in the remoter areas ofMozambique. Under colonial rule, littlewas done outside urban areas. Duringthe few short years of relative stabilityafter the country’s hard-won indepen-dence in 1975, numbers of schools and

students multiplied rapidly. Supplycould not keep up with demand and, asin many areas of Africa, communityschools created locally began appearingin the countryside in the late 1970s.They were for the most part staffed byyoung people with a few years of educa-tion at best who reproduced what theycould of the standard curriculum.

This nascent infrastructure was dev-astated, however, in the long civil warlaunched by the rebel movement in1977. Health and education facilities inthe countryside were largely wiped outbecause disruption of social life andparticularly government services to thepopulation was one of the movement’sprime objectives. Enrollment statisticsdipped dramatically throughout thefollowing decade and only began to re-cover when peace initiatives began in1990.

Putting the pieces back together

By the late 1980s, the hostilities hadbegun to abate and a variety of effortswas undertaken to reunite childrenseparated from their families and topromote healing. The Mozambican Na-tional Directorate of Social Action(DNAS) sponsored an initial round of

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programs jointly with the “Children and War” Project(C&W) of the international non-governmental organizationSave the Children. The program remained, however, too bu-reaucratic to have much success in penetrating rural areas.C&W therefore set out on its own to collaborate directlywith interested communities. By 1992 it had created a net-work of over 14,000 volunteers and succeeded in reunitingsome 12,000 children with their families.

Much of this result was due to the initiatives of the localcommunities themselves. By the time they were able to be-gin picking up the pieces, reuniting families and resuming asemblance of normal life, little in the way of social serviceswas left, and a government burdened by debt was unable tooffer much consistent help. So the local people went towork. In order to address the needs of unaccompanied andnewly reunited children, some started to rebuild commu-nity schools, developed community-based child socializationprograms, and design and implement youth skills traininginitiatives. To ensure longer lasting support to the effort,C&W was transformed into a Mozambican NGO entitled“Children, Family and Development” (CFD).

A village takes charge

The effort bore unexpected fruit in the administrative divi-sion of Itoculo, a remote cluster of communities in thenorthern Nampulo province of Mozambique. The people ofItoculo belong to one of the country’s principal ethnicgroups, the Macua. Access to Itoculo is difficult and its con-tact with the outside world is infrequent. The most regularvisitors to the area are illegal loggers bent on profiting fromits rich forest resources, and the cotton buyers, who showup once a year during the crop-marketing season. Therewas only one elementary school in the central village ofItoculo, serving a fraction of the 30,000 people living closeby and none of the additional 20,000 residing in the morefar-flung villages of the zone, the farthest being 22 kilome-ters away by cart track.

By the early 1990s, many of the children of Itoculo whowere orphaned or deprived of a normal childhood during thelong years of conflict had themselves become parents andheads of households. They did not want their own childrento be deprived in the same way, and they wanted to rebuildtheir communities. At that time, the government Depart-ment of Social Action approached leaders of the Itoculocommunities to discuss ways of addressing the developmen-tal and educational needs of preschool-aged children. Anagreement was reached to create three escolinhascomunitárias, or community preschools. However, these

only lasted two short years: the standardized curriculum,the rigid model of implementation, and the experience ofenforced dependency on state agencies unable to fulfill theirpromises discouraged local participation.

The problems of unattended children remained acute anda major preoccupation of the renascent communities. Thefirst break-through came when Itoculo area residents whohad worked with C&W during the war thought of borrow-ing the model of traditional initiation societies and graftingit onto the escolinhas idea in order to devise a solution. InMacua culture, as in most others across the African conti-nent, youth go through traditional initiation rites on theirway to adulthood. For these rites, children are informallygrouped into small cohorts of friends and relatives as theygrow toward adolescence. When a certain number—averag-ing ten to fifteen young boys or girls—is achieved, the chil-dren are taken away from the community to an isolatedarea by an elder. There they are taught the “lore” of adult-hood: male and female roles, the meaning of puberty, com-munity traditions and relevant skills. Boys receive instruc-tion in hunting and fishing, house construction, and relatedmatters. Girls learn about their bodies and the responsibili-ties of being a mother and housewife; and they are in-structed to protect themselves and break contact with boys.

Adapting the traditional model

The initial idea was simply to revive the failed escolinhascomunitárias in another form, under local control. Some ofthe few schooled young people in the village would takecharge of cohorts of older children in a thatched hut “class-room” away from town and share with them the rudimentsof literacy. Three escolinhas of this type were created. Al-though the initiative worked, community members did notthink it went far enough. The younger children needed careas well, and things other than the three Rs belonged in the“curriculum.” So the community requested help from CFDto expand and develop the idea. CFD staff agreed to trainanimadores for the community school and provide some as-sistance with management and organization if Itoculo resi-dents lent material support and took charge. A committeewas formed, and the collaboration was launched.

CFD backing triggered an extended process of blending or“cross-breeding” between the community school and thetraditional initiation model, carried out under local direc-tion. Though they remained supportive of the idea of chil-dren becoming literate in Portuguese to facilitate communi-cations with the outside world, Itoculo committee membersquestioned whether this learning would be enough for the

180 IK Notes Number

children to become full members of the community itself.And so they began, step by step, to elaborate the curriculumand revamp the organization of the escolinhas, selectingamong the methods of initiation societies ideas and modelsthat made sense and inventing new ones as they advanced.

Deliberations about the curriculum and escolinha organi-zation typically involved a cross-section of committee mem-bers, parents, animadores and children. Among the innova-tions adopted over time by Itoculo were the following:• Elders were invited in to tell stories of the traditions of

the community and their own life experience.• The committee encouraged all community members to

contribute games, toys, songs and poetry that could beshared with the children. Traditional chants used to teachnumeracy were “unearthed,” adapted and added to thecurriculum. And the schools began sponsoring or joiningevents to exchange these cultural resources with otherescolinhas of the region.

• Local artisans were contacted to provide instruction intheir crafts. Women who made clay pots for cooking andgardening shared their skills with the children, as didweavers and dancers.

• The schedule of classes was reviewed and modified to fitbetter with the seasons of farming and social activity inItoculo.

• After first using the standard government preschool cur-riculum as the point of reference for the “academic” por-tions of the escolinha program, the committee decided toadopt—and adapt—major portions of the national adultliteracy curriculum as more appropriate to their goals.

Spreading the word

The first few years of experience of the escolinhascomunitárias—from 1995 through 2000—have been suc-cessful ones. The number of these schools in Itoculo hasgrown to eight, and the initiative has begun to attract muchattention throughout the region. Starting in 1998, othercommunities in Nampulo began to ask the Itoculo commit-tee for assistance in starting similar projects, and commit-tee members have grown increasingly proficient as “con-sultants” and “trainers” in their own right. Six other suchschools now function in neighboring areas.

In addition, the experience in managing a locally directedinitiative like the escolinhas has given committee and com-munity members some valuable and very “transferable”skills in collective entrepreneurship—and ones that theyhave begun to apply to a series of other local developmentchallenges, including water supply and health services. Infact, the group has now created two formal public schools tobegin filling out local educational infrastructure and pro-vide a means of further training for at least some of the chil-dren who have gone through the community learning expe-rience. In each case, the formula used for the escolinhas—outside support with substantial matching resources fromthe community, clear accountability and direct local con-trol—has proved functional. In the year 2000, the villageformally created the Associação dos Amigos da Criança deItoculo (AMICI) or the Association of Friends of the Chil-dren of Itoculo, to coordinate all such initiatives, the firstsuch legally chartered entity in the community’s history.

AMICI offers a unique opportunity to couple past and fu-ture in the Nampula region and to harness the best of tradi-tional practice in youth initiation to opportunities for viablerural futures in Mozambique. An infusion and selection ofindigenous models has proved to be a vital element in thesolution to the problems of a war-torn society.

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Communicating Local Farming KnowledgeTanzania

The link between the documentation oflocal knowledge and the disseminationof useful local technologies to farmersis generally weak in the indigenoustechnology development process. Aconsiderable amount of local knowl-edge has been documented, but in mostcases, such information is not madeavailable to farmers in a form they canmake use of to improve their agricul-tural production. In the cases where in-formation is given back, it is often toogeneral and/or does not relate to thetargeted groups’ own surroundings andculture.

To fill this gap, the Uluguru Moun-tains Agricultural Development Project(UMADEP) has been working with lo-cal farmers to document their localknowledge related to Natural CropProtection (NCP) and to spread thisknowledge to other farmers in theUluguru Mountains using interestingand locally relevant educational mate-rials and farmer-led training work-shops. The approach used byUMADEP involves the local commu-nity throughout the process of collec-tion of the knowledge, documentationand dissemination.

Mgeta is a division in Morogoro Ru-ral District, Morogoro Region in theeastern part of Tanzania. Situated on

the slopes of the Uluguru Mountains.The climate is subtropical and allowsthe production of a wide range of horti-cultural crops, i.e., cabbage, cauli-flower, peas, lettuce, parsley, leeks anddeciduous fruits (peaches and plums).

UMADEP has been in operation inthe Mgeta and Mkuyuni Divisions since1993 with the overall aim of improvingthe agricultural productivity and thegeneral socio-economic conditions ofthe small-scale farmers in the projectarea. The project works as an inte-grated agricultural developmentproject using multidisciplinary ap-proaches and is implemented with acollaborative effort between govern-ment and donor agencies. The Agricul-tural Officers in charge of crop develop-ment activities have already under-taken several micro-research projectson NCP involving the use of botanicalpesticides; trap crops and organicfertilisers on the UMADEP demonstra-tion plots and subsequently replicatedin farmer’s managed plots.

Before the introduction of industrialinputs, the farmers in Mgeta dependedsolely on NCP, utilising parts of certainindigenous plants prepared in variousforms for crop protection and againstanimal diseases. After the introductionof agro-chemicals, farmers rapidly

This article was written by A.H. Mgumia, Assistant Coordinator for the Uluguru Mountains Agricultural DevelopmentProject (UMADEP), P.O. Box 3094, Morogoro, Tanzania. For details email: [email protected]


abandoned the traditional ways of controlling insect pestsand diseases and opted for industrial agro-chemicals. Theirreasons were many: the government gave subsidies for farminputs including agro-chemicals; chemical pesticides re-quire less time for preparation and application; the chemi-cals proved more effective than botanical pesticides, and thecompanies producing and trading agro-chemicals advertisedand marketed them aggressively.

However, the government has now stopped subsides onagricultural inputs and the cost of agro-chemicals is veryhigh. Furthermore, due to ongoing campaigns on environ-mental conservation, farmers in Mgeta, like other parts ofTanzania, are becoming more aware of the hazardous ef-fects of industrial agro-chemicals.

In collaboration with government extension staff in thearea, UMADEP initiated efforts to encourage farmers to goback to NCP. Since indigenous knowledge on NCP hasstarted to disappear from farming communities, the indig-enous plants that provide the raw materials for NCP havelost their value and are also disappearing. The first inter-vention by UMADEP was to campaign for the safe use ofchemical pesticides while encouraging farmers to researchfor more effective botanical pesticides through farmer-man-aged trials.

Most farmers involved in these kinds of research weremembers of farmers’ groups known as Ujuzi asili fromTchenzema Ward, who devoted a portion of their land toproduce organic vegetables. This is because they ownenough land and either have knowledge on NCP themselvesor have access to local knowledge on the uses of botanicalpesticides through the elders.

UMADEP, using demonstration plots located in the vil-lage, also conducted experiments simultaneously with farm-ers. UMADEP staff also helped farmers to organize andmonitor the results. Farmers were trained on how to com-pare traditional and new methods of pest management anddata collection.

In Mgeta, as in many other parts of Tanzania, extensionpersonnel are trained to encourage farmers to reduce theuse of industrial agro-chemicals due to their adverse effectson human health and the environment. However, it is hardfor them to do so since knowledge of NCP is limited to only afew members of the community and also because the com-munities have no alternatives. Moreover, most farmers be-lieve that the botanical pesticides are there to be used by oldpeople and farmers who cannot afford chemicals, not by theyoung and better-off farmers. This reluctance to use botani-cal pesticides is a key factor in reducing the spread of natu-ral crop protection practices.

Steps and approaches

In order to effectively communicate the message about NCPto communities, UMADEP developed visual materials(posters, booklets and leaflets) with very simple instruc-tions about the use of botanicals and with illustrations donein a comic book style. The materials were drawn and cre-ated by a local artist whose objective was to make them rel-evant and attractive to local tastes. The following are thesteps and approaches which were used for the production ofposters relating to the use of botanical pesticides in Mgetadivision.

(i) Accessing the know-how of the innovationBecause the use of local visual educational materials is notvery common in Mgeta, UMADEP organised a workshopwhere farmers who are experts on botanical pesticides metwith the artist, project staff and extension officers. The aimof the workshop was to increase the understanding of thetwo distinctively different inputs that are needed for the vi-sual material, i.e., the indigenous knowledge about the bo-tanical pesticide and the artistic creativity that makes theinformation interesting.

A two-day residential workshop was organised wherebyfarmer experts were invited from six villages within MgetaDivision. During the workshop, the farmer experts pre-sented their experiences and research findings regardingthe use of botanicals in crop protection. Based on this infor-mation, UMADEP staff decided to focus on disseminatinginformation about the two most familiar plants regardingwhich the majority of farmers had confidence in their effec-tiveness in controlling insect pests.

(ii) Defining communication needsThe main issues which were proposed to be documented forcommunity consumption included: plant description andhabitats, propagation techniques, preparation and applica-tion, insect pest control and management, and how theplants can be used for soil and water conservation as well asimprovement of soil fertility. The propagation techniqueswere emphasised because, for example, kibembeni (localplant species corresponding to the Buddleia species) canonly be found in the forest reserve which is about 5kilometres from the residential areas. Therefore, to increaseavailability, these plants need to be planted within the field.

(iii) Targeting the audienceFor the purpose of sharing information and popularizingthe use of botanical pesticides, workshop participants rec-ommended that the educational materials developed should

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be mainly targeted to young farmers. This is because youngfarmers are the most reluctant to use NCP and becausethere is a communication barrier in the use of NCP betweenthe older and young farmers. Furthermore, the participantssuggested that the project arrange a field visit for the artistto see and be able to visualise the working places, field toolsand equipment and the habitat of the selected plants in typi-cal local settings.

(iv) Visualisation and production of artworkThe artist visited a few of the farmers who had participatedin the workshop. During the visits, the artist got a good ideaabout the habitat of the plants, the local names of plantsand insect pests, and their damage to crops. He also studiedhow the farmers prepared and applied the botanical pesti-cides and the tools they worked with in order to render thisinformation in the drawings. After the field work, the artistdeveloped a draft of six posters describing and explainingthe use of two selected plants.

(v) Field testingBefore the final production of the posters, the artist, to-gether with extension and UMADEP staff conducted field-testing for the posters with the representative farmers fromthe community. This was intended to ascertain:• Whether the farmers had understood the posters and the

contents.• The farmers ability to identify with the drawings, the

situation, the problem and solutions, and the character(age and gender relationship). This helped to determinewhether or not the visual representation of the informa-tion and the problems was realistic.

(vi) Farmer-to-farmer disseminationSince the posters carried only abstract information aboutthe use of botanical pesticides, project staff thought that thebest teachers and disseminators of information in the edu-cational campaign would be the farmer experts themselves.Using them in dissemination workshops would give themthe opportunity to explain in detail their experiences withbotanical pesticides to their fellow farmers. Allowing farm-ers to share their practical experiences with other farmerswould also help to increase trust and confidence in the useof botanical pesticides by the younger and better-off farm-ers. To achieve this, UMADEP staff organised a planningworkshop to define the roles and responsibilities of thefarmers and the extension staff in the education campaign.

For the purpose of reaching as many farmers as possible,it was agreed that seminars should be organised at the sub-village level and in primary schools. The posters should beplaced in public areas such as markets, in the village gov-ernment offices and in the beer shops. The farmer expertsvolunteered to conduct seminars for other farmers withsome help from the project, especially for organising the au-diences and meeting other logistical needs. Farmer partici-pants (volunteers) from each village were allocated a fewsub villages near where they lived, where they would traintheir fellow farmers using posters already developed as aguide.

Lessons learned

• Testing of the posters or training materials permits cru-cial and valuable feedback from audiences for improvingthe materials before final production.

• Involvement of the target audience from the initial plan-ning of educational materials builds a sense of ownershipof the materials. The end-user then values the educa-tional material more and is therefore more likely to usethe information and share it.

• Farmers are much more interested in issues that they im-mediately recognise as being part of their local situation.Therefore, the use of local artists is crucial as well as us-ing drawings that fully reflect local people, images, tools,activities, responses and environment.

• Dissemination of the local knowledge about indigenousplants using modern methods such as printed postersadded value to the knowledge and indigenous plants in-volved. Consequently, it promotes the conservation andmultiplication of indigenous plants. It also stimulatesfarmers to research and develop other local knowledge re-lated to agricultural production.

• The partnership of farmers with UMADEP helped thefarmers to obtain quantitative proof of the economic vi-ability of their Natural Crop Protection practices. It alsoimproved their skills in carrying out experiments de-signed to develop a farming system adapted to their condi-tions, needs and objectives. Further, farmers participatingin farmer-to-farmer dissemination workshops are able todevelop their communication skills and abilities.

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Traditional Medicine and the Bridgeto Better HealthFor more information, please e-mail John Lambert at: [email protected]

In Sub-Saharan Africa, thousands ofkilograms of medicinal plants and/ortheir parts are collected and used everyday by mothers in the home, traditionalhealers,1 livestock owners andpastoralists. For more than 500 millionpeople and hundreds of millions of live-stock they are the only readily availableand affordable source of human andlivestock healthcare. However, the lossof 5.5 million hectares of resource landsevery year due to deforestation, cultiva-tion, over-grazing, burning, erosion,etc. severely decreases this supply.Medicines, foods and other natural re-source products that have sustained ru-ral people for centuries are now seri-ously threatened and many potentialmedicinal plant species may be lost for-ever. This increasing scarcity of medici-nal plant species represents a trendthat should be immediately addressed.

The majority of Ethiopians dependon medicinal plants as their only sourceof health care, especially in rural areaswhere access to villages is lacking dueto the absence of vehicular roads. Mod-ern health care through the construc-tion of new hospitals and upgrading ofexisting hospitals, health centers andhealth posts, imported drug suppliesand training of doctors and nurses is oflittle value at the present time to the

majority of the rural population (in ex-cess of 40 million people). Medicinalplants and knowledge of their use pro-vide a vital contribution to human andlivestock health care needs throughoutthe country. The plants are generallyreadily available, have minimal side-ef-fects and are free and/or affordable.They are an important component ofthe agricultural and environmentalsectors and have the potential to makemajor contributions to both macro andeconomic growth and rural poverty re-duction in the country. Environmentaldegradation, deforestation, agricul-tural expansion, over-harvesting andpopulation growth are principalthreats to medicinal plants in the coun-try. The loss from plant extinctionscould result in significant socio-eco-nomic loss to Ethiopia and could be ofglobal significance.

At present in Sub-Saharan Africa,there are no country-wide quantitativedata available on the supply of, or con-sumer demand for, medicinal plantsand on economic benefits derived bythe use of medicinal plants and theircontribution to health care. Similarly,most collectors/producers and end us-ers are unaware of the extent to whichthe expanding demand in medicinalplants is threatening the survival of an

Ethiopia

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increasing number of medicinal plant species. The pricespaid to collectors tend to be very low, and resources are fre-quently open-access or common property. As a result, com-mercial plant gatherers often “mine” the resources ratherthan managing them.

The health and drug policies of the Ethiopian Ministry ofHealth recognize the important role medicinal plants andtraditional health systems play in health care. Unfortu-nately, little has been done in recent decades to enhance anddevelop the beneficial aspects of traditional medicine in-cluding related research and its gradual integration intomodern medicine. Despite Ethiopia’s commitment to thehealth sector, its ability to provide increased resources forthe study and sustainable use of medicinal plants has beenlimited.

In most African countries, and Ethiopia is no exception,there is a cadre of highly-trained professionals whose tal-ents and expertise in the field of plant chemistry, pharma-cognosy, pharmacology, natural resource management, andthe industrial utilization of medicinal plant-based productsare underutilized. These professionals acknowledge theirindebtedness to traditional healers and birth attendantsand the need to work together to establish processes tomanage and validate traditional medicines. At present, bothlevels of knowledge capital (traditional and scientifically-based) are underutilized.

The increasing demand by the industrial countries forherbal remedies has put increasing pressure on the supplyof raw materials available in developing countries. Ethiopiais particularly conscious of the loss of its genetic resources,especially in this case where such resources are the primary,if not only, source of healthcare for the rural and urban poorpopulations. By developing national Pharmacopoeia, gov-ernments will initiate a process to formalize processes forthe extraction, standardization, safety and efficacy, and dos-age and formulation of phytomedicines. The formal integra-tion of traditional and western medicine systems will buildupon an ancient and acceptable cultural heritage, givestrength to biodiversity conservation and management pro-grams and provide a level of health care to all citizens thatwill be reflected in future social and economic prosperity.

After a somewhat circuitous development passage, theEthiopian government, with World Bank assistance, willsoon start to implement the first conservation and sustain-able use of medicinal plants project in Sub-Saharan Africa.The overall objective of the project is to initiate support forconservation, management and sustainable use of medici-nal plants for human and livestock health care. Theproject’s specific objectives are to: (i) strengthen institu-tional capacity; (ii) confirm and document selected com-

monly-used medicinal plants for the treatment of three ma-jor human diseases (tapeworm infections, bronchopneumo-nia, hypertension) and three livestock diseases (tapeworminfections, mastitis, dermatophilosis); (iii) initiate studiesfor the safe utilization of effective medicinal plant remediesfor these three major human diseases and three livestockdiseases; (iv) assess the economic benefits derived from me-dicinal plants in human and livestock healthcare on a na-tional level; (v) develop a national medicinal plant database;and (vi) support in situ conservation and management andinitiate ex situ cultivation of medicinal plants in the BaleMountains National Park area.

Project funding will be both credit and grant. The creditwill support: development of a national database of medici-nal plants; assessment of current levels of usage and eco-nomic benefits derived in the country from the use of me-dicinal plants; training and institutional strengthening; de-velopment of Intellectual Property rights guidelines forsharing traditional medicinal knowledge; determiningsafety and efficacy of plant remedies used to treat three ma-jor human diseases and three major livestock diseases; initi-ating studies of propagation and cultivation methods for se-lected medicinal plants; and project implementation, moni-toring and evaluation. Grant funds will support biodiversityconservation and sustainable management of in situ medici-nal plant resources in and around the Bale Mountains Na-tional Park as a means of reducing harvesting pressure onwild plants. The grant will also cover the costs of educationand mass awareness campaigns, local training, and pilotfarmer-based cultivation trials of selected threatened me-dicinal plants in home and community gardens and bound-ary and buffer zones of the national park. The lead agencyand collaborating agencies, institutes and communities areidentified in Figure 1.

Recommendations for using traditional plant-based rem-edies in primary health care programs will carry weightonly through studies that establish their credibility and il-lustrate their safety. The use of such remedies over a longperiod of time may provide important information on phar-macological effects in humans and livestock of particulargroups of chemical compounds — information not usuallyavailable when testing a new synthetic drug. Testing re-quirements formulated by regulatory authorities to ensuresafety of “new” drugs are not necessarily applicable to tradi-tional remedies. A more limited range of pre-clinical toxico-logical tests may be adequate.

Medicinal plants and knowledge of their use are a threadthat links education and knowledge institutions, health andpopulation issues, sustainable development, environmentaland cultural issues, gender, and rural, urban and private

186 IK Notes Number

Ethiopia conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants lead agency and contributing institutes, agencies and communities

Lead agency Institute of Biodiversity and Conservation Research (IBCR)

Conservation Scientific validation

Human healthcare

• School of Pharmacy, AAU

• Department of Drug Research (DDR), MOH

• Healers/Birth Attendants

Livestock healthcare

• Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, AAU.

• Pastoralists

In situ & sustainable use

IBCR &

communities

Intellectual property rights

Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission

Cultivation

Methods

• Biology Dept, AAU • EARO, MOA • EORC • Communities

Socio-economic survey

IDR, AAU

Database

National Herbarium, AAU

Goals • Improved human and livestock healthcare • Globally significant biological resources secured

IBCR Board Chair: Deputy Prime Minister

sector strategies. Consequently, this project should be moni-tored carefully by the concerned departments both in theWorld Bank and other development organizations to seehow it can be effectively integrated for the benefit of thepoor. While not the panacea, they are basic to poverty alle-viation and development effectiveness and should be viewedwithin the long-term holistic and strategic framework.

1 Traditional healers in this context only include herbalists, bonesetters, psychic healers and traditional birth attendants. Faithhealers, diviners and spiritualists also use medicinal plants, but notas the primary source of healing.

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The Process of CapturingIndigenous KnowledgeFor more details or information, contact : Krishna Pidatala (e-mail: [email protected]);Tel: 202-473-7353); Ministry of Local Government, Dept of Research & HRD, Asmara, Eritrea(Tel: 291-1-121877/ 291-1-115534) or (Fax: 291-1-120014).

Located in the horn of Africa, Eritreacomprises six regions and over nine dis-tinct ethnic peoples (Tigrigna, Tigre,Rashayda, Saho, Bilen, Hidareb,Kunama, Nara, Afar)—each with itsown indigenous culture and traditionalpractices.

While indigenous knowledge (IK) isembedded in community practices, in-stitutions, relationships and rituals, itis often difficult to discern due to itstacit nature. With the rapid increase inglobalization, many countries and de-velopment organizations have recentlyrecognized the threat of losing IK andare putting together initiatives aimedat the preservation and revitalizationof this valuable resource.

In 1982, a group of Eritreans orga-nized themselves and launched ascheme to identify and document theirlocal knowledge. The objective of thetwenty-year effort was to identify andunderstand the IK of the Eritreanpeoples in a socio-economic context. Itattempted to examine the socio-cul-tural and economic activities of each ofthe nine different ethnic nationalitiesin Eritrea beginning with the origins ofEritrean society through colonial timesto the current period. In this process,the purpose was to study the culturesand traditional practices of the ethnicnationalities and capture, categorize

and document these for subsequentpreservation and publication. What isnotable is that funding for this IK ini-tiative was provided by the Public Ad-ministration Department till 1990 andby the Ministry of Local Governmentfrom 1995 onwards.

This initiative was conceived as beingcarried out in two phases, of which onlythe first has seen significant progress :• Phase I–Collection of IK information• Phase II–Detailed validation and

analysis

Collection framework

The collection of indigenous knowledgerevolved around the following steps :1.Group IK into categories such as—

land use, farming, astrology, culturalrituals, traditional medicine, family,etc.

2.Select a target culture—by regionand/or ethnic group; identify IKbearers within

3.Collect IK—use questionnaires,panel discussions etc.

4.Validate—cross-check across panels,field visits

5.Record and store by category on thecomputer

6.Publish—delineate into public andprivate information; publish publicIK in print (encyclopedia)

Eritrea


The Eritrean IK collection methodology focused on thestudy of one ethnic nationality at a time. The entire processof IK collection from one ethnic nationality took betweeneighteen months to two years. The entire IK collection pro-cess was conducted in four stages.

Stage 1The first step was to determine the region that this ethnicnationality inhabited. A pilot study of some of the areas inthat region was conducted to gather general knowledgeabout that area, its peoples and traditions. The next stepwas to conduct several interviews with the district and localadministrators, surrounding communities and village el-ders to pinpoint where the IK collection process would befocused. On the basis of the preceding discussions, the semi-structured questionnaire was modified or refined. Thisquestionnaire was used as a survey instrument to help iden-tify the important items of IK and the important bearers ofthis knowledge within each ethnic nationality.

Stage 2The second stage is significant because it helped determinethe number of people who were most knowledgeable withinthe ethnic nationality about its culture and traditional prac-tices. The survey results (from the questionnaire) as well asthe preceding interviews in Stage 1 identified this coregroup, which normally numbered between twenty to thirtypeople. Most of this core group are Elders, who have tradi-tionally been the holders of this indigenous knowledge. Thenext step was to agree upon a time and place to convene allthese persons for an extended period of time (fifty to sixtydays) to enable the IK collection process to move forward .

Stage 3Panel discussions comprised the cornerstone of the thirdstage of the IK collection process. The selected bearers ofknowledge were divided into three or four different groupsand panel discussions were conducted within each group forperiods that normally lasted around sixty days. These werefocused, intense discussions and the participants were pro-vided boarding and lodging (in addition to a nominal per-diem to compensate for loss of income) during this entireperiod. The objective of this stage was to assess the credibil-ity of data, look for contradictions and finally to cross-checkthe information gathered from one group with informationfrom other groups.

Stage 4The final stage in the IK collection process was to carry outfield visits to substantiate information gathered during the

preceding stages. In this process, the IK collection team metwith actual practitioners and the wider population withinthe ethnic groups in their actual real world settings. Thepurpose of these meetings was to expose each IK collectionteam member to the indigenous experience to enable datavalidation and further re-checking. If some questions hadnot been fully answered during the panel discussions stage,efforts were made to replace or add new members to the se-lected groups at this stage with a view to get adequate re-sponses.

Constraints

In the twenty years of its existence, the IK collection teamwent through several crises ¯both social and political. Thewar of independence, conflict with Ethiopia, famine, theHIV/AIDS crisis and budgetary pressures have all had somebearing on the pace of collection and analysis of the IK pro-cess. The semi-structured questionnaire (which is the initialinformation gathering tool) is a living document and haschanged constantly, the last revision being made in 1998.Eritrean society has slowly been changing while the experi-ence of the IK collection team grew during the same period.An astonishing aspect in this entire twenty-year endeavorhas been the strong desire by the Elders (bearers of knowl-edge within the different ethnic nationalities) to preserveand revitalize their culture and traditions for transmissionto the younger generation. Contrary to normal assump-tions, it was the Elders who never gave up. Their keennessand perseverance was instrumental in keeping the lengthyIK Collection process going.

Impact

IK collected over the last twenty years is mainly in the formof volumes of a raw data format. However, some sections ofEritrean society have managed to access parts of this collec-tion in an isolated and sporadic manner, resulting in an indi-rect impact. Examples of usage and indirect benefits in-clude:• Asmara University faculty and students have referred to

this IK collection in pursuit of their theses• The Ministry of Education has referred to it for tradi-

tional education and preparation of cultural messagesaimed at ethnic groups

• The Ministry of Health has referred to it for traditionalpost-natal care and exercises, child birth practices, treat-ment for 1–5 year old children

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• The Ministry of Justice has referred to it for rich custom-ary law, use of Elders and the exercise of traditional meth-ods to resolve conflicts within communities

• The Ministry of Local Government has used some of thisIK to help delineate the regions and organize the con-cerned peoples.

Challenges ahead

The first phase of the project has been completed. Severalchallenges remain—both in the consolidated analysis of thevast amounts of data that has been collected and also in theusage of the output that is expected to be derived from theabove. These challenges include the following:• The transfer of IK to the younger generation is slow for a

variety of reasons such as the movement of the youngergeneration to urban areas in search of employment, in-creasing the influence on them of western society and val-ues and globalization

• IK gatherers are mainly liberation activists with a lot ofexperience but little formal training in the theory ofanalysis and presentation of the results

• The expected studies have not gone forward as fast as ex-pected due to a variety of reasons such as the lack of fiscalresources, outdated equipment, intervening conflict etc.

• The IK data collected have not been adequately coded, in-dexed and are often in a crude form

• Some of the data (specially from Tigrigna nationality) arein the vernacular text and have yet to be translated intoEnglish.

Next steps

Of the nine people who started this IK collection initiativenearly two decades ago, only four are still associated withthis effort. Having spent a large part of their working liveson it, they are keen that the output from this extensive IKexercise be professionally analyzed and presented for thebenefit of the Eritrean people. Eritrea has spent around 1.5million Nakfa (approximately US$190,000 without account-ing for inflation and using an average of 8 Nafka to a USdollar) to date (since independence in 1991) on this initia-tive and over 30,000 pages of data are available that needs tobe examined. The immediate needed next steps are:• Funding for and assistance from a multi-disciplinary

group (comprising of anthropologists and other special-ists) to validate and analyze the raw data collected to date

• Appropriate training for the IK collection team in an ac-credited university abroad (preferably for a year or so) toenable them to speak/understand the multi-disciplinaryteam’s language (in terms of concepts and jargon), thusfacilitating meaningful and effective interaction

• The involvement of Eritrean academia in this IK effort sothat specialized knowledge about the IK collection ispassed on from the remaining four staff to them. This en-tails the provision of appropriate exposure while buildingcapacity and interest in IK within the country

The ultimate beneficiaries of this IK initiative will be therural populations of the nine ethnic nationalities whose wayof life, subsistence activities, and cultural institutions willbe more transparent to the organizations that assist themwith services and participate in their development. Indig-enous knowledge and practices gleaned from this initiativewill not only provide a context for developmental activitiesbut also help in their preservation and revitalization.

