Mission accomplished: Convincing indicators to assess impact of networks found? #kmers

Ever since I embarked on knowledge management and knowledge sharing journey, I've been struggling to find convincing metrics to assess impact of KM/KS activities. In October 2009, I wrote this blogpost: "KM search and rescue operation: Looking for intelligent and KM-enabled indicator!" and got some good feedback. But it still was not quite the convincing indicators I was looking for.

What do you I mean by convincing indicators?  I mean metrics that make sense, metrics that show progress, metrics that combine both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

I am not a great indicator fan. I believe indicators detract attention from the bigger scope. They are very much like this faceless street artist.

Nonetheless, the type of business we are in, requires that we measure our activities and show the impact we are making. And ever since when I've been trying to find convincing indicators for KM/KS related activities.

So you can imagine my excitement while reading Collaboration  by Morten T. Hansen  to come across convincing indicators to measure the impact of networks!!! Hansen's book is based on years of research. The book itself is a gem, especially the last chapter where he takes you on a personal journey and acting as coach shows you how to become a collaborative leader.

In this book, Hansen argues that the goal of collaboration is to achieve greater results. He identifies the following as barriers to collaboration:

• not-invented here barrier
• factors contributing to hoarding
• search barrier
• transfer barrier

He makes the case that no collaboration is better than bad collaboration. He argues that for collaboration to happen leaders need to unify people and to do that they:

• must craft a compelling unifying goal that makes people commit to a cause greater than their own individual goals
• should pair competition on the outside of the company with collaboration on the inside. People who unite to compete against a common foe are juiced up by competing and by collaborating
• should not talk competition, but collaboration and collaboration for results

Then he goes on to explain how to build nimble networks and it is in this chapter that I had an aha moment. I finally came across a convincing way to measure the impact of networks.

Hansen starts of by saying:

• too much networking may be distractive
• networking is costly because it takes time and effort to nurture relationships (this is if you are serious about it and want to do it well)
• for networks to be valuable, their benefits need to be greater than the costs
• secret of networking is to build result-based networks based on disciplined collaboration

He then proceeds to say that networks are good for identifying opportunities to take something further and to capture value and in doing so, effective networks need to reduce the collaboration barriers mentioned above. 

Hansen provides a framework with six network rules, which I see as great indicators to measure success of KM/KS networks. The first four are used to assess the impact of network vis-a-vis identifying opportunities and the last two to capture the value of networks.

• build outward, not inward: to overcome the not-invented barrier, networks need to build many more outward ties than inward ones. One of the indicators is to measure how much undisciplined collaboration there is. Is there too much networking, too much butterfly syndrome, jumping from one thing to another without concluding anything?
• build diversity, not size: to overcome search barrier you need to build a network based on diversity. In networks numbers do not count. What is important is the diversity of connections. You need connections that tap into diverse things and diverse people. This is what leads to more innovative products. Hansen challenges us that when we engage in professional relationship we should ask ourselves what diversity does this new contact bring me. He then proceeds to say that disciplined collaboration means adding contacts that bring more diversity into your network. And this too is a great indicator to measure the impact of networks
• build weak ties, not strong ones: now how counterintuitive can one get. And yet, there is so much wisdom in this statement and this too is a superb indicator. Hansen makes the point that weak ties prove to be much more helpful in networking because they form bridges to world we do not walk within. His argument is that strong ties are to worlds we know and he is very right about this. Building weak ties contributes to overcome the search barrier
• use bridges, not familiar faces: good networking means knowing who the real bridges are and to use them. Bridges are typically long-tenured people who have worked in different places and know about a broad range of topics. A successful network needs to have enough people performing bridging role. Using bridges and not familiar faces is another tactic to overcome the search barrier
• swarm the target; do not go it alone: Hansen's advice here is if you believe the target identified in a search may not be forthcoming, enlist the help of others to convince the target. In other words swarm the target with influencers, people who are in position to exert influence and get your contacts to work on your behalf, appeal to common good and invoke reciprocity. If you want to measure the impact of your network, you should ask yourselves, how many times you've turned to your network members and asked them to do something on your behalf and how many times they did it for you. Hansen associates this as a remedy for the hoarding barrier
• switch to strong ties; do not rely on weak ones: he finishes of his six network rules by providing a remedy to transfer barrier and making the point that to ensure easy transfer you need strong ties between team members so that they can trust each other and transfer complicated knowledge, which in KM language translates to good old tacit knowledge

I must say, I am thrilled to have finally found convincing and sound indicators for measuring the impact of networks. I now believe it is possible to find equally good indicators for other KM/KS aspects. The dilemma is whether anyone old person do so, or whether we need another Morten Hansen with years of research experience to come up with equally convincing indicators.

Bets are open!!! And I would love to hear your views and feedback on these indicators.

KariaNet, Planning the future of networking in the Near East and North Africa region

This week from 3-4 April I had the opportunity to join thirty-one selected individuals from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who met in Cairo to discuss the sustainability of networking activities in the Near East and North Africa region. At the crossroads between East and West, networking is nothing new in the region. The exchange of goods, technology and ideas between cultures has been going on for centuries. But starting in 2005, IFAD and the International Centre for Rural Development, (IDRC) joined hands to use networking to improve the performance of their agriculture and rural development projects in a programme called the Knowledge Access in Rural Interconnected Areas Network, or KariaNet. The KariaNet approach, including collaborative research and capacity building, takes a page from a similar initiative between IFAD and IDRC in Asia and the Pacific called Knowledge Networking for Rual Asia/Pacific, or ENRAP.

