Community-to-Community Exchanges of Indigenous Knowledge Practices

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Community-to-Community Exchanges of Indigenous
Knowledge Practices

• Noel Oettlé
• Environmental Monitoring Group
• South Africa

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Knowledge is the key

• Globally and locally, knowledge is our most
  valuable asset
• To act, we must believe that we possess
  sufficient knowledge (the more we feel we know,
  the less we feel at risk)
• For collective action, shared knowledge is a
  pre-condition for shared ownership of the action
  and its results

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What is a community of practice?

• By definition, a community shares things in
  common (resources, beliefs, practices, etc.)
• Common knowledge, resources, beliefs, values
  and/or practices provide a basis for collective
  action
• Communities of practice are often rooted in a
  locality (e.g. farming communities or churches)
• Some communities of practice are more scattered,
  such as traditional healers, birth attendants or
  water diviners.

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Why knowledge exchanges?

• When communities of practice share what they
  know
• Knowledge is mobilised and released
• Communities are able to address developmental
  problems in new and creative ways
• By supporting exchanges, development agencies can
  stimulate and catalyze community-driven
  developmental processes
• Linking knowledge seekers to knowledge providers
  is cost effective and dynamic

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Some of the basics for successful knowledge
exchange processes

• Knowledge exchanges are learning process, and
  should be designed in terms of an understanding
  of how adults learn so that participating IK
  practitioners are able to expand their knowledge
  base
• As knowledge exchanges are part of a broader
  developmental process, self-responsibility and
  self-reliance on the past of the IK practitioners
  should be fundamental to the design
• Facilitation by skilled people who are not
  inhibited by, yet understand the local social
  dynamic, is essential if the process is to succeed

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The basics (continued)

• Ensure that all community members have a real
  opportunity to participate, and that the process
  is not hijacked by narrow interests
• The process should be an empowering one that
  mobilises energy and imagination
• Establishing maintaining a relationship of
  trust between facilitators IK practitioners is
  essential
• Knowledge exchanges should engage scientists,
  politicians and IK practitioners on an equal
  footing

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Steps along the way

• Visioning for development
• Developing the exchange concept
• The preparatory stage
• The implementation stage conducting the
  knowledge exchange visit
• Feedback and initial planning
• Planning the way ahead

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Visioning for development

• A shared vision for development is an important
  starting place developing and articulating this
  will usually have to be facilitated
• In terms of the vision, explore with community
  members what development initiatives will enable
  them to realise their vision
• Identify the necessary knowledge, capacities and
  other resources that will be necessary to achieve
  the vision

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Developing the exchange concept

• Identify the opportunities and resources that are
  needed to conduct exchange visits
• Consult potential facilitation team members
• Establish learning objectives with IK
  practitioners
• Identify communities that could be visited
• Identify the necessary resources for the exchange
  visit within the community of the IK
  practitioners, and agree about commitment of
  these resources to the process
• If resources are needed from outside the
  community, write and submit a funding proposal

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The preparatory stage

• Hold a preparatory workshop for the facilitation
  team to develop necessary capacities, and to plan
  for the process
• Facilitate preparatory and planning workshop/s
  with the wider community
• Facilitate a process for the wider community to
  select the delegates, and develop a team contract
• Finalise logistics and plans

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Conducting the knowledge exchange visit

• The visit itself requires careful facilitation,
  sound logistics and flexibility
• Maximise the responsibility of the participants
  for the process and interactions with hosts and
  record
• Share experiences along the way in workshops and
  focus groups
• Maximise experiential learning of participants
• Reflect regularly with the group to deepen
  learnings and address any tensions or needs
• Things dont always go according to plan be open
  to serendipity!

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Feedback and initial planning

• Report-back and planning workshops with the wider
  community will enable the travellers to share
  their knowledge, and will broaden ownership of
  the ideas and initiatives
• Audio-visual aids help to convey the experience
  graphically
• Interactive sessions bring the experiences to
  life
• Participatory planning at this stage can help
  fragile initiatives to take off

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Planning the way ahead

• Following the initial feedback planning
  session, agencies should be prepared to support
  emerging community-driven initiatives as they
  develop. Remember
• It is not useful or even possible for outsiders
  to pre-determine which initiatives will emerge
  and succeed
• Within each new initiative, a series of learning
  processes should be taking place that might
  require facilitation and expert input
• Input will probably be required into larger scale
  planning processes
• Improved access to existing support services
  might be essential to success

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A case study Rooibos tea knowledge exchange

• The Suid Bokkeveld an isolated and resource poor
  community in the Northern Cape Province, South
  Africa
• People wanted to improve their livelihoods, but
  did not know how to, even though experts made
  good suggestions
• A knowledge exchange was planned to a community
  with similar circumstances, but better market
  access.