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This article was written by Maja Naur, Ph.D. in sociology, and consultant to the World Bank.For more information, e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]


HIV/AIDS: Traditional Healers,Community Self-assessment, and Empowerment

Most African countries have ratifiedthe African Charter on Human andPeople’s Rights, which states the rightsto health, education, and “promoting,safeguarding, and reinforcing mutualrespect and tolerance.” In Sub-SaharanAfrica alone, some 17.2 million havedied of HIV/AIDS which includes some3.7 million children under the age of 15.Fighting the disease has so far concen-trated on prevention, and only limitedattention has been directed towardstreatment and the social and humanrights aspects related to the pandemic.This seems to put the Charter to thetest. Although several western phar-maceutical companies have lowered ex-penses for HIV/AIDS retroviral treat-ment, these medicines are still beyondthe reach of most Africans. And even ifmedicine was provided free of charge,countries in Sub-Saharan Africa lackthe medical infrastructure to distributethe medicine, and it is doubtful ifhealth systems can be expanded at thespeed and quality required. Finallythere is a high risk that the resourcesallocated to fight the disease will not befully accessed by the beneficiaries forwhom it was intended. The focus hereis, therefore, on how traditional healersand indigenous knowledge can em-power communities to deal with the so-

cial consequences of the pandemic, and,at the same time, be able to ensure thatgovernment resources are actually be-ing used to their benefit.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annanasked recently for an addition of $7 bil-lion to $10 billion per year as a mini-mum transfer from rich countries toAfrica to fight HIV/AIDS. But some ex-perts in the region says that even suchsums will have little impact until Afri-can nations build up their health sys-tems to administer the drugs and moni-tor the health of those receiving them.The formal health care system onlyreaches 10 to 20 percent of the people,and those mainly in urban centers athospitals and clinics. Traditional heal-ers provide primary health care for 80percent of the population and live inthe communities where help is needed;they are the ones who today treat manypatients for HIV/AIDS-related dis-eases. Some healers have already beensuccessful in extending the lives of pa-tients with HIV/AIDS using medicinesthey from locally grown medicinalplants. A good example is the work be-ing done near Tanga in Tanzania.

Should Western medicine finally be-come available at affordable rates topoor communities, traditional healerscould be the ones to distribute the

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medicine and ensure that patients take the right doses.While traditional healers will need to be educated to do this,it will be less expensive to upgrade their knowledge than toexpand the formal health system. Building on existing sys-tems seems to have a higher chance of sustainability.

HIV/AIDS does not respect boundaries of class, culture orrace, but lack of knowledge and misconception on how thedisease is transmitted from one person to another often re-sult in human rights violations by exclusion or isolation ofindividuals and families with HIV/AIDS. And the social ef-fects affect the poor the most. Many communities have be-come aware that HIV/AIDS is transmitted via blood andsexual intercourse, but there is also a widespread miscon-ception that transmission occurs by shaking hands, eatingor bathing together, wearing the same clothes, using thesame tools, or for children sleeping in the same bed. Educa-tion and information on how HIV/AIDS is being transmit-ted has so far been the core initiative in fighting the disease.Little attention has been directed towards lifting the socialstigma related to the pandemic in spite of the fact that“what we cannot speak about we can do nothing about.” In-dividual and social empowerment is essential for communi-ties to handle the challenge, which is mainly left to them inthe HIV/AIDS crisis. Moreover, when resources for theWorld Bank-assisted Multisector Aids Program (MAP) ini-tiatives begin to flow, communities should be empowered toaccess and monitor resources intended for them. A very use-ful tool of empowerment was applied in the transitional pe-riod from apartheid up to the election in South Africa whereNGOs and civil rights organizations managed to mobilizecommunities all over the country. The campaign was thelargest ever undertaken anywhere at the time. The methodwas rooted in the facilitation of communities to create theirown human rights charter based on democracy and respectfor individuals of all races (Dorsey 1997). The idea wasbased on Paulo Freire’s democratic proposals of problem-solving education where “men and women develop theirpower to perceive critically the way they exist in the worldwith which and in which they find themselves; they come tosee the world not as a static reality but as a reality in theprocess of transformation” (Freire 2000).

To apply the successful experience of social mobilizationin the fight against HIV/AIDS, a mini epidemiological studyhas to be undertaken by community members and for thecommunity. Traditional healers (especially women healers)could be key facilitators in this process. What is importantin community-managed research is the process its membersgo through, which differs fundamentally from a social as-sessment in which data collection is the most important.

The process of community-managed research could be fa-cilitated, apart from the traditional healers, by a local NGO/CBO to balance any attempt by local elites to dominate theprocess. Among the issues to be dealt with are the following:• Where does the community think HIV/AIDS comes from?• How does a person get the disease?• Are there particular places where the risk for getting the

disease is high?• Are there many community members who often go to

these places?• Are there particular groups at high risk?• Who in the community are seriously ill?• What occupation did the ill persons have at the time they

became ill?• Has there been change in the person(s)’ occupation since

they became ill?• How have the symptoms developed over time?• Who did they contact when they first fell ill?• Did they get some medical help and where did they get

it?• Has their social conditions changed after they became ill

and how has it changed?• What happens to a family (socially and economically)

that has a member with HIV/AIDS?• What initiatives have been taken by the community, by

the government, or by the municipality/district inrelation to the HIV/AIDS pandemic?

• Is anybody aware of resources for which the communitycan apply in order to fight HIV/AIDS?

The aim of such community research is: (i) to begin a pro-cess within the community to focus on HIV/AIDS, so as toenable people to talk about the disease; (ii) to increaseawareness that the disease is not an abstract phenomenontalked about on the radio but something concerning mem-bers of their own community; (iii) to get personal storieswhich may help others in the same situation; (iv) to raiseawareness among risk groups; (v) to make the disease be-come a concern for the community—e.g., on how the diseasecan be prevented and how the patients and their families in-cluding orphans can be helped; and, finally and very impor-tant, (vi) facilitate the community to formulate their ownBill of Rights. Each Community Bill of Rights will haveunique features depending on the particular local condi-tions. But what the communities have agreed upon they willalso be eager to enforce and to install social sanctionsagainst those who violate what is in the best interest of thecommunity as a whole.

192 IK Notes Number

“Charter Making and Participatory Research” by EllenDorsey in Human Rights Education for the Twenty-FirstCentury edited by George J. Andreopolos and RichardPierre Claude, University of Pennsylvania Press, Phila-delphia 1997.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, 30th Anniver-sary Edition, Continuum, New York 2000.

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Indigenous Language and Literatureas a Non-profit BusinessThis article was prepared by Dr. Peter Easton of Florida State University and Dr. Sonja Fagerberg-Diallo of ARED. For further information, contact ARED at Villa 8253, Sacre Coeur 1, Dakar, Sénégal,tel: (221) 825–7119, 824–5098, fax: (221) 824–7097, E-mail: [email protected]

Issue 13 of this series (“Sahelian Lan-guages, Indigenous Knowledge AndSelf-Management,” October 1999) rea-soned that literacy in African lan-guages, now on the rise in a number ofcountries across the continent, pro-vides an important vehicle for the ex-pression and development of indig-enous knowledge. Literacy andnonformal education programsthroughout the region are giving ameasure of public “voice”—at least atthe local level—to community groupsand associations that had none before.But they often run into one consider-able obstacle: the lack of literature fornew literates in the languages of in-struction.

The problem is beginning to be re-solved among Senegalese speakers ofthe Fulani or Pulaar language in someinstructive ways. This article presentsbriefly the experience of ARED (Associ-ates in Research and Education for De-velopment) and CERFLA (Centred’Etudes pour la Recherche et la For-mation en Langues Africaines), twoclosely linked non-profit organizationsoperating in Pulaar-speaking regions ofthe country, which have been workingover the last twelve years to sustainpopular literacy in the language.

ARED now manages a publishingventure that sells between 30,000 and50,000 volumes of literature ever year,predominantly in Senegalese lan-guages. The books are principally dis-tributed in Senegal, and their continu-ing publication is 75 percent funded bythe proceeds of book sales themselves.ARED is also increasingly active intraining (CERFLA was founded to de-velop the organization’s training voca-tion) and in local knowledge cultiva-tion. How has it succeeded and whatare the lessons of this experience in“adding sinew to local knowledge?”

The cultural context

The Pulaar culture constitutes thelargest minority community in Sene-gal. Nearly a third of the country’s 9million inhabitants speak Pulaar, sec-ond only to those conversant in the ma-jority African language of the country,Wolof. Across West Africa, from Sene-gal to northern Cameroon, speakers ofPulaar and related Fulani languagesnumber over 25 million, nowhere in thenational majority but predominant in anumber of subnational regions. TheFulani are an ancient herding and,therefore, largely nomadic people, per-

Senegal


haps of Egyptian origins in prehistoric times, who spreadacross the savanna regions of central and western Africaand became sedentarized in certain areas through religiousconversion and political conquest. They have also emigratedto a number of other countries of Africa and many cities ofEurope, the Middle East and South Asia.

Starting in the late 1950s, this experience of strong cul-tural tradition and minority status gave birth to a culturalrevitalization. In 1958 a Senegaleese Pulaar speaker whohad been living in Cairo for twenty years published a novelin the Pulaar language—Ndikkiri Joom Moolo, or“Ndikkiri, the First Born, a Guitarist”—written as an exer-cise in remembering his homeland. It was the story—atturns nostalgic, irreverent and hilarious—of a Pulaar anti-hero who abandoned hearth and home to take up a succes-sion of careers as performing artist, religious cleric and fi-nally charismatic leader, recurrently pursued by politicalauthorities but triumphing and restored to his culture andfamily in the end. The author chose to write in a Latinizedtranscription of the language rather than the existing“ajami” or Arabic-based transcription, already in restricteduse for many years among the religious elite.

Though rife with typographical errors that the Egyptianproofreaders obviously could not catch, the book graduallyacquired a cult readership throughout the Pulaar diaspora.One early reader, who later became an editor of Pulaar-lan-guage materials, recounts the effect the book had on him.He found himself devouring the novel outside his residenceat three in the morning so that his roommates could sleep.

I would sit on the sidewalk reading from Ndikkiri. Witheach page, I could barely keep from laughing out loud as Isat alone in the street. ... The next day, I would entertainmy friends with stories from Ndikkiri while we drank teatogether. In the end, all of my friends who were literate inPulaar could hardly wait [to read] the book...

The birth of a movement

This sort of enthusiasm helped give birth to a movement ofPulaar literacy and cultural renewal among those living inthe Near East. From there, the initiative spread to Franceand in 1982 came home to Senegal in the form of the Asso-ciation pour la Renaissance du Poular (ARP), an organiza-tion uniting overseas Pulaar-speakers with others living inurban areas of Senegal who wished their children to bemore familiar with their own culture.

In the years following, ARP—spurred in part by thespread of African language literacy programs and in part bythe threat of the adoption of Wolof as official lingua francafor the country—turned its energies to promoting local lit-

eracy classes in Pulaar in Senegal itself. Hundreds suchclasses were created over the next five years—classes spon-sored by government agencies or official developmentprojects as well as a mass of others initiated by local commu-nities themselves. Standards were typically low, however;writing systems used were extremely various; and follow-upliterature was very scarce. But the enthusiasm was real andthe initiative was passionately homegrown.

In an effort to remedy the perceived weaknesses of thecampaign, a group of Pulaar authors created in 1989 aGroupe d’Initiative pour la Promotion des Livres en LangueNationale (“Group for Initiatives to Promote Books in Na-tional Languages” or GIPLLN) to draw together existingtexts and facilitate their distribution to literacy classes. Theinstinct was good, but the initiative proved more ambitiousthan a team of authors could manage by themselves. Opera-tions were consequently transferred the following year to anew nonprofit association registered in the United States,ARED. GIPLLN members constituted much of the Board,but technically-skilled Senegalese and an American re-searcher married to a Pulaar speaker were brought in as theassociation’s executive personnel. ARED set about repro-ducing the stock of Pulaar-language texts available and de-veloping others, essentially as a service to the new literacycenters.

Unexpected success

The undertaking succeeded to a much greater extent thanits promoters had anticipated. The combination of literacycourses, an increasingly self-aware diaspora community,and the growth of NGOs concerned with developing betteravenues of dissemination and contact with Pulaar-speakingpopulations offered a growing, if initially modest, “market”for such publications. The numbers of volumes sold annu-ally expanded from 6,000 in 1988 to 41,000 in 2000, andtitles published from a handful to over 150. Fully 95 percentof sales were to clients in Senegal. Prices were set to coverproduction costs and afford resellers a potential 25 percentmargin of profit.

“Resellers” in fact included none of the major bookstoresin the country, which did not—and still do not—deal in Afri-can language literature. ARED counts instead on smallmerchants and entrepreneurs who see the interest of theirtexts for local readers and buy a few dozen to resell. Theirfavorite story in this regard concerns a young man whowalked from Kayes (in neighboring Mali) to Dakar, the capi-tal of Senegal, behind a large herd of cattle. He sold his live-stock on the urban market and showed up at ARED officeswith a good part of his take: over 1,000,000 West African

195

francs (about $1,500). The money was already earmarked tobuy Pulaar-language publications for resale in the Kayes re-gion, volumes ordered ahead of time by local merchantsthere. The young man carried away a minor library to thetrain station, confident of a good profit on his return home.

A rich palette of publications

Through the end of calendar year 2000, ARED and its pre-decessor, GILLPIN, had disseminated 350,000 copies oftheir publications, representing 168 different titles, 85 ofthem written in Pulaar or translated into it, and the rest inother Senegalese languages, including French. This mass ofliterature can be broken down in at least two informativeways¯by topic area and by source. Materials cover the fol-lowing basic topic areas:• Literacy and numeracy manuals (seven titles published in

calendar year 2000, two of them new)• Novels, stories and other creative literature (one new title

last year)• Information on development and civil society (six titles

published in 2000, two of them new)• Treatises on indigenous knowledge and traditional or re-

ligious practices (three titles, two new)• Instructional texts for management capacity building (one

new publication).

Four different sources have been used for the written ma-terial. The first is texts—mostly creative or religious—authored by the founding members of GILLPIN and AREDthemselves. Second come materials developed and writtenby ARED staff, principally its series of basic literacy train-ing manuals, The third category comprises new books devel-oped by staff, or existing publications translated into aSenegalese language by them, at the request of some out-side donor. Publications of this nature include everythingfrom agricultural extension manuals to a Pulaar version ofL’Aventure Ambiguë, the renowned work of Senegalese nov-elist Cheikh Amadou Kane, translated under his personaldirection. Interestingly, in both cases cited, ARED staff andresellers have testimonies from readers among the civil ser-vant and University student population who admit theynever fully understood the material before seeing thePulaar version.

Last but not least, except numerically, come unsolicitedmanuscripts submitted by free-lance authors. Such submis-sions have until recently been quite rare, in part becauseARED had not worked out clear contracting and remunera-tion norms for free-lance authors. These problems have now

been resolved, however: published authors receive 10 per-cent of proceeds from sales of their books in two install-ments. Moreover, the organization has decided in its mostrecent general assembly to systematically encourage free-lance submissions in order to foster broader local author-ship of publications; and the total number of such workshaving appeared in print has now risen to six.

Fiscal policies

ARED does not distribute its books free of charge, butrather tries to set prices at a level that covers cost of produc-tion plus a commission for the potential resellers while re-maining relatively affordable in Senegalese terms. Mosttitles currently cost the equivalent of $1.50. Some are subsi-dized by outside donors, like NGOs interested in using lit-eracy manuals or commissioning documents on develop-ment themes, or bilateral agencies wishing to produce ex-tension material for projects they fund. Others are under-written by ARED’s own “investment funds,” or the savingsthey have realized from their diverse training and publica-tion endeavors over the years. In toto, ARED now covers 75percent of the cost of its publishing through book sales andanother 25 percent through subsidized support and its owninvestment funds, making it the nearest things to a self-funding source of African language publications infrancophone West Africa.

During the latter years of the last decade, theorganization’s revenues were greatly strengthened by twoclients. The first was foreign-aid supported government lit-eracy programs that, under Senegal’s faire faire or decen-tralized service provision strategy, funded a variety of NGOsto carry out their own local literacy efforts and authorizedthem to purchase manuals and texts from publishing ven-tures like ARED that had developed certifiably effectivematerials. On the strength of these orders, for example, thenumber of basic literacy books in Pulaar sold surged fromjust under 9,000 in 1995 to over 40,000. The second sourcewas major support from Lutheran World Relief (LWR)throughout the early and middle years of the decade, bothfor training local associations and for the development andpublication of a variety of written materials. Forty-seven ofthe latter were funded entirely or in part by LWR. Its sup-port was sharply curtailed starting in 1998, however, due toproblems that the organization was experiencing in its ownfund raising. ARED was forced to downsize its staff, consoli-date its operations, and concentrate efforts on areas of de-mand likely to produce new business. The effort has appar-ently been a success. In calendar year 2000, ARED produced

196 IK Notes Number

12 new titles and CERFLA carried out 26 new training ses-sions, while the total numbers of books sold rebounded froma low of 23,000 in the year following reduction in its majorunderwriting to 41,000.

Lessons learned

What are the lessons of the ARED experience? For one, thestory of ARED makes it clear that—at least under the condi-tions in Senegal that the association has faced over the lasttwo decades—it is possible to develop a nonprofit businessand publishing firm devoted to African language literacyand to the dissemination of indigenous knowledge. Thereare workable formulas that rely essentially on local salesand service receipts (though partly provided through theNGO and aid funding network), without major underwrit-ing from donor agencies. ARED has survived this transitionand managed to continue growing. Several non-financialfactors have played a critical role, however, in theassociation’s success:• ARED and CERFLA are as much “movement” as non-profit business. The contributions of a certain number ofpolitical ringleaders from within the Pulaarophone commu-nity, both in the diaspora and locally in Senegal, have beencritical to their maturation and growth.

• An ability to read the signs of the times and discern devel-opmental “niches” for African-language publications andliteracy development has also been essential. Much in thecurrent spirit of decentralization, local empowerment andcultural renewal lends itself to making the formula work,but a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and acumen is required tocapitalize on it.• Good institutional backup for accounting and manage-ment have also been critical. ARED benefits from a systemand a track record for resource management and from itsstatus as a US-, as well as Senegal-, registered association.• Ironically, perhaps, aspects of the information revolutionhave simplified and supported the task of publishing in Afri-can languages. Computers can handle the specialized fontsfor language-specific sounds that posed big obstacles in thetypewriter age, desk-top publishing makes local documentdesign and production a relative snap, and e-mail tightensnetworks among far-flung allies.

Recognizing a disappearing resource

To these factors should be added both the minority statusand the particular resilience of the Pulaar community,which has lent to the endeavor a certain aura of “sacredcause.” Nothing frames the value of indigenous knowledgeand the will to perpetuate so well, it would seem, as wide-spread awareness that it is in danger of disappearing.

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Integrating Indigenousand Scientific Rainfall ForecastingThis article was written by Carla Roncoli, Keith Ingram, Paul Kirshen, and Christine Jost of the Climate Forecast-ing for Agricultural Resources (CFAR) project, an interdisciplinary research initiative jointly implemented by theUniversity of Georgia and Tufts University and funded by the Office of Global Program of the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration. A longer version is forthcoming in Society and Natural Resources, v.15. For moreinformation contact Carla Roncoli at: (404) 524-8833 or [email protected].

This case study describes how farmersof Burkina Faso predict seasonal rain-fall and examines how their forecastsrelate to scientific ones. In recent years,meteorological science has made enor-mous progress in predicting climate.The realization that sea surface tem-peratures (SSTs) influence global at-mospheric circulation enables scien-tists to formulate forecasts of seasonalrainfall. These are presented as theprobability of total seasonal rainfallquantity being in the above normal, be-low normal, or normal compared withan average resulting from analysis ofthirty- years series. In West Africa, sea-sonal rainfall relates to the threemonths of July, August, and Septem-ber, during which 90 percent of totalannual rainfall occurs.

Rather than conceiving local and sci-entific knowledge as absolutely incom-patible, our research shows that farm-ers are used to operating in multiplecognitive frameworks and that they areinterested in receiving scientific fore-casts because they perceive local fore-casts as becoming less reliable due toincreasing climate variability. But to ef-fectively convey scientific forecasts weneed to understand how people thinkabout rainfall, including how they per-ceive and predict variability. Under-

standing local cultural models is essen-tial for communicating research prod-ucts and development technology.

Locality and livelihoods

Bonam is a village located in theNamentenga Province, one of the poor-est of forty-five provinces in BurkinaFaso. Most of Bonam inhabitants areMossi, the dominant ethnic group inthe country, and draw a livelihood fromrain-fed farming of grain and legumi-nous crops, combined with some live-stock production, petty trade, and labormigration to Côte d’Ivoire. SomeFulani pastoralists have also settled inthe area.

Rain falls during a single season last-ing from May to October, characterizedby extreme inter-annual and non-uni-form distribution within seasons. Thelong-term mean annual rainfall is 674mm. At the onset of the rainy season,farmers decide what, when, and whereto plant. They do so according to theirexpectations for seasonal rainfall, striv-ing to minimize risk by combining thewater retention capacity of differentsoil types and field positions with thewater requirements of various cropsand crop varieties.

Burkina Faso


Farmers’ forecasting knowledge encompasses shared andselective repertoires. Experienced (mostly elderly male)farmers formulate hypotheses about seasonal rainfall by ob-serving natural phenomena, while cultural and ritual spe-cialists draw predictions from divination, visions, ordreams.

Shared forecasting knowledge

Environmental indicators that farmers use to predict sea-sonal rainfall become available for observation at differenttimes of year. Among the earliest and most widely reliedupon indicators are the timing, intensity, and duration ofcold temperatures during the early part of the dry season(November–January). Farmers believe that intense cold(below 15 degrees C) during this time corresponds to abun-dant rainfall during the rainy season and that if this coldperiod begins early or ends late, the rains will do likewise.Following the cold-dry period is a hot-dry period (February–April): intense heat at this time is also believed to predictgood rainfall.

The second most common forecasting indicator is the pro-duction of fruit by certain local trees, which occurs betweenApril and June. According to farmers, good yields from treessuch as taanga (Butyrospermum parkii) and sibga(Anogeissus leiocarpus) predict a favorable season. On theother hand, farmers link abundant fruit production bynobga (Sclerocarya birrea) and sabtuluga (Lannea acida)trees to drought.

Trees are also used as signs for the approaching of therains or the presence of water. When sibga begin fruitingand sabtuluga lose their leaves farmers know that theyshould get ready for planting. Kankanga is a fig-like treethat grows where the water table is near the soil surface.Therefore, it signals herders where to dig wells to watertheir cattle and farmers where they can plant water-de-manding crops, such as cotton.

Another indicator that becomes available at the onset ofthe rains is the water level in streams and ponds. If it re-mains consistently high after the first rains, farmers believethat the season will be favorable since heavy rains at theonset are believed to be a propitious sign. Herders who pas-ture animals in the bush watch the nesting of small quail-like bird (known as koobre in Moré) and believe that whennests hang high on trees then the rains will be heavy; whennests hang low, the rains will be scarce.

Women also observe insect behavior at water sources andin rubbish heaps outside compound walls. For instance,bugvaré are black insects of the Orthoptera sp. that dig con-

cave nests in rubbish heaps outside compounds. After thefirst rains, larvae emerge, filling the nests with dirt. Womensaid that they expect a good farming season if bugvaré filltheir nests to the brim with dirt, which symbolizes a fullgranary.

But, while signs are observed throughout the dry season,it is at the onset of the rains that farmers consolidate theirexpectations for rainy season. An early onset, especiallywith a regular succession of rains that enable good crop es-tablishment, is the most widely considered indicator of agood season. The number of times farmers must plant isalso key in evaluating the nature of a season and predictingcrop performance. For example, when a drought affectedthe region in 1997, farmers had known a food crisis loomedahead by the end of planting time (early August), half a yearbefore official famine early-warning systems registered dis-tress signals.

Some elders are also able to interpret constellation move-ments and lunar phases. For instance, they consider the vis-ible phases of the moon, especially the full moon, to be morelikely to be dry than dark phases because moonlight exerts aforce that prevents rain from falling. Stars also signify suit-able planting periods for different fields and crops. The ap-pearance of Souci (Pleiades) in early May indicates that it istime to prepare valley bottom fields for planting. Shifts inthe position of the Budb Kutoega (Ursa Major) identify thestart and end of the period for planting sorghum. The ap-pearance of Tatba (Orion) in July coincides with heavy rains(sa nyanga) that favor maize planting.

Specialized forecasting knowledge

In contrast to the observation of environmental signs whichis available to most farmers, divination and other spiritualpractices are the prerogative of select groups or individuals.The most authoritative among them is the Tengsoba, the el-dest descendent of the clan that first settled the land. Heperforms sacrifices to mediate between the living and theancestral and earth spirits that inhabit fetish sites, some ofwhich influence the rains. Predictions are drawn from thebehavior of sacrificed animals, how long it takes to fall, inwhich direction it falls, and where the blood spills. TheTengsoba and other traditional specialists might also re-ceive forecasts from ancestors or deities in the form ofdreams or visions.

Marabouts are spiritualists who situate themselveswithin the Islamic tradition, although Islamic orthodoxyfrowns on their practices. These spiritualists range from Is-lamic clerics (Limam) who are versed in the Koran to divin-

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ers who mix Islam with indigenous beliefs and practices.The Zambende ceremony, which marks the beginning of theMuslim year, is the key venue for marabouts to issue theirforecasts. Marabouts base their predictions on the day of theweek that marks the first day of Zambende. Each day is as-sociated with a different prophet and the year that follows ischaracterized by symbolic events in the life or time of thatprophet. Prophecies are written in Arabic texts along withinstructions for ritual offerings and other measures to staveoff inauspicious events.

Unlike the Tengsoba and the marabouts who can only is-sue predictions and offer intercessory prayers, there areother specialists, known as sa tatta, who claim direct com-mand over the rains. But their powers are feared as rain-making is considered to endanger both practitioners andthe community. Invoked rains are believed to be mostly vio-lent downpours (saraogo) accompanied by heavy wind,sharp thunder, and lightning that cause damage to crops,houses, and animals. For this reason, a government cloud-seeding project at the beginning of the 1998 rainy seasoncaused anxiety rather than relief among farmers in Bonam.

Some spiritualists foresaw the 1997 drought and their re-sponses have implications for their potential role in diffus-ing scientific forecasts as well. The Tengsoba admitted hav-ing had dire premonitions during the dry season, but he didnot reveal them. Other spiritualists confirm that they tendnot to publicize dire predictions because to do so “would belike launching a curse” against those under their authority.Verbalizing negative forecasts would reify them into an in-evitable outcome by voiding any possibility for supplicationand negotiation with the spirits. The failure to alter direpredictions may also undermine the credibility of spiritual-ists responsible for interceding between the living and thespirits. Furthermore, a bleak forecast may also discouragepeople from farming and induce them to migrate, under-mining the social order on which the elders’ authority rests.

Integrating local and scientific forecasts

Bonam farmers recognize that both society and climatehave undergone significant changes in the last few decades.Traditional leaders lament that formal education, monothe-istic religions, and modernization ideologies have dimin-ished their authority, especially among the youth. Climatevariability has also weakened farmers’ confidence in localknowledge. Elders recalled that in the past they were able topredict the rain onset so accurately that they could mobilizefamily labor plant on dry soil, knowing that the rains wouldsoon follow, but now their sons refuse to go to the field untilit actually rains.

But this does not mean that farmers perceive scientific in-formation as a threat to local culture. On the contrary, be-cause they perceive local forecasts to have become less reli-able, farmers are keenly interested in alternative sources ofinformation. Rather than being static and uniform, theircognitive landscape already incorporates a plurality ofknowledge frameworks. Local forecasting combines empiri-cal observations and spiritual insights that draw from a va-riety of religious traditions. Farmers mix local and intro-duced practices and technologies and families pragmaticallycombine modern medicine and local treatments when one oftheir members is sick. It is the imposition of any one knowl-edge system as representing the totality of truth that is re-sented and resisted.

Hence, scientific information must be presented in waysthat conform to cultural notions concerning the nature ofknowledge, its production and validation, and its relation-ship to society. Local systems of thought emphasize the par-tial nature of human understanding, which means that noone source of information is considered as having the entirepicture. Local forecasts systems rely on a range of indicatorsthat become available to different people and at differenttimes. Farmers do not resolve contradictions among indica-tors into a cogent scenario. Discrepancies among forecastsor between forecasts and outcomes are explained in terms ofthe diversity of ecological niches and cropping systems. Theprobabilistic nature of the forecast may also be explained byreference to the uncertain nature of destiny as the outcomeof negotiations between the living and the spirits and, ulti-mately, of the arbitrary will of the latter.

There are several aspects of method and content wherelocal and scientific knowledge of forecasting converges. Forexample in formulating predictions, spiritualists use ap-proaches reminiscent of scientific practice. Zambendeprophecies derive from the exegesis of textual material andfrom consultations among spiritualists, who then officiallycommunicate them to the lay public. In the domain of envi-ronmental knowledge, farmer forecasts resemble scientificmethods in their reliance on the systematic observation ofnatural phenomena. The generation of knowledge from ob-servation is consistent with cultural learning styleswhereby children learn from watching adults rather thanthrough verbal instruction or asking questions.

Meteorologists could build on local understanding of therelationship between temperatures and rainfall to explainthe technical aspects of scientific forecasts based on sea sur-face temperatures. Farmers’ interpretations of wind pat-terns also recognize the ocean as the origin for rain. Duringthe dry season, farmers expect winds to blow westward,that is, to go to the ocean to pick up water, and then return

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blowing eastward at the onset of the rainy season. Farmerspredicted and explained drought from the absence of suchwinds.

But farmers’ forecasts diverge from scientific ones in im-portant ways, particularly the scale and parameters theyaddress. Unlike scientific forecasts, which are formulated inreference to “zones,” the production and the application oflocal forecasts are deeply localized. They derive from an inti-mate interaction with a microenvironment whose rhythmsare intertwined with the cycles of family and communitylife. It is not the generic sibga or taanga that farmers usu-ally consider in predicting rainfall, but specific trees neartheir home or their fields that they might have observedover a lifetime.

While scientific forecasts hinge on estimates of total sea-sonal quantity, farmers evaluate seasons in terms of typesand time of rainfall. For instance, they recognize that thesame amount of rainfall can lead to different productionoutcomes if it occurs as sa nyanga (prolonged but consistentrain that leaves the soil moist for several days) or as saraogo(localized thunderstorm accompanied by violent wind). Wa-ter-deficit periods that occur during establishment or head-ing will cause more damage to crops than those that occurduring other crop growth stages.

The time of onset and of termination, marking the dura-tion of the rains, is such a salient parameter that a forecastof an “above average” seasonal rainfall is invariably under-stood by Bonam farmers as predicting a longer season. Cur-rently, science is unable to reliably predict either the dura-tion or distribution of seasonal rainfall, but the integrationof scientific forecasts with local knowledge might allowsome inferences in this regard. For example, the abnormallyheavy rains that fell in July and August 1999 could havebeen predicted by combining farmers’ predictions of delayedonset with the scientific forecast for above-normal seasonalrainfall.

Conclusions

Our findings show that neither the experiences of bridgingknowledge systems nor the concepts of rainfall forecastingare alien to the farmers of Burkina Faso. Local forecastsconverge with scientific ones in some aspects of content andmethod, but also diverge in terms of practical significanceand moral meanings. These contrasts challenge science ontwo fronts.

On the one hand, the specificity of local forecast param-eters urges science to be more responsive to farmers’ infor-mation needs and more relevant to the livelihood decisionsthey face. On the other hand, local systems of expertise andleadership tightly link knowledge and social responsibility,calling for scientists to be more aware of and accountable forthe impacts of the knowledge they produce and provide tousers.

This responsibility propels us beyond the task of integrat-ing local and scientific knowledge in form and content fore-casts, to face the challenge of addressing consequences andcontext of their use. In particular, the provision of informa-tion needs to be integrated with appropriate interventionsthat bolster farmers’ ability to negotiate a mitigated out-come of predicted scenarios. Scientists, policymakers, do-nors, and development practitioners must work together todevise consistent and sustainable approaches to improvingthe flexibility of local production systems and the resiliencyof livelihood security for the resource-limited farmers of theSudano-Sahel region.