But KariaNet, like ENRAP, is a development project. And stakeholders have been clear from the start that the external investments projects bring won’t last forever. So this week’s meeting focussed on what to do when this external financing comes to an end in 2013. To focus on this topic KariaNet commissioned a study by specialists in the field of networking and knowledge sharing, Heather Creech from the International Institute for Sustainable Development and Ziad Moussa from the American University of Beirut to look at the options for KariaNet’s future.

Stakeholders at the workshop were asked to evaluate the options set out in the study and come to a consensus about what they want to do between now late 2013 to secure future collaboration. While the study was referred to as the Devolution Study, what clearly captured the imagination of the network was not the devolution of network management and support responsibilities but rather the evolution of knowledge sharing and networking.

Virtually unanimous in their determination to carry on and improve knowledge sharing – irrespective of financial support they may or not receive from IDRC and IFAD in the future - the group concluded that what made sense to them was to focus on networking at the national level. Interestingly, this fit with the conclusions of the IFAD evaluation of ENRAP after Phase II and led IFAD to design ENRAP’s final phase focussing its support on improved networking amongst IFAD country programme partners.

As much as KariaNet participants are thirsty for new ideas from abroad, their priority is to build on the immediate benefits already experienced from knowledge sharing with colleagues working in the same agro-ecosystems with similar means of production, speaking the same language, and collaborating with the same ministries. In the ideal scenario they would also like to link to one another through an international or regional organisation to serve as a secretariat.

Though not discussed, it is interesting to note that results framework of the IFAD Strategy for Knowledge Management calls for just such participant driven regional networks, integrated with IFAD’s IT platform and linked to other thematic networks. In the region, KariaNet participants are themselves already linked or members of thematic networks like the Virtual Extension and Research Communication Network (VERCON) hosted by FAO or groups like the Association of Agricultural Research Institutes in Near East and North Africa (AARANINA).

In the implementation of the KariaNet and ENRAP programmes, IDRC has helped stakeholders to test and document a range of approaches to knowledge sharing through both capacity building and network facilitation. Over the years innovations introduced have ranged from participatory mapping, to writeshops, videography, systematisation, online discussion groups, learning alliances and learning routes. KS/KM amongst partners that have been mobilised by IDRC and IFAD in these efforts have included ICIMOD, FAO, ILEIA, ICARDA, and PROCASUR. Some are also working with IFAD stakeholders in Africa and Latin America. As networking and knowledge sharing improve within both regions, network members will be better able to share across regions.

Thanks to the initiative taken by Elaine Reinke at IFAD and her colleagues Hammou Laamrani and Layal Dandache at IDRC we could compare notes on past experiences between the two networks. An unintended outcome, was that by sharing experiences we were building the kinds of relationships and trust that makes a foundation for future networking between the networks. Connecting regional networks to make up a global community of networks amongst IFAD stakeholders once seemed quite remote. The prospects of that happening have just improved.

Lessons learned from learning lessons

Third day of the IFAD-EUFF capitalisation workshop in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

The third day of the IFAD-EUFF capitalisation workshop is not only the final day of this workshop. It is also the end of a process that was initiated in September 2011 at the first capitalisation workshop in Bamako, Mali. The term capitalisation refers to a process to profit or benefit from a “capital” that we have, in the case of the IFAD-EUFF programme, the lessons learned and experiences of the colleagues working in the different projects. Over the last six month, the participants have worked on narrowing down a unique experience or factor in their projects that they want to share with others. Now it was time to draw the lessons learned and discuss the next steps.

Isaac Vifa, who has been working with the Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme in Ghana for the last two years, took some time to tell me about his experiences:

What is capitalisation and can you briefly describe the process?

You have participated in the IFAD-EUFF programme capitalisation process. What are you central learnings of these six month?

How can capitalisation increase the impact of development programmes?

A big thanks to you, Isaac!

Other points that were raised during the feedback discussions:

• Failures are a learning opportunity: By sharing difficulties, limitations and the way we addressed them, others can learn from the experiences and avoid having to face the same challenges.
• Exchange matters: Sharing knowledge among different projects and between different country teams creates synergies, helps everyone to improve the work and to sustain what has been achieved.
• An addition, not an alternative: Capitalisation products proved a valuable addition to formal reports and scientific papers.

Steps to integrate capitalisation in knowledge-management strategy:

• Capitalisation should be included in the project design.
• Everyone involved in the projects should receive training on knowledge sharing and capitalisation.
• Knowledge-sharing is not only for knowledge-sharing experts, everyone can do it.

Better seeds for higher yields

Second day of the IFAD-EUFF capitalisation workshop in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

I’m sure, all of you are familiar with the following situation: You write an article/report/letter and you think you have addressed every aspect, answered every question and structured the information in a logical way. Then you give it to colleagues and they come back with inputs and comments. And in the end, you have an even stronger document.