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What contributed to the success of the rooibos
tea exchange?

• Sound preparation meant that the visitors were
  clear about their purpose
• Similarly, the hosts understood what the visitors
  wanted to learn about
• Seeing is believing!
• Farmers could discuss their specific constraints
  and successes in an open and warm way
• Most interaction was informal, allowing all to
  share their questions, insights and knowledge
• Effective feedback and planning back home
  resulted in a broad-based community initiative

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Results of the rooibos tea exchange visit

• The visitors formed their own co-operative to cut
  processing costs and access better markets
• Within months they had all been certified as
  organic producers, and had secured an export
  contract worth 15,000
• The co-op participates in research on sustainable
  production and resource conservation
• Today the co-op exports rooibos to a value of
  600,000 per annum
• The co-op earns profits of gt10 on turnover per
  annum
• The co-op uses knowledge exchanges to help its
  members and other producer organizations to
  address production and marketing problems

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A Zambian experience facilitated by the Green
Living Movement

• The Green Living Movement facilitated visits
  between the Kundalumwanshya, Nambo, Chibobo and
  Chilipamushi communities
• IK practitioners exchanged knowledge about
  organic farming and NRM practices used by farming
  communities to combat desertification
• Farmers learnt of traditional and innovative
  alternatives to chemical fertilizers such as the
  use of sunnhemp as a green manure to increase
  soil fertility to maximize crop production

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Green Living Movement cont.

• Visits to farmers fields included an
  introduction to farmers experimentation, and
  comparison of the results of different
  treatments
• Relaxed evening sessions were held around the
  fire to discuss experiences, successes and
  failures, and to critique practices
• Farmers have adopted low-cost, environmentally
  friendly methods that have resulted in improved
  yields and lower costs
• 1½ years later, it is clear that household food
  security has been improved

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Women to the fore

• Women and men farmers from the Shantumbu
  community visited Petauke in 2003 with support
  from the Zambia Alliance of Women (ZAW)
• The visit was planned and implemented by a
  facilitation team from ZAW Soil Conservation
  and Agro-forestry Extension (SCAFE)
• Agricultural Information Services provided a
  video film team to record the process
• People shared knowledge of agriculture and food
  storage, and celebrated together with dance, song
  and drama
• Since the visit, local food security and
  consumption have greatly improved at Shantumbu

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Women to the fore (cont.)

• Farmers are successfully using organic methods of
  agriculture, and are far less dependent on
  purchased outputs
• Organically produced maize and bean seed is
  successfully stored for planting the following
  season
• Farmers at Shantumbu have planted at least 10
  trees per household, as well as a large number of
  fruit trees
• People are very enthusiastic, and have moved from
  an attitude of government must come and do
  things for us to if we have a vision, and get
  on with things, then we will probably also get
  any assistance that we need

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Lessons learned in implementation

• Flexibility is necessary in the course of the
  exchange so as to be able to respond to
  unexpected challenges and opportunities
• Having the communities develop their own
  selection criteria for participation in the
  knowledge exchange visits was a sound approach
  it minimised conflict and maximised ownership of
  the process.
• Selection processes are not always without
  conflict. These conflicts are important because
  they can help the development agency to
  positively

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Advantages of the approach

• Knowledge exchanges are a very cost effective way
  of galvanising new developmental processes
• They can provide a valuable stimulus to larger,
  existing developmental processes
• They promote local ownership of initiatives
• Exchanges enhance local leadership
• They engender a sense of pride

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Advantages (cont.)

• Knowledge exchanges strengthen the capacities of
  service providers and community members
• They provide access to locally appropriate
  solutions, that use locally available resources
• Exchanges recognise local people as the
  experts, and recognise their knowledge
• They give people access to knowledge that is not
  available in written form or in the formal sector
• Exchanges enable people to learn in a way that is
  familiar to them

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Limitations of the approach

• If the process takes place in isolation from
  larger processes and support structures, and
  adequate follow-up is not available, it might not
  lead to any tangible results
• If the exchange partners, or the contexts in
  which they live are too different, the
  opportunities to learn will be limited
• The choice of the community/ies to be visited can
  limit the solutions available to the visitors,
  and may reflect the bias of the facilitators
• To design and implement a successful exchange,
  implementers need to have access to wide external
  networks (to identify suitable partner
  communities and to identify appropriate members
  of the facilitation team)

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In conclusion.

• Despite the limitations of the approach described
  above, community to community exchanges of
  indigenous knowledge practices provide a cost
  effective way of stimulating and maintaining
  community-based development processes by
  empowering local people to develop and implement
  their own initiatives