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Maternal Health Care in Rural UgandaLeveraging Traditional and Modern Knowledge Systems

This article was written by Dr. Maria G.N. Musoke (PhD), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Uganda is one of the least urbanizedcountries in Africa, where over 80 per-cent of the population of about 20 mil-lion people live in rural areas. Uganda’seconomy depends mainly on agricul-ture and women contribute 60–80 per-cent of the labour. Women’s health,therefore, has vital social and economicimplications for national development.However, among Ugandan women ofreproductive age, maternal health is-sues are a major problem as demon-strated by the following indicators: ahigh maternal mortality rate estimatedat 506/100,000; an equally high fertilityrate of about 6.9; only about 38 percentbirths are attended to by trained healthworkers, the rest (62 percent) are at-tended by traditional birth attendants1

(TBAs) and relatives.2 To address theseproblems, the Ugandan Ministry ofHealth (MoH) identified several strate-gies and activities. Some of these activi-ties included expanding the referral sys-tem and improving the TBA network aswell as training TBAs. The Rural Ex-tended Services and Care for UltimateEmergency Relief (RESCUER) projectwas started as one of these initiatives.

Project description

The RESCUER project was launched inMarch 1996, on a pilot basis, in Iganga3

District, Eastern Uganda. It is basicallya referral project, designed to addressthe high maternal mortality problem.The project was initiated by the MoH,UNFPA, and the Uganda PopulationSecretariat. A multi-sectoral Iganga dis-trict task force implements the project,while UNFPA and the MoH do themonitoring.

RESCUER has three components:communication, transport and qualityhealth services delivery.

CommunicationThe type of information communica-tions technology (ICT) selected was dic-tated by a number of factors, some ofwhich include: unavailability of electricpower supply in most rural areas, lackof wired telephones, the need for theICT to be accessed twenty four hours aday, flexibility, the need to re-use thesystem in other parts of the countryand the economic sustainability of thesystem when donor support ended. Forthese reasons, the VHF radio was thetype of ICT selected to be used in theproject. This included fixed base sta-tions at the health units, mobile


walkie-talkies with the TBAs, and vehicle radios in the refer-ral hospital ambulance and the District Medical Officer’s ve-hicle. The VHF radio communication is solar-powered, avoid-ing electric power shortage or surge problems.

The RESCUER project was designed to link the tradi-tional rural community health providers with the formalhealth delivery system in a cost-effective way, such thatwhen an obstetric emergency occurs in a village, a TBA usesa walkie-talkie to call for assistance from the nearest healthunit. A message on what to do is immediately relayed overthe radio system. If the TBA cannot manage the case, trans-port is dispatched from the health unit with a midwife tocollect the patient. If a case cannot be managed at the healthcentre level, the hospital is called and an ambulance is sentto transport the patient to the referral hospital.

TransportTricycles were provided to each of the participating pri-mary-level referral health units which were generally sub-county health centres. An old ambulance at the main refer-ral hospital was repaired and equipped with radio commu-nication. TBAs were given bicycles to assist them withtransport to the health units to charge the walkie-talkie bat-tery and to collect monthly statistics.

Quality health services deliveryThis included capacity building (e.g., training of TBAs, mid-wives, technicians), recruitment of at least two midwivesand a clinical officer in all the participating health units,renovation of the maternity wards (including provision ofdelivery beds, oxygen, and I.V. fluid stands) and regular pro-vision of maternal emergency kits and other supplies.

Implementation

A district task force comprising of the Director of DistrictHealth Services (DDHS—formerly known as the DistrictMedical Officer), and officials from other sectors in the dis-trict was set up to oversee the planning, development, andimplementation of the project. It is answerable to the high-est tier of district leadership, namely, the LC5 chairperson.The task force is chaired by the DDHS, and comprises rep-resentatives from sectors relevant to health in the district.

Results and impact

In July 1999, the author carried out a study to investigatethe effect of the communication system on maternal health

care, and its contribution to the referral project. She identi-fied factors affecting the project, as well as the costs andsustainability of the project. Data were collected from bothsecondary and primary sources. Secondary sources includedprogress reports and other project documents. Primary datawere collected qualitatively, through interviews and basedon incidents narrated by health workers and TBAs. Thestudy sample focused on Iganga district where the projecthad been running since March 1996.

The increased number of deliveries under trained person-nel and increased referrals to health units led to a reductionof about 50 percent in the maternal mortality rate (MMR)in three years as indicated below:

“A survey carried out recently in three districts of Arua,Iganga and Tororo, which all had got their TBAs trained,showed that Iganga’s MMR had reduced from 500/100,000in 1996 to 271/100,000; whereas rates for Tororo and Aruahad reduced, but both were above 350/100,000. This indi-cated that communication and transport facilities in Igangacontributed to a reduction in MMR. Before the project,there were problems of lack of communication facilities andtransport, which made referrals slow and sometimes led tothe death of the mother or baby or both” (Administrator).

Six health units and one referral hospital participated inthe project. Of these, four health units and the referral hos-pital were studied and their midwives interviewed. In addi-tion, ten TBAs, three project administrators and fourwomen beneficiaries were interviewed.

To the TBAs, the walkie-talkie technology was a greatsource of empowerment as it improved their image andcredibility, thus increasing compliance with referral advice,and also augmented their income by increasing the numberof women they attended to. Those who are not able to writefurther pointed out that :

“Since I can’t write, it was difficult for me to refer women;I had to go with them to the health unit and explain… butnow, the walkie-talkie saved me all that trouble, because Ijust call the midwife and explain the condition of the personI am referring… I don’t have to go escorting every person Irefer” (TBA7).

The communication technology brought the rural mid-wives closer to each other, thereby reducing isolation andfacilitating consultation. Panic situations and the uncertainmanagement of complications were reduced considerably.

In the referral hospital, communication was reported tohave made the work of midwives easier as they were able toknow in advance what to expect and prepare for emergen-cies. Women beneficiaries reported that this communicationlink gave them hope in critical situations.

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Lessons learned

The study highlighted a number of lessons.

Complementarity• A critical mass of complementary activities is needed toachieve maximum impact. For example, the study foundthat although the communication component made a verysignificant contribution to the success of the RESCUERproject, it could not stand on its own. For the project toachieve its objectives of improved referrals leading to in-creased deliveries by trained personnel, the other two com-ponents (transportation and quality of services delivery)had to play their complementary role. When transportbroke down, however, it was reported that the presence of amidwife and the communication system played a big role insaving lives: the TBAs called to consult health units, thesealso called to consult colleagues and seniors. However,where the emergency necessitated a referral, the need fortransport became very crucial.

Technology• The impact of ICTs is enhanced if the technology is appro-priate to the local conditions. As indicated, the ICT choicewas made after careful considerations of the local problemsin rural Uganda.• The use of solar power by the radio communication sys-tem could also benefit rural health units, which have noelectricity. In particular, the study recommended that thesolar power should be extended to provide light in the ma-ternity wards / labour suites in the first-level referral units.• The simple design of the radio communication system fa-cilitated its use according to all the people interviewed.• The public audibility of the radio communication systemrenders it difficult to abuse or misuse. Interviewees re-ported that calls made are usually brief and to the point,and that the nature of this ICT protects it from theft.

• A multi-tiered ICT approach can help bring the benefitsof advanced technology to the rural population in Sub-Sa-haran Africa. Such an approach will cater to the differentcapabilities in African situations. For example, telemedicineand other advanced technology facilities (e.g., the Internet)can be adopted at the district hospital, while simple tech-nologies like radio can serve lower levels (rural health units,TBAs, etc.). The consultations made by lower units to thedistrict hospital would ensure that the rural populationbenefits indirectly from the technology.

Institutional capacity• The project built on existing infrastructure and local ca-pacity, including traditional knowledge systems. The TBAs’knowledge of local culture, values and their ability to con-nect traditional and modern practices was critical to theproject. Indeed the project started at the grassroots with thetraditional knowledge held by the TBAs, and improved it byconducting refresher courses and equipping TBAs, as wellas professional health workers, with simple ICT, transportand regular supplies.• Leveraging traditional and modern knowledge systemscan increase impact. For example, the RESCUER projectbrought together traditional and modern health practitio-ners and inculcated mutual understanding and trust thathas enhanced maternal health care.

1 A traditional birth attendant (TBA) is a person from the communitywith no formal training, but who has knowledge of indigenouspractices which has been acquired through apprenticeship andbeing part of a local community’s culture and value system. She/heattends to women in childbirth, advises on and treats matters offamily health usually using herbs and / or other traditionalmedicines and practices. (Adapted from: National Traditional BirthAttendants’ curriculum for Uganda. MoH / Maternal and ChildHealth and Family Planning division. Kampala.)

2 Source: UNDP (1998). Uganda Human Development report.3 Iganga distict had a population of 706,476 of whom 52 percent were

females. This was before Mayuge was split from Iganga in 2000.Source: Iganga District Planning department.

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Eliminating a HarmfulTraditional PracticeThis article was written by Peter H. Wolff M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston MA02115, USA.. For more information, e-mail: [email protected]

Female genital mutilation is wide-spread throughout many regions of Af-rica and elsewhere. It is usually perpe-trated during early childhood and hasserious consequences for the medical,gynecological, and obstetrical well-be-ing of girls. These effects persistthroughout the childbearing years andbeyond. Less often recognized are thepsychological suffering, humiliation so-cial dignity and self-concepts of thegirls and women subjected to this tradi-tional practice.

Infibulation that is usually per-formed during early childhood is themost radical and destructive form of fe-male genital mutilation. It also has themost destructive gynecological and ob-stetrical consequences. The practice ofinfibulation was traditionally wide-spread throughout the Lowlands ofEritrea, and particularly among the no-mads. During the thirty-year war forEritrean independence, the medical de-partment of the liberation forces thattreated not only the combatants butalso the civilian populations in the lib-erated zones frequently had to treatgirls and women with major gyneco-logical and obstetrical disorders. Themajority of these were directly relatedto genital mutilation. The question wastherefore discussed in detail among thecombatants as to what measures could

be taken to ease this dreadful burdenon women to prevent serious medicalcomplications. At the same time it wasrecognized that this practice was to-tally incompatible with the efforts toimprove the social status of women inthe society.

Expatriate visitors to the field whowere informed about the practice ofgenital mutilation among Eritrean no-mads, and others abroad who heardabout these practices were outragedand immediately insisted that the sur-gical infibulation be forbidden, with se-vere penalties for those who continuedto this harmful traditional practice.These expatriates failed to understandeither the delicate balance between lib-eration forces and the civilian popula-tion, or that the overall policy of the in-dependence forces to unify the countrydepended on cooperation and closeworking relationships among all sec-tors of the population. Most outsidersfurther assumed that, at the presenttime, it was primarily the men who per-petrated these mutilations on women.Historically, the nefarious practiceswere no doubt instituted by males onfemales, but over centuries women hadassimilated the cultural importance ofthe practice, on the premise thatwomen who were not infibulated or cir-cumcised were in danger of becoming

Eritrea

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sexually promiscuous or of becoming prostitutes. To pre-serve their respect in the community, women therefore in-sisted on the mutilation, and in many countries still do.

The medical department of the Eritrean independenceforces therefore made the decision not to forbid the practicein the lowlands or to impose any penalties on those who con-tinued the practice. They recognized that trying to stop it byforce would only alienate the population and drive the prac-tice underground. Instead, voluntary meetings were calledat which Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) who were thecivilians who performed the infibulations were invited toparticipate in repeated month-long workshops conductedby nurses and doctors on a voluntary basis. At these work-shops TBAs were given detailed information about the se-vere harmful immediate effects of hemorrhage and infec-tion; as well as about the serious long-term gynecologicalconsequences, increased infant and maternal mortality, andthe like. They also underwent courses in modern steriletechnique, obstetrical practices, etc. As is the practice atEritrean workshops, the transmission of information wasfollowed by active discussion. Thereafter, the TBAs re-turned to their villages.

Although there were no systematic follow-up studies, an-ecdotal reports suggested that there was a gradual reduc-tion in the adverse consequences of genital mutilation asthe TBAs applied their new knowledge. However, it couldnot be expected that the practices were abandoned alto-gether during, or even after the war. Since independence,the National Association of Eritrean Women makes fre-quent visits to the nomads to continue these discussionbased on mutual respect and cooperation. The general im-pression is that the practice is slowly disappearing.

Impact

The quickest solution for stopping the practices of femalegenital mutilation (and the one proposed by foreigner infor-mal advisors) might at first glance appear to be to forbid thepractice and to impose penalties on those who continued thepractice. However, in view of the delicate relationship be-tween the independence forces and the civilian population itwould in any case have been politically inappropriate to im-pose such legal measures. Moreover, the practices wouldhave merely continued underground. Instead, the indepen-dence forces relied on the inherent intelligence and willing-ness of the TBAs to modify their gynecological practicesgradually, once they were given the necessary modern medi-cal information as to how they might modify them, and toeducate the civilian population by practice rather than byfiat. This approach also laid the groundwork for the con-tinuing education of women by women after indepen-dence—an additional step towards assuring the equality ofwomen.

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Developing Indigenous Knowledgein Francophone Africa

A Four-Nation Overview

The mission in mid-2001 comprised the authors of this article, Peter Easton (consultant),Emmanuel Nikiema (World Bank staff, Burkina Faso Field Office), and Suzanne Essama (WorldBank staff, Washington D.C.). For more information, please e-mail [email protected]

How well is indigenous knowledge (IK)taking hold and being integrated intothe development policy and practice inthe Francophone countries of West andCentral Africa? Results of a WorldBank mission in early summer 2001 tofour of these nations—Senegal, Mali,Burkina Faso and Cameroon—offer abrief panorama of the current situa-tion. This note is based on contactswith public and private sector counter-parts involved in different facets of in-digenous knowledge promotion and in-terviews that grew, in many instances,from these initial contacts. The situa-tion in each country was different—afunction of its own history and thechallenges and opportunities it faces;yet there were important commonali-ties as well. Both are briefly exploredbelow.

An abundance of initiatives

Much is going on in relation to indig-enous knowledge in all four countries,both in the public sector and amongnon-governmental and community-based organizations. Activities arecropping up across multiple domains ofdevelopment: health, agriculture, edu-cation, natural resource management,cultural affairs. A few examples:

• An NGO in Mali devoted to “addingmuscle to local knowledge” (musclerle savoir local) recruits students fromacross West Africa to attend seminarson the dynamics of indigenousknowledge and to carry out first handresearch—particularly in the agricul-tural zone of the Office du Niger—onhow local farmers have adapted tra-ditional understandings of crop fer-tility and production to the exigen-cies of commercial operations.

• A center in rural Senegal gathers to-gether over 400 traditional healers toexchange methods and test the effi-cacy of their ministrations with mod-ern medical diagnosis.

• The Ministry of Culture and Art inBurkina Faso sponsors, through its“Direction of Cultural Heritage,” aseries of local museums devoted topreserving indigenous crafts and aprogram of fora on local know-how.

• A researcher at the Natural ProductsResearch Foundation in Cameroonhas carried out, under OAU sponsor-ship, an ethno-botanic survey of tra-ditional uses of the vast store ofplants in that country.

Indigenous knowledge now appearsto be a hot topic. There are sources offunding, both private and foreign aid-

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based, for studies and initiatives in this area, and it is in-creasingly politically correct to endorse related efforts.Cross-country undertakings are not uncommon. The Minis-try of Culture in Mali recently held an international collo-quium of traditional hunters and “bush chieftains” (chefsde la brousse) from several West African countries to discussindigenous methods of natural resource preservation; andthe NGO PROMETRA (Promotion des medicinestraditionnelles or “Promotion of traditional medicine”) inSenegal has joined forces with similar organizations or cre-ated branches of its own structure in twelve other Africancountries. It is evident that any further effort now envis-aged in these countries must take careful account of whathas already been initiated and of the lessons learned frompractice to date.

Uneven development

The very popularity of indigenous knowledge as a bannerfor action, and funding, attracts such a variety of aspirantsand contributors that testing claims against field-level re-sults is a critical means for identifying best practice andseparating the wheat from the chaff. Yet such assessment isfar from the rule.

There is nonetheless an increasing amount of substancein the domain of indigenous knowledge throughout the fourcountries visited, but it remains unevenly developed in anumber of respects.• Despite the creation of Ministries of Culture (as in Mali

and Burkina Faso), the preponderance of activities re-mains in the NGO and voluntary sector. Cultivation of in-digenous knowledge is seldom part of the policy or prac-tices of pubic agencies. In Senegal, for example, almost allof the experiments with traditional medicine have beencarried out under private auspices, and their proponentshave had little success in interesting the mainline medicalsystem in such initiatives.

• There is also a marked divergence between what might becalled the “hard” and “soft” sectors of development. MostIK initiatives have been undertaken in social service do-mains like health, culture and education. There are some,though fewer, in agriculture The further one moves fromthe realm of social development toward engineering, fi-nance and the more technical sectors of development, thefewer people one finds who understand the role of IK orare ready to take it into account. Natural resource man-agement constitutes perhaps the most notable exception.

• Use of African languages is in many cases closely relatedto efforts to record, develop, and incorporate local knowl-edge; but practices in this regard are conditioned by a host

of other policy concerns. It is typically more difficult toadopt coherent policies promoting them in coastal coun-tries with hundreds of African languages than in interioror Sahelian countries with a more limited number oftongues and a few predominant lingua franca. Cameroon,for example, must deal both with official (French-English)bilingualism and a number of different African languagesand is therefore still struggling with its policy regardinguse of the latter in the educational system.

Why this record of uneven progress? Dominant models ofdevelopment are difficult to change, it is true, and the moretechnical the domain the more it is tied into internationalnorms of procedure and performance. Indigenous knowl-edge is therefore naturally a phenomenon where rhetoricand practice tend to diverge a bit: there is often a politicalpayoff to endorsing it but a real political cost to doing some-thing concrete about it.

But there are other valid reasons for uneven develop-ment. The NGO sector provides a good laboratory for ex-perimenting with innovative approaches before trying to in-corporate the most successful or appropriate of them intopublic policy; it is scarcely surprising therefore that new ini-tiatives crop up there. In a multicultural context, whose in-digenous knowledge will be given prominence is a thornyquestion, just like the issue of which African language orlanguages will achieve official status. There are good rea-sons for advancing slowly with such decisions.

One result of this uneven development is of course a lackof coherence and coordination in the “indigenous knowl-edge sector.” Actors in one arena do not know what those inanother are doing, there are few commonly accepted stan-dards for work, and there is a good deal of competition. Thisis not all bad, however. The multiplicity of efforts at leastfavors the emergence of new ideas and creates a variety ofapproaches that experience may help to winnow out.

Recognizing different varieties of IK

One result of the increasing experience with the develop-ment of indigenous knowledge in the four countries visitedis increasing sophistication in understanding the variousmeanings and applications of IK. A group interviewed inSenegal presented perhaps the clearest analysis of the dif-ferent and potentially complementary interpretations of lo-cal knowledge now embodied in the field. They distin-guished three variant approaches:• Indigenous knowledge as a heritage from the past to be

carefully conserved and respected—an approach display-ing the kind of reverence for the accumulated wisdom of

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previous generations so poignantly expressed in the fa-mous phrase from Amadou Hampate Bâ, “each time anelder dies it is as if a library had burned down.”

• Indigenous knowledge as an embodiment of a differentand specifically African mode of thought—an African“epistemology” and therefore a means for rethinking de-velopment methods in areas like health, agriculture, andnatural resource management. Proponents of this ap-proach point to the failure of current methodologies of de-velopment as evidence of the need for new concepts rootedin people’s cultural heritage.

• Indigenous knowledge as a means and process for articu-lating what local people know, and involving them in thecreation of the knowledge required for development, andso transmitting to future generations the best that thepresent has to offer. Proponents of this approach insistthat IK is as much a question of enabling local actors toproduce new knowledge—based both on inheritance fromthe past and a clear-eyed assessment of current chal-lenges—as it is one of simply inventorying and storing upthe traditions inherited from the past.

The synthesis of these three perspectives seems to havethe greatest potential for stimulating widespread respect ofindigenous knowledge. But examples are rare, though thelanguage people use increasingly reflects a compound per-spective. Our interlocutors talked of “referring” or havingregular “recourse” to indigenous knowledge in building newmodels for development, rather than simply enshrining it.Many were sensitive, moreover, to the virtues of the thirdapproach, which makes indigenous knowledge an activeprocess, rather than purely a question of anthologies andmuseums, and ties it to an agenda of popular participationand decentralization.

Building the missing links

Where is the movement headed in these four countries?What are the principal challenges facing its proponents?The biggest “missing link” in all sites visited lies in the in-ability or insufficient opportunity to “inject” the results ofIK initiatives into the policies and procedures that governlocal development, to move from gratifying forums and to-wards encouraging experiments to actual changes in policyand standard practice.

The situation is reflected both in the countries visited andin donor organizations such as the World Bank. Indigenousknowledge concerns, if more frequently recognized nowthan in the past, tend to be compartmentalized in special-

ized services or agencies that have this mission but havelittle effect on policy in the “working” sectors of develop-ment. At the national level, there may be a ministry oragency devoted to culture, yet operating largely in a vacuumwithout influence on practical issues of economic and socialdevelopment. In donor organizations, programs for the pro-motion of IK may flourish but intersect little if at all withthose mainstream offices that determine aid policy andpractice. Crossing this divide remains a major challenge.Four dimensions of activity seem particularly important:• Promoting the incorporation of indigenous knowledge

into development projects through more explicit proce-dures for involving local actors in the design of interven-tion methods and in tactical decision-making. In manycases, this means making participatory management andaction research standard operating procedure in develop-ment enterprises.

• Systematically developing, preparing and disseminatingtools and methods for this kind of participatory approachto local development.

• Making local schools a hub for the collection of indigenousknowledge and a place of encounter between developmentagents and local actors in negotiating investments andinitiatives that include it.

• Designing, testing and implementing materials and meth-ods for the pre-service and in-service professional trainingof development workers that initiate them to fuller usageof local knowledge and assist them in discovering ways tosynthesize the new and the old.

Strategies must evidently be developed country by coun-try, although accompanied by ample means for cross-na-tional exchange. The first step forward might best be a sortof “sector assessment” or état des lieux carried out by na-tional researchers in order to inventory and compare thevaried initiatives under way in a given country and what isknown of their results. This would serve as a prelude andcriteria for prioritizing future efforts. Government minis-tries and donor organizations should be a part of this scru-tiny, which would entail as well an “audit” of their own poli-cies with respect to local participation in development plan-ning and utilization of indigenous knowledge.

In all four countries, IK is a domain of increasing activityand immense potential. It is at the same time a realm wheresupport from donor communities can help greatly tostrengthen existing efforts and “winnow” the most promis-ing initiatives from the many now under way, but wherehost country policy decisions must finally govern norms.

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209


Rural Seed Fairs in Southern TanzaniaThis article was written by O.K.K. Mponda ( Plant Breeder and Principal Investigator, Southern Zone Rural Seed Fairs,ARI Naliendele, Mtwara) and E.M. Kafiriti (Agronomist, Oilseeds Research Programme, ARI Naliendele, Mtwara),Naliendele Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 509 Mtwara, Tanzania, Fax No. 255 023 334023; [email protected]

Why southern zone rural seed fairs?

The low productivity of agriculturalcrops is among the factors leading tolow income and food insecurity for ru-ral people in the Southern Zone of Tan-zania.. The use of improved seeds is oneway of increasing the productivity ofagricultural crops. It was realized thatthe seed supply pipeline from the seed-producing regions in the SouthernZone was not flowing freely partly dueto the poor infrastructure prevailing inthe zone. In the conventional Transferof Technology Model (TOT), the seedsupply pipeline begins with researchwhere breeding work is done and endswith farmers who access a final productof improved seeds/variety. The MultipleSources of Innovations Model acknowl-edges the contribution of informal seedsystems. Therefore, it is argued by de-velopment experts that informal andformal seed/variety development ex-perts can complement each other andimprove the supply of seeds of pre-ferred varieties to farmers better thaneach expert’s isolated efforts.

The Southern Zone rural seed fairshave the following objectives:

Short-term• To create awareness of and accessi-

bility to additional alternative seeds

and planting materials from researchinstitutions, seed companies andfarmers;

• To enable researchers, extensionagents and farmers to meet and ex-change ideas on their strategies, theskills they use in seed and variety de-velopment and to sell and exchangeseed materials; and

• To create working contacts betweenseed expert farmers, extensionagents, breeders/researchers and na-tional seed producers. These workingcontacts could lead to refinement ofextension content and the creation ofnew seed/variety development pro-grams and schemes including morevillage-based initiatives and re-searcher-farmer partnerships fortechnology development

Mid-term• To increase significantly the number

and availability of crop varieties bredfrom National Research Institutes,seed companies and farmers’ ownseed systems in the southern zone

• To promote farmers’ own seed andexchange systems such that the offi-cial efforts, in addition to normalcommercial channels, also work in-creasingly towards enhancing indig-enous systems; and


• To encourage convergence between official variety devel-opment/seed production and farmers in their own comple-mentary seed/variety development

Long-term• To increase agricultural productivity, food availability and

income for rural people in the southern zone.

Organization and implementation of the seed fairs

Over the years 1997–1999, seed fairs were organized andimplemented by the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI),Naliendele and District Councils with financial supportcoming largely from the FINIDA-supported Rural Inte-grated Project Support (RIPS). However, since the year2000, District Councils have been financing the rural seedfairs.

Before each seed fair, a farmer seed expert survey is con-ducted and a seed fair site selected in each district. Thefarmer seed experts are those farmers who in their commu-nity are considered experts on certain crops based on expe-rience and who supply seed to others. These farmers are in-vited to exhibit during the seed fair day. Other farmers notidentified as experts are also free to attend and participate.They could bring seeds , local skills and demonstrate to oth-ers. The seed fair sites are selected by districts based on thepotential of the area for agricultural production, the avail-ability of accommodation, accessibility and how central it isto other villages so that farmers from the neighbourhoodcan easily attend the fair.

The ARI Naliendele was being assisted financially byRIPS to purchase improved seeds from different places inthe country—particularly from research institutions, seedcompanies, Tanzania Farmers’ Association shops and somehard-to-obtain seeds from farmers. Small samples of 5–200grams of all seed types of different crops including cereals,legumes, oilseeds, vegetable crops and fruits and tree seedsare collected and packed in small packets. These seed packsare sold to or exchanged with farmers who are interested intesting in their fields.

To spread awareness regarding the seed fair, radio spotannouncements are made 2–4 weeks prior to the event andthere is live coverage on the actual day.

Farmers in selected villages set up booths for seed exhibi-tion. They also organize traditional dances on the eve of theseed fairs to entertain participants and make the seed fair alively event. To coordinate the seed fair activity at the vil-lage level, various committees are formed, e.g., a buildingcommittee (ujenzi), a committee for food (chakula), a com-

mittee for traditional dance(utamaduni), and a committeefor security (ulinzi na usalama).

District Councils provide extension officers with a budgetto attend and participate in the seed fairs. They also provideseed experts with food and transport to and from seed fairsites.

The seed fair lasts for two days in each selected village.District Commissioners are invited to inaugurate the seedfair event. It begins in the evening with traditional dances.And from 7.00 pm to 10.00 pm, farmers are shown videofilms on various agricultural technologies. The actual seedfair goes on from 8.00 am to 5.00 p.m. after which the seedfair team moves to another selected village in another dis-trict. On the seed fair day, apart from the seed exhibition,demonstrations are held on grafting, farm tool manufac-ture, etc. Researchers document the knowledge of seed ex-perts through note-taking, photographs and video films Theparticipation of politicians, researchers, extension, farmers,and private seed entrepreneurs creates working contactsand therefore improves the linkage between stakeholders.

Sustainability of the seed fairs

The Southern Zone rural seed fairs started in 1997 in thethree villages of Marambo in Nachingwea, Mbonde inMasasi and Kitangari in Newala Districts. In 1998, the seedfairs were extended to include nine District Councils of theSouthern Zone and in 1999 they were conducted in ten Dis-trict Councils. To sustain the rural seed fairs in the zone,from 2000 District Councils were encouraged, as mentionedearlier, to take the leading role in organizing them withoutsupport from RIPS, with the ARI Naliendele playing a coor-dinating role.

Achievements of the seed fairs

• Increased awareness of improved seeds and accessibilityof seeds to farmers. Farmers are now demanding seeds ofpreferred varieties.

• The seed fairs have demonstrated that farmers have valu-able local seeds, skills and knowledge that can be docu-mented, disseminated and commercialized.

• Seed fairs have been a valuable tool of technology transferfrom research to farmers.

• Over seventy crop varieties of cereals, legumes, vegetablesand oilseeds bred from the formal seed system have beenmade available to farmers.

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• The seed fairs have helped to create awareness among re-searchers and extension regarding local varieties andhave helped them to access the local knowledge of crops.

• The fairs have demonstrated how crops can be protectedfrom genetic erosion; thus, one may recover certain typesof seeds which might have been lost in one area/villagefrom other farmers.

• The seed fairs have increased the debate on seed issues inthe zone and help zonal initiatives on seed multiplication.

• The ARI Naliendele is now linking local individuals,farmer research groups, local institutions to multiplyseeds of preferred varieties such as oilseeds.

• Beans cultivation has been introduced in Chilangala Divi-sion as an alternative cash/food crop.

The difference between agricultural showsand seed fairs

There have been some questions as to why rural seed fairsshould not be combined with the National Nanenane Agri-cultural shows (an annual event in each district and at Na-tional Level) to minimize costs The reasons are summarizedbelow.

Understanding these differences is very important be-cause most of the farmers in Tanzania are subsistence,small-scale farmers who may not qualify for the agriculturalshows. Subsistence farmers grow various crops for food se-curity. Agricultural shows seems to have been designed forthe so-called progressive and commercial farmers. It followsthat even the poorest farmers can qualify to participate inseed fairs. Rural seed fairs encourage the participation of re-source-poor farmers in the conservation of plant genetic re-sources that contributes to their food security and rurallivelihoods. This, consequently, empowers the rural poorand builds confidence in their knowledge and in indigenousplant genetic resources.

Agricultural shows Rural Seed Fairs

• Extension staff influences what is displayed • Undermines local knowledge and traditional

cultures • Demonstrates achievements from formal research

only • Uniformity is a major concern • Stresses increased production • Encourages farmers to adopt best options • Crops and livestock displayed • Encourages mono-cropping • Commercialization leads to genetic erosion • Some minor crops are neglected • Is conducted after crop harvest in August • The major objective is to show formal scientific

achievements

• Farmers decide what to display • Promotes local knowledge and traditional culture • Demonstrates achievements from research and

farmers’ own seed system • Diversity of crop plants is a major concern • Stresses food security • Monitors availability of seeds of various types • The emphasis is on seed crops • Encourages farmers to grow many crops • Protects crops from genetic erosion • Minor crops which might have medicinal properties

are encouraged to be displayed • Promotes soil fertility by growing many crops with

different nutrient requirement, some of them improving soil fertility

• Is conducted at the onset of the rainy season • The objective is to improve seed supply bred from

research and farmers’ own seeds in rural areas.

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IK Notes 44May 2002

The Contribution of Indigenous Vegetablesto Household Food Security

Uganda

This article was written by E.B. Rubaihayo, Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 7065,Kampala, and was first published in the African Crop Science Journal, Africa Crop Science ConferenceProceedings, Vol. 3, pp. 1337-1340. The present version has been lightly-edited and excludes the text of theabstract in English and French.

A lot of effort has been invested by theGovernment of Uganda to produceenough food for Uganda’s populationand a surplus for export. However, theindigenous vegetables, often referred toas traditional vegetables, have been un-derrated in favor of introduced exoticvegetables (Rubaihayo, 1995). Hence,the potential of traditional vegetableshas not been exploited.

Traditional vegetables are perish-able, low yielding and their value ascommercial crops has not been ex-plored. Yet, the majority of local farm-ers cannot always produce exotic veg-etables because of the unavailability ofseeds and/or high production costs ofthese vegetables. Unfortunately, the re-source-poor urban and rural popula-tion often find it difficult to purchaseexotic vegetables from local marketsbecause of the high costs. They there-fore, depend on traditional vegetablesas a regular side dish or sauce accompa-nying the staple foods such as maize,cassava, sweet potatoes, banana, millet,sorghum and yams (Rubaihayo, 1994).The staple foods provide caloriesneeded for body energy but are verylow in other nutrients while the tradi-tional vegetables have a very high nu-tritive value. They contain vitamin A,B, and C, proteins and minerals such as

iron, calcium, phosphorus, iodine andfluorine in varying amounts but ad-equate for normal growth and health.For example, vitamin A which is re-quired to prevent blindness especiallyin children is found in all dark greenleafy traditional vegetables such asAmaranthus (dodo), Solanumaethiopicum (Nakati), Manihotesculenta(cassava leaves) and Ipomea batatas(sweet potato leaves). On the otherhand vegetables like Solanum indicumsubsp.. distichum (Katunkuma) are be-lieved to control high blood pressure.The traditional vegetables, therefore,meet the major protein-calorie nutri-tional needs especially in children, thesick, elderly, expectant and lactatingmothers (FAO, 1988). Unfortunately,the consumers have not been sensitizedto appreciate the role of the traditionalvegetables in fulfilling the above hu-man needs.