This is exactly what happened today, at the second day of the IFAD-EUFF capitalisation workshop in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The different country groups from Senegal, Ghana, Benin, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire had prepared one or two articles in which they outlined experiences they made while implementing the projects. These documents will be published and will support other organisations working on similar issues, to gain new ideas or to replicate the successful approach. This morning, all participants came together in small groups and discussed the articles prepared by the other projects.ents where you ask yourself how you could have possibly not considered this. And in the end, you have an even stronger document.

The feedback was as diverse as the people in the room: “What kind of training was provided?”; “How many seed producers were selected?”; “You should insert subheads to make the document better readable.” and so on.

The result is a room full of participants who are working in their colleague’s comments in their paper. While this morning was dominated by lively discussions, now you mainly hear clicking of many keyboards. And while the workshop participants are working on their articles, I will share some of their experiences with you:

Senegal

Since it is the UN International Year of Cooperatives, I will start with Senegal, where more than 65 per cent of the population lives in rural areas. Most of them are engaged in agriculture, many produce groundnuts. A change in agricultural policies, the hand-over of groundnut seed production from the state to the private sector, let to a rapid decline in the groundnut production. Attempts to rebuild the seed stock failed. Together with IFAD and the World Bank, the Government of Senegal piloted the establishment of groundnut seed producer cooperatives . The pilot was a big success and with the additional funding by the European Food Facility (EUFF), cooperatives have been established in five more regions. In their article, the colleagues from Senegal share their experiences in establishing cooperatives, good practices for marketing, financial and administrative management and how to ensure the cooperatives’ sustainability.

Mali

Northern Mali is landlocked, has a fragile ecosystem and regularly faces drought. But at the same time, it is rich in natural resources and offers huge flood or non-flood plains – perfect to cultivate rice along the river Niger. Rice is not only the main cereal consumed in the region, but also offers an income source as a cash crop. With the support of IFAD, the Government of Mali established the Programme for Investment and Rural Development in Northern Mali (Programme d’Investissement et Développement Rural des Régions du Nord Mali, PIDRN). Supported with the funding by the EUFF, PIDRN increased the availability of certified seeds. The project developed small irrigated village seed plots which are managed by cooperatives. Traditionally rice seeds are produced in small plots within the rice paddies and are often exposed to drought periods. Producing rice seeds in village seed plots allows for better water management, better production monitoring and the scale-up of the production. The numbers of farmers engaged in seed production are increasing, but so is the demand for certified rice. In their article, the colleagues from Mali share not only a project outline and the lessons learned but also future steps to ensure the project’s sustainability.

Benin

In Benin, seed production is divided among a large number of actors. Without a joint platform, there was no dialogue, no joint approach and a lot of conflict about the different competences. The Government of Benin, together with IFAD and financial support from the EUFF, established a dialogue platform, to bring all actors together and create synergies in their work. The difficult undertaking was worthwhile. As a result, the availability of rice seeds and cassava cutting has increased significantly. Another experience the colleagues from Benin shared, was the use of biotechnology to ensure the quality of the cassava cuttings. A video documentary gives some background about the set up and results of this project.

Côte d'Ivoire

For Ivory Coast, the Project for Support to Small Scale Market Gardeners in the Savanes Regions (PPMS), shared the experience on the establishment of a process to produce certified rice and maize seeds. This process helped to ensure the use of quality seed and led to higher yields. With support of IFAD and the EUFF, the Project developed a four phase-certification process:

1. pre-inspection which includes the identification, accreditation and the training of seed multipliers as well as the choice of plots;
2. the field inspection to verify the quality of the pre-base seeds and the inspection of production conditions;
3. from the harvest of accredited farms samples were taken and analysed at the national seed laboratory,
4. depending of the results of the analysis, the producers receive a certificate of compliance or non-compliance by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Ghana

The Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP), initiated by the Government of Ghana and IFAD, developes the crop production through research and extension. With additional funding provided by the EUFF, the project’s efforts to sustainable increase the production of seed yam and cassava stems by small-scale growers could be scaled-up. Traditional methods of multiplying and distributing planting often come with low yields, the multiplication and spread of diseased planting material and a large input to produce seeds/stems. To ensure that farmers have high quality crops and higher yields, RTIMP introduced the minisett technology, a methods to produce yam seeds with less input and better results and established a sustainable system for the supply of roots to Good Practice Centres through the strategic multiplication and distribution of improved cassava planting materials. In their two articles, the colleagues from Ghana, describe how they spread the improved methods of producing planting materials, outline the different production methods and share their lessons learned.

All articles will soon be available on FIDAfrique.

Pioneers for food security

Sharing knowledge for better development programmes at the IFAD-EUFF capitalisation workshop in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

How can we effectively introduce new seed production techniques? Which roles do farmer organizations play in helping smallholders to grow more food? How can agricultural research support seed production? These are some of the issues that the participants of the capitalisation workshop on the IFAD EU Food Facility project in West Africa discussed at today’s opening of the meeting – and you will find the answers below.

The EU Food Facility (EUFF) was created as an answer to soaring food prices in developing countries in 2007/2008. With the Facility, the European Union provided one billion euros for projects that:

• improve the access to agricultural inputs and services,
• maintain or improve the agricultural productive capacity and
• address the basic food needs in developing countries

and chose IFAD as one of the implementing partners in West Africa.

Since the programme has been launched one and a half years ago, much has been achieved. Building on existing IFAD projects, 20 million euros were used to support small farmers achieve higher yields, grow more food and earn more money. The projects in Mali, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ghana were implemented in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and reached more than 200 000 rural families.

Now, that the programme’s activities have closed at the end of 2011, project partners are coming together for a capitalisation and a closing workshop. During the next days (23-26 March), they will share experiences, draw lessons and discuss the way forward.

“The first meeting of all implementing partners showed, how beneficial it is, to exchange knowledge and experiences. It has been an important part of our collaboration since,” said Adriane del Torto, IFAD’s EUFF coordinator for West Africa. All participants have brought one or two examples of capitalization products – success stories, videos, posters or other materials – which will be reviewed by their peers to improve and enrich the products, before they are officially released. “The sharing of knowledge in this way has helped everyone involved in the projects. We all have learned how to properly identify and explain what works in our programs. This could potentially help to raise funds and to scale up our projects with relevant and efficient activities. From the experiences that will be shared here today, some have successfully been replicated in other settings. In the long-run this will lead to better and more sustainable results in development programmes. And this is why we have organized this capitalization workshop,“ explained Adriane in her opening statement (scroll down for the video).

Following the opening ceremony, every project presented their cases, followed by a short Q&A, and as promised, here are the answers to the questions raised above: How did the projects manage to spread new, more efficient seed growing techniques within such a short time, was one of the questions that came up. The answer came from the Ghanaian participants, who used a proven knowledge-dissmenination technique for their Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP): word of mouth. Many of the farmers, participating in the programme, produced their yam seeds on sites that were close to roads or other places with many people passing by every day . Soon, they realized that these farmers weren’t following the traditional seed production technique. They became curious. And learned from the farmers about the benefits of this new seed production technology – and how it works. In this way, the project reached a much larger, and growing group, who now uses the new technique.

The role of farmer organizations, was another issue, that came up frequently. All participants agreed, how important the organizations, such as cooperatives, are in enabling smallholders to increase their production. In some projects, for example the Management of Certified Groundnut Seeds Production in Senegal, cooperatives and their establishment were a constituent part of the project design.

And last but not least, how can agricultural research support seed production? The answer to this was given by Prof Corneille Ahanhanzo from Benin, who highlighted the need for strong links between agricultural research and seed producers: “Researchers help to find improved techniques and better seeds. We are pioneers for food security.”

Thanks to DJ Titus Twish, a slice of #sfrome makes it to The Economist

One of the best moments of the week, is when I get around to read one of the latest issues of The Economist, as typically I have to catch up with two and sometimes three issues!

What ever the case may be, I love that fraction of a second when I go the pile in my room and pick the latest issues, because I know I’ll be spending a couple of gratifying hours.

The readers of IFAD Social Reporter blog will remember our coverage of the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair and Rob Burnet’s keynote address “Sex and Money”. 

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when in reading the Christmas issue of The Economist, I came across the story entitled “Kenya and Charles Dickens: Great expectations - Some parts of Kenya can justly be called Dickensian”. 


In this issue, The Economist covered the story of  DJ Titus Twist -  the very person at the heart of Rob's keynote speech. The very person who kept 400+ participants in a state of awe for over 40 minutes. The very same person who came to life thanks to the artistic talent and creativity of our very own Nancy White.


I was so happy that the story of DJ Titus Twist had made it to The Economist! Kudos to Well Told Story, kudos to Shujaaz, kudos to DJ Titus Twish, and kudos to Rob and all the team.

And as I was reading the article, I thought to myself thanks to DJ Titus, a slice of Share Fair and #sfrome also made it to The Economist!

For those who missed Rob Burnet’s keynote address: “Sex and Money”, you can remedy by watching the inaugural ceremony of the Share Fair. Rob’s keynote is around 50th minute to the recording.   

Also make sure you read the blogposts from our army of social reporters and check out issue 3 of the Daily Corriere

• http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-can-we-make-agriculture-more.html
• http://blog.sharefair.net/2011/09/well-told-story-effective-communication.html

For us at IFAD, the Share Fair was one of the many highlights of 2011. We would like to finish the year by paying tribute to all our keynote speakers -  Etienne Wenger, Rob Burnet, Mark Davies and Michele Payn-Knoper; to our army of social reports; to the insightful presenters; to the wonderful facilitators; to our sister-agencies; to the steering committee members; to all our partners; to the 700+ participants who for four days energized our building, to the volunteers  and to the wonderful share fair support team, who on 21 December received one of the 2011 staff awards,  for their instrumental role in making this event such as memorable one.

In closing, we wish you all a Happy New Year. May 2012 be a peaceful and prosperous one for everyone and let's join forces to keep the spirit of #sfrome alive. 

Daily Corriere issue number 3 - The Share Fair newsletter

View more documents from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Managing for impact: learning from successes and failures

The East and Southern Africa (ESA) annual workshop focusing on managing for impact kicked off on 14 November in Arusha, Tanzania. The event brings together 200 participants from 17 countries. 