Most of the traditional vegetables areproduced throughout the developingworld mainly in kitchen and home gar-dens. Because of the importance ofthese gardens, an international Work-shop on Household Garden Projectswas held in Bangkok, Thailand in May1991 to consolidate lessons learnedfrom experience with household gardenprojects. The workshop analyzed the

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relevance and effectiveness of household food production asa development intervention, targeted at the most nutrition-ally and economically disadvantaged people and identifiedviable implementation strategies of household gardens(Midmore et al., 1991).

The purpose of this paper is to prompt policy makers anddevelopment managers to reassess and give more weight tothe neglected production and consumption of traditionalvegetables so as to enhance nutrition, income generationand food security for small scale households. The views ex-pressed in this paper are a result of interviews with severalpeople from many countries including Uganda, Ethiopia,Kenya. Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, Cameroon,Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Senegal, etc. althoughthere is more focus on the Uganda situation.

Kitchen gardens. Kitchen gardens are common in urbancenters and their suburbs. They are normally made up ofvery small plots of usually pure stands of traditional veg-etables as part of the garden of the residence. The veg-etables are produced cheaply in these gardens using com-post rather than commercial fertilizers (Midmore et al.,1991)

The commonly grown traditional vegetables includeinteralia Leafy Amaranthus species, Basellaalba,Solanumaethiopicum, Solanum gilo, Solanum indicum subsp distchum, Cqapsicum species Colocasiaesculenta,Phaseolus vulgaris, Gynendropsis gynandra, Vignaunguiculata, Bidens pilosa, Manihot esculenta, Corchorusolitoris, Solanum nigrum, Abelmoschum esculenta,Cucurbita maxima, and Acalypha biparlita. Exotic veg-etables such as Brassica oleracea, B. oleracea and Daucuscarota are also commonly grown. The yields of some freshvegetables in Uganda are shown in Table 1.

Home gardens. Home gardens are found in villages. Theplots are larger than those of kitchen gardens and a numberof vegetables and other crops are mixed are mixed togetherincluding fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants, staple foodsand shade trees. The home gardens in villages surroundingthe suburbs of the urban centers are often planted with cab-bages, cauliflower, carrots, Amaranthus lividus (grown inswamps and water logged soils), Solanum gilo, Solanumindicum subsp. dischum mostly as monocrops. These veg-etables are sold in the neighboring urban and their suburbsmarkets.

The contribution of indigenous vegetablesto household food security

The home gardens of traditional vegetables in the rural set-ting are characterized by intercropping systems and volun-

teer plants during the rainy seasons. In many developingcountries, where these gardens predominate, the contribu-tion of traditional vegetable gardening as a food productionstrategy has been overlooked by policy makers and exten-sion staff in favor of exotic vegetables which are mainly pro-duced for commercial purposes (Rubaihayo, 1994). Unfortu-nately, the resource-poor rural households do not benefitfrom the remarkable increase in exotic vegetable commer-cial production due to the costly inputs of agriculturalchemicals needed for their successful production. There-fore, it is extremely important to develop research and pro-duction strategies that directly enable the poorest of thepoor to produce not only traditional vegetables but alsostaple foods.

Although the contributions from these gardens to familywelfare are supplementary in nature, such modest contribu-tions are very important to those who have very little in therural and urban areas. These poor people often have accessto only under-utilized marginal land and others have verysmall pieces of land. Intensive home and kitchen gardeningcan turn this land into a productive source of food and eco-nomic security by using narrative agricultural practices andthe traditional vegetables that are already locally adopted.

Importance of traditional vegetables. A large proportion ofthe Ugandan population do not consume adequate amountsof traditional vegetables to meet their daily requirement ofvitamins, minerals and proteins. Even what is consumedhas a large proportion of these nutrients destroyed or lostduring preparation and cooking. There is reduced effective-ness in ensuring food security all year round due to the factthat very few traditional vegetables are cultivated, with themajority being collected from the wild or fields and planta-tions. In some of the ecosystems they are regarded as weedsand are often weeded out and are not available during thedry season (Rubaihayo, 1994). But this situation can be re-versed through concerted efforts by the government to edu-cate the general population and extension services to covertraditional vegetables and increase research to produce im-proved cultivars, processing, marketing and storage meth-ods. This would lead to the increased consumption of tradi-tional vegetables and their contribution to food security willbe enhanced.

Family gardens are far more common in less well-to-dohouseholds, and constitute the major or the only source offood between harvests or when harvests fail. They provide acritical source of energy and protein, especially to weaning-age children, the sick and elderly. Some of the traditionalvegetables can continue to be productive even during thedry season although at a reduced rate due to stuntedgrowth. Habitat destruction and migration to urban areas

214 IK Notes Number

mean that wild foods are no longer available to these re-source-poor rural farmers. Moreover, the commercializationof agriculture has displaced many indigenous crops thatused to ensure a balanced rural diet (Rubaihayo, 1992).

It is important to appreciate that traditional vegetables,especially the leafy ones like Amaranthus, (dodo, Bugga)Solanum aethiopicum (Nakati), etc. can be handy underemergency circumstances and hardships arising out of civilconflicts and natural disorders that result in the displace-ment of communities. These traditional vegetables comeinto production with a short time soon after the onset ofrains and can be harvested in three to four weeks afterplanting. These leafy vegetables could then be followed bycrops like beans which take two to three months as culti-vated relief food, so that purchased foods are a temporary orsupplementary measure (Rubaihayo 1995b).

Women and traditional vegetables. In Uganda, though ru-ral women are responsible for feeding their household, yetthey have limited access to resources. Household gardeningoffers women an important means of earning income with-out overtly challenging cultural and social restrictions ontheir activities. Home and kitchen gardens can enhancewomen’s purchasing power and food production capacitywhich has a direct impact on household nutrition, healthand food security.

Where traditional vegetables have been commercializedsuch as, Malakwang (Hibiscus spp.) Nakati (solanumaethiopicum), Egobe (vigna unguiculata), Entula (Solanumgilo), Katunkuma (Solanum indicum subsp. Disticum),Doodo (Amaranthus dubious), Bbugga (Amaranthuslividus) particularly around the city of Kampala and inother urban areas, it is mainly the men who cultivate them.Middle men purchase these vegetables from the farmers(men) and transport them to the markets, and in the mar-ket women buy them and retail them to the general public.The sale of traditional vegetables in women-accessible mar-kets do not only provide food security to those with purchas-ing capacity but the trading women are able to educate theirchildren and, dress and provide their household with essen-tial items in the home thus avoiding abject poverty.

Home and kitchen gardens and the environment. Al-though there has not been an extensive study of the effectsof traditional vegetable gardening on the environment, it isgenerally believed that household gardens conform to eco-logically sound land management systems. Household foodproduction uses organic farming practices which arefriendly to the environment. The traditional style of house-hold gardens is also critical in conserving diverse plant ge-netic resources (Midmore et al., 1991).

Conclusion

Traditional vegetables are a common household food andmake a substantial, though rarely appreciated contributionto the food security of the rural people in many Africancountries. Therefore, extensive education about their im-portance as a nutritionally balanced food and as a direct andindirect source of income, particularly for the resource- poorfamilies, must be undertaken by African governments.

References

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), 1988. “Tradi-tional Food Plants.” FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 42.FAO, Rome.

Goode, P.M. 1989. “Edible plants of Uganda. The value ofwild and cultivated plants as food.” FAO Food and Nutri-tion Paper 42/1. FAO, Rome.

Midmore, D.J., Vera Nines & Venkataraman, R. 1991.“Household gardening projects in Asia: past experienceand future directions.” Technical Bulletin No. 19. AsianVegetable Research and Development Center.

Rubaihayo, E. B. 1992. “The Diversity and potential use ofLocal Vegetables in Uganda.” Pages 109-114. In: The FirstNational Plant Genetic Resources Workshop: Conserva-tion and Utilization.

Rubaihayo, E. B. 1994. “Indigenous vegetables of Uganda.”African Crop Science Conference Proceedings 1, 120-124.

Rubaihayo, E. B. 1996b. “Conservation and use of tradi-tional vegetables in Uganda.” In: Proceedings on GeneticResources of Traditional Vegetables in Africa: Option forConservation and Use, 29-31 August 1995, ICRAF Kenya(in press).

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215


Using Indigenous Knowledge to RaiseAgricultural Productivity

India

This note was written by Siddhartha Prakash of the World Bank, and is based on a field visit to thefarmers’ school and project sites in 2001. For further information email: [email protected]

Knowledge is transferred from one gen-eration to the next and from one coun-try to another through trading ties andsocial interactions between differentcommunities. This has given rise to anumber of cross-country exchangesand knowledge sharing activitieswithin Africa and beyond. Farmers andlocal healers from Mozambique haveexchanged knowledge of best practiceswith similar communities in Uganda. Anumber of regional projects such as theLake Victoria Environmental Manage-ment Project have brought togetherneighboring fishing communities fromKenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

These activities reinforce the univer-sality of IK, which is embedded in thetraditional practices of communities indifferent regions. Despite geographicaldifferences, the ways in which commu-nities in India for instance, make effec-tive use of their environmental and so-cial assets, can provide useful lessonsfor similar communities in Africa.

The Sodic Lands ReclamationProject in India provides a good ex-ample of how the integration of tradi-tional knowledge into Bank-supportedoperations can help transform barrensoils into fertile arable land. In thestate of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in NorthIndia, agricultural yields declined,while the population continued to rise

through the 1980s. Inappropriate irri-gation practices salinated the soils,while brown plant hoppers destroyed40–60 percent of paddy and wheatcrops. Most of these lands were ownedby poor farmers.

To raise agricultural productivity,government extension agencies tried topropagate the use of new farming tech-nologies and systems. However, thesepractices were not implemented by lo-cal farmers, who, in any case, viewedgovernment agents with suspicion.However, due to poor participatorymethods, the technology disseminationdid not reach the farmers.

In 1993, the UP Governmentlaunched a World Bank supportedfarmer driven Sodic Lands Reclama-tion Project. The goal was tostrengthen local institutions, empowerthe beneficiaries and develop a modelfor transferring service delivery to com-munities.

The first challenge was to treat thehigh build-up of salts in the fields.These soils contain high concentrationsof exchangeable sodium in which finersoil particles are dispersed. As a result,water and air cannot penetrate, andhighly alkaline conditions are created.Known as sodic soils, they are toxic toplants and adversely affect agriculture,human and plant health.


Application of traditional knowledge

Farmers created local site implementation committees andself-help groups. Applying their own knowledge and experi-ences, farmers reclaimed over 68,000 hectares belonging to247,000 families. They spread gypsum, built bunds, leachedthe soil, started multi-cropping, green manuring and croprotation, used compost and plowed the land. Maintainingcontinuous ground cover through intensive cropping pro-tected the soils from a return of surface salts.

From the planning to implementation process, the projectmanagers, NGOs and local farmers worked together to de-velop endogenous strategies. These were constantly inno-vated, modified, and adapted to suit local or specific condi-tions. For instance, certain modern practices such as the useof chemical fertilizers were found to be more harmful thangood. In this context, farmers developed indigenous tech-nologies based on traditional knowledge and practices thathave proved to be cost-effective and environmentallyfriendly.

In some cases, farmers drew from farming practices inother states. In Maharashtra, a local farmer had developed anew technique of composting. The Nadep compost relies ona compost structure using bricks instead of a pit and was ap-plied in over 100 villages in the project area.

The higher levels of soil nutrients found in this form ofcompost reduced the need for fertilizers and pesticides by aquarter, and also reduced the costs of farm inputs. Usingless chemical fertilizers improved the quality, taste andweight of food grains. The flavor and color of scented grainslike wheat and basmati rice were also enhanced, enablingfarmers to increase prices.

Previously, farmers used various pesticides such asMelathian dust. Today, they are applying indigenous formsof pest control practices, such as the sowing of Daincha(green manure crop) in paddy field boundaries. In some vil-lages like Jivelly, Devari and Dhanepur, farmers use neemproperties to protect crops from pest attacks.

In 1997, there was a massive attack of brown plant hop-pers and over 40 percent of the paddy crop was destroyedthroughout Uttar Pradesh. Local farmers knew that kero-sene oil keeps away snakes and can even kill some types ofsnakes. One of the more knowledgeable farmers in the re-gion speculated that if kerosene oil could kill a snake, itcould also kill the brown plant hopper.

To test this idea, he sprayed kerosene oil in one squaremeter of his field, where the attack had occurred. Within afew minutes, all the pests had been destroyed. Based onthese results, kerosene was sprayed in the corners of thefield and subsequently in nearby fields. Initially, 10 liters of

kerosene oil were applied on 0.25 hectares. Over time, thefarmer modified this technology, using five liters of keroseneoil, mixed with 25kg of paddy husk to treat 0.25 hectares ofreclaimed land.

Economic impact

These various practices were tried by 600 farmers in differ-ent districts. The result was a substantive reduction in thedamage caused by brown plant hoppers from 49 percentdown to 2 percent. The success story was soon being repli-cated, as farmers across the state began to control brownplant hopper attacks with neem extracts, rice husks andgreen manure. In addition, several other indigenous prac-tices that had been used by generations of farmers wereback in vogue. These included traditional animal husbandrypractices to treat common diseases such as worms, foot dis-ease and pain common to cows and buffaloes.

Over time, the knowledge and wisdom of local farmersbegan to bear fruit. Cropping intensity increased from 37percent to 200 percent. Yields of wheat and rice on re-claimed land were double the projections. After five years,yields and incomes had risen by 60 percent. In some areas,land values have quadrupled after reclamation. Wage rateshave doubled as a result of increased economic activity.Women self-help groups are generating incomes by diversi-fying into poultry farming and horticulture.

There has also been a substantial reduction in seasonal la-bor migration out of project villages. As one beneficiary inShobapur village said, “because my usar (sodic) fields werebarren, I used to go to Bhopal, Bombay and Calcutta lookingfor work. Now that they have been reclaimed, where is thetime?”

Farmers’ School in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh

However, the sustainability of any reclamation project de-pends upon the effective management of these lands. Regu-lar access to information on new agricultural practices andtechnologies are some of the vital ingredients needed to sus-tain multi-cropping systems in such areas. Keeping this inmind and the fact that Bank support would not last forever,a group of key resource persons and trained farmers cametogether to devise innovative new strategies, drawing uponindigenous resources and knowledge about agriculturalpractices.

This led to the formation of a Farmers Field School inPratapgarh. These practices were institutionalized andwidely disseminated through the school. Initially there were

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twelve master trainers in the school. Each one had to dem-onstrate in his own field how certain practices proved to bebeneficial, before others began to replicate these practices.Training was conducted in the local dialects such as Avdi.

Topics covered included improved drainage networks,green manuring, composting, use of bio-fertilizers, creditmanagement, self help groups and multi-cropping. Each ofthese drew on years of indigenous experiences in dealingwith challenges such as the brown plant hopper attacks.Once the results showed positive gains, they were dissemi-nated from one village to another through trainers.

The training is mostly hands-on and involves farmer-to-farmer exchanges. For instance, a group of farmers aretaken to an area reclaimed earlier to see differences in soilfertility and rates of progress. Farmers from the project areahave also been taken on study tours and exchange visits toother parts of the country (Haryana, Andhra Pradesh andGujarat) to share and learn from the practices of otherfarmers. Such exchanges have broadened their knowledgebase through exposure to different types of traditionalknowledge systems. Today, Uttar Pradesh has begun tohand over training and extension services to local farmers’schools, which reach more than 7,200 farmers in 65 villagesbeyond the project area.

The village of Dhanepur

In 1996, in the middle of barren lands in Narangpur, thathad been reclaimed, a project worker planted a bale tree.The sodic land was ash white and completely deserted.There was no sign of any vegetation.

Slowly, the tree began to blossom and farmers fromnearby villages started to cultivate the land. Soon veg-etables were being grown. Small settlements began toemerge around the Saroj tree. Today, an entire village hasmushroomed in the areas, known as Dhanepur.

The village has a community-owned water pump, sugarcane processor, flour grinder, paddy thresher and animalfodder processor. These are all near each other, to be jointlyoperated by electricity or a diesel engine. The machineryhas been adapted to local conditions, using local innovations.

Earlier, farmers could only harvest a single crop fromtheir fields. Today they are planting four crops, using themulti-cropping techniques taught by the school, growing pi-geon pee, millets and black gram. These are sown togetherin the fields which are watered through drip irrigation. Theresult is four/five times higher yields from the same fields.

Incomes have increased by five times as a result of thesehigher yields. In the past, farmers managed to save $110 peryear. Today their annual savings have risen to $555.

These savings have been carefully invested in housing,electricity and roads to connect the village to other areasand markets. Previously, there were poor linkages and com-munications.

Higher incomes have dramatically improved the qualityof life in the village. Most people were illiterate. Today, thereare educational programs for children.

There has been a significant change in local attitudes. Ini-tially, the farmers were divided over the project. One groupwas ready to cooperate with the implementing agencies andthe other comprising of larger farm-holders, opposed theproject. However, when these farmers saw the lands of thosewho actively participated in the project turn green, whiletheirs remained infertile and ash-colored, they soon camearound. Today, they are only too eager to participate in thesecond phase of the project.

Self-help groups empower women

The training provided to women by the farmers school hashad a major impact at the household level, driving forwardsocial and economic changes to improve the welfare of theentire family. Today over 175 women’s’ self help groupshave been formed, such as the Kaveri Mahela Self-HelpGroup.

Formed in 1995, the Kaveri group initially comprised 15members. Each member saved 10 cents per month, whichthen increased from 40 cents to 80 cents over the next sixmonths. Today, each member saves up to $6 per month. Thefunds are saved in the local bank under a joint fund calledthe Kaveri Self Help Fund.

Having saved a fair amount, the women started an inter-nal lending scheme within the group. They also took out in-dividual loans worth $100-$200 from the local bank to in-vest in modern technologies such as a sugar cane processor.

These self help-groups have also become effective agentsof social change in the countryside and have addressed sev-eral sensitive issues, such as the dowry system. Today, alarge number of women in this district can read, write andcomprehend complex aspects of their business transactions.

The State Minister for Agriculture visited the school andrecommended that such innovative methods of self-help ag-ricultural extension should be replicated through-out thestate. The European Union is funding a reclamation project

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with the same design in three other districts. This will buildon the primary lessons learned from the first phase of theproject: building on indigenous knowledge increases sus-tainable agricultural production and provides a model fortransferring service delivery to communities.

Community-to-community exchanges could be the con-duit for transferring such knowledge across countries andcontinents. Given that agriculture is the dominating factorin most African economies and in India, the appropriate dis-semination and use of indigenous knowledge could provevery fruitful.

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This article was written by Fernando Dava, Zuber Ahmed, and Peter Easton. Fernando Dava is Director of ARPAC—Arquivo doPatrimonio Cultural, Mozambique; Zuber Ahmed is an independent consultant in Maputo, Mozambique; and Peter Easton isAssociate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University.


The Role of Myths and Rites in Managing NaturalResources along the Mozambican Shoreline

Mozambique is a country both rich innatural resources and increasinglythreatened by the depletion and degra-dation of this heritage. Years of war,economic pressure, falling crop prices,urbanization and climate change havebegun to have drastic effects on thecountry’s resource base. Though 10percent of the land is kept in forest re-serve, large stretches of land have beendenuded, particularly along the borderswith Zimbabwe and South Africa. Ma-jor areas of coastline are suffering frompollution from industrial and agricul-tural run-off. Population pressure hasresulted in the near disappearance ofthe large wild animals that once inhab-ited much of the country.

Depletion of natural resources is anational issue, but it is also a local one.As in many developing countries, nu-merous Mozambican communities de-pend for their survival on the judiciousexploitation of their physical environ-ment. Managing them so they remainavailable generation after generation isthe key challenge. Nowhere is this feltmore acutely than along the country’sextensive coastline, which stretches al-most 3,000 km. from the Tanzanianborder in the north to the frontier withSouth Africa. Communities all alongthis natural barrier rely heavily on har-vesting the resources of the sea: fish,

mussels and other forms of marine life.They are a source of protein and asource of revenue. The importance ofthis bounty to the community’s veryexistence has given rise to a complex ofrites, myths and rituals. These serveboth to enshrine the sanctity of the en-vironment and to “manage” its com-munal exploitation.

How do these “indigenous” forms ofmanagement function and how—if atall—can they be adapted to master thenew challenges to the natural resourcebase: population pressure and pollu-tion? Local institutions in Mozambiqueare just beginning to come to grips withthe issue, but their experience is in-structive.

The mussel farmers of Zimilene

Zimilene is a small village situated atthe mouth of the Limpopo River in theGaza Province of southern Mozam-bique, a few hundred kilometers northof Maputo. It is also known by the lo-cals as Kamhula, Inhampurra, orZongoene. In this region of the IndianOcean, rock formations have createdthe basis for a thriving local economyand the focus for a particular spiritualunderstanding of the relation of peopleto their environment.


The rocks lie close to the surface in areas of water rich inphytoplankton, providing a rich milieu for the growth ofdense mussel colonies. For years, the villagers have har-vested this resource yearly, using it as a source of proteinand of revenue. For them, the rocks were placed at thatpoint along the coast by divine intervention and have beenthere as long as collective memory can recall.

The community believes that their ancestors became theowners and stewards of these rocks when they settled in theregion. The principal original families to take up residencealong this part of the coast—the Bunzula, the Palate,Machava, Nhancuma, and Nhabanga—parceled out the re-source and assumed responsibility for the management ofthe mussel shoals, guided by the guardian spirits of theirclans. Each family assigned guards to watch over the musselbeds. But family representatives function under the super-vision of a higher local authority, the Chief Zimila, a lineal adescendant of the first person to have occupied the region,whose clannic spirit is considered more powerful than thoseof the family lineages. The system ensures a source for re-solving conflicts and allotting usage rights that are acceptedright down to individual community members.

The catch of the mussels

Mussels are normally harvested during the cold season inMozambique, between March and August. In the earlymonths of the year the first signs of mussels appear alongthe shoals, and the colonies start growing. As soon as thesesigns are detected, the guards of each mussel bed informfamily chiefs of the event, requesting permission to beginthe cleaning of algae and other weeds that enhances musselgrowth and eases harvesting. This weeding of the beds re-quires care, as it is easy to damage the young mussels. Thinsticks and machetes are used for the purpose. Once the“field” is clean, the mussels grow much more abundantly.

Under normal circumstances, villagers are not allowed tobegin harvesting until the mussel beds have reached fullmaturation. Special dispensation is allowed, however, incases of emergency or pronounced need, such as famine orvisits from unexpected visitors. This early harvest is care-fully regulated and limited by the family and supremechiefs. Also, the role of the chiefs is to ensure an even distri-bution of the resource between the villagers. This is ensuredby a local saying—“the mussel is eaten in community.”

When the mussels are fully mature, the guards blowwhistles throughout the community to inform everyone,even those who are not from the village itself, that the catchis open. Outsiders have traditionally been allowed to har-vest mussels along with local residents as a form of hospital-

ity. Each person collects what their family needs and hun-dreds of people may turn out to harvest the mussels. Thework is arduous and can be dangerous. For this reason, col-lection is not carried out randomly and everywhere at once.Rather the work starts at one end of the rock shoals andslowly moves to the other end. This allows family and com-munity chiefs to keep control of events and provide immedi-ate care for anyone wounded. They are also charged withensuring a fair allocation.

The “spirits” and the rule of law

The authority of the chiefs to regulate the mussel harvest isanchored in the firm belief that the spirits of the ancestorswatch over the shoals. The guards posted by each familyleave the rocks at sunset and the spiritual guardians fromeach lineage are considered to take over the role of protectoruntil sunrise. That spiritual patronage is celebrated in riteand myth.

“We talk to the spirits embodied in our curandeiros (tradi-tional priests) or called by them,” explains the chief of theBanzula lineage. “The spirits teach us how to preserve therocks. It is to keep the spirits happy that we do our ceremo-nies, so that they will protect the rocks and the mussels.”

Ceremonies are in fact held at two levels; within each lin-eage or family and for the community as a whole. The chiefof each of the families takes charge of ceremonies for theportion of shoals under his lineage’s responsibility. Thecommunity-wide ceremony is presided by the Chief Zimilahimself and includes all families in the region. Before orga-nizing the large ceremony, the paramount chief consultswith all the family chiefs in a meeting of the council of el-ders. Family chiefs are responsible for catering the event..

All members of the community are expected to participatein the large event as well as to contribute goods for cateringthe ceremony. The contributions are remitted to the familychiefs who in turn hands them over to Chief Zimila. Oneceremony is held before the catch is open to ask for a goodmussel harvest, and another when it is over to give thanksfor the bounty received.

The spirits are believed to have an important role in sanc-tioning those who violate the rules. As one family chief putsit, “During the day each family has a guard who controls ac-cess to the rocks. At night the spirits of each family guardthe rocks until sunrise. Everyone knows they cannot takethis lightheartedly. Violators risk being thrown into the sea[by the spirits] or being unable to leave the collection area,never finding their way back home. The path to theirhouses becomes deeply dark.”

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Stolen mussels are also believed to be poor fare. “Once inthe cooking pot,” the chief says, “the mussels can be boiledfor a full day without ever becoming cooked. No one whoknows these rules wants to risk the sanctions of the spirits).”

The challenge of cross-breeding systems

The local system of myths, beliefs and rites in Zimilene pre-served the mussel shoals for generations, but under thepressure of the changes afoot in Mozambique they have be-come more than a local resource. In recent years the popula-tion of nearby cities like Xai-Xai has had increasingly easyaccess to the Zimilene shoals, and at the same time the pres-sures of poverty and population density have pushed themto exploit the mussel beds in ways inconsistent with tradi-tional management and with survival of the resource.

The families of Zimilene appealed to administrative au-thorities to help solve the problem and save the mussels.After consultation, it was decided to put in place a MusselRocks Management Committee, composed of the traditionalleaders and and one or more representatives of the adminis-trative authority. The regional chief supervises selection ofdelegates from the family lineages responsible for eachstretch of shoals. On the administrative side the head of theadministrative post of Chilaulene, which encompassesZimilene, either serves on the committee or picks someoneto represent him.

The committee serves both to give wider sanction to therites, ceremonies and regulations of Zimilene and to dealwith violations, particularly by urban dwellers and otheroutsiders who are increasingly drawn to the mussel beds. Infact, “violators” are principally outsiders because, whilestrong beliefs prevent most local people from poaching onthe beds, city-dwellers typically do not have the same beliefsystem. The committee therefore has the authority to rec-ommend a variety of administrative or even penal sanctionsfor those who violate the usage rules of the mussel beds.

Consequently, in the initial operations of the committee,the traditional and spiritually sanctioned management sys-tem was simply placed side-by-side with a more “modern”and administrative one. The first applied to local people, thesecond to outsiders.

But this “split personality” solution also has its weak-nesses. For one thing, outsiders may be able to more easilyevade administrative sanction than insiders feel they canevade the wrath of the spirits. For another, increasing out-side pressure on the resource base would likely result in theadministrative apparatus and system of penal sanctionstaking on increasing importance and the traditional andspiritual one shrinking in scope until it was only a folkloricremnant.

The challenge facing the committee is therefore how to“cross-breed” the two systems—how to infuse what must bea more widely administered regulation system with some ofthe essence of traditional management, with its reverencefor natural resource and internally-driven compliance.

Two directions have opened up, but it is not yet surewhether either, both or yet another will be principallyadopted. One solution involves expanding the role of familyguardians both logistically and spiritually by assisting themin ensuring twenty-four-hour monitoring of the shoals asthe embodiment of ancestral concern for the sanctity of theentire nation’s resource base. Another, perhaps a comple-mentary but longer-term one entails using some of thecuranderios to teach ecological responsibility in schools andcampaigning for a new region-wide ethos of respect for theenvironment.

The traditional mechanisms show that rural communitieshave their own ways to explain the world and to protecttheir own resources. Such examples can be found in variousregions of the country, where resources such as forests, landand fish and seafood are protected through these mecha-nisms. They allowed for these resources to be used by gen-erations of people without endangering their availability.

Yet the use of such myths and rites cannot easily be gener-alized, because they are closely tied to place and historicalexperience, and are sanctioned by a particular set of ances-tors. Other Mozambicans do not share the same history and“cosmogony” as the population of Zimilene. But they doshare, to some extent, a common fate, as a community, acommon risk of resource depletion and alienation from theirphysical milieu. The challenge of the mussel shoals, re-peated in many sites around the country these days, is howto blend traditional systems of regulation, myth, and ritualwith a necessary administrative armature to build new com-munally shared meanings and a new culture of natural re-source management.

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Using the Indigenous Knowledge of JatrophaThe use of Jatropha curcas oil as raw material and fuel

This article was written by Reinhard K. Henning, e-mail: [email protected], internet: www.bagani.de.For more information on the Jatropha System see also: www.jatropha.org

Mali is a landlocked country in themiddle of West Africa, just at the south-ern edge of the Sahara desert. Thecountry’s average annual rainfallranges from 200 mm in the north to1200 mm in the south. For generations,farmers have protected their gardenswith hedges of Jatropha curcas, orphysic nut, which is not eaten by ani-mals and thus protects the food cropsas a living fence.

Jatropha curcas is a plant of LatinAmerican origin which is now wide-spread throughout arid and semiaridtropical regions of the world. A memberof the Euphorbiaceae family, it is adrought-resistant perennial, living upto 50 years and growing on marginalsoils. A close relative to the castorplant, its oil has the same medical prop-erties. Jatropha seeds contain about 35percent of non-edible oil. The produc-tion of seeds is about 0.8 kg per meterof hedge per year, with an oil yield of0,17 l.1 Currently, Mali has about10.000 km of Jatropha hedges with agrowth rate of 2.000 km per year, whichrepresents a potential of 1.700.000 li-ters of oil per year. The average lengthof these hedges, in those areas of Maliwhere they are most prevalent, is be-tween 2 and 15 km per village, with amaximum of up to 40 km per village.2

Jatropha curcas is generally well-known among the populations of Maliand has long been recognized as a plantof many uses. If carefully planted, Jat-ropha hedges not only protect gardensfrom hungry livestock but also reducedamage and erosion from wind and wa-ter. Traditionally the seeds were har-vested by women and used for medicaltreatments and local soap production.

As far back as at the end of the 1930sthe oil’s potential as a fuel source wasalso recognized.3 Currently, it can beused to substitute for the “gazoil” mix-ture used in the Indian type diesel en-gines that drive grain mills and waterpumps in rural areas of Mali. The high-quality oil extracted by engine-drivenexpellers or by manual Bielenberg-ram-presses or the sediment of the oilpurification process may be used forlarge-scale soap making in rural areas,giving local women the chance to gainadditional income and strengthen theireconomic position. The press-cake asanother extraction by-product can beused as a high-grade organic fertilizer.

The Jatropha activities were initi-ated in Mali in 1987 by German Tech-nical Assistance (GTZ) in the frame-work of a renewable energyprogramme. The Jatropha Project it-self started 1993 and ended in 1997. It

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worked to combine the above mentioned and other factorsinto the « Jatropha System ». This system focuses not sim-ply on the use of Jatropha oil as fuel, but rather on the useof this oil as a crucial element to activate a circular systemcombining ecologic, economic, and income-generating ef-fects, the latter specifically for women.4

Thus, the Jatropha system promotes four main aspects ofdevelopment, which combine to help assure a sustainableway of life for village farmers and the land that supportsthem:• Erosion control and soil improvement• Promotion of women• Poverty reduction• Renewable energy

Erosion control and soil improvement

Jatropha “living fences” in Mali not only control unwantedanimal access to the fields; they also reduce wind erosionand, if planted parallel to slopes to fix small earth or stonedams, they help control water erosion. The plant’s rootsgrow close to the ground surface, anchoring the soil likeminiature dikes or earthen bunds. These dikes effectivelyslow surface runoff during intensive downpours, which arecommon, thus causing more water to penetrate into the soiland boosting harvests.

The press cake which remains after oil extraction by theexpellers is a very good organic fertilizer, with mineral com-position comparable to that of chicken manure. This hasgreat value for agriculture in the Sahelian countries, sincesoils there are rapidly depleted of humus and chemical fer-tilizers are very expensive.

The Malian cotton-growing company, CMDT (CompagnieMalienne de Développement Textile), uses Jatropha hedgesto assure a program of improved fallow: the cotton fields areprotected with Jatropha hedges to keep out cattle, while thefields are sown with legumes to improve soil fertility.

Promotion of women

Many government and non-government organizations pro-vide rural Malian women with engine-driven grainmills toease their work of food preparation. However, thesegrainmills need external resources of fuel, lubrication oil,spare parts and maintenance. Consequently, the introduc-tion of such a grainmill tends to lead to an impoverishmentof the village because of the cash required both to buy and totransport these external resources to the village. By usinglocally produced Jatropha oil as fuel and lubrication oil,some of this cash outflow from the village can be stopped.