This is a special event on many fronts. To start with, the participants warmly welcomed colleagues from South Sudan. Secondly, they bid farewell to Ides de Willebois, who is moving on to lead the West and Central Africa division.  And last but not least, this is a unique event because for the first time, participants have embraced moving away their from traditional way of doing workshops and have embraced knowledge sharing methods.

Ides de Willebois in his opening remarks reiterated the fact this is a learning and sharing event. “Without learning and sharing we cannot improve and we cannot have impact”. He also went on to say that “we need to have a better understanding of what we do, so that we can do it better.”

In concluding his remarks, de Willebois mentioned that he is planning to start an exchange visit between East and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa. “I hope that West and Central Africa colleagues will join next year’s annual event, so that they can learn from your experience”. 

Breaking the mould

Whenever you decide to innovate or break away from business as usual, there is some apprehension. You feel gratified when breaking the mould ends up being successful and resonates with the expectations. And this is exactly what happened at the ESA event.

It was so refreshing to see 200+ participants embrace knowledge sharing methods such as openspace, spectogramme and world cafe type discussions. Thanks to these participatory methods, they started to mingle, bond and in no time they got to know each other.  

In the process, they heard many stories, including one about how ESA implementation workshops evolved from a being top-down loan administration events to more learning events owned and organized by the projects.

The majestic mount Kilimanjaro and the Kalali women dairy cooperative

As a child, when school was  over, I would be counting the days so that I could join my grandmother in Mount Damavand. Damavand is Persia’s tallest mountain in the Alborz mountain range. Grandma had these wonderful stories about mount Everest, the far way mount Fuji and then a majestic mountain in Africa - mount Kilimanjaro. 

I was intrigued by mount Kilimanjaro, because as a I child I found it difficult to fathom that Africa had mountains. So, on Monday when we had to sign-up for the field trips, I could not believe that finally I would be able to see this far far away mountain.

Unfortunately the majestic mount Kilimanjaro decided to remain pretty veiled and the clouds did not cooperate. But nonetheless, seeing it was an emotional moment and brought back many fond childhood memories.

We then moved on to visit the Kalali women dairy cooperative. This cooperative is part of the Agricultural Sector Development Programme where IFAD is investing loan funds in supplementing financing to the nationwide development programme, to counteract the depletion of the initial funds committed by development partners as part of a basket fund arrangement.

The cooperative is located in Machame division, Hai district in Kilimanjaro region. Inspired by a local daily community business, this cooperative was established with 132 members in 1988. The cooperative’s goal is to:

• increase income of poor rural households, particularly women in the area through a number of different income generating activities
• improve lives of orphans and provide assistance to poor families who were unable to provide education and sound nutrition for their children

“To get going the cooperative members contributed 1000 shillings each and payed a membership fee of 50 shillings,” explained Nancy Manasseh Kidin, the cooperative’s chairperson.

Considering their scarce income, these monies were paid in 4 installments. The cooperative started with 8 dairy cows. In 1995 they had 41 dairy cows.

Considering the vital role women play in rural societies, the cooperative decided that women headed-households were the ones to receive the cows.  They agreed that the person who receives the cow for a period of seven months would:

• give one litre of milk a day to the orphanage
• give the calves to other women headed-household and members of the cooperative 

As a result in a short time, 24 women who had signed up to this deal managed to provide dairy cows to 117 cooperative members.

Today the cooperative has a total of 260 members.

Diversifying activities

These industrious women used their income to diversify their business. In the 90s they bought themselves a milling machine.

“We provided milling service in the local market and expanded our business by buying a container to store the maize”, said Kidin.

“We also used the profits from the milling business to buy seeds.”

In 1993, they went one step further and bought themselves an electric machine and donated their diesel operated milling machine to another women group.

With the profit from their milling business they bought feed for the cows.

A terrible blow

They had a flourishing business, produced milk in abundance and sold this to a company in Arusha, thinking that a company is a reliable partner.

“We failed to ask for the money upfront and the company failed to pay us 12,000,000 schillings”, said Kidin.

This was a terrible blow for them. The community lost confidence in cooperatives and felt let down.

This mishap taught the cooperative an important lesson: never accept an “IOU”, always finish a transaction, sell, get your money and go on.

Despite this set back, they managed to back on their feet, thanks to the generous contribution of Italians.

A new door opens: dairy processing 

The Italians provided them processing instruments and that is how they started making butter and cheese.

Today they produce:

• 400-800 litres of milk a day
• 10-20kg of cheese per day
• 50-95 packs of butter per week
• 400-600 packs of yogurt per week

They keep track of their daily production and make some impressive graphs without using Excel. They also have a sophisticated booking keeping practice.

They package their products and have a registered trademark. “We sell the dairy products at Moshi, to grocery stores, to hotels and send our cheese and butter all the way to Zanzibar”, explains a proud Kidin.

The cooperative has the necessary certification to package its product, however, they are faced with the challenge of not having adequate technical support. This means they are unable to take their business to the next step and benefit from industry’s best practice.

One thing that we observed was the BEST BEFORE DATE on their products. Without exception their products seem to have a shelf life of one year!!!!

Kidin shared with us that the cooperative aspires to be able to:

• procure large 50 litre metal containers to store the milk instead of using plastic containers
• avail themselves of technical expertise and training so that their products are of high quality meet regional standards, have bar codes and can compete with Kenyan products
• have access to veterinary service
• have access to East African Community Market and get packaging machinery 
• have all the women of the community become members of the cooperative
• become a renown cooperative both inside and outside Tanzania

In conducting their business, the cooperative has learnt the importance of:

• providing thorough and in depth training to the machine operators, so that they do not only know how to operate the machine, but also maintain it properly
• understanding the market demand and their potential competitors
• doing a good market search before buying equipment and better understanding what is needed and how a piece of equipment can help them 

Expanding the business and facing new challenges

With a relatively good income from their dairy business, the cooperative bought a sunflower oil pressing machine and started a savings credit cooperative (SACCOS).

The SACCOS has 375 members and started with a capital of 3.2million schillings.

The older women of the community put their savings in the SACCOS and the more business oriented women use the SACCOS to get a loan. The loans have an interest rate of 3%.

Kidin shares with us that the SACCOS are faced with two challenges:

• underpayment
• corruption

This has led to a loss of 22 million schillings.  This loss made the community understand the importance of choosing right people as SACCOS board members. They now know that a board member:

• needs to be a trusted member of the community
• one who understands the ins and outs of the business and entire process
• one who has knowledge of financial management so that they can play a supervisory role, detect collusion and immediately take corrective actions

Investing in health and eduction of young people

The community is committed to provide education for the children and young people - especially to orphaned children and those from less advantaged families.

They use their profits to send children from disadvantaged families to school and are also assisted by Italians who are sponsoring a number of children and putting them through school.

Their vision is that every child has to go to school.

Their sustained programme of investing in education of their children is one of their great successes. Thanks to this initiative many young people have successfully finished school, obtained their degree and now serve as accountants, agriculture specialists, engineers and health workers.

Many have heard of WFP’s school feeding programme. Well, the Kalali women dairy cooperative runs a similar programme - they support school feeding by providing one glass of milk per class. 

The cooperative challenges

Kidin shared with us the cooperative challenges: 

• continuous power cuts which lasts days
• lack of access to adequate and state of the art machinery for packaging and conservation so that they are able to compete in the  market
• lack of access to technical expertise to take the business to its next level
• lack of local talents and expertise
• lack of access to appropriate equipment for conservation
• high taxation and cumbersome regulations
• competition with Kenyan products

The cooperatives aspirations

Kidin and the cooperative members aspire to:

• have all women in the area become members of the cooperative
• give dividends to all the members and not just provide contributions in kind
• create more employment opportunities
• send all children to school
• expand the sunflower pressing business
• innovate and continuously provide new services to the community
• provide capacity building
• build technical and leadership skills and groom local talents
• set up a milk bar so that community members understand that there are other options to drinking alcohol
• do more follow-ups and have a better feel what you can realistically achieve 
• develop robust business plans

We cannot but wish this group of hardworking and resilient women the best of luck. They are a great example of how when a community takes development in their hands, despite set back, they are able to move on and bring about change. I am sure the Kalali women dairy cooperative will go from success to success and manage to fulfill all their aspirations and be a model for many more women.

#sfrome: Supporting Community Seed Enterprises to improve availability of quality seeds, increase production and support food security (98)

by Silvia Sperandini

A small but passionate group has animated an interactive session on the potential of local seed enterprises.

Jenny Rafanomezana (Policy and Research Advisor, SHA) presented the innovative intermediary role played by her organization in enabling smallholder farmers to engage in seed multiplication and establish local seed enterprises. Her intervention was followed by a short Video that, with its powerful music, at 9:20 a.m was a perfect energizer.

Then, starting from the concept of Integrated Seed Sector Development, Pietro Chiappini Carpena from Self Help Africa provided an overview on the concept of Integrated Seed Sector Development. While Elia Manda and Shimekit Maru shared their experiences in improving access to quality seeds for rural smallholder farmers through local seed enterprises in Zambia and Ethiopia.

The discussion kicked off by the guest panellists from SHA was just the starting point for a wider discussion of the issues raised. Michael Larinde (FAO/IFAD Senior Expert on Seeds) brought in his knowledge and lessons from recent missions. Other colleagues from AGRA shared their views. The rich debate touched a wide range of issues looking at technical, economic and social perspectives and the implications for seed practice and policy (including aspects linked to farmer organisation development, value chains, and multi-sector partnerships) and the dialogue flew across the world touching various country cases.

The audience concluded that farmers involved in seed initiatives now have a profitable livelihood strategy and that greater access to good seeds result in significant increases in productivity, enabling rural communities to become more food secure.

Once again knowledge sharing proved that barriers can be addressed and that this mutual learning is crucial to scale-up successful models.