Traditionally, rural women used Jatropha curcas formedicine (seeds as a laxative, latex to stop bleeding andagainst infections, leaves against malaria) and for soap pro-duction. The traditional soap-making process is very labor-intensive, producing small amounts of relatively poor-qual-ity soap. When Jatropha oil is used, either alone or in combi-nation with other local plant oils such as shea butter, largeramounts of a more refined soap are produced. The womencan easily sell this soap in local markets and nearby towns,increasing their possibilities of earning income with localresources.

Some details of the economy of soap production with themeans of the Bielenberg hand press are shown in the follow-ing table (prices in US$, 500 FCFA = 1 US$):

Poverty reduction

By promoting the integrated utilization of the Jatrophaplant, the Jatropha System can provide direct financial ben-efits to the rural economy. To illustrate this with a roughcalculation, assume the average village of the pilot area has15 km of Jatropha hedges, which represents 12 tons ofseeds.

These 12 tons of seeds may generate 1.800 US$ of cashincome when the oil is extracted and the products are sold:

• 9.000 kg of presscake for 0.03 = US$270• 2.400 liters of oil for 0.60 = US$1.440• 600 kg of sediment for 0.15 = US$90

Total US$1.800US$

If we take the real example of an entrepreneur in a smallvillage near Bamako, who buys the seeds for soap produc-tion and hires people for the production process (extractionwith Bielenberg ram press, soap production, see tableabove), the cash income for the village population, includingthe entrepreneur, amounts to 3.630 US$:

• 12.000 kg of seeds for 0.10 US$1.200• 5.000 hours of labor for 0.20 US$1.000• profit of the entrepreneur US$1.430

Total US$3.630

If these figures are extrapolated to Jatropha plantations,a profit in the range of cotton farming is within reach.

The “Jatropha System” also helps reduce poverty by:• Reducing crop losses caused by wandering livestock or

wind damage;• Increasing rainfall infiltration, resulting in less work/irri-

gation water needed for local gardens;• Increasing soil fertility by use of presscake as fertilizer;


• Increasing use of inexpensive local resources rather thanexpensive external resources;

• Reducing disputes between farmers and livestock ownersregarding crop damage, as well as among farmers them-selves regarding the boundaries of their fields;

• Providing local jobs, lessening the need for local villagersto migrate to cities to find employment.

Because of its economic value the rural people are plant-ing new Jatropha hedges in a large extent. In Kita, one ofthe pilot regions of the Jatropha project, the average lengthof hedges went up from 5 km to 15 km in the last 8 years.

Renewable energy

In the rural areas in Mali, Lister-type engines are used todrive grainmills and waterpumps. These inexpensive pre-combustion chamber diesel engines of Indian origin requireonly the addition of a fuel filter to be able to run on pureJatropha oil, thus eliminating the need for gazoil entirely.Furthermore, at maximal load conditions the Jatrophaoil.gives even better results than gazoil because of its highoxygen content.5 Based on tests conducted by the JatrophaProject, the oil can also be successfully used as a lubricant inthese engines.6

In equivalent terms, the energy needed to produce Jatro-pha oil in mechanical presses amounts to about 10 percentof the oil obtained. Because Jatropha oil can be produced in-expensively,7 it can also be sold at prices lower than gazoil’s

official price at the petrol stations. Even more important thanthe price is the possibility of local energy production, becauseof the periodic unavailability of gazoil in the rural areascaused by lack of road access during rainy season.

The technology for using natural pure Jatropha oil assubstitute for paraffin oil for lamps and cookers is not yetavailable. Different research centers are working on it.

Conclusions

The results of the Jatropha Project to date show that thechances of this system being successfully implemented arehigh, provided that a cautious approach is taken. Above all,care must be taken to ensure that women retain their tradi-tional responsibilities for harvesting and processing theseeds.

Furthermore, Mali is a typical Sahelian country; its largegeographic expanse and climatic variations mirror the eco-logical conditions found throughout the Sahel. Because ofthis, the efforts already being made in Mali to derive valuefrom oil-bearing plants can be taken as representative andused to elaborate a “concept for production and use of plantoils as fuel” that is valid for the Sahel region as a whole, andeven for other African countries.

To summarize, the Jatropha system is characterized bythe many positive ecological, energetic and economic as-pects which are attached with the commercial exploitationof this plant. The more this plant is exploited, the better forthe environment and for food production.

Description Quantity Unity Price per Amountunity US$ in US$

InputsSeeds (give 3 l of oil with handpress) 12 kg 0,1 1,20Caustic soda 0,5 kg 1,2 0,60Labour (4 h for pressing,1 h soap production) 5 h 0,2 1,00Depreciation/maintenance(5 years, 10 t/a, 240,-) US$/kg 0,02 0,24Total expenses 3,04

RevenuesPresscake 9 kg 0,03 0,27White soap 28 pieces (170 g) 0,15 4,20Total revenues 4,47

Net Profit 1,43Profit per liter of oil 0,48Profit per kg of soap 0,31Price per kg of soap 0,89

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References

1 Reinhard K. HENNING, Produktion und Nutzung von Pflanzenöl alsKraftstoff in Entwicklungsländern. In: VDI-Berichte Nr. 1126, 1994,215 – 229.

2 Reinhard K. HENNING, 3. Fachlicher Zwischenbericht zum Projekt:Produktion und Nutzung von

Pflanzenöl als Kraftstoff; unpublished project report, ProjetPourghère,GTZ, 1996.

3 Siaka KONE, Les activités précédentes sur le Pourghère au Mali,unpublished project report, Programme Spécial Energie Mali, 1988.

4 Reinhard K. HENNING, Klaus v. Mitzlaff, Produktion und Nutzungvon Purgieröl als Kraftstoff und

Rohstoff für die lokale Seifenherstellung im Sahel. In WitzenhäuserHochschulwochen, 1995.

5 Carl BIELENBERG, personal communication (1994).6 Reinhold Metzler, Plant Oil as Fuel and Lubrication Oil, unpublished

project report, Project Pourghère, 1996.7 Hans-Jürgen WIEMER, Rapport de mission: Etablissement d’un

système de suivi et évaluation des effets du projet,unpublished projectreport, Projet Pourghère (1995).

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Potential of Traditional Social Insurancefor Supporting Health CareThis article was written by Professor Damen Haile Mariam, Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of CommunityHealth, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. For more information, e-mail [email protected]

In many developing countries, the in-adequacy of current health financingarrangements, typified by progres-sively declining budgetary allocationsand more cost sharing schemes haveled to the exploration of additional andalternative approaches to improve thefinancing situation. Among the alter-natives suggested are risk-sharingmechanisms that include community-based schemes that tap the potential oftraditional social arrangements.

In Ethiopia, eders are forms of tradi-tional arrangements utilized mainly forassisting those bereaved and for ex-ecuting funeral-related activities.These associations are also called uponfor various self-help activities andsometimes act as health insurers,though largely in a less formal manner.They have an obvious potential forserving as social financing mecha-nisms. Since these are already func-tioning groups, the administrativecosts for the extra health-related activ-ity are not as inhibiting as when form-ing a new insurance entity. In addition,eders are based on mutual understand-ing among members, which reduces thepossibility of adverse selection.

Organization and structure of eders

Eder is a form of traditional social insti-tution that is established by the mutualagreement of community members inorder to collaborate with each otherwhenever any member or their familymembers face adverse situations. Theprimary function of the eder is takingcare of the burial and consolatory ac-tivities when death occurs within mem-bers. However, eders also provide assis-tance to offset losses to a member (dueto theft, etc), during the weddings ofmembers, etc. Besides these, eders areof paramount importance in other de-velopmental activities within the sur-rounding community. Eders raise fundsor coordinate the free labor of membersin activities such as building roads,schools, health institutions and thelike. Some eders contribute money tomembers who have lost their houses ina fire or to compensate for the loss offarming oxen, while others also provideassistance to members to cover theirmedical costs.

The organizational setup of mosteders is very simple. All eders have achairman or a ‘judge’ and almost allwill have a Secretary and a Treasurer.Eders are said to be the most demo-cratic and egalitarian social organiza-

Ethiopia

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tions in Ethiopia—membership is open to everyone regard-less of socio-economic status, religion, sex, and ethnic affilia-tion. Even though very few respondents mentioned not be-ing able to pay contributions as a reason for non-member-ship of eders, almost all eders have provisions for memberswho face economic problems and are unable to pay contri-butions after having been members for some time. Thesemembers are considered as “pensioned” by the eder and areallowed to receive all the benefits that are due to othermembers.

The potential of eders in financing health care

The organizational structure of eders that currently have ahealth care function is not very different from those that arenot providing these services—obviously, there would be aclear emphasis in these on health issues. Essential here is aclose link and on-going communication with health institu-tions that give services to members.

The financial logic of the eder is not different from any in-surance system. In most situations members contribute afixed amount of money on a weekly or monthly basis. When-ever a member has a problem, a fixed amount (depending onthe by-laws of the particular eder) is taken out of the com-mon pool and given to that member. There are also a feweders which raise the fixed contribution whenever the prob-lem arises. In a community-based health insurance feasibil-ity study conducted by the author and a representative ofBASICS* (Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Sur-vival, an organization that helps to implement USAID-sup-ported programs) in three towns, Adama, in the oromia Re-gion and Yirgalem and Arbaminet in the Southern Region,eders were found to provide financial assistance for mem-bers’ medical problems. For instance, in one of the eders in-cluded in the study, a lump sum payment of up to US$15was given to households where a family member needs hos-pitalization. This amount covers the advance payment re-quired by the hospitals prior to admitting a patient.

A follow-up survey was also conducted by the author in1999 in systematically selected rural villages of the country.The data for this part of the survey were collected throughhousehold and health facility exit interview surveys. Ac-cording to the findinngs of this latter survey, about 87 per-

cent of household survey respondents and 72 percent of theexit interview survey respondents were participating ineders with mean annual payments of US$7 (rangingfrom1.5 to 60 birr) and US$8 (ranging from 1.5 to 68 birr)for household and exit respondents respectively. More im-portantly, 21.5 percent of the household survey respondentsand 16 percent of the exit interview respondents claimedthat their eders provide assistance during the time of medi-cal need. The type of assistance provided ranges from loansto covering all medical costs of members. The respondentsin both the exit and the household interviews were asked ifthey would be willing to join a possible eder-based healthinsurance scheme. Eighty six percent in the household sur-vey and 90 percent in the exit survey were willing to joinsuch a scheme. The average monthly contribution whichthe respondents reported as being able to raise was birr 2.5(US $0.3) with a range of birr 1 to 36 (US $0.13 to $4.5) inthe household survey and birr 3.4 (US$ 0.4) with a range ofbirr 1 to 48 (US $0.13 to $6) in the exit interview survey.Respondents in the exit survey (who had a recent experi-ence of the financial cost of illness) sowed a higher propen-sity to join possible eder-based health insurance schemeswith a slightly higher willingness to pay in terms of monthlypremiums. The benefits most valued by the respondentswere emergency services followed by drugs. It is obviousthat people in rural areas where there are inadequate facili-ties for emergency services (including obstetric services)would be willing to join schemes that would make these ser-vices available to them. A case in point is an eder in one ofthe sampled villages that gave a loan of about US$25 to apregnant mother-to-be facing obstructed labor. The moneywas used to hire emergency transport service to take themother to a health center located about 40 kilometers fromthe village.

The popularity of the eder amongst people from all walksof life has been growing. These non-profit-making institu-tions based on solidarity, friendship and mutual assistanceamong members may possess both the techniques of en-forcement and the appropriate incentives for applyingthem—vital qualities that one looks for when examining therole of indigenous institutions in socio-economic develop-ment. Overall, it can be surmised that eder-based schemeswould improve the efficiency of service delivery.

*Dr. Logan Brenzel (health care financing advisor for BASICS .

228 IK Notes Number

Rreferences

Aredo, D. The Iddir: A study of an indigenous informal fi-nancial institution in Ethiopia. Savings and Develop-ment. 1993, XVIII (No. 1):77 –90.

Haile Mariam, D., & Brenzel,L. Feasibility of Community-based Health Insurance in Ethiopia. BASICS

Publication, 1998, Arlington, VA.Klitgaard, R. Including Culture in Evaluation Research, in

Piciotto, R. and Rist, RC.eds. Evaluating Country Development Policies and Pro-

cesses. 1995. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.Pankhurst, R., & Eshete, E. Self-Help in Ethiopia. Ethiopia

Observer. 1958; 2(11): 354 - 364.Seifu, A. Eder in Addis Ababa: A Sociological study. Ethio-

pia Observer. 1968; 12(1): 8 - 33.

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Farmer Experimenters: Self-developed TechnologyThis article was written by Roland Bunch, coordinator, and Mateo Canas, researcher, COSECHA, Honduras.

In Honduras, as the result of the workof some 20 agricultural developmentagencies up through the early 1990s,hundreds of farmer experimenters(FEs) have been experimenting totallyon their own for anywhere from two toten years after the closing of the pro-grams in which they were previouslyinvolved. In 1999, the Association ofAdvisors for a Sustainable, Ecologicaland People-Centered Agriculture(COSECHA) in Honduras decided tofind out what technologies these FEshad been developing on their own, andhow these technologies could best bedisseminated to other farmers. To thatend, COSECHA has systematically in-terviewed 50 of these FEs. The tech-nologies counted were only those thatsmall farmers had developed on theirown, after program termination, andthat had not been promoted or knownwithin the country prior to the FE’sdiscovery of the technology.

The study shows that FEs are able todevelop large numbers of significantand original technologies, providingevidence that the collection and dis-semination of FE technologies in othernations around the world could be auseful activity for institutions involvedin agricultural development.

Participatory technology develop-ment (PTD) programs in Honduras

Starting with the initiation of theWorld Neighbors-managed GuinopeProgram in January of 1981, PTD hasbecome a fairly widely used methodol-ogy of agricultural development inHonduras. Some 20 development orga-nizations taught farmers to experimentin at least 30 different programsaround the country. Many of these pro-grams ended by the early 1990s, withthe result that Honduras is one of therichest nations in terms of its per capitaconcentration of FEs who have been ex-perimenting without any institutionalsupport. However, no institution hadever studied this phenomenon.

The study

COSECHA has made visits to both theFEs homes and the fields where theyapply the technology they developed.During these visits, an interview is car-ried out, which consists of an informalconversation in which the interviwertries to make sure thateach of a list ofsome twenty issues is covered. Aftereach visit (which typically takes atleasthalf a day), the list of questions


prepared at the beginning of the study is checked to makesure all the questions have been dealt with, and those thathave been missed are asked.

The questions deal with such issues as what technologiesthe FE has experimented with, and what technologies seemto be successful (i.e., which ones the farmer has adopted forcontinuing use). Detailed descriptions of the successfultechnologies are made, with a cost/analysis in each casecomparing this technology to control plots. Data as to theelevation, amount of rain, total size of landholding, slope ofthe fields, etc. are also taken. The farmer is also asked aboutother farmers’ responses to, and adoption of, the technology.COSECHA also inquired into such issues as what thefarmer feels are his/her limiting factors, whether he/shewould be interested in working with certain marketing ven-tures, whether the farmer would be interested in joining anation-wide organization of FEs and, if so, what the princi-pal objectives of the organization should be.

The results to date: technologies discovered

Fifty-two FEs from 10 of Honduras’ 23 departments havebeen interviewed. These FEs include farmers who had beenoriginally trained by 17 different organizations, rangingfrom 12 NGOs to 3 governmental and semi-governmentalorganizations and 2 academic institutions. They also in-clude 7 women FEs, even though women in CentralAmerica, by and large, are not heavily involved in extensivecropping (that is, outside the homestead garden) until afterthe harvest, nor had they been trained to be FEs by the pro-grams in the 1980s and early 1990s.

These 52 FEs have developed 82 technologies, mostly hav-ing to do with extensive agriculture, but including a smallminority of post-harvest and food preparation technologies.An attempt has been made to grade these technologies inthree categories. Category A represents those technologieswhich seem valuable enough in terms of farmer benefits ac-crued and width of applicability among other farmers inHonduras rendering them worthy of further validation andthen, depending on the results of the validation process, dis-seminating to other farmers. Category B includes thosetechnologies that might be worth validating, but whichwould be done later. Category C includes those technologiesthat very likely are not worth disseminating. Althoughthese are necessarily rather subjective evaluations,COSECHA does work with a list of 19 criteria of an appro-priate technology (Bunch 1982) that helps us evaluate eachtechnology.

Of the 82 original technologies developed, 39 have beenclassified as being in Category A. Of these 39, the followingnumber pertained to each of the categories listed below:

Insect control 15Fertilization 10Control of plant diseases 8Weed control 2Food preparation 2Animal husbandry 2Plant propagation 1Green manuring 1Soil conservation 1Others 3

__45

The total of technologies is greater than 39 because someof the technologies included aspects of two categories.

It can be observed from this list that FEs have chosen toexperiment with a wide variety of different technologies, in-cluding even some (e.g., food preparation) which are notcommonly included within the purview of agriculture.

It is also interesting, however, that a few categories oftechnologies have been totally left out. Not a single FE ex-perimented with water harvesting or use, even thoughmany areas of Honduras have moderate to severedroughts;in much of southern Honduras, periodic and over-all water shortages are without doubt the critical limitingfactor in the production systems of villager farmers. Fur-thermore, experience with FEs in current programs pro-vides major evidence that while they are very interested inexperimenting with water harvesting and more efficientwater use, none of these FEs are included in the study be-cause this COSECHA program is still in operation.

It is also interesting to note that none of the technologieshave to do with the introduction of new crops (although thecriteria used in the study, perhaps too restrictive, wouldeliminate the inclusion of the introduction of any crop thatalready existed anywhere else in Honduras) or the use oftree crops or agroforestry. First of all, it is very likely thatsome categories of technology (e.g., water harvesting) werenever experimented with because farmers either neverthought any solutions were within their grasp, or simplybecause working with such technologies had never occurredto them. Thus, future agricultural programs should discusswith farmers before they terminate their work in an area,what possible future technologies might be used.

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Second, farmers may be aware of certain types of tech-nologies they could work with, but may not perceive thosetechnologies as being of a very high priority for them. Forinstance, in the case of tree crops, FEs are certainly awarethat they exist and are profitable, but may feel that themany years one must wait before payback make these tech-nologies of less priority than those with a quicker payback.This might also be the case with agroforestry systems, al-though farmers in southern Honduras in the FAO program,which is emphasizing dispersed trees, are experimentingquite a lot with various modifications of the dispersed treesystem.

Of course, FEs probably did not experiment with newcrops because the crops, in order to be included within thestudy, would have to be crops only grown outside Honduras,in which case the FEs would have had considerable diffi-culty learning about the crops or obtaining planting mate-rial.

Promising technologies developed

• Farmers observed that aphids died if dried out. Theytherefore tried using wheat flour diluted in water to sprayon fruit trees in their tree nurseries, and found they couldcontrol aphids and other similar sucking insects fairlyeasily this way.

• Sugar water or slightly salty water, applied to the growingtip of the plant, was tried successfully as a way of control-ling the corn borer.

• Another FE noticed that leaf-cutter ants did not like liv-ing near neem trees. By planting neem trees immediatelyover several troublesome nests of leaf-cutter ants, he wasable to get rid of them (they moved their nest elsewhere).

• Foliar fertilizers were developed using either animal ma-nure, mother of cacao leaves, the leaves of several com-mon weeds, or even wood ashes (the last one also provingto be very useful in disease prevention).

• One woman FE found that coffee pulp could be dried justby spreading it out to dry in the sun. Another FE foundthat just mixing the wet coffee pulp with chicken manureor sawdust would also dry it out. Once dried, the coffeepulp is an excellent fertilizer, one that previously just pol-luted the country’s rivers.

• A solution of leaves of mother of cacao and eucaliptus wasfound to be very good as a fungicide for tree nurseries.

• One farmer found he could apparently disinfect the soil ina nursery by cultivating the soil well and then covering itwith clear plastic so that it heated up thoroughly underthe mid-day sun.

• Both spraying crops with wood ashes dissolved in water,as well as placing wood ashes around the stems of plants,have been found to control a series of plant diseases, evenvery treacherous ones like late blight (Phytophtherainfestans) in tomatos and potatoes.

• A maize-based animal feed was made including leavesfrom the Tithonia and eggshells, thereby increasing eggproduction.

• One FE found that, at altitudes over 500m, grafting neemmaterial on to the locally available “paradise” tree root-stock resulted in much faster growth of neem trees.

• Another FE found that by intercropping jackbeans(Canavalia ensiformis) among his cassava plants, hegreatly reduced his weeding time and increased his cas-sava productivity by over 25 percent.

It should be noted that these technologies are in almostevery way technologies that would be included under the la-bel of low-input or ecological technologies, and in manycases, in the category of totally organic technologies. Theyare also technologies that are highly appropriate for poorlycapitalized villager farmers. By and large, they are ex-tremely inexpensive (most require absolutely no cash out-put), they use locally available resources, they do not in-crease risk, they provide fairly quick, recognizable returns,most of them are highly cost-efficient, and most of them arefairly widely applicable. The above list shows quite clearlythat villager FEs not only can develop innovative technolo-gies, but that the technologies they develop are highly ap-propriate for other small farmers.

One of the most disappointing results of the study wasthat the technologies developed by small farmers had notbeen disseminated very widely. In no case did FE-generatedtechnology spread to more than 10 other farmers throughthe exclusive efforts of local villagers.

Lessons learned

• This study leaves little doubt as to whether villager FEscan develop, on their own, both adaptive and basic tech-nologies that appear to have considerable potential forfarmers around the country, if not around the world.While these technologies still need to be further verified,their potential, according to established criteria of appro-priateness and their economic cost-benefit ratios, wouldseem to be quite high.

• Different organizations in Honduras have used differenttechniques to train FEs. It was noticed, in the course ofthis study, that organizations which had used the tech-

232 IK Notes Number

nique of maximizing success in farmers’ experiments dur-ing the first few experiments they did, had motivated farmore farmers to experiment in the future than did the re-maining organizations. Achieving rapid, recognizable suc-cess among farmer experimenters right from the start isthus an important part of the total motivational processnecessary for people to expend the effort to experimentfrequently.

• In some cases, programs will not be able to find any al-ready validated, successful technology already being usedby any programs in a similar situation (ecologically, cul-turally, etc.). The program may have to experiment withseveral technological possibilities before working with thefarmers. Nevertheless, as time passes, fewer and fewerprograms find themselves in such a situation.

• Thus, programs that have given a high priority to havingthe PTD process start with future FEs selecting the tech-nologies from a long list of potentially useful technologies,might consider reducing the list to a rather short one oftechnologies already proven to provide rapid, recogniz-able success in the vast majority of cases.

• The study provides major evidence that the collection,validation, and further dissemination of FE-developedtechnology may well be a very valuable activity for someresearchers and/or NGO’s to become involved in. Devel-opment agencies should therefore help disseminate ideasaround the world through various printed media, infor-mation technology, international conferences, such as thepresent one, and courses and workshops to spread infor-mation about this possibility and its usefulness.

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Collective Responsibility for War OrphansThe source for this article is the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare, Government of Eritrea, Asmara, Eritrea. The articlewas written by Peter H. Wolff, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. For more information, [email protected]

Before the thirty-year conflict betweenEthiopia and Eritrea, the concept of“orphans” as usually defined in west-ern societies, was virtually unknown.The only exception was children whohad been abandoned for various rea-sons and were cared for in institutions(orphanages) supported by foreignchurch agencies. Within traditionalEritrean society, it was generally as-sumed to be self-evident that childrenwho had lost both parents would betaken in by members of the extendedfamily; or if no relatives could betraced, they were taken in by neighborsor family friends. Children who hadlost both parents automatically becomemembers of the new family and had allthe rights and responsibilities of otherchildren in the same family. This“grass-roots” pattern of caring for chil-dren in urgent need of protection waswide-spread throughout the country,and especially in village communitiesand among the nomads. Because theprocess was taken for granted, no for-mal agreements or legal documentswere required, and adoption and fostercare were alien concepts.

As a result of the thirty-year war, thenumber of children who lost both par-ents increased in geometric propor-tions. At the same time, the socialstructure of the traditional society was

grossly disrupted. As a result, the in-digenous practices of caring for unac-companied children no longer func-tioned, and the Eritrean administra-tion had to make special provisions ofgroup care as long as the war lasted.Immediately after independence, a na-tion-wide survey conducted by the So-cial Affairs Authority of the newly-formed Eritrean government deter-mined that a total of at least 14,000children below the age of sixteen yearshad lost both parents due to the vio-lence of war; and that, in addition, aminimum of 100,000 children were inneed of special protection because theirsurviving parents were no longer ableto provide the basic necessities of food,shelter and educational opportunitiesfor their children. In order to help, for-eign NGOs and church organizationsbegan to construct or rebuild and en-large orphanages in population centers,and made a concerted effort to intro-duce the concept of adoption to foreigncountries and foster care as the strate-gies that were widely accepted as thepreferred remedies of caring for unac-companied children. However, the so-cial service agencies in Eritrea had hadvery negative experiences with foreignadoptions during previous occupations.Therefore, they rejected all offers ofhelp that involved adoption.or foster

Eritrea

234 IK Notes Number

care, and made concerted efforts to close all orphanages assoon as possible. Instead, they formulated a nation- wideplan for the rescue and rehabilitation of unaccompaniedchildren that was largely built on indigenous practices ofchild care.

The main component of this plan was the reunification oforphans and other unaccompanied children with their ex-tended family. A nation-wide search was implemented tofirst trace the extended families (aunts, uncles, grandpar-ents and the like), and then to select those members of theextended family who were in the best position to provide thechildren with the necessary economic and social protectionsHowever, most of the families, including those in relativelygood economic circumstances, had been so impoverished bythe 30 years of war that accepting one or more childrenwould have imposed unacceptable additional burdens ontheir lives. An income-generating scheme was devised andimplemented whereby every potential host family that ac-cepted one or more children received financial assistance inkind that would enhance their economic capacity in accor-dance with their usual means of livelihood. For example,farmers were given one or more cows, a plough or severalgoats. Town dwellers received materials that allowed themto open small stores or start up cottage industries.

This program of reunification by means of income en-hancement has now in place for at least seven years. It iscarefully monitored to ensure that the material assistance isused for its intended purpose and does in fact provide eco-nomic and social protections for the reunified children andthe host families. In short, the Eritrean social service agen-cies have been able to provide decent family environmentsfor many thousands of unaccompanied children by relyingon, and slightly modifying, traditional practices of child care

that have been an implicit part of indigenous Eritrean cul-ture for centuries. At the same time, the Authority of SocialAffairs was able to resist the well-intentioned but culturallyalien proposals for international adoption of Eritrean chil-dren (without or with parents) that, according to past expe-rience often had serious consequence that were not in thebest interests of the children.

Despite extended and prolonged searches it was, however,not possible to trace the extended families of all war or-phans. Therefore, an alternative plan was implemented inparallel to provide protection for children who could not bereunified with their own extended families. Small grouphomes are now being constructed in the various zones of thecountry. They are designed to provide decent physical andsocial environments for twelve children who live togetherwith one or two permanent surrogate house mothers. Wher-ever possible, orphaned siblings are assigned to the samegroup home, and any group of twelve children living in onesmall group home is deliberately selected so that they willbe of different ages ranging from two to sixteen years, sothat over time they, together with their house mother, willform their own new extended family. Moreover, children areplaced in group homes close to their village or town of ori-gin, so that in time they will be reintegrated into their owncommunities. The alternative plan is still in relatively earlystages of development, but monitoring of the group homesthat have been in existence for at least two years indicatesthat they appear to be very successful in addressing theneeds of the children. Like the reunification program, thegroup homes are based on indigenous traditions of childcare in which the larger community, rather than the nuclearfamily takes on the responsibility of caring for children whohave no parents and are in need of special protection.

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Traditional Medicine in Tanga TodayThis article was written by David Scheinman.

For centuries, traditional healers havebeen the main providers of primaryhealth care to most Tanzanians. Today,healers in Africa, especially in Tanga,still play crucial roles since—in addi-tion to their roles as primary healthcare providers—they carry the burdenof care for treating people with HIV/AIDS. In Tanga, the Tanga AIDS Work-ing Group (TAWG)—situated in his-toric Cliff Block of Bombo Hospital—has been successfully collaboratingwith traditional healers since 1990.This is the story of a promising part-nership between the ancient and mod-ern worlds to combat HIV/AIDS.

A thumbnail sketch ofmedicinal plants

Plants have been used as primarysources of medicine for thousands ofyears and were our very first medi-cines. Over 4,000 years ago, the RedEmperor of China published a list of4,000 medicinal plants. Literatureabout Babylonian medicinal plants wascompiled in 1770 BC. The ancientEgyptians even placed medicinal plantsin Pyramids to treat their Pharaohs af-ter death. The mummified Pharaohswere preserved by using plants, herbs,spices, and minerals. Up until 150

years ago, the sciences of botany andmedicine were the same.

Plants have medicinal qualities dueto the substances they produce to pro-tect themselves from insect pests andpathogens. We just "borrow" these sub-stances to treat our own viral, fungal,and bacterial infections. Many medi-cines are extracted from the roots, rootbark, and bark of plants since these ar-eas are the most vulnerable and pro-vide a plant's first line of defenseagainst an invader.

Within seconds of an attack, plantsbegin producing and excreting a potentarray of substances that are lethal ortoxic to the invading virus, bacteria,fungus, insect—or even mammal. Indi-vidual plants can produce up to ap-proximately 1,000 unique chemicals.Hence a natural anti-viral produced bya plant to defend itself can also be usedby a human as an anti-viral.

Traditional healers in Tanzania havebeen identifying, experimenting, andusing these substances to treat patientsfor millennia. By combining forces withthem, we have access to thousands ofyears of research results. This is com-monly known as indigenous knowledge(IK).

Many of today's modern medicinesare derived from plants. Over 120 phar-maceutical products are derived from


plants, and 74 percent were first used by native cultures!The correlation between healer use and positive lab resultsis clear. Data clearly indicates that plants collected fromhealers provide more solid leads toward developing newdrugs than random screening. Twenty-five percent of ourpresent perscription drugs are derived from plants. Thebest known are quinine from the cinchona tree, morphinefrom the poppy, aspirin from the willow, digitalis from fox-glove, vinblastine and vincristine (first choice drugs treat-ing Hodgkin's Disease, Acute Leukemia, various lympho-mas, Advanced Breast Cancer, and now HIV relatedKaposi's Sarcoma) from the rosy periwinkle—which growsright here in Tanga—and now cotexin from Artemisiaannua for treating malaria.

Traditional healers in Tanga

Tanga District has approximately 670 traditional healers(Waganga). 337 are in Tanga Urban District and 333 are inTanga Rural. The average age of a healer is 52. Most areMuslim and have been practicing for an average of 19 years.There is one healer for every 343 residents of Tanga townand one healer for every 146 rural residents. There is onewestern trained medical doctor in Tanzania for every 33,000residents. Therefore, many more people receive health carefrom healers than from conventional health workers. Manyhealers have participated in TAWG Seminars.

These figures positively correlate with data from Sub Sa-haran Africa. Healers are already in place; health ministriesdo not have to assign them since virtually all villages haveresidential healers and traditional birth attendants. This isespecially true in rural areas where modern medicine ismuch less available than in towns. Hence, combining forceswith healers to combat HIV/AIDS and promote publichealth makes very good sense.

Healers in Tanga are mostly herbalists, diviners, medi-ums, surgeons, midwives, and traditional psychiatrists. Themajority use some of the many medicinal plants available inthis biologically diverse region. The Eastern Arc range ofmountains, which includes Amani in Muheza district, is oneof only 20 biological hotspots in the entire world. A hotspotis a region characterized by an unusually diverse range ofspecies, many endemic to the area. Amani has the secondhighest amount of biodiversity in Africa—a site inCameroon is first.

Healers have specialized knowledge for treating physical,cultural, and psychological ailments. Healers are accessible,affordable, usually have credibility, and in Tanga have atreasure trove of biological diversity from which to collectefficacious plants.

Healers and doctors join forces in Tanga

In order for public health goals to be realized in Africa, heal-ers should be active participants in the health system. Thismakes good sense, since each community has it's very ownindigenous healers. In Tanga, TAWG has received interna-tional recognition of its innovative work with traditionalhealers, and has received support from OXFAM, the WorldBank, and USAID.

Today in Tanga, traditional healers and modern physi-cians and health workers have combined forces in an excit-ing and promising program implemented by TAWG. TAWGis an innovative non-governmental organization (NGO)that links traditional healers, physicians and health work-ers, botanists, social scientists, and people living with AIDS(PLWAs). TAWG's goal is to bridge the gap between tradi-tional and western biomedicine by treating PLWAs with tra-ditional medicine.

TAWG evolved from meetings that a German physicianand his Tanzanian colleagues initiated with traditionalhealers in Pangani, a coastal town 50 kilometers south ofTanga in 1990. The health workers observed that many pa-tients—this is true throughout sub-Saharan Africa—visitedboth the hospital and traditional healers. Hence, they de-cided to make contact with local healers in hopes of initiat-ing a referral network. They were successful, and their net-work evolved into TAWG.