Useful Links:

• Video: http://bit.ly/qvgNzS;
• Pictures: http://bit.ly/mSNgxV 
• Self Help Africa web site: http://www.selfhelpafrica.org

#sfrome: Innovative partnerships and multistakeholder approaches promoted in the RAS context (229)

by Nara Weigel

The 'river of life' drawing above was completed by the green cards in the course of the session and served as a storyline for the thematic input by Marylaure Crettaz (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) and Nara Weigel (HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation). The story started in the mountains with a personal reflection of Marylaure and continued with a brief introduction of SDC's interest in Rural Advisory Services (RAS) most recently expressed through providing support to the GFRAS (Global Forum on Rural Advisory Services). SDC's reorganisation including the creation of thematic networks - one of them being the Agriculture + Rural development network open to SDC staff and its partners - was illustrated as a bend in the river! The network has been capitalizing RAS experiences. This led to the presentation of two initiatives one at project level in Bangladesh and the other at a global level - where public private partnerships were at the core. See below for an illustration of the key actors involved.

The presentation served as a basis to subsequent discussions in a world cafe format on (1) the added value of public private partnerships - at project and global levels for the farmers and (2) whether private sector involvement at both levels leads to more sustainability. Participants agreed that the success of public private partnerships depends very much on the context....Nevertheless, most participants feel that private sector involvement can lead to new market opportunities for farmers as well as more efficient and relevant services, e.g. through facilitating a better flow of information. Under certain conditions (i.e. social inclusion) this can lead to improved livelihood opportunities. It was also highlighted that the role of the public sector remains crucial regarding quality control and setting enabling environments and policies. Finally, participants pointed out that civil society is an important actor, e.g. farmers as drivers of change and NGOs as facilitators. Nothing new under the sun of Rome ;-)

Community radio an extension to telecentre. What is the next frontier? (154)

by Antonella Cordone

John Tarawe from the E.Bario Radio, a small projects financed through the IFAD Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility, shared his experience in setting-up the first community radio in Malaysia.
His story was about a dream that everybody thought it could not become real as the government would have not given a license for a community radio for indigenous peoples in Malaysia. John and his team thought their dream could become a reality if they were able to mobilize the right people and talk to the government….. and they were right.

Today the first licence has been issued by the government to the E.Bario Radio Broadcasting and furthermore, they are now supporting the government to design their policy on community radio. Mosses Ndiyaine from the Maasai people of Tanzania shared his experience on the importance of community radio with mobile and pastoralist peoples informing on how community radios are often the only means of communications that can provide services to the community, for instance informing on which are the areas available for mobile people to move their cattle and of conflicts/problems in one particular area.

The presentation by Joan was dynamic and well attended. There were several questions and people sharing experience from other parts of the world. A shairfair is being organized by E.Bario in November in Malaysia and already connections have been established to also invite people from Africa and link-up with on-going project with Bioversity in Malaysia. We will continue telling the stories of indigenous peoples tomorrow and day after with Mosses from Tanzania.

#sfrome: Net-map a great method to share implicit knowledge

by Paolo Brunello

The promises of Net-map appeal to many judging from the number of people who attended this workshop: indeed everyone admitted to have felt puzzled by complexity, overwhelmed by it, so when you propose a method to harness that complexity instead of succumbing to it, people respond. In fact Net-Map is a technique that allows for zooming out of our own little clearance of knowledge and hover above it, so that we can grasp the wider context and make sense of it.

We started with a "stone in the pond". It's a quick and effective technique to get a feeling of the group and it works like this: people stand in the middle of the room and who feels like it starts off by saying something along the line of: "Hi, I'm Judith, I work in farmers empowerment in Ghana and what I would like to get out of this session is a method to help me engage them more effectively". Everyone will then move, standing very close to Judith if they share her expectation or further away if they don't, along a continuum, like waves of a pond when a stone is thrown in the middle. Thus in few minutes we realised that there was a common interest in learning Net-Map both for strategic planning and monitoring and evaluation, in other words both to create a shared vision of the situation in order to optimise coordinated action and also to visualise the state of things at different times during a process, thus allowing for pre-post comparison.

Almost everyone was new to Net-map so the challenge to learn it in such a short time was big. After a short introduction to the basic steps of the method, three subgroups were created and started to work right away on their maps: they first chose a case study and identified the core question: "Who influences the success of...." and then started writing the names of all the different stakeholders on post-it notes to be placed on the map. Then they selected some relevant links connecting the different stakeholders, like money flow - who is paying whom? - or training - who is training whom? - and they drawn these links using different colors. Then they started assessing the relative influence of each actor in answering that original question, using some wooden discs to build "influence towers" besides each actor.

The final result was a map that portrayed the perceived distribution of power in the system under exam. But perhaps even more important was the process that lead to that map, since every member of the group had to explain why they thought a certain actor was more - or less - influential, thus making their premises explicit. This in one of the key feature of Net-Map: having to draw together, net-mappers are "forced" to share their implicit knowledge of the system under exam making it visible to others, so that we assist to a mutual "perception tuning" that can greatly help the coordination of any subsequent action. While the exercise was going on, some participants volunteered to take an observer's role, to focus on the process of net-mapping without being caught into the specific details of the case study. This then allowed the trainers to address the most burning questions in the final plenary discussion. Finally, as an evaluation, we asked the participants to line up according to their degree of willingness to use Net-Map in the near future and we were pleased to see that the majority of them were optimistic in trying it out in their context.

#sfrome: The Gift Garden

by Carl Jackson

How easy is it really hear and be heard by each other when we passionately build ideas together? How can we speed up the process of synthesising knowledge created by large groups without loosing consensus? At the ShareFair at IFAD in Rome today it was great to be able to propose that the Gift Garden method can help on both these points.

Gift Garden is a method developed originally for an interactive session on climate adaptation for 80+ participants at a conference in Ethiopia earlier this year. It brings together elements of large group facilitation from approaches including World Cafe and Open Space with playful approaches from Applied Improvisation. What is distinctive about the Gift Garden method is that it enables large groups to build new ideas quickly, collaboratively and creatively drawing on individual experience.

Sharing the method to today and running through the process with a group of really generous and knowledgeable facilitators lead to new insights and suggestions for improving the method. I’m always amazed how despite the anxiety I feel sharing new ideas, how quickly people put one at ease and give of their own experience so selflessly. Today was no exception and the suggestions for strengthening the Gift Garden Method included:

• What to do if you have a very vocal person? Maybe have butterfly role to include equitable participation
• Can you have multiple topics in the gift garden? Yes if you have more than one topic you can have just one round per topic as more topics provide opportunities for people to be both bees and butterflies
• It would be logical to use the ‘Yes And’ Rule for the report back sessions to and that would encourage even more synthesis – Great Idea!
• Maybe have post-its for each idea shared in report back and then add these to a big flower at the end of the session – nice idea but could be in tension with the idea of having lots of freedom to improvise as people will be thinking about what to write during the discussion sessions rather than actively listening to each other.
• Having equal numbers of butterflies to bees seems like it could be too much – on reflection it still seems a good idea as butterflies need to support each other to play the active facilitation role they are charged with (with few butterflies they may not feel empowered).
• If you want to make the outcome of the Gift Garden more action oriented you can ask a more focused question at the report backs – like “What should we do next to move forward on the topic discussed?”
• The ‘Yes And’ rule experience: created a very positive atmosphere; challenged us to move beyond Yes But; showed how difficult but important active listening is; showed that silence in the discussion is positive as it allows time to reflect on what has been heard and respond in Yes And mode.
• How to move the discussion from the natural end of one set of ideas and the starting a new set without breaking the Yes And rule needs thinking through as not clear yet in the method.
• The Butterfly’s role needs to include actively asking Bees to repeat what was last said if they feel Bees are not actively listening or building on each others’ ideas.
• Butterflies moderating dominant speakers in Bee groups is a tough assignment. It would help to empower Butterflies to have a huddle of people in this role to share tips on how to facilitate and encourage huddling through out each round to compare notes and decide if an intervention is needed to get bees back on track.
• If someone really doesn’t want to be a butterfly then allow them to opt out, but don’t offer this up front as it may encourage people who just want to be Bees so they can push their ideas to take this option.

For a full explanation of how to run your own Gift Garden session and explain it to others please see the attached PDF note developed for the ShareFair Session today. I’ll update this blog post to point to links to photos and interviews about the Gift Garden that others are posting on other sites later today. 

If you’ve got ideas and suggestions about the Gift Garden method please let me know.

• GiftGarden_ShareFair_Session_19Sept11.pdf (543 KB) (1 Download)

#sfrome: Local solutions for global problems: Food security through traditional crops-a participatory approach (147)

by T.J James
Share Fair is an innovative and interesting platform for learning, sharing, networking and collaboration. I am confident that thought provoking intellectual and stimulating atmosphere helped in cross fertilization of ideas, concepts and thoughts. I have been working in the field of indigenous knowledge and farmers innovation for the past several years. Presently I am coordinating a project implemented by a NGO Peermade Development Society based in Kerala ,India supported by ITPGRFA on food security ,climate change and agro biodiversity. In the share fair I am sharing a case study on reviving a locally adapted farmer developed cassava variety through women self help groups. The case study highlights the importance of local crops in mitigating climate change and climate change and participation of target groups.

The local variety of cassava ( known as Ambakkadan variety) was spotted by a farmer Ambakkadan Thommi way back in 1964. This variety was quite popular during 1970s and 80s. Due to influx of hybrid and short-duration varieties, Ambakkadan variety had vanished from the field, and presently its cultivation is confined to a few individual isolated farmers in Kerala . But with increased prize for food crops recently and also due to non adaptability of hybrid crops , farmers remembered ambakkadan variety. The project team identified the isolated farmers who cultivating this variety and introduced the cultivation in two remote villages of Idukki district ,Kerala - ‘Karunapuram’ and ‘Cumbummettu’ - through 60 women belonging to three self help groups. . They got bumper production and the market demand is also very high for this variety, and for one kilo of cassava, they are getting Rs. 12 to Rs. 15. Besides these advantages, this contributes to food security at house-hold level. The success stories are slowly spreading in the village and demand for the setts is coming from farmers of every quarter now. At present, more than hundred women are actively involved in the cultivation of this variety and this will be extended to several villages in the coming years.

The story reminds that economical value is critical for adoption of local cassava variety and question remains in other neglected and underutilized crops, how we will create economical ,social and cultural values for other neglected and underutilized crops. How to ensure the participation of various actors for the scaling up the concept and what are the institutional support and policy changes needed to promote local crops.