Healers responded enthusiastically to the initiative. Theyrelished being taken seriously and treated like fellow profes-sionals. The initial dialogue evolved into meetings whereparticipants discussed how to treat various ailments, whento refer a patient to the hospital, public health issues, andhow to cooperate with biomedical personnel. One day thesubject was HIV/AIDS.

Waziri Mrisho, a 84-year-old healer, asked if he could trytreating HIV/AIDS in-patients. The group agreed, andWaziri treated a few confirmed HIV+ patients with threeplants TAWG still uses today.

Bio-medical personnel soon observed that patientstreated with Waziri's three plants generally had improvedappetites, gained weight, suffered from fewer and less se-vere opportunistic infections, and enjoyed improved healthand well being. The plant remedies soon became thehospital's standard HIV/AIDS treatment for patients whopreferred herbal medicine.

The original three plants—along with others that havebeen added—are still used to treat a variety of opportunisticinfections commonly caused by HIV/AIDS. Waziri was a realpioneer. He readily shared his knowledge and generouslyagreed to have his plants scientifically identified by bota-

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nists from the Lushoto Herbarium in Lushoto, Tanga Re-gion.

TAWG eventually developed a home care service to de-liver the plant remedies to HIV/AIDS patients and theirfamilies. Home visits are the foundation of the TAWG's day-to-day work. Activities include monitoring general health,administering traditional remedies, and providing counsel-ing for patients and their relatives.

In 1994, TAWG was officially registered as the TangaAIDS Working Group (TAWG) with the Ministry of HomeAffairs.

TAWG is the leading HIV/AIDS NGO in Tanga Region.Its staff are highly qualified, dedicated, and committed toimproving the quality of PLWAs lives. Members have exper-tise in counseling, psychology, medicine, education, botany,research, medical anthropology, and management. TAWG'swork is an outstanding example of how positive results canbe achieved in the fight against AIDS by synergisticallycombining local expertise, indigenous knowledge, and mod-ern health workers to provide effective low cost treatmentfor people living with AIDS.

TAWG's treatment program

TAWG's signature activity is treating patients in the hospi-tal or at home with medicinal plants. In the newspaperNipashe dated February 23, 2002, TAWG has reported thatits treatment generally lengthens patients' lives and thatsome patients who were in bad shape clearly improved aftertaking the traditional medicines (Dr. Samuel Mtullu,Nipashe, February 23, 2002 ). The medicines are more effec-tive, however, if treatment is initiated during the earlystages of HIV/AIDS. The medicines are low cost, effectivelytreat selected opportunistic infections, readily available, areprovided to patients free of charge, and have been used forTanzanian healers for centuries. Given in the proper formand dosage, they are very safe.

TAWG's medicines increase appetite, help patients gainweight, stop diarrhea, reduce fever, clear up oral thrush, re-solve skin rashes and fungal infections, treat herpes zoster,and clear ulcers. Treating patients extends their longevity,improves the quality of their lives, and reduces the numberof orphans since parents remain alive.

TAWG also works closely with the government, runsseminars for traditional healers, and has an effective educa-tion and HIV/AIDS prevention program.

It currently treats around 400 patients in Tanga,Pangani, and Muheza Districts. Since TAWG began in 1990they have treated around 2,000 patients. During the last sixmonths, the amount of patients treated has doubled, indi-cating the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases.

TAWG's collaboration with traditional healers and theMinistry of Health has created a small island of hope in thisseaside town. Patients are now living longer and betterlives, and consequently there are fewer recently-orphanedchildren. Healers have taken the prevention and publichealth messages back to their villages and many know whento refer a patient to the hospital.

Though not a cure, the traditional medicines prolong lifeby combating pathogens similar to those that attack plants.At least now, patients in Tanga region, and Tanzania, have alow-cost alternative to expensive imported therapies.

Incidentally, these expensive new therapies often tend tolose their knockout punch over time. Hence, treating pa-tients with traditional medicines has as much validity nowas it did thousands of years ago. By having healers and doc-tors synergistically combine forces, new trails are beingblazed which benefit everybody.

TAWG welcomes inquiries and visitors. See for yourselfor call TAWG for more information. TAWG's addresse is:Cliff Block Bombo Hospital Tanga, Box 1374, Tanga.Phone/FAX: 255-27 264-2266.

Email: [email protected]: http://user.tanga.net/tawgContacts: Dr. Samuel Mtullu—CoordinatorDr, Anna Chaze—ChairpersonDr. Firmina Mberesero—Former Chairperson andBoard MemberKen Down—Project Advisor

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A Qualitative Understanding of Local TraditionalKnowledge and Medicinal Plant Use

Ethiopia

The real figures behind that 80percent figure

At this very moment, somewhere in aremote rural community in the Ethio-pian Highlands, a local farmer mayhave just gathered the leaves or rootsfrom a medicinal plant found near thehomestead. In a nearby hamlet, amother may be in the midst of prepar-ing a traditional plant treatment be-lieved to ‘restore strength’, relievestomach cramps, heal a skin condition,or perhaps alleviate symptoms of arespiratory tract infection affecting herchild. It is such routine use of plants byordinary members of local communi-ties across Ethiopia’s diverse rurallandscape, which largely accounts forthe widely cited 80 percent estimate ofthe population who continue to rely ontraditional plant-derived medicines fortheir basic health care needs(Bannerman, MOH, 1985; Abebe andHagos, 1991; IBCR, 1999).

While there is now growing recogni-tion that the study of indigenous healthknowledge and practices requires anessentially multidisciplinary researchframework, to date, botanists, naturalchemists, pharmacologists, an-thropologists and health-workers havegenerally pursued their specific re-search interests in this area in relative

isolation from each other. In Ethiopia,there have been few cross-disciplinarylinkages among the various approachesof researchers or the analysis of theirfindings.1

Moreover, much of the existing lit-erature on Ethiopian traditional herbalmedicine is dominated by plant-focusedwork, resulting from the ‘mainstreamresearch agenda’, which has beenlargely driven by an overriding interestin the specific therapeutic properties ofindividual plants. In search of informa-tion on the properties of various Ethio-pian medicinal plants, researchers havegenerally focused their attention ontwo main sources: (i) the professionaltraditional health practitioners and (ii)Ethiopia’s ancient medico-religiousmanuscripts herbal letters containingelaborate recipes of plant-derived treat-ments for a wide range of health condi-tions (see, e.g., Abebe and Ayehu,1993).

By contrast, there have been fewstudies focused specifically on tradi-tional knowledge and practices outsidethe ‘professional’ realm of traditionalmedicine. The purpose of this article,derived from a larger study, is to sharesome of the findings of current re-search2 envisaged focusing explicitly onthe ‘lay domain’ of traditional knowl-edge in the Ethiopian context.

This article was written by Hareya Fassil, University of Oxford, International Development Centre, Queen Elizabeth House (QEH)21 St. Giles, Oxford 0X1 3LA, United Kingdom. For further information, email: [email protected]

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Objectives and methods

The fieldwork-based study aimed to gain insight into the lo-cal distribution of traditional health knowledge and theuses of various medicinal plants among ordinary men andwomen in rural communities, who constitute the vast ma-jority of Ethiopia’s population. The overall aim of the re-search is to contribute to the growing body of literature andexperience pertaining to the role of indigenous/traditionalsystems of knowledge in development. Underlying this ob-jective is the fundamental premise that health constitutesthe linchpin of the development process, viewed at once,both as the means as well as the end of development.

The fieldwork was carried out with the participation ofcommunities in the rural Bahir Dar Zuria district of Gojam(now part of the Amhara Regional State) located in theNorth Western Highlands of the country. A combination ofresearch tools from various disciplines were employed. Gen-der considerations constituted an integral and cross-cuttingaspect of the methodology, as important gender factors wereexpected to be involved, inter alia, in the distribution oftraditional health knowledge and its inter-generationaltransmission. Among the instruments applied for gatheringdata were:• household surveys (viewed as the main component of the

fieldwork);• oral histories (based on open discussions with widely rec-

ognized knowledgeable elders);• focused discussions with mothers at local health centres;• local market surveys;• questionnaires administered to high-school students; and• structured interviews with (both modern and traditional)

professional health practitioners.

Preliminary assessment of the data

In-depth quantitative and qualitative analyses of the datagathered from these various sources are still under way. Fol-lowing are some highlights of the preliminary findings ofthe research.

The tacit and pervasive nature of traditionalhealth knowledgeIn general, traditional knowledge about medicinal plantsand its application are very much taken for granted by bothmen and women in all the study communities. Such tradi-tional knowledge and practices constitute routine aspects ofdaily life and are deeply engrained in the socio-cultural andeconomic fabric of these rural societies. This is a significant

finding in itself, as it clearly demonstrates the sheer scopeand significance (actual and potential) of local traditionalknowledge.

Gender and age dynamicsSome general trends could be discerned suggesting consid-erable gender and age differences in the type and extent oftraditional health knowledge. For example, middle-aged andolder women and men generally appear to have a greaterbreadth of medicinal plant knowledge. In addition, menmore often demonstrated knowledge of plants primarilyprocured from the wild, whereas women generally showedgreater familiarity with the therapeutic uses of weedy andsemi-domesticated plants found around the homestead.

Main sources of traditional knowledge‘Routine observation and practice’ or ‘learning by doing’,was the most widely-cited method through which knowl-edge is acquired. Here again, a relatively larger proportionof men indicated having obtained their knowledge in thisway, suggesting some notable gender differences in terms ofthe mechanisms by which traditional knowledge is im-parted.

The medicinal plant resource baseThe local names and specific uses of more than 80 plantswith medicinal value were documented throughout thestudy. The large majority of these are wild/weedy species,often occurring around the homestead or farm and requir-ing little management. This finding alone is strongly sup-portive of the original research hypothesis, i.e. that signifi-cant knowledge about medicinal plants resides in the ‘non-professional’ or public domain. In addition, the local namesand specific uses of most medicinal plants cited by differentinformants were appreciably consistent.

Role of rural professional health practitionersIn general, professional traditional health practitionersseem to play a much less pronounced role in the rural com-munities than has generally been presumed. It appears thatmost ailments are diagnosed and treated at the householdlevel. Very few informants reported seeking professionaltraditional help on a regular basis. Where professionals areconsulted, it is often for their specialized traditional knowl-edge and skills pertaining to a relatively limited range ofhealth problems.

240 IK Notes Number

The qualities of traditional knowledgeFurther reflections about the various features of the tradi-tional knowledge characterized above raise some questions,inherent paradoxes and eye-openers. These relate to the po-tential role of traditional health knowledge, the nature ofthe traditional learning process and the intrinsic contrast-ing features of traditional knowledge.

The potential role of traditional health knowledge: chal-lenges and limitations. The term ‘challenge’ immediatelybrings to mind the single largest health problem in thestudy area—malaria. However, no specific traditional plantmedicines for malaria were reported. While this raises ques-tions regarding how ‘new’ malaria is to the area, it alsoseems compellingly related to the fact that overall under-standing of malaria aetiology is extremely poor among thelocal people. The latter underscores the urgent need forcommunity-based health education and preventionprogrammes. Nevertheless, some traditional perceptionsregarding the general ‘ecology’ of the disease could be dis-cerned, which may provide an advantageous basis for effec-tive locally adapted health education and promotion efforts.

Another basic challenge has to do with the dire sanitaryconditions in the rural communities. Indeed, it would seemthat such communities that rely heavily on traditional planttreatments are caught in a vicious cycle, as many of the ail-ments that the local plant medicines are used for are linkedto poor environmental sanitation. Thus, the lack of properlatrines, waste disposal and clean water can be viewed asthe raison d’etre for many traditional treatments. Con-versely, however, it can also be argued that, were such verybasic and vital provisions in place, then health care effortsat the local level could perhaps, have been more effectivelyand appreciably targeted at the prevention of some of themore difficult health problems in the area, such as malaria.Hence, these very shortcomings can, in a sense, be viewed asamong the greatest impediments to the realization of thefull potential of indigenous ingenuity and traditional ap-proaches in meeting local health needs.

The knowledge transmission process. Exactly how istraditional health knowledge transmitted over generations?Are the traditional mechanisms that have been in place inthe past still intact? These are complex questions, requiringdetailed contextual longitudinal evidence, which is ex-tremely elusive and difficult to unearth. However, one ob-servation that may have some relevance to these questionsconcerns traditional knowledge among children. It was ob-served that boys and girls as young as 6-7 years had remark-able ‘botanical’ knowledge, i.e. the ability to distinguishvarious medicinal plants growing around the homestead.But what of other aspects of traditional knowledge pertain-

ing to the preparation and administration of plant medi-cines and the diagnosis of diseases? Could knowledge aboutthese aspects be ‘selectively’ threatened? Such important is-sues will be investigated through further analysis of the in-formation gathered.

Contrasting features a/traditional practices. With increas-ing interest in the role and value of traditional knowledgesystems, such knowledge and its application have oftensweepingly but perhaps, precariously, become associatedwith positive outcomes. Yet, if traditional health systemsare to be strengthened as a whole, due attention should alsobe given to those practices that appear, at least prima facie,to be less than beneficial. Gases in point are, traditionalsurgical procedures such as the removal of the uvula, tonsilsand teeth, and even graver practices of bloodletting and fe-male circumcision3—all of which remain widespread in thestudy communities. Perhaps even more so than in other as-pects, the particularly complex issues entailed in such tradi-tional practices, necessitate the utmost socio-cultural sensi-tivity and a sound understanding of the local context inwhich they persist.

Conclusion

It is anticipated that some significant conclusions willemerge from the ongoing study. What can be generally sur-mised at this stage, are some of the broader implicationsand expected contributions of the research.

First, over the last decade or so, increasing interest in tra-ditional knowledge, particularly regarding medicinal plants,has been fraught with debates regarding intellectual prop-erty and traditional resource rights. Often, driven primarilyby interests and forces external to indigenous communities,these remain extremely complex and indeed, urgent issueswith which policy-makers and stakeholders from both theNorth and South are actively grappling in various interna-tional fora. But this highly politicized focus at the globallevel seems to have diverted research attention away fromthe local context, i.e., from a real understanding of the ac-tual and potential roles of traditional health knowledge andpractices in addressing arguably the most urgent health-care needs of growing populations in resource-constraineddeveloping countries like Ethiopia. Hence, it is hoped thatthe present study and others like it can, in the first instance,help to redirect some research attention to the communitylevel.

Second, as this study has demonstrated, at least in thecontext of rural communities in the North-Western High-lands of Ethiopia, traditional knowledge regarding the use

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of medicinal plants is far from being a corpus of wisdom orexpertise generally presumed to be restricted to the male-dominated elite of professional traditional health practitio-ners. Indeed, most of the traditional treatments used in thecommunities studied are collected, prepared and adminis-tered by ordinary men and women at the household level.Hence, this implies that those 80% of the population, whoare said to rely on traditional plant-derived medicines, donot invariably consult professional practitioners. Indeed,the fact that traditional health knowledge is so pervasiveand the use of local medicinal plants so widespread hasparamount implications, which simply cannot be ignored bythose concerned with health development and practitionersin the closely allied field of natural resources management.

Finally, it has become evident that research and develop-ment efforts must also identify and address the challengesand threats faced by traditional health knowledge systems,in toto. The ultimate goal is to strengthen and improve thisvast knowledge base for the benefit of the great majority ofthe developing world who have survived on it for centuriesand will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

References

Abebe, D. and E. Hagos (1991). “Plants as a primarysource of drugs in traditional health practices of Ethiopia”In Plant Genetic Resources of Ethiopia. J.M.M. Engels J. G.Hawkes and M. Worede (eds.) Cambridge University Press,Cambridge.: 101–113.

Abebe, D. and A. Ayehu (1993). Medicinal Plants andEnigmatic Health Practices in Northern

Ethiopia, World Health Organization,Ethiopian Ministryof Health (Project No. AF/ ETH /TRM/ 001RB) and theUnited Nations Development Programme.

Bannerman, R.H. 1983 Traditional Medicine and HealthCare Coverage. WHO, Geneva.

MOH (1985) Ministry of Health Primary Health Care Re-view. Ministry of Health, Addis Abeba.

IBCR (1999). Biodiversity Conservation and SustainableUse of Medicinal Plants: Project Proposal. Addis Abeba,Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research (IBCR)Addis Abeba.

1 One notable exception is the promising cross-sectoral/multidisciplinary framework adopted by the recently launchedWorld Bank-supported national R&D project on the conserva-tion/sustainable use of medicinal plants used for human andlivestock health care (see IK Notes No. 35).

2 Research in progress (final phase) in partial fulfillment for aDPhil (PhD) degree in Development Studies at the Universityof Oxford, Oxford UK.

3 Viz.: IK Notes No 41: Eritrea; Eliminating a Harmful Tradi-tional Practice.

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The Economics of African Indigenous KnowledgeThe author, Hilary Nwokeabia, is an economist in the Economic and Social Policy Division (ESPD), United Nations EconomicCommission for Africa (UNECA), P.O. Box 3001, Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. Tel: (251-1) 445333/517200. Ext. 35333.e-mail:[email protected] or [email protected]. This IK Note is a condensed version of a new UNECA publication by theauthor, titled “Why Industrial Revolution Missed Africa: A Traditional Knowledge Perspective.”

African Indigenous Knowledge (IK) islabeled variously and misconceived atinternational discussions and in mod-ern literature. The most commonlyused phrases are “static,” “low-value-added” and “prior art,” primarily in thecontext of the Trade Related Aspects ofIntellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),of the World Trade Organization. Fre-quently one finds expressions like mys-tery, charlatan, irrational, or miracle inrelation to traditional medicine, for in-stance. Achievements of traditionalmedicine are considered anecdotal orbeyond scientific validation. The mis-conception is further aggravated by thelittle or no growth in the sector and alack of understanding of the context inwhich practitioners apply traditionalmedicine. Yet, the literature producedon this sector has not given much at-tention to the factors that underpinthese misconceptions.

This article therefore provides a basicexplanation to the apparent lack of un-derstanding and growth from Africanindigenous knowledge. The argumentis anchored on the African customarylaw system that only recognizes com-munal ownership of knowledge and ap-portions little reward for individual in-novations. The impact of this commu-nal ownership of knowledge had pro-

duced different reactions from innova-tors and ingenuous knowledge bearers,in various sectors. In the high-incomesectors like the medicine, innovatorsuse “secrecy” to protect their knowl-edge. In the low-income sectors such asagriculture, innovators are “indiffer-ent,” in the absence of public incentiveand protection to making their knowl-edge public. When the knowledge bear-ers die, the knowledge disappears withthem. The result is what we call a “con-tinuous but non-additive innovation”as against “continuous and additive in-novation.” In the absence of additivityin innovations, the knowledge remainsbasic and cannot produce much macro-economic growth.

In line with the above, the study ar-gues that the “static semblance” labelsand stigma are the product of the lackof incentive for individual IK innova-tors, in the customary law systems. Inparticular, it argues that traditionalmedicine is not a profession of charla-tans, but rather a part of Africa’s devel-opment resource not well-studied, notadequately appropriated and devel-oped. African traditional healers (andother practitioners of IK) are equallycapable of research, innovation andhealing as their “allopathic” counter-parts. Bone-setting, anti-snake venom

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production, active immunization practices or treatment ofpost-traumatic stress disorders are good examples of highly-appreciated products of African traditional medicine. Assuch, the study makes a case that it is the secretive applica-tions that have beclouded the true value of the activities.This secrecy, however, has some economic rationale. Theaim of this article, therefore, is to explain the economic ra-tionale behind such secret behaviours—in what the authorcall the “the Secrecy-Motivation Model.”

The questions expected to be answered, using African tra-ditional medicine as an example are: why are African tradi-tional medical practitioners secretive? Are the motivationsfor the secretive behaviours economic? What specific heal-ing powers do the practitioners have, requiring secrecy?What are the economic impacts of such secretive behaviors?

To answer these questions, the study posits that three fac-tors determine the secret behaviours of African traditionalhealers. These are: the inadequacy of rents from innovation;absence of public protection of intellectual property rightsin the African customary law system; and the threat of busi-ness-stealing and obsolescence by the arrival of new innova-tions. Innovation, has very little predictability. This is par-ticularly so in medicine and agriculture, where research canbe costly and long-term, and where the results are uncer-tain. In this situation, the innovators and bearers of theunique knowledge consistently work to regulate against anythreat of knowledge stealing or obsolescence.

The explanation

The author named the explanation the Motivation Modelbecause of the motivational effects that explain the secrecy(search for innovation, investment in the research processand expected income effects). Initially, the study supposesthat under normal economic circumstances, any new prod-uct is created not by a single innovation/imitation but by awhole sequence of innovations. The existence of the last in-novation leads to further developments and innovations.Some of what will result from it will be more fundamental(horizontal), some will be more secondary, hence vertical.That said, the study explains why an innovative traditionalhealer would choose to remain indefinitely secretive.

In this explanation, the principal input/resource a tradi-tional healer invests in the production and innovation pro-cesses, is himself/herself, defined as his/her physical powerand knowledge. Having done so, innovation arrives ran-domly at a rate expressible as a fraction of the investedknowledge, indicating the productivity of the research. Ran-domness means that at the current time, the possibility andspecificity of the innovation cannot be guaranteed. The in-

novator may find another innovation in the process of solv-ing a particular health problem at a time unknown to him/her. Even by allocating a large amount of his time andknowledge resources, it is still uncertain, to the innovator,when the next innovation may take place. The individualthat succeeds in innovating prefers to monopolize the pro-duction sector until replaced by the next innovator.

When researching, the healer has to balance opportunitycosts of marketable goods or services against the uncertainresults of research. Costs are likely to be high given the un-certainty of results of the research. Sharing the results ofthe innovation in the community would deprive him/her ofthe income deriving from the innovation, since it could eas-ily be copied not only by other healers but also by his/her fel-low community members in a do-it-yourself application ofthe new treatment.

It is the possibility of a business-stealing effect as a resultof openness that is of serious interest to the study and ofconcern to the knowledge bearer. Through this effect, it isentirely possible for a new entrant in the innovation field tosuccessfully destroy the monopoly rent attributable to theprevious generation of innovators, by making their prod-ucts obsolete.

Relating this to cost of innovation, one assumes that re-search costs/expenditures are financed at the proportionalrate that is equal to the resources and labour force commit-ted to research. Only a portion of the resources and financewill produce research objectives. If the costs and benefitsare also measured in units of final outputs, the marginalcost is the amount over and above initial investment.

When the expected net income from the use of the innova-tion is included, one gets a different effect, where profit isthe exponentiated at the time. In the case of business steal-ing, therefore, the loss will be expressed as a loss of both theinvested resources as well as the expected profit. The doubleloss of both, investments and expected income is thus a driv-ing force to hide the new idea or innovation in the absence ofinstitutional and other legal support or protection.

Within the above framework, any “new” innovation posesa serious challenge to the livelihood and means of existenceof the previous incumbent of the previous innovation. It isin anticipation of the loss of income and the threat of obso-lescence, to be associated with the introduction of the supe-rior rival good from the “new” innovation, that the incum-bent will create confusion regarding the value of goods andservices that he/she produces by keeping the technical infor-mation anonymous and secret.

Also aware of the absence of any public institutions toprotect his/her indigenous knowledge, the owner has to finda creative way to shield his/her monopoly earnings from imi-

244 IK Notes Number

tators and the process of business/knowledge-stealing. Interms of application, other disguises follow in the form ofincantation, masquerading, diversionary sacrifices andscare tactics. In this way, even the patients or customerswho are allowed to come in close contact with the productsmay not easily and freely understand which among the ar-ray of acts contributed the actual solution that they re-quired. It thus appears magical.

In the absence of guises and disguises, the probability in-creases that consumers of the medical products may imitatethe innovation and increment the frequency of do-it-your-self (DIY) self-treatments, thus depriving the practitioner ofmonopoly income. This self-protective approach thus helpsthe innovator or bearer of the new knowledge to continuecollecting monopoly rents as well as to protect against “in-truders” who may steal and improve on the intermediateinput and render the original idea obsolete.

The main argument once again is that those working inAfrican traditional medical sector have finite resources, justlike anyone else, and interest invested in their work. In theabsence of public protection of their innovations and uncer-tainty associated with discovering a new solution, theyhedge against getting these innovations into the public do-main. The objective they achieve through this is that thepublic cannot engage in imitation and do-it-yourself, thusdepriving them of their monopoly rent. The process of hedg-ing induces the distortions and magical performances asso-ciated with the activities. The above explanations have beentested using empirical data. The results strongly supportthe main argument of the model.

In the other low-income sector such as agriculture, whatone found was that the innovators/indigenous knowledgebearers do not pro-actively hide their knowledge. Com-monly, they tend to be indifferent to whether their discover-ies are made public or not (partly, because most of their ac-tivities can easily be studied on their fields). When asked,

they reveal what they know but most of the time, nobodyasks. Also, since there are usually no forums to share theirknowledge, the owners keep it to themselves.

In the end, however, the impact of both “secrecy” and “in-difference” are unambiguously negative on the macro-growth of the economies and the original knowledge itself.When the knowledge-bearers cease to operate, they disap-pear with their knowledge. This means that the next gen-eration has to start afresh on the same process. The result iswhat the author calls “continuous but non-additive innova-tion” as against “continuous and additive innovation,” Inthe absence of additivity of innovations, the knowledge can-not produce much growth. The conclusion from this issimple. African countries have not put in place the incentivepolicy that can help achieve a “continuous and additive in-novation” in the indigenous knowledge system. The cus-tomary law system has also not self-corrected for this.Therefore, the growth-enhancing effects of indigenousknowledge system will remain minimal, thus falsely sup-porting the misconception of the whole knowledge as static.

What are the other conclusions that one can draw? Theincentive structure to promote indigenous knowledge inno-vation and development has to be put in place. Doing this,may neither be inherently good nor bad, but holds the po-tential for great benefits. More research might also bringabout a change of heart about African indigenous knowl-edge, in particular, medicine, natural resource manage-ment, and agriculture and livestock keeping. The abandon-ment of the associated stigma and lack of policy attentioncould be overcome by enabling the creation of constituen-cies; traditional healer associations are a first step.

The potential for growth and poverty reduction and theexpected contributions to the stock of knowledge for resolv-ing several intractable global problems, that could comefrom this locked potential, are an incentive for action.

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Traditional Medicine Practicein Contemporary UgandaThis report was written by Anke Weisheit, freelance consultant, based on a study visit to theTraditional Healers Associations and Projects in Uganda 2002 in co-operation with MaleMoses, IK Consultant. This study was supported jointly by the World Bank and the MAKOHerbalist Association.

Traditional medicine practice involvesa complex combination of activities, or-der of knowledge, beliefs and customsto generate the desired effects for thediagnosis, prevention or elimination ofimbalances in physical, psychological orsocial well-being.

Traditional medicine practice isbased on the indigenous knowledge of agiven people, a given community, andtheir experiences in the context of thelocal culture and environment—it isdynamic and changes with time de-pending on the prevailing situation.

Traditional medicine practitioners(TMP) comprise herbalists,bonesetters, psychic healers, tradi-tional birth attendants, faith healers,diviners, and spiritualists who use in-digenous knowledge for developing ma-terials and procedures.

The health service situation

The relative ratio of traditional practi-tioners and university-trained doctorsin relation to the whole population inUganda is revealing as is true for manyparts of the African continent.

In Uganda, there is at least one tradi-tional healer for nearly 290 people com-

pared to one Western-trained medicalpractitioner for every 10,000 people inthe urban areas and 50,000 people inthe rural areas respectively. The major-ity of the population in Uganda havegreater access to traditional than towestern health care. Traditional heal-ers are an integral part of the local cul-ture and are appreciated as key andsustainable sources of care and knowl-edge on disease and illness. About 80percent of the population of Ugandarely on traditional medicine becausewestern-trained medical personnel arelimited or not really accepted by thecommunity, and traditional healers areeasily consulted, living in the samecommunity (Bannerman, et al. 1993).

The country imports most of itsdrugs from abroad and often experi-ences serious shortages. That points tothe demand for TMPs for medicinalplants and the fact that the majority ofthe people, rural and urban alike, de-pend largely on herbal medicines fortreating a variety of diseases (Esegu,J.F.O. 2002). This reliance is mainly dueto the high cost of conventional medi-cine and inaccessibility of modernhealth care facilities in most areas.


Economical advantage of traditional medicine

The lack of foreign exchange and the high cost of westernmanufactured drugs make modern health care inaccessibleto the majority of the population. This consequently re-quires the conservation, domestication and growing of me-dicinal plants.

Propagation techniques are needed in some cases aspropagation will lead to the conservation of rare medicinalplants and ensures that the wealth of the products remainsin the country through using local knowledge, skills andmaterials. The health system thus becomes less dependenton external sources such as multinational companies. De-veloping conservation and propagation strategies of the cur-rently-known medical plants is based on the communities’local knowledge of the environment, and shared experiencesof institutions like the Entebbe Botanical Gardens, of theNational Agriculture Research Organisation, and the Na-tional Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory.

Governmental efforts in promotingtraditional medicine

The Uganda Law Reform Commission is developing a lawfor the recognition, the protection and practice of tradi-tional medicine (Kakooza, J.M.N. 2002). This enables na-tional institutions and international organizations to pro-mote and integrate herbal medicine into their developmentplans.

The National Agriculture Research Organisation is inte-grating the modernization and commercialization of indig-enous knowledge for wider economic and social benefits inareas such as food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aromaticsand handcrafts.

The Ministry of Health Strategy and Policy has recog-nized traditional medicine and it is developing regulationsfor integrating it into the primary health care system.

The Ugandan National Council for Science and Technol-ogy (UNCST) is implementing a project on indigenousknowledge and institutional development.

The National Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory isthe main research laboratory appointed by the governmentand is internationally funded—it has done the following:• Mass screening of herbal remedies• Toxicological testing• Formulation and preserving herbal medicine• Standardization of products.

Non-governmental organizations promotingtraditional medicine

Prometra Uganda, an affiliate of Prometra International, isan Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicineand is promoting traditional medical knowledge and prac-tices for improved health through mutual co-operationamongst health systems. The headquarters of PrometraUganda is in Kawempe -Kampala, the capital city ofUganda. The symbol of the organisation is a clay pot withholes and these holes are to be symbolically filled throughcollaborative effort of other professions. The summarizedobjectives of Prometra Uganda are:• To generate and disseminate knowledge on traditional

medicine so as to increase its utilization• To strengthen and advocate for the use of traditional

medicines across the entire rural and urban population• To identify and fight against harmful traditional health

care practices through educational programs, establish-ment of cultural centers and centralized treating areas

• To strengthen collaboration between traditional andother health practitioners so as to increase informationsharing on traditional medicine

• To initiate, encourage and support community programson the sustainable utilization of the environment, conser-vation and preservation of all species of medicinal value.

THETA—Traditional and Modern Health PractitionersTogether against Aids and other diseases, is a Ugandan or-ganization where traditional and modern health practitio-ners (THs) are working together. Its activities include:• Training THs as community counselors and educators on

sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS), aswell as training for other organizations targeting THscountry-wide

• Training THs in basic HIV/AIDS patient care and sup-porting their efforts to provide quality health care

• Exchanging information through a Resource Centre cre-ated in 1995 for research documentation and dissemina-tion of information on traditional medicine and AIDS

• Hosting a library, publishing a newsletter, organizing amonthly speaker bureau and carrying out advocacy fortraditional healing systems

• Comprehensive training of traditional healers as traineesin THETA district outreach

• Herbal medicine processing and packaging as well as themaintenance of a herbal garden.

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IIACM—the International Institute of Alternative andComplementary Medicine does the following activities:• Managing over 10,000 different medicinal plants from

Uganda and abroad on the institute’s farm• Improving formulation of herbal medicine• Medicine processing and packaging• Teaching various local and foreign traditional healing

methods, including Chinese Herbal Medicine, IndianHerbal Medicine, Acupuncture, Music Therapy and Yoga.

MAKO Herbalist Association, whose activities include:• Training herbal medicine users on the basis of clinical di-

agnosis and supporting their efforts to provide quality pa-tient handling and care

• Generating information through documentation and re-search about herbal medicine and making informationavailable to and co-operating with researchers

• Complementing the activities of traditional birth atten-dants by using skill and knowledge in areas such as tradi-tional family planning methods

• Bridging the gap between elders with indigenous knowl-edge and the young herbalists for better knowledge re-garding herbs, i.e., transfer of knowledge

• Interacting with partners who have an interest in pro-moting herbal medicines

• Continuously identifying indigenous plants with medici-nal value in order to benefit patients

• Emphasizing the need for medicinal plant/tree cultivationamong the public.

Various other institutions are also involved in promotingand integrating Traditional Medicine into the health caresystem : religious organizations, private companies, media,and individuals. However, there is no systematic nationalprogram.

Future research

Increased urbanization and change in societies make it nec-essary to modernize and develop traditional medicine andpractice to meet demand in the context of changes in habits,cultural values, the environment, and economic conditions.This will require a new legal framework to prevent the ex-ploitation of indigenous knowledge and resources. The pic-ture that emerges is that overall, Uganda has a supportiveenvironment for promoting traditional medicine.

References

Bannerman, R.H. Burton J & Chien Wen-Chieh (1993)Traditional Medicine and Health Care Coverage, WorldHealth Organisation, Geneva.

Esegu, J.F.O. (2002) Research in Medicinal Plants inUganda, Internal Presentation, Forest Recources Re-search Institute, Kampala, Uganda.

Kakooza, J.M.N. (2002) Personal communication12.07.2002, Uganda Law Reform Commission, P.O.Box:12149, Kampala, Uganda.

For more information Contact:, Anke Weisheit,,Springstiller Str. 41, D-98547 Viernau, Germany; e-mail:[email protected], website: http://www.herbplant.org,or Male Moses, Director, MAKO Herbalist Association, P.O.Box 8022, Kampala, Uganda, e-mail:[email protected]

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Indigenous Knowledge: the East Africa-South AsiaLearning Exchange

An Example of South-South Cooperation

This note was written by Siddhartha Prakash of the World Bank. The IK Learning Exchange was jointly conceived and organizedby Siddhartha Prakash, Krishna Pidatala and E.V. Shantha. For details contact: [email protected] [email protected]

In March 2002, a multi-sectoral team of33 World Bank staff from the AfricaRegion embarked on a learning tour offive East Asian countries—Japan,Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand andVietnam—in order to better under-stand the Asian development process.The main objective of pioneering learn-ing across regions was to enable staff toprovide better quality service to clientsby helping expand their knowledge ofsuccessful development practices, andby enhancing their behavioral skills inadapting good practices from one re-gion to another.

Inspired by the success of the pilotstudy tour, the Africa Region embarkedon an initiative to build cross-regionalpartnerships between E. Africa and S.Asia seeking to integrate indigenousknowledge and practices into Bank-supported operations. The aim was toleverage the experience of IK goodpractices from South Asia into Bank-supported projects in East Africa. Thiswould also help foster new partner-ships for South-South dialogue, coop-eration and technical assistance.

The focus was on indigenous knowl-edge as it is a key element of the socialcapital of the poor, assisting them intheir struggle to improve their liveli-

hoods. For example, farmers have usedorganic fertilizers to increase soil fertil-ity in parts of Asia and Africa for centu-ries; similarly, local healers have usedmedicinal plants in India and Tanzaniato treat common human and animaldiseases.

Many local organizations, institu-tions and communities have a wealth ofknowledge of IK practices. However,these practices are not disseminated ef-fectively because community-based or-ganizations lack the capacity to cap-ture, document, validate and sharethem. As a result, IK is underutilized inthe development process, and localcommunities are constrained in theirability to shape the debate on develop-ment priorities and lack the means toachieve them. To bridge the knowledgegap, the Africa Region organized across regional IK learning exchange be-tween East Africa and South Asia.

The first step was to identify poten-tial projects in South Asia and East Af-rica that had either already developedeffective IK components to promotecommunity driven development andthose lacking these elements. The pur-pose was to match knowledge-seekingcommunities with those that made gooduse of their local assets for development.

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Proposed activities

The cross-regional partnership is being built in four phases.The first phase will build linkages between the East Africanand South Asian projects. The second phase will involve alearning exposure for project personnel and CBO partnersfrom project communities on actual project sites in Indiaand Sri Lanka. The third phase will focus on building capac-ity for integrating IK into project activities and strengthen-ing country-level initiatives in the East African projects.The fourth phase will help the projects to continue the part-nership for further cooperation and learning. The activitiesare designed in these four phases to emphasize the impor-tance of building and continuing the partnership ratherthan merely undertaking study tours.

Phase I. Building linkages

Mapping exercise. The first activity to be undertaken wasto identify nodal persons from each of the participatingprojects and develop shared perceptions on the purpose ofthe initiative and role of the partners. Information andguidelines already available on integrating IK and practicesinto project planning and implementation were shared withthe projects.

Initiating dialogue. Contacts between the variouspartners was initiated and initial information on the initia-tive was exchanged. The use of IT for exchange of informa-tion was encouraged. Those projects already having websites will be encouraged to post IK-related information andthe progress that has already been made in identifying theIK and practices. If needed, a common web page for thepartnership will be created to link to project specific infor-mation.

Finding a facilitator. Given the broad range of clientsand variety of topics to be covered during the exchange, itwas necessary to identify a facilitator to ensure a structuredlearning process during the exchange. The Executive Direc-tor, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology(UNCST) was selected as an appropriate facilitator.

Video conference and exchange of information. Avideo conference was arranged involving all participatingclients where specific information on the use of IK (casestudies) was presented and discussed. This gave them anopportunity to understand the importance of IK and tovoice their opinions on what they hoped to get out of the ex-change, thereby giving the organizers an opportunity to de-sign the study tour in way that met the needs of the clients.A separate video conference was held with the facilitator, to

familiarize him with the planned activities and agree upon amodus operandi.

Phase II. Learning exposure for EA countries

In September 2002, a group of clients (16 development prac-titioners) from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, accompaniedby 5 Bank staff visited India and Sri Lanka. The partici-pants included project staff from early childhood develop-ment and medicinal plants projects, civil society representa-tives, a traditional healer, a parliamentarian and a minister.The learning exposure comprised of (a) field visits to se-lected project sites/communities to understand how the pro-cess worked, (b) interaction with field functionaries to un-derstand how IK catalyzed the communities’ environmentaland social assets into economic gains (c) meetings withthree State Chief Ministers in India to understand how goodgovernance and leadership have led to relatively sustainabledevelopment policies.

Learning through reflection: In addition to discus-sions with counterparts and visits to project areas in SouthAsia, the learning exchange included opportunities for thegroup to reflect on their learning through debriefings. Thislearning approach, recently pioneered in the Africa Region,involves video-taped narratives based on open-ended ques-tions designed to distill a “story”. Over five debriefings theparticipants were encouraged to reflect on what theylearned, how relevant the learning was in the East Africancontext, and what adaptation to the observed practices willbe needed to replicate it in East Africa. The debriefings re-sults were synthesized into short video clips that are avail-able on-line on the Intranet.

Phase III. Capacity building at country level andstrengthening country level initiatives

The participants from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia devel-oped Country Action Plans for strengthening the incorpora-tion of IK and practices in their projects and also to sharetheir learning experiences with other partners in theircountry such as NGOs and Ministries of Health. The activi-ties will involve training and technical support for initia-tives using IK for development and also for networking withother partners in the country. Each country team focusedon the following areas for South-South Cooperation:• Partnerships and networking (mainstreaming IK into de-

velopment policies, documentation and exchange of IKpractices, use of ICTs for rural development)


• Cross-institutional capacity building (institutionalizationof traditional medicine, collaborative research on medici-nal plants, policy formulation and resource mobilization)

• Policy level (legal protection of traditional knowledge,validation of IK practices, and integration into ECD pro-grams)

• Grassroots (integration of women’s empowerment in all pro-grams, involve communities in project design and implemen-tation, use ICTs to link communities with markets)

• Awareness raising and dissemination (seminars to shareSouth Asian experiences with national stakeholders, in-ter-ministerial Meeting to raise IK at the policy level,press conferences to disseminate experiences to public).

The East African delegation felt that South Asia was moreadvanced in several key areas related to the application ofindigenous knowledge in early childhood development prac-tices, the conservation of medicinal plants and the use ofICTs for rural development. They were particularly im-pressed by India and Sri Lanka’s holistic approaches to de-velopment and were keen to test some of these methodolo-gies in an African context. In exchange, they also felt thatSouth Asia could learn from East Africa, particularly fromtheir efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The key les-sons learned and areas for future cross regional cooperationinclude the following.

EthiopiaThe Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal PlantsProject seeks to initiate support for the conservation, man-agement and sustainable utilization of medicinal plants forhuman and livestock healthcare in Ethiopia. The Project isinto its second year of implementation. Project staff visiteda similar project on medicinal plants in Sri Lanka that isnear completion. There were a number of lessons learnedfrom the Sri Lankan experience that the Ethiopians plan tointegrate into their project. These include the legal protec-tion of IK and benefit-sharing mechanisms, documentationof IK practices and exchanges of experiences, institutional-ization of traditional medicine, in-situ and ex-situ cultiva-tion of medicinal plants. To this end, the project team in-tend to consult IUCN Sri Lanka on the Medicinal PlantsProject and the Tropical Botanic Garden Research Instituteof India on conservation and benefit-sharing mechanisms.

UgandaThe Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Projectseeks to improve the growth and development of childrenunder five years of age, in terms of nutrition, health,psycho-social and cognitive aspects. The project is near

completion and a second phase is in the pipeline. A numberof lessons learned from India and Sri Lanka are planned tobe integrated into the new project. These include the inte-gration of IK into ECD policies, integrated approaches toearly childhood development, training of care-givers andadolescents in integrated ECD services and parenting, useof ICTs for community data collection, documentation andinformation-sharing to improve access to information fordecision-making and market access. In this context, as a fol-low-up to the Learning Exchange, the Minister for PrimaryHealthcare recently took another official delegation to Indiaand plans to host a regional training workshop in Ugandaon traditional medicine. The Uganda National Council forScience and Technology (UNSCT) is sponsoring a group ofIK practitioners to visit India and Sri Lanka. UNCST alsoplans to develop an IK proposal for South-South Coopera-tion, with NASTEC—its counterpart in Sri Lanka.

KenyaThe Early Childhood Development Project seeks to improvethe quality and education of poor Kenyan households, witha focus on improved teacher performance and communitycapacity building. The lessons learned from South Asia re-lated to IK and ICTs were similar to the ones mentioned inthe Uganda case. The project is in its third year of imple-mentation and also plans to focus on issues that were beingdealt with in India and Sri Lanka. These include: commu-nity empowerment, women’s self-help groups, income-gen-erating activities, microfinance, multi-sectoral approachesto development and poverty reduction that involve the com-munity at all levels of planning and implementation.

Phase IV. Continuing linkages for further cooperation

The last phase will have activities that will ensure that thepartnership is continued beyond the initial exchanges andvisit. Two activities are envisaged at this stage: (a) TheSouth Asia and East Africa projects will access and use in-formation on IK already available to them through the weband be part of a regional partnership that builds on IK andpeople’s participation; (b) The participating projects willalso put together a newsletter on IK initiatives and partici-patory M&E. In case more than one project is involved in acountry, one of the institutions/projects will be chosen as anodal agency.

Client feedbackIn a client survey, the East African delegation provided thefollowing feedback on the study tour:

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• This is a window of opportunity for opening up institu-tions to each other’s programs.

• One can see the different options and approaches that canbe used to implement development activities.

• Such exchange visits are beneficial in guiding policy objec-tives and targeting vulnerable groups; and help redirectefforts to move towards holistic approaches towards de-velopment.

• Participants should be selected from multi-sectoral andinterdisciplinary activities to include legislators, research-ers and community workers.

• There is a need to develop networking for both regionsand also between the institutions that have common pro-grams. The East African country teams should organizeexchange visits among themselves.

• Learning experiences once documented and disseminatedto rural communities can strengthen poverty alleviationefforts in each country.

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IK Notes 56May 2003

Kanye Ndu Bowi: An Indigenous PhilosophicalContext for Conflict Management

Ghana

This article was written by Ben K. Fred-Mensah, Assistant Professor of International Relations and consultant inInternational Development at Howard University, Washington, DC. e-mail [email protected] [email protected]

Since the late 1980s there has been asearch for new conflict manage-ment1 concepts and methods in orderto deal with Africa’s ubiquitous and ap-parently intractable conflicts. It can beargued that the main problem militat-ing against conflict management in Af-rica is that the contemporary conflictmanagement systems of the region’smodern states are generally not con-tinuations or adaptations of those ofthe indigenous communities overwhich they have gained jurisdictionsince the colonial period. In otherwords, the main drawback in the con-flict management in Africa is that thereexists a disconnect between the conflictmanagement systems of the modernstates and those of their ethnic con-stituents. Thus, an understanding ofthe indigenous conflict managementsystems in the Africa in general may goa long way towards improve our knowl-edge and strategies in addressing theever increasing conflicts in the region.

This article intends to summarizefindings from a study carried out by theauthor between the winter of 1995 andspring of 1996 among the Buems on theGhana side of the Ghana-Togo border.The objective in this paper is to identifyand discuss the main philosophical con-texts within which the indigenousBuem conflict management system op-

erates. The paper also assesses the rel-evance of these principles to the manage-ment of modern conflicts in the area, par-ticularly land-related conflicts.

For administrative purpose, the areaunder study is called Buem-Kator2; itconstitutes the eastern half of thelarger Buem chiefdom in the JasikanDistrict of the Volta Region of Ghana.In terms of Ghana’s current decentrali-zation program, the area is an areacouncil, one of the six area councils thatconstitute the Jasikan District Assem-bly establishment. The indigenouspeople about whom this article is writ-ten are called Buems. Because the areais generally covered with tropicalrainforest, which is highly conducive tothe cultivation of cocoa and coffee, ithas since the turn of the last centuryattracted large numbers of migrantfarmers.

Kanye Ndu Bowi

Buems maintain that the paramountconcern of their community is to sus-tain harmony within the social system.The philosophical foundation of thisworld view is encapsulated in thephrase, kanye ndu bowi, which trans-lates literally to mean the “ingredientsof social harmony.” Kanye ndu bowi is a

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broad ideological orientation, which provides the moral andlegitimate basis for all manner of social control3 and istranslated into practice through the imposition of “intrinsicsanctions.” Intrinsic sanctions in the Buem context areboth positive and negative. They are the subtle, though per-vasive, means by which the members of the community aremolded to uphold the normative order. Whereas the positivesanctions consist of the psyche rewards that the people re-ceive when they conform to the approved mode of behavior,negative sanctions are the feeling of moral discomfort thatthey experience when they default.

Even though Buems insist that social harmony is theoverriding ideology in their relationship with each other,needless to state, the people do not follow the dictates of therules of conformity with undeviating passion. Conflicts arepart and parcel of Buem social life. Conflicts occur withinkinship units and between members of different kin groups.They also occur between communities and between themand their non-Buem neighbors. In defining their conflictsituations, Buems distinguish between anger (konyi), quar-rel (kador), duelling (bekpeligiti), and war (kekpe). Disputesusually involve breach of contract, slander, and witchcraftand sorcery accusations. Conflicts can also result from theproblems of political succession, marital misunderstanding,injuries against persons, and damage to property. Landboundaries and rights of access to land are often contested.However, in conformity with the principles of social har-mony, disputants are essentially expected to settle their dis-putes by the most amicable means available. Thus, recidi-vism in particular is severely sanctioned by the communityas a whole whose duty it is to provide the public officialswith support in enforcing the community’s normative order.

Pillars of social harmony in Buem-Kator

The Buem philosophy of social harmony is supported andsustained by other political values, among which are thepeople’s notions of benyaogba ukpikator andlelorkalorbunu and their uncompromising emphasis on in-stitutional and personnel trustworthiness.

(i) Benyaogba ukpikatorOne means by which the ideology of kanye ndu bowi is sus-tained is through active emphasis on mediation, which thepeople refer to as benyaogba ukpikator. Benyaogbaukpikator, as an essential pillar in the ideology of kanye ndubowi, provides adversarial parties a forum to underplay con-flicts and convince each other that irrespective of the natureand cause of the conflict between them, the prospects of

non-adversarial relationship is greater than that of dis-putes. In other words, by emphasizing benyaogba ukpikatoras the chief conflict management method, disputants aremade to avoid the winner-loser mentality that is fundamen-tally associated with adjudication, which the people call batekate. By its nature, benyaogba ukpikator is a generally flex-ible and amicable method of resolving disputes. This is ap-propriate for a community whose members live on a face-to-face basis and are bound by webs of social, ritual and eco-nomic relationships.

The managers of benyaogba ukpikator are usually lineageelders, priests, and influential individuals who are knownfor their wisdom and skills in their official and professionalcapacities, as well as in their private dealings. These indi-viduals are normally known widely within their communi-ties and have the capability to persuade disputants whohave been summoned to attend hearings. It often happensthat such individuals are often invited to mediate conflictsoutside of their own kin group or community. While doingthe fieldwork, the author came across cases of this nature.One elder in New Ayoma was often mentioned as an adeptmediator. He was particularly remembered for his successin resolving a chronic land boundary dispute between twofarming settlements in the area. This mediation wasdeemed a success because, at the time of the interview, ithad been over thirteen years since the dispute was settledand had not been reactivated.

(ii) LelorkalorbunuOne other pillar in the ideology of kanye ndu bowi is thestrife for, and emphasis on, lelorkalorbunu. Lelorkalorbunurepresents the people’s concept of fairness and justice.Buems maintain that the primary objective of their disput-ing forums is to achieve lelorkalorbunu. Lelorkalorbunu lit-erally refers to a mutual acceptance, not only of the dispute-handling process, but also of the verdict. It is a basic prin-ciple among the Buems that until parties to a dispute haveaccepted the verdict that is reached at any dispute-handlingforum, the conflict cannot be deemed resolved and, as a re-sult, settlement and/or penalty (kornu) cannot be sug-gested. In other words, once lelorkalorbunu has been at-tained, which means that the disputing factions have ac-cepted both the process and the verdict, managers of thedisputing process will then begin to suggest courses of ac-tion to repair the damaged relations between the formerdisputants in order to return them to the previous state oftheir social relationships. It is believed that a good dispute-handling forum does not force a decision on the parties butgets them to concur.

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(iii) Institutional and personnel trustworthinessThe third pillar, which undergirds the indigenous Buemconflict management system, is the uncompromising em-phasis on institutional and personnel trustworthiness. Itmust be noted that there is no explicit separation of powersamong the indigenous organs of the Buem political system.The same public officials—the chiefs, fetish priests, and lin-eage heads—who exercise the powers of state administra-tion are also the lawmakers as well as the law-enforcers.However, contrary to the modern expectation that such con-centration of powers can be a recipe for autocracy, despo-tism, and even dictatorship, power concentration amongBuems has rather made imperative political openness,trust, and transparency at both personnel and institutionallevels. By resolving disputes, these politico-judicial officialsmeet not only the expectation of the disputants that theirconflict has been resolved, they also strengthen the trustthat people have in them. In other words, successful resolu-tion of conflicts does not only restore marred social harmony,it also enhances the legitimacy and political standing of thepublic institutions and officials.4 Buems often say that anycommunity leader who cannot be relied upon to settle com-munity disputes is a kwesia panin—a worthless elder.

Conclusion

One key question regarding the sustenance of the indig-enous principles of conflict management in Buem-Kator iswhether the conditions that made them effective in the pastare still intact to cope with the dramatic social changes thatthe area has been experiencing since colonial times.5 This isbecause the apparent effectiveness of the indigenous prin-ciples in the past was possible because they evolved with,and were tailored to, the scale of society and exigencies ofthe time. As in all other areas in Ghana, and, in fact, in allAfrica, indigenous principles and values have been signifi-cantly altered with the advent of the modern state, the in-troduction of Western-style education, world religions, in-creased monetization of local economies, and the develop-ment of modern infrastructural and communication facili-ties. The Buem with whom the author spoke conceded thisfact. The changes have posed a challenge to the effectivemobilization and utilization of the indigenous principles inthe management of the modern conflicts.

One area in which indigenous Buem principles are in con-flict with those of the modern state is the determination ofland rights, which has become the major source of conflictin the area. This clash of principles is most obvious in theconflicting notions of statute of limitation, as applied to the

occupancy and use of land. For example, in 1972, the Govern-ment of Ghana passed a law, Section 10,6 which specificallyprovides that a person who has been in continuous possessionof land for twelve or more years cannot be evicted from theland. The central tenets of this law are fundamentally incom-patible with the indigenous Buem land laws. The indigenousBuem land laws do not restrict the length of time withinwhich an action to recover land from an occupant can be ef-fected. Thus, the Buems have contended that the mere occu-pation of the land, particularly by migrants (who are oftenviewed as outsiders), irrespective of length of stay on the land,is not a sufficient condition to make it a property that theycan perpetually hold.

The central issue therefore is: Is it not appropriate for theGovernment of Ghana and, in fact, African governments ingeneral and their development partners to seek means bywhich the relevant aspects of the conflict management sys-tems of the indigenous communities can be synthesizedwith those of the modern states in order to harness the po-tential benefits of both systems.7

1 The term conflict management as used here refers to any means bywhich conflict is prevented, reduced, or resolved.

2 The area is a cluster of farming communities, the main settlements ofwhich are New Ayoma, Dzolu, Old Ayoma, Baglo, Odumase, Kute, andLekante.

3 Social control in this context refers to the community’s moral code,comprising its beliefs and value systems, which influence the people’sattitudes and behavior.

4 More elaborate views regarding this can be found in Marc J. Swartz,“Bases for Political Compliance among Bena Villages” Marc J Swartz,Victor W. Turner, and Artheu Tuden, eds., Political Anthropology,Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1966 and a more recent work byBen K. Fred-Mensah, “Bases of Conflict Management among theBuems of the Ghana-Togo Border Area , I. W. Zartman, ed., Tradi-tional Cures for Modern Conflicts, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder,2000.

5 A similar question was earlier raised by Hareya Fassil in the article, “AQualitative Understanding of Local Traditional Knowledge andmedicinal Plant,” IK Notes, No. 52, January 2003, p. 2.

6 Ghana Government, Limitation Decree, 1972. This legal system datesback to the British legal tradition, particularly its Limitation Act,1833.

7 Such an attempt has been suggested by Ben K. Fred-Mensah in hisarticle, “Capturing Ambiguities: Communal Conflict ManagementAlternative in Ghana,” World Development, June, vol. 27, no. 6, 1999.It must also be noted that by virtue of its Interpretation Act, 1960 and1992 Constitution, the indigenous laws (called customary laws) of thecountry’s ethnic constituents are recognized as part of the country’slegal system. However, in principle the national laws have precedenceover them and also their application is limited to the ethnic group inwhich it has evolved.

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Cultural Rights for Zimbabwe’sSui Generis LegislationThe author of this article, Chloe Frommer, conducted this anthropologicaly research under the auspices of McGillUniversity, as a researcher for the Centre for Society, Technology and Development (STANDD), and the Centre forDeveloping Area Studies—(CDAS) in Montreal, Quebec. She can be contacted at [email protected]. The fullversion of this article with a complete list of works cited can be found at www.culturalrights.com

Throughout two decades of develop-ment activity, reports on the “crisis” ofdesertification, food scarcity, and eco-nomic inefficiency have been chal-lenged by local counter-narrativeswhich show local people uniquely en-gaging in their environment in waysthat deny the relevance of economic in-centives (Lansing 1995; Leach andMearns 1996; Appadurai 1990).

Recently, the Food and AgriculturalOrganization (FAO) characterizedplant genetic resources as the “heritageof mankind” (Cullet 2001) in order toglobalize conservation of them. Like-wise, the World Trade Organization(WTO) and World Intellectual PropertyOrganization (WIPO) legislation hasenabled biotechnology companies toenclose aspects of this heritage withinintellectual property rights (IPR) inways that primarily fuel internationalindustry. As a result, the local culturalpractices related to biological resourceshave been dismissed as inefficient ordiscussed as barriers to development.This may begin with the fact that therelationship between territorial cul-tural practices, biological resources,and intellectual properties has not beenmade explicit. The author has foundthe following distinctions helpful:

Biological resources (plants, miner-als and animals): are the naturalsources of medicinal, agricultural, cos-mological, veterinary and ecologicalutility. Their presences helps balancethe overall ecological and social healthof specific territorial environments.They are also the substrates of culturalresources, practices and traditionalknowledge systems.

Cultural resources (practices): arethe inherited territorial (customaryand non-customary) practices that fol-low local systems of production, circu-lation and reproduction of the environ-ment—natural and social—which char-acterizes them. They continue to evolvein conjunction with individuals and theterritorial environment. They are alsothe substrates of intellectual resources.

Intellectual resources (capital): areproducts that have been abstracted, de-rived or synthesized from prior culturalor biological resources. In order to re-ceive protection, cultural or biologicalresource had to have been transferredfrom their original territorial environ-ment and are either (a) transported (asimpersonal information bytes) to a newmilieu so that they may be reckoned“novel;” or (b) components of them arereduced, standardized, and miniatur-ized for mass reproduction and distri-


bution to be deemed “commercially applicable.” Hence,they are synthesized or abstracted to receive an intellectualproperty right (IPR).

In regional, territorial and national contexts it becomesclear that there can be no intellectual properties (even re-lated to plant genetic resources) without the reproduction ofcultural knowledge and practice.

Hence, significant initiative on the part of developingcountries has brought unique (sui generis) national legisla-tion to facilitate both international and local interests in ac-cessing, keeping, using, sharing and valuing biological, cul-tural and intellectual resources simultaneously (SeattleMinisterial Meeting of the WTO 2000). The African Union(AU) has been especially concerned with maintaining theunique relationship between plant genetic resources andcultural practices and has subsequently handed down theAfrican Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights ofLocal Communities, Farmers and Breeders and for theRegulation of Access to Biological Resources (African ModelLaw 2001) as a guide for its member states in developingNational Sui Generis Legislation. However, because Na-tional Sui Generis Legislation (in accordance with Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Article 23(b) of theWorld Trade Organization) counters globalizing initiativesit has little to no international aid. Hence, it is being drawnup without the participation of local communities who ac-cess, keep, use, share, and value biological and cultural re-sources in customary and non-customary ways.

Research question

Because the requisite institutional reforms of WTO mem-bership create new needs in developing countries such asZimbabwe, development practitioners might effectively aidnational development by working in conjunction with thenational goal to create Sui Generis Legislation. This couldbe done most effectively by taking an anthropological studyof how repertoires of knowledge exist in a priori1 local condi-tions first. Based on this qualitative data, an analysis of thecultural practices that both vitalize and sustain traditionalknowledge systems should follow. The author endeavored todo this with one repertoire of knowledge in Zimbabwe, Tra-ditional Medicinal Knowledge (TMK), by exploring how it isaccessed, kept, used, shared, and valued in both customaryand non-customary ways. Subsequently, this has helped herdevelop several recommendations for Zimbabwe’s own Na-tional Sui Generis Legislation.

Methodology

With a cognizance of cosmopolitan movements and high ac-tivity border zones, the author’s fieldwork was carried outin three varied locales: (1) in the capital of Harare where avariety of Bantu linguistic traditions from sub-Saharan Af-rica meet in creolized forms commonly exchanged throughEnglish, (2) along two border areas—in Zimbabwe’s East-ern Highlands that straddles Mozambique, and to theNorth going to the wetlands that seep across to Zambia, and(3) in the central high-grass, veld, region of Zimbabwewhere Shona2 customary traditions are still strongly repro-duced.

The overall study and analysis was made with key infor-mants, oral traditions, oral histories, participant-observa-tion in ritual and medicinal plant use, former ethnographicstudies completed by anthropologists, as well as the officialdiscourse of a national association of traditional healers.The author spoke to traditional healers (n’angas), healers’assistants (makumbi), spirit-mediums (svikiros), plant(muti) merchants, elders, chiefs and their councilors, ruraldistrict officials, and urbanite Zimbabweans. All of these in-terviews were conducted, with the help of a translator, inShona.

Findings

In Zimbabwe, the natural substrates of TMK are conceivedof both as magic3 and as medicine (mishonga). Yet, thesesubstrates manifest as a magic and/or a medicine only whenthey are wielded by an individual possessing an entire rep-ertoire of practices, rituals, divinations, symbols and acutetiming based on a familiarity with the social, cultural, envi-ronmental and physical milieu (the hun’anga).4 In additionto the individual practitioner, the individuals who comprisethe greater social field validate by their own consecrationwhether the magic and medicine become effective(kushanda).

Access to the full repertoire of ancestral TMK (vadzimuhun’anga) begins when the juvenile kin of an elder familyhealer selects one among their descendants to assist them intheir practice (Chavanduka 1997; Reynolds 1996). Whilethe apprenticeship demands hands-on practice with TMK—identifying, collecting and preparing plants;identifying,understanding and healing illnesses—it also re-quires lessons in the greater customary, symbolic and socialmilieu. The sum of the extended apprenticeship is the at-tainment of invaluable intuition (mapipi) related to the re-

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lationships and cultural codes that direct an entire TMKsystem. For Zimbabweans, the elders (as well as the de-ceased ancestors) are the key to continuing access to and in-heritance of TMK through special dreaming (kurotswa) andritual divinations (kusvikirwa) where the knowledge is re-vealed as a gift (Frommer 2002).5

Hence, while a general familiarity with traditional medici-nal plants is possessed by many within the local community,only selected and trained individuals gain enough familiar-ity with TMK to know with certainty what combination ofplants, rituals, charms, divinations and diagnoses are effec-tive under what conditions. As a result, different lineagesand bodies of TMK have evolved—some more specialized,customary, effective or powerful than others, depending onthe different territories or situations.6

Symbolic and social capital

While innovation in TMK is necessary to meet the changingneeds of local Zimbabwean communities, it is not economicincentives that fuel this process. Traditional healers whohave been specially selected to access and keep the ancestralknowledge finds themselves entrusted with a duty in whichthey are expected to share and cure before remuneration iseven considered.7 Further, it is not required that the in-sights, intuition, and innovation of a personal practice beshared in order to gain remuneration because healers arevalued first as cultural authorities, second as practitioners,and third as practicing scientists. Hence, traditional healersreceive a different type of payment—that of communityconsecration (symbolic capital).8 The highest authority andrewards are given to those healers who appropriately reverethe TMK (kuchengetera) and demonstrate respect for thecustomary rituals, healing, figures, symbols, proverbs, andnarratives that are used to enrich and illuminate the entiresocial field.9 For instance, in addition to healing, mishongais used symbolically to give impetus to culturally ordainedresponses, rituals, and activity that may manipulate any setof factors in the environment, e.g., for success in business,politics, winning arguments, extending influence, or set-tling disputes. Because these practices exist in a realmwhere they are accepted, spoken of, and understood theybecome “kushanda,” or, effective. However, just becausethese practices are “cultural” and rely on the traditionalcodes does not mean they are not scientific or innovative. Infact, one of the strengths of these practices lies in their flex-ibility in diagnosing and healing each problem or illness in-dividually. As a result, careful customization (opposed to astandard set of diagnoses) yields many opportunities for in-novation and advancement in practice.

Non-customary practices

Presently, however, several non-customary practices thatappropriate the physical substrates of TMK (mishonga)also neglect the importance of the cultural and ritual matrixthat may spark individual insights and innovation. As Zim-babwean merchants, scientists and a trade union of tradi-tional healers have begun to remove the physical mishongafor product development and distribution, the entire repro-duction of TMK practices (hun’anga) as well as the entirecultural symbolic system is threatened. Further, when thesenon-customary practices are linked with foreign pharma-ceutical companies, the focus on product developmentweakens the emphasis on ancestral gift and heritage andthereby also the expectations of duty and responsibilitywith respect to the local communities who rely on thesepractices (Wyneberg 1999; 2000). Because TMK has alwayshad a degree of collective sharing, unconsecrated and non-customary practitioners have been able to take libertieswith the mishonga in ways that have begun to breed localmisuse, misdiagnoses, and fraud.10 As a result of these diver-gent practices, an estrangement between traditional healersand their communities is settling in to such an extent thatthe entire reproduction of cultural practices and relation-ships that fuel innovation within the traditional medicinalknowledge system is threatened.

Prognosis

Nonetheless, Zimbabwe has a changing and evolving cul-ture. Recent years have seen specific customary figuresfrom the distant past (PasiChigare) or from the “LiberationWar”11 used to encourage the tourism industry. In theory,new local practices cannot be conceived of as not “cultural”simply because they do not flow directly from the orthodoxtradition. Hence, so as to not conscript and freeze the pro-cesses that reproduce culture as a resource, both customarypractices and non-customary practices must have legisla-tion to support and protect traditional medicinal knowledgeas part of the social service sector.

Conclusion

While industrial countries believe that IPR for intellectualresources fuels innovation through reward, the value-addedto biological resources by cultural resources has symbolicengines that move it. The singular focus in developmentcircles on protecting “plant genetic resources” overlooks therelationship between it and other resources and denies that

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cultural resources are crucial for the continued health, re-production, and innovation in each type of resource.

The author’s findings show that TMK is accessed, kept,and used by individual practitioners in order to share it ef-fectively and to attain full valuation in the surroundingcommunity combats the assumption in development circlesthat TMK is primarily a collective resource. It is importantto look past this assumption, which is married to the expan-sion of an intellectual property rights regime, especiallysince this has served to justify the alienation between indi-viduals, families and communities and their cultural andbiological heritage.

While plant genetic resources have been called a “green-gold” in recent years, in reality it is has been the access toterritorial cultural resources (based on customary and non-customary practices with local medicinal plants) that haveyielded the pharmaceutical applications receiving protec-tion as intellectual property (Wyneberg 1999; 2000). There-fore, cultural (customary and non-customary) practices re-lated to biological heritage need a system of protections thatenhance a capacity to keep relationships, social systems, so-cial/symbolic matrices that reproduce territorially impor-tant knowledge alive. The author has outlined how this maybe done in accordance with the United Nation’s Interna-tional Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights(1966) in more detail for Zimbabwe.

1 A prior, or “a priori “ right is recognized for local communities in the Af-rican Union’s Model Law (2001).

2 Shona is a national language of Zimbabwe from the Bantu heritage. Theimportance of doing fieldwork in a territorial language is illustrated inthe discovery of concepts unique to Bantu tradition that can not be eas-ily translated into English without casting doubt on their non-supersti-tious reality, e.g., charm, magic,

3 Magic, according to Leach (1976) is an index of the possible. While thecause of an identified effect is not verified, the potential effects still havevery real implications for believers. In the author’s research this in-cludes an affirmative belief that banal empiricism may be transcendedwith ritual and mishonga.

4The customary and the cosmological, the magical and the spiritual, thebureaucratic and the modern all of these may represent simultaneousrealities, sub-realities and hyperrealities for Zimbabweans who traversethe beliefs, practices and ways of individuals inhabiting rural, custom-ary, urban, scientific, entrepreneurial, spiritual and magical realms andcommunities.

5 A special phrase, gift of the ancestors, (chipo vadzimu) indicates the spe-cial rules pertaining to a heritage and gift as opposed to a commodity.Anthropologists such as Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, andAnnette Weiner, have all written about the engines and rules of gift giv-ing. Common to each analysis is the emphasis that these special itemsdo not follow economic rationale but are rather tied into social and sym-bolic status aquisitions.

6 The author’s research found that the “godobori’ n’anga is said to havethe most customary appeal and therefore the most powerful wielding ofmishonga. Further, she found some patterns suggesting distinctions be-tween regional, family, childbirth, environmental and magic mishonga.

7 Often, a token or a delayed reimbursement is satisfactory.8 In recent years, development officials have begun to pay more attention

to symbolic capital (Bourdieu 1977). Yet, that this capital is a convert-ible form that can encourage particular products, services and values oreven efficiency in the absence of monetary input has not to date receivedadequate credit in the development of individuals, practices or societies.Symbolic capital is also most evident vis-à-vis ones position in a family.

9 This helps build status and power for that family, clan (dunhu) and/ortotem (mutopa).

10 I write about the case of the African Potato (Hypoxesis hemericallidae)in my published research: The Cultural Right to Traditional MedicinalKnowledge in Zimbabwe” (2002) McGill University.

11 The second Chimurenga, the Liberation War, was fought for Zimbabwe’s

independence from the British Colonial goverment.

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Grassroots Women’s Approachto Capacity BuildingThe narrative presented here is part of the doctoral research study prepared by Preeti Shroff-Mehta at the StateUniversity of New York at Buffalo during 2000–2002. Prof. Anil Gupta at Society for Research and Initiativesfor Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), India,www.sristi.org, guided the field study inGujarat and Tamilnadu states in India.

Indigenous knowledge context of agrassroots woman innovator

Malatiben Chaudhari is a femalefarmer in Gujarat, India who hasstruggled with her life in a challengingrural environment and disenfranchisedcommunity. In the face of these con-straints, she has built and improved in-digenous capacity to create efficientand profitable livestock enterprises,and supported sustainable develop-ment in her community and beyond.

Through her innovations, Malatibenhas successfully transformed the eco-nomic activities of an agriculturally de-pressed region in the Mehasana districtof Gujarat. Over the years, she has suc-cessfully built a thriving farm and live-stock enterprise.

Malatiben Chaudhri’s narrativesummary presented here highlightstwo aspects of indigenous knowledge:• Understanding by local community

members of specific needs and theirability to find unique and sustainablesolutions to seasonal and long-termproblems; and

• The ability of grassroots women toovercome constraints and build ca-pacity within their communities andregions

Malatiben Chaudhari’s narrative

I am a woman farmer and livestockkeeper. I always feel the urge to dosomething new despite difficult circum-stances. I was born in a Prajapati fam-ily (a marginal caste group) in a poorrural community in Gujarat, India. Asa child, I observed a local teacher whoused to walk to the Harijan (Dalit)community every evening to conductadult education classes. After a while, Igathered the courage to ask himwhether I could also attend classes.These were my early lessons in ‘lit-eracy’. We had no school or classroommaterials. We all wrote with a stick inthe sand. I managed to study up to the4th standard and then had to drop outbecause the high school was too faraway. In those days, not many girlscould continue their education beyondthe primary school.

My husband belongs to a Chaudharicaste family. Its social status is higherthan the status of my family. After mar-riage the family gave us a small room intheir home in the village. My husband’sfamily did not own agricultural landand did not earn much. We tried tostart a small grocery shop but failed. Iwas not happy and wanted a professionof my own that would make me proud


of my work. Because of my parents’ background as poorprajapati (pot makers), my husband’s family never fully ac-cepted me and considered me not capable of thinking on myown. My Sasri and the gam (in-laws family and village com-munity) considered me ill-equipped for land ownership orfarming. I had to face humiliations every day. They told mein many ways that my knowledge was not valuable and thatI did not posses ‘Avadat’ (worthy skills).

I remained silent for a long time but continued to observethe village situation. Almost all families produced a monoc-ulture cash crop Bajara (Pennisetum glaucum, Pearl Mil-let). Poor land quality and continuous droughts preventedviable or profitable commercial farming. People kept live-stock mainly for farm work. They concentrated on agricul-ture and not on livestock rearing and milk production as asource of income. Buffaloes and young calves were not givenproper care. The livestock was always kept in crowded andunclean spaces. The young calves were given left-over fod-der and received poor quality care. It took 6-7 years for thebuffaloes and cows to produce milk. The average milk pro-duction per buffalo was 2-3 liters a day. It was clear thatpeople in the region were wasting their money on the live-stock. It was too much of a burden for the women to manageagricultural activities, children, household work and live-stock husbandry.

I thought that it should be possible to grow local fodder inthe poor quality soil. Why not try livestock managementand earn money through selling milk? I was convinced thatif we focused on livestock husbandry, the animals shouldproduce milk within 2-3 years and we would save 4-5 extrayears’ expenses and efforts. The challenge was to achieve itall: no pesticides, utilization of local resources, high qualitycare for the livestock, manageable workload, improved over-all milk production and incomes and community recogni-tion of my knowledge. No one believed me. So it was impor-tant to demonstrate the new approach to the entire village.

Kudarati Niyam and scientific approach (natural logic andsystematic efforts)The way our children require nutritious food and constantcare, calves also need special care. So in 1970, I decided totry out dairy livestock. I was determined to prove that I hadthe knowledge and the capacity to perform difficult tasks onmy own. No one gives an opportunity to a woman…we haveto find one and pursue it.

Initially I borrowed money and bought two calves for Rs.40 in the local market. I looked after them day and nightlike my children. I thought carefully about the daily needs ofthe buffaloes and young calves, such as dry and green fodder

requirements, health problems and home remedies, con-tinuous water supply, clean environment, pregnancy cycleand other seasonal needs. My own family members and thevillage people ridiculed me to remind me that I did not havethe required skills and knowledge to manage the livestockand that I was crazy to look after the livestock as my chil-dren. Yet, I was determined to work hard and learn more de-spite the lack of encouragement from my own family andcommunity. I needed the milk money to support my family.

I always wanted to understand the ‘science’ of livestockmanagement and at the same time rely on my Kotha Suz(context-specific knowledge and intuition). Kotha Suz is notexclusive like formal schooling and expert knowledge—evenilliterate and poor women have it and use it. My mothertaught me about taking care of animals. She had foundhomemade and quickly available remedies from the house-hold or the nearby forest for treating livestock. I have alsolearned—and continue to learn—a lot by observing ecologi-cal and economic changes within my village.

I always believed that Chila per chalava karata chilopadvo vadhare agatyano che (it is more significant to set atrend rather than follow it). I agree that it is important tolearn from external knowledge but the critical task is to un-derstand the application of any knowledge within our spe-cific context. It is also important to focus on innovation pro-cess and optimize it in order to facilitate a broader impact atthe regional and national level.

Planning a locally successful enterprise: key principlesand valuesThe critical aspects in livestock keeping are: knowledge ofthe daily care process; knowledge of available fodder mate-rial; continuous learning about innovative livestock hus-bandry practices. From the beginning I have focused on anintegrated farming and livestock management approach.

Utilization of agricultural waste: I observed that manyresidues of dried Bajara (Pennisetum glaucum, Pearl Millet)were left behind after harvest in the fields. I tried to mix theresidues with fodder grasses and created a special ration formy livestock. This has become a highly nutritious fodderformula used by other farmers and communities in the re-gion. The mix is always prepared especially for the animalsdepending upon their health, weight, height, size and cur-rent condition. A special mix of several local ingredients in-cluding green and dry fodder, crop residues, governmentrecommended nutritious feed additives and other secrethomemade ingredients such as Jaggery (unrefined brownsugar)are mixed to prepare a local feed. I am stronglyagainst the use of chemicals and artificial ingredients in

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farming and livestock management. The total milk produc-tion per buffalo/cow in my stable is 2-3 times higher than theaverage in the region.

High-quality carePeople in the village were shocked when my buffaloes pro-duced a total of 17.3 liters milk per day for the first time.This was double the average of milk produced by other ani-mals in the village. Soon the livestock management experts,agriculture scientists and government veterinarians cameto see my small farm and innovative practices. Both buffaloswon awards in the local livestock and regional milk qualitycontest. For the first time in my life, I won Rs. 25 ( approxi-mately US$0.50 at present rates) and Rs. 200 as a reward invarious contests. Finally my hard work had paid off andsomeone had recognized my efforts. My knowledge had be-come valuable.

Once my livestock enterprise got stabilized and I couldhire more help, I began to focus even more on the specialneeds of my animals rather than on increased milk produc-tion alone. The question I asked myself was “If I feel theneed to drink water anytime, animals probably feel thesame way”. So I installed a continuous water supply systemfor drinking and insisted on keeping the animals and stableclean.

At present, five workers look after the stable day andnight. All animals are given baths three times a day. I makesure they do not get ticks. A clean environment and notmedication prevents ticks. Residual fodder from the troughis removed immediately to maintain a clean stable. Theyoung calves, buffaloes and cows receive fresh fodder mixaccording to their age, size and weight. All workers ensurethat fodder is not mixed up with droppings. Many otherfarmers do not pay attention to these details. Most malefarmers own 4–6 animals and use family labor (mainlywomen) to manage their livestock. It is very difficult for awoman to take care of so many animals, given the house-hold, family and farm responsibilities. It is so important tohave a small number of livestock that is manageable for thewomen in the family.

Knowledge sharing and learningI also believe that specialists in the field and professional in-stitutions must test local experiments and new knowledge. Iattend local and national innovation-related workshops andlivestock management related events. I always interact withgovernment and foreign veterinarians, agricultural scien-tists and other dairy-management experts during their visitto the area and during a village level meeting or a workshop.

Women are not supposed to attend these kinds of institu-tional gatherings but I make it a point to participate. I amtrying to convince other women in my village to do the same—but it is not easy. It is so important for rural women tohave access to institutions of knowledge and external net-works.

Regional impactA few years ago, I heard about a specially prepared animalfeed mix distributed by the AGRO Research Company andthe Doodh Sagar Dairy (Regional Milk Dairy Cooperative),which was not popular in the area. The animals did not likeit very much and therefore farmers did not buy it. I mixedthe feed with the locally available fodder in a particular wayand animals started to eat this new, very nutritious feed.Now I feel proud because farmers in the district are usingthe same feed by using my methods to increase milk produc-tion. I am happy to have set a trend. Company representa-tives visited my farm and thanked me for developing the lo-cal version of their product.

Many farmers in the area are now focusing on dairy keep-ing rather than farming. Initially, the women in the regionobserved my practice carefully and adopted them. The malefarmers took some time to recognize the new approach.Now we grow crops for subsistence purposes only and fod-der for milk production. Many farmers and communities inthe region now rely on dairy keeping. We support the secondlargest Milk Cooperative—Mehsana Doodh Sagar Dairy—in the region.

Grassroots women’s participation and asset ownershipToday I own two buffalos and nineteen cows (Sankar Gai—the local breed). My livestock averages 10–12 liters of milkper animal per day, which is more than double the averagein the region. I am earning well and live a comfortable life.The Mehsana Dudh Sagar dairy in the village has comput-erized its functions and now we women can measure the fatpercentage in our milk and receive the appropriate price forthe milk. This way it is easier to keep track of daily produc-tion and monthly income. I have purchased land with thisincome, employed four full-time workers, renovated thehouse, installed a bore-well in my farm and sent my son tothe university.

My status in the family and within the community haschanged—now I command respect and moral authority. Lifeis never easy for women, but they have to learn to struggledespite difficult circumstances. I believe that ‘Mushkeli toSanshodhanni Janamdata Che’ (Hardship is the mother ofinnovation).

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My only fear is that the next generation expects quick re-sults and forgets that details such as a clean stable or con-tinuous water supply are critical components of successfullivestock keeping. The younger generations have receivedformal education and do not respect ‘rural professions’ orthe knowledge of the rural poor people. It is a tragedy thatacquiring formal education means the loss of Kotha Suz andAtmagyan (indigenous knowledge and wisdom). My onlyhope is that organizations like SRISTI, which recognize andsupport our efforts, will preserve innovative and sustain-able indigenous practices.

Narrative by Malatiben Chaudhry, Gujarat, India.Documentation, translation and adaptation to the IK

Notes format by Preeti Shroff-Mehta, Washington, DC, USA.([email protected])

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Adzina: An Indigenous System of Trial by Juryon the Ghana-Togo BorderThis article was written by Ben K. Fred-Mensah, Assistant Professor of International Relations and consultant in internationaldevelopment at Howard University, Washington, DC. E-mail [email protected] or [email protected]

In a recent article in this series, the au-thor discussed the indigenous prin-ciples that undergird the maintenanceof social control among Buems ofBuem-Kator on the Ghana side of theGhana-Togo border in the Buem Tradi-tional Area in the Jasikan District inthe Volta Region of Ghana. The currentarticle, too, is about the same Buems.In this one, the author presents the in-digenous Buem jury system, known asadzina. But before discussing the na-ture and process of adzina, he first dis-cusses bate kate, which is the Buem fo-rum for adjudication of which adzina isan integral part.

Bate Kate

Bate kate can mean adjudication andcan also mean arbitration. In the indig-enous Buem conflict management sys-tem, bate kate is a means of externalcontrol which disputing parties seekfrom a third party. This form of control,which can be exercised by a lineagehead or the town chief, becomes neces-sary when disputants can no longerrely on trust between them. The conse-quences of lack of trust are thus miti-gated by the external control, whichprovides an alternative source of confi-dence that expectations will be met.

According to the Buem elders, Buemsmake it a point to try to avoid bate katewhich they consider to be adversarialand time-consuming, not only to thedisputants, but also to their respectivekinsfolk who are customarily obliged toaccompany them to hearings. Unlikebenyaogba ukpikator—discussed in thearticle earlier mentioned—bate kate is amore elaborate process, which proceedsin stages and normally involves inten-sive cross-examination and assemblingof witnesses and, where necessary, ex-hibits. In terms of monetary outlay too,bate kate can be expensive. This is be-cause fines, and in some cases, costs areimposed on convicted parties.

Cases that are submitted for batekate normally include cases that eitherhave failed to be resolved through thebenyaogba ukpikator option or are con-stitutionally defined to be criminal.Criminal cases include murder, trea-son, and disparaging statementsagainst chiefs or public officials. In-fringements of well-revered taboos ofthe chiefdom are also a criminal casefor which settlement must be sought atbate kate.

Bate kate suggests a number of char-acteristics of both procedure and con-tent. It can be conducted either at a lin-eage head’s court or the town chief’s


court, depending upon the gravity of the offence. In theory,bate kate can go through a number steps before a dispute isfinally settled. In other words, one or both parties to a dis-pute can express dissatisfaction with a settlement and maydecide to forward the matter to a higher court. Appeals fromlower courts have to be sent to the most immediate highercourt. For example, an appeal from a lineage head’s courthas to be sent to the town chief’s court and an appeal fromthe town chief’s court must be forwarded to the court of thesenior chief’ of the area, known as akwamuhene. Theakwamuhene is the most senior divisional chief in Buem-Kator; hence the paramount chief’s direct representative inthe area. If settlement cannot be reached at theakwamuhene’s court then the case must be referred to theparamount chief’s court in the traditional capital.

In practice, however, most disputes are settled at the townlevel, especially because of the costs (in terms of time andphysical resources) that are incurred when cases are al-lowed to go through a number of steps before they are fi-nally settled. There is the notion among the Buems that if adispute can be settled at all, it must be possible for lineageheads or the town chief and his elders to settle it at the low-est possible level. Since kinsfolk of disputing parties are tra-ditionally expected to support kin members and accompanythem to all courts, they tend to prevail upon kith and kin toaccept a settlement at the lowest possible court.

Deliberations at bate kate can be an elaborate process. Inline with its usual procedure, each disputant presents his orher version of what has occurred. After both have beenheard, adjudicators closely question each disputant on thebasis of what he or she has said. The objective is to reach anagreement on a single story by eliminating ambiguous ele-ments in the statements of the adversaries. There is an ex-tensive use of evidence, witnesses, and cross-examination.Court deliberations are usually opened to the general publicand everyone present has the privilege to cross-examine anyof the disputants. Order at court is strictly enforced and theuse of abusive language is discouraged as this can lead tocontempt of court.

Adzina

For the purpose of this paper, the word adzina may be trans-lated as “going into seclusion to meditate on an issue.”Adzina provides a mini forum within which a verdict(badunkortor) from bate kate proceedings is determined.This step in the bate kate process is primarily meant to en-sure fairness to the adversarial parties or an accused personbrought before a hearing. Adzina is said to offer the manag-

ers of bate kate an opportunity to “consult with theabrewa”. Abrewa literally means grandmother or an oldwoman who is believed to be endowed with supernaturalwisdom, an unquestionable sense of fairness, and the capa-bilities to preside over adzina deliberations.

As the Buem version of trial by jury, Adzina works thisway: to arrive at a verdict in all manner of cases that comebefore a lineage head or town chief, some of the court par-ticipants, who have been present throughout the courthearing and have been following the proceedings, are se-lected at the end of the hearing to deliberate and come outwith a verdict. The jury is normally made up, among others,of the respective representatives of the presiding judge, theadjudicating council, and the disputing parties. This newlyappointed jury will then leave the courtroom and go andfind a place where they are both out sight and ear reach ofthe other court attendants. There, they will deliberateamong themselves until reaching a verdict. In doing so, theyare said to be consulting with the abrewa.

When a verdict is reached, the jury will return to thecourtroom and present their findings to the judge. Throughthe returning jurors, the abrewa will send words of admoni-tion to the guilty party and words of consolation to the inno-cent. The verdict is either accepted wholly and a fine is im-posed on the convicted party, or it is rejected and the caseforwarded to a higher court.

The presiding judge will deliver the verdict this way:Abrewa onini, fula le temi libo emimi. Osu boda mi

borsaka. Bokisi bobo mi nte. Osu ni bafouo. Osi mui,siwu tsuedi otilikpidi na onwa lelormi benu nkudor.Omui ni keny kenui kebo kuboryo (Translated to meanthat “according to the Old Woman’s verdict, to whichthey, the panel members, have agreed, so and so hasbeen found guilty. The Old Woman has sent a messageof admonition to the guilty party and words of consola-tion to the innocent”).

Once a case is settled, it is assumed that lelorkalorbunu,which represents the people’s concept of fairness and jus-tice, has been attained. Fines (banyinkortu) are thus sug-gested. The fines are normally in kind, involving alcoholicbeverages usually palm wine—called kubo nte—and live-stock. The size of the fine depends on the gravity of the of-fence, the manner in which the convicted party has con-ducted himself or herself in the course of the deliberation,and previous offence records. Once the fines are paid, it isassumed that the settlement has been accepted by the dis-putants. The drinks are used as a libation in order to propi-tiate the gods (atibluku). It is poured by the fetish priest, inthe absence of whom an elder will do it.

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With a calabash of drinks in hand, the fetish priest willpour the libation accompanied by statements such as:

The almighty God up in the heavens, the earth onwhich we stand (Oh! Atibluku atsa kator, kalorkemenge), with this drink, we beseech the gods to helpus to restore peace between the adversarial parties. Asboth parties drink from this calabash, none shouldnurse malicious intentions against the other. Strikedown whoever will nurse malicious intention towardsthe other, or flout the authority of the judges, or at-tempt to bring calamity into the community.

It must be noted that in more grievous cases, particu-larly cases in which a culprit was found to have used aweapon which is more harmful than the fist in a fight and,in doing so, has spilled the blood of a fellow Buem, the partyis liable to fines, which involve livestock, usually a ram(kofonu). This fine is imposed whether the party is foundguilty of the offence or not. In such a case, the fetish priestwill pour a libation and call the spirits of the ancestors of thedisputants three times, mention the earth (kalor) threetimes, and implore them to “cleanse the community of thesacrilege and danger” (ntedie musue) that the blood-spillingmay bring upon the community. After this, the ram will beslaughtered at the very spot at which the human blood wasspilled. Both the drink and the flesh of the animal will beshared among all those present. With this ritual ceremony,the gods are believed to have been propitiated and the earthand the parties cleansed.

Analysis

Unlike the modern jury system, whereby jurors are selectedbefore the start of the trial, jurors in the Buem adzina sys-tem are appointed after the prosecution and defense argu-ments are over. The benefit of this manner of selecting ju-rors derives from the fact since no one can tell who the ju-rors will be and since anyone present at the proceedings,and who are considered to be of good standing in the com-munity can be selected, everyone at the trial is compelled toattentively follow the process. Also, because members of theBuem communities live in close contact with each other andare connected by webs of ritual, political, and economic ties,jurors cannot afford to be deliberately biased.

The invocation of supernatural forces as a means of en-forcing court decision among Buems shows that the people’sconflict management methods provide not only the secularmeans and guidance to disputants to strive for reconcilia-tion, but that the fora are also the media through which thegods are expected to sustain the rules of social control.Thisshould not be surprising given the fact that the Buem po-litico-judicial system lacks any form of legally approved useor threat of use of physical coercion, normally carried out bythe police and incarceration of the guilty, as associated withthe state in the modern systems.

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Institutional Constraints in Promoting IKCommunity Access to Social Networks and Formal Institutions

This article is written by Preeti Shroff- Mehta and is based on her Ph.D. field research study conducted in India during 2000-2001. Theresearch study documented personal narratives of sixteen local innovators and community members experiences in reviving and trans-forming Indigenous knowledge practices. The study was supervised by Prof. Anil Gupta at Society for Research and Innovations forSustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) and Mr. P. Vivekanandan at Sustainable-Agriculture and Environmental VoluntaryAction (SEVA). Ms. Shroff-Mehta is affiliated with the University of Maryland and will teach Indigenous Learning and Global Actioncourses starting Spring 2004.

In recent years, many international de-velopment agencies and non-govern-ment organizations have renewed theirefforts to provide and promote indig-enous knowledge orientation in devel-opment planning and practice. Theseefforts emphasize local knowledge sys-tems and practices as valuable re-sources in global development. Thefour distinct aspects of indigenousknowledge oriented development inter-ventions frequently debated are:• Documentation: indigenous knowl-

edge documentation, communicationand adaptation;

• Ownership: local ownership of spe-cific knowledge practices;

• Reward system: rewarding localknowledge innovations (throughdocumentation and dissemination,cross-region recognition, global appli-cation and value addition); and

• Access to knowledge and institutions:linking modern and indigenous insti-tutions for sustainable developmentand enhancing local community ac-cess to markets, government agen-cies, financial institutions, universitybased research centers and interna-tional development publications.

This study of local innovators in In-dia reflects on the IK aspects outlinedabove, but emphasize the institutionalaccess dimension in promoting innova-tive local approaches. Clearly, there arelikely to be more similarities than dif-ferences between what is describedhere and the situation in other develop-ing countries of the South.

Indigenous knowledge revival andadaptation: Local community goals

Ongoing efforts to revive communityand region-specific agricultural, health,education and economic livelihoodpractices in global development effortspoint to the value of local knowledgeinitiatives in international develop-ment. In a series of interviews with lo-cal innovators conducted during an IKresearch study, the sixteen communitymembers across two states in India out-lined the goals of IK practice revival:(1) Addressing poverty and livelihood

issues;(2) Cost and labor efficiency in agricul-

ture production;(3) Environmental sustainability and

conservation;

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(4) Managing seasonal externalities such as drought,floods, labor shortages;

(5) Community self-reliance and preservation of values;(6) Improved socio-economic status and employment

gen eration;(7) Women’s representation;(8) Community members’ need to learn.

While outlining the goals of indigenous knowledge revivaland adaptation, the local community members also pointedout a series of institutional constraints in adding value to lo-cal knowledge innovations.1

(1) Family and community constraints: Many local inno-vators face opposition from immediate family members and/or broader community members. In some cases, such as ex-perimental agricultural plots on existing farm land, familymembers feel hesitant to invest years of hard work as wellas forgo immediate income without a clear sense of the finaloutcome of crop innovations. Community members do notadapt innovative farming and natural agriculture practicesunless the benefits of mass-scale production are well-dem-onstrated in the short run and the innovative product iswell-established in the market. In many cases, poorer localfarmers also do not have access to farm land for seed andtechnology cultivation and knowledge of legal certificationand appropriate marketing channels.

(2) Seasonal constraints: The greatest local constraint inreviving and modifying innovative local knowledge systemsis seasonal factors. A group of local farmers in Tamilnaduand Gujarat states pointed out that their investments in ag-riculture and herbal farm experiments have often failed dueto poor monsoons and consequent droughts, lack of drink-ing and irrigation water, loss of livestock and labor migra-tion. Another critical dimension is understanding the his-torical context within which a traditional practice was vi-able, for example the size of land, land-people ratio, foodpatterns. Reviving certain traditions in contemporary timesrequires adaptation and modification in order to incorpo-rate evolving context.

(3) Formal institutional constraints: The formal institu-tional constraints identified by community members reflectlocal people’s lack of access to ‘new social networks’ such asagricultural technology and extension agencies, higher edu-cation and research institutions, financial institutions, po-litical parties, NGOs and international organizations (as op-posed to the village based and community specific tradi-tional social networks.2

The table summarizes the perceptions of local communitymembers regarding institutional constraints in promotinglocal innovations and their efforts to overcome specific con-straints. It outlines a series of institutional constraints iden-tified by local innovators and other community members.These include their concerns pertaining to ‘negative socialcapital’—i.e., the cost of maintaining access to and partici-pating within social networks, the ‘exclusive’ nature of cer-tain dominant urban and rural networks and the burden ofconforming to social networks (over-embeddedness, paro-chialism and rigidity).

1 The local innovators identified a range of institutional constraints thatreflect their limited access or the lack of access to established formaland informal institutions and associated social networks. Institutionsrepresent organizational structures, ideologies, adherence to particulardevelopment approaches, internal and external networks and explicit aswell as tacit value set and beliefs. Also, institutions follow establishedrules and regulations and adopt certain mechanisms to ensure the en-forcement of rules.

“Institution builders can be diverse—such as policy makers, businesspeople, or community members. Corporate, collateral, and bank-ruptcy laws are public institutions, as are the judiciary, tax collectionagencies, and regulatory agencies. Banks, reciprocity between com-munity members, and land inheritance norms are private institu-tions. Many private institutions exist under the aegis of public insti-tutions. Private banks, for example, operate within the framework ofpublic law. Social norms exist within (or without) formal laws.”(World Development Report 2000, Box 1.2, p.6)

2 The notion of social capital refers to the actual and potential resourcesindividuals obtain from knowing others, being part of a social networkwith them, or merely from being known to them and having a goodreputation. The two distinct aspects of social capital are: an individual’sability to access resources given his positioning within a specific socialnetwork, and a communities’ access to multiple social networks. “BothBourdieu and Coleman emphasize the intangible character of socialcapital relative to other forms. Whereas economic capital is in people’sbank accounts and human capital is inside their heads, social capital in-heres in the structure of their relationships. To possess social capital, aperson must be related to others, and it is those others, not himself, whoare the actual source of his or her advantage. [ ……] the motivation ofothers to make resources available on concessionary terms is not uni-form. At the broadest level, one may distinguish between consumma-tory versus instrumental motivations to do so.”

268 IK Note Number

Institutional Constraints in Adapting Local Knowledge Innovations

Innovation

[Maturation Stage]*

Institutional/Sector Constraints Innovator Strategy Outcome

Livestock Management Process [Advanced]

• development planners and local communities’ lack of faith in ‘rural women’s knowledge’

• the female innovator’s lack of access to rural and urban institutional and social networks

• establishment and demonstration of the innovative practice to the village community and outside institutions

• educating the outside ‘experts’ and various development agencies

*regional livelihoods transformation

* the innovator’s active participation in the emerging grassroots knowledge network

Energy Free/green Agricultural Technology , machinery [Advanced]

• lack of commercial investments in locally developed machinery • limited marketing and dissemination

• collaborative product development and marketing efforts with SRISTI

• regional and national demand for the products and growing sales

High-Yielding Organic Crop [New]

• poor agricultural drought management mechanisms – lack of water

• government encouragement of commercial farming inputs and methods

• development of a range of innovative organic crops, seasonal innovations

* rapid local dissemination of high-yielding and high returns organic seed varieties

New Organic Crop Varieties [Advanced]

• lack of agricultural and scientific community interest and

support • politics of government managed ‘seed’ quality verification

process • lack of government sponsored and alternate employment

during the drought seasons •

• collaboration with an NGO network

• recognition of new varieties • collaborative efforts to set up an

experimental seed development farm and private seed testing agency

• lack of laboratory facility to standardize livestock herbal medication, need to experiment with diverse local medicines and dosage combinations

• Allopathy medicine doctors’ lack of faith in local herbal treatment

• Collaboration with Society for Research and Innovations for Sustainable Technology and Institutions (SRISTI) herbal medicine research laboratory

• plan to distribute standardized herbal medication packages

Herbal healer [New]

• Lack of certain processed organic/herbal dry raw materials(reliance on a commercial supplier)

* herbal treatment focus on young dalit (scheduled caste) women’s seasonal health problems

* the female innovator’s lead role in organizing poor dalit women’s savings

Organic (Farm, Bio-Gas, Livestock) Management [Advanced]

• long duration required to make a transition from commercial to organic agricultural practices

• financial loses incurred due to the past reliance on ‘hybrid’ goat varieties and commercial farming methods

• family involvement in the organic farm, livestock management and bio-gas enterprise

• participation in local social networks (farmer’s association)

• networking with the district collector’s office, organic farming organizations and national agricultural research institutions

• dissemination of organic farming methods

• the local farmer’s association to support organic farming methods and self financing mechanisms for area farmers

Technology for De-husking Coconuts [New]

• the growing urban demand for coconuts and limited seasonal labor available in the village

• timely management of coconut supply to the urban company • lack of financial investment to develop the commercial products

• development of a single product to maintain consistent coconut supply and to overcome labor shortages

* regular and consistent coconut product supply to urban companies

New Drought-resistant Paddy Crop Variety [Advanced]

• lack of support from the government and ongoing conflict with ’expert agricultural scientists’

• competition with new modern varieties introduced by agricultural scientists

• legal actions taken by government to challenge the dissemination of the ‘indigenous’ variety in the market

• collaboration with the local NGOs to fight the legal case

• local demonstrations of the drought resistance, better quality and better tasting Paddy variety

• rapid and successful dissemination of the ‘indigenous’ and innovative paddy seeds and cultivation technique in the district

Organic Toy Die Making [New]

• lack of returns in agriculture, need to diversify • lack of certain organic raw material (lacquer) in the state • lack of access to government development agencies

• development of the prototype line of organic toys (the use of organic die)

• collaboration with the local NGO and the marketing unit of SRISTI(GYAN)

* ongoing research to ensure the supply of ‘lacquer’ from another state to develop the organic toy die

Farm Weed Cutter (New)

• lack of finance to develop the product prototype • competition in the market – a similar product introduced in the

national market by a multinational corporation

• desperate search for an investor and ongoing collaboration with the local NGO based in Madurai city – Sustainable-Agriculture and Environmental Voluntary Action (SEVA)

• the innovator is now a member of the local innovators’ network in Tamilnadu State

• partnership with local investors

Organic approach to livestock rearing

• the hybrid livestock variety could not survive the tough mountain region conditions

• the government managed forests, local herders are struggling to find the fodder for the indigenous variety of the livestock

• reliance on the indigenous livestock breed • conflict with the forest authority

• NGO intervention and mediation in the conflict between the government agencies and

* The financial aspects of local innovations were shared with the Researcher, the local innovators, however, requested that this information be kept confidential for personal and community specific reasons.

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