Profitable goat enterprises lifting poor farmers communities out of poverty. Kenya Learning Route, Case 5

By Elaine Reinke and Silvia Sperandini

“Efficient breeding accounts for 30% of goats’ productivity, the rest is appropriate feeding and proper management”, was one of the key messages our “Ruteros” got from the Meru Goat Breeders Association (MGBA) we visited in the Eastern province of Kenya at the last stop of our Learning Route. The case was truly impressive as an example of sustainable development cooperation where a project designed and implemented by FARM-Africa is proving its economic, social and environmental impact eight years after its official closure.

Field visits to producers revealed the success of the project when local smallholder farmers proudly explained how they were able to move from below the poverty line into the middle class of their community thanks to the profitable goat enterprises and services introduced by FARM-Africa.

At the heart of this model is the approach to improve the productivity and economic returns of goats kept by families on small farms through enhancing the management, health and breeding of the animals. Breeding is improved by the genetic upgrade of local goats with a superior exotic breed, the Toggenburg. The result is the Meru Goat, a 75% Toggenburg, which proved to be more adapted to hash environment, to the locally available fodder, more resistant to diseases and more productive, giving 4 liters of milk per day compared to the local breed with 0.5-1 liter. The Meru Goat is a valuable asset, growing faster than local goats and yielding three times the monetary value.
Over two days we spent with the Meru Goat Breeders, the Learning Route participants understood how forming farmer groups has been critical for the sustainability of the project. The role of the association includes the organization and management of all necessary support services and inputs (from veterinary services, breed registration and inspection to quality control and processing milk and milk products), all instrumental to maximizing returns from the goats enterprises.

One of the most discussed issues was the introduction of the zero-grazing approach and its benefits in a context like Meru where the population density is high and land is limited. Farmers confirmed that housing goats in pens keeps these animals secure and healthy, also reducing their exposure to parasites from grazing on common land contaminated by other livestock - which is one of the biggest health problem of goats in Africa.

The case showed that which appropriate technical support, farmers were able to become very efficient breeders, sharing the genetic resources as a community. Associations like MGBA serve as support centers for the adaptation and uptake of new technology (genetic and husbandry improvement) and livestock marketing (guaranteeing high quality standards). Today, the Meru goats are exported to Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Farmers have gained good knowledge on goat husbandry and forage development, and the high quality manure collected at the goats’ houses is fertilizing a rich vegetable production to generate additional incomes in the Meru Country.

With this case, the Kenya Learning Route on Innovative Livestock Marketing comes to its end, while the good practices and lessons learned will now travel with our “Ruteros” back to Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Madagascar and the US to benefit other communities and prove once again that livestock really plays a critical role for the livelihood of poor rural families.

PS. Picture of how innovations travel and view the photo story of the route: http://www.slideshare.net/ifad/lr-kenya-photo-story-ii-compressed

The power of camel milk: the story of the Anolei Camel Milk Cooperative. Kenya Learning Route case 4.

By Silvia Sperandini and Elaine Reinke“We are a community of camels”, is how Kalif Abey of the Kenya Camel Association (KCA) welcomed us in Greater Isiolo in the arid and semi-arid low plains of the upper eastern part of Kenya. The majority of the “ruteros” are from Sudan and Somaliland, therefore have extensive experience with camels and been eagerly awaiting to meet the hosts of this case, local camel raisers and members of the Anolei Camel Milk Cooperative.

Through the discussion with these local champions, it became clear that the potential of the camel and its products has been immensely underutilized in Kenya until it was considered a food animal in the current livestock policy passed by the government in 2008. This policy finally recognized the importance of the camel to safeguard livelihoods due to its ability to survive remain productive even under drought conditions in most of the Arid and Semi Arid Land (ASAL) districts.

With the camel raisers surrounded by some 400 Somali camels (Horr and Gelab sub-breeds), we understood the intensity of camel rearing in an environment where water and forage are scarce, and could sense the depth of the relationship between the pastoralists and their animals. We witnessed the milking process, not missing to taste the fresh camel milk, and learned about the efforts of the herders and the cooperative to open new marketing channels for this valuable product.

Camel milk is a natural and essential food item. Compared to cow and goat milk, it is richer in iron, minerals, vitamins and unsaturated fatty acids, while its fat content is lower. The camel’s lactation period is also longer (from 1 to 1.5 years), all year round and under the harshest conditions. Recent researches indicate some medicinal potential such as anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties and positive impacts in cases of diabetes and tuberculosis. The producers therefore proudly pledge that it is much more than simple milk.

Camel-owning cultures traditionally place the men as the camel owners, while women possess and market the milk. Today, this female-dominated business of camel milk marketing contributes KSH 8 billion (US$ 95 million) every year to the Kenyan economy, and the profits are usually managed and controlled by women. Having recognized the marketing potential and growing demand for camel milk, the Anolei women, a pro-active group of Somali women, got organized as a self-help group in 1997 and registered as a cooperative in 2010. They managed to set-up a new, profitable business purchasing camel milk from local producers and marketing it in Isiolo and Nairobi. With some support of the KCA and other partners including SNV, VSF and FAO, the Anolei women upgraded their business processes, improved hygiene standards and herd management. They now collect and transport to Eastleigh Nairobi some 4,000 (in the dry season) to 6,500 (in the rainy season) litres of camel milk per day from producers within a 40km radius from Isiolo. They also run a milk bar where our “ruteros” were invited to enjoy camel milk, tea and meat.

The learning route participants appreciated how this group built a successful business for the benefit of their communities and became an important player in an effective milk marketing chain. Along the way, they faced many constraints particularly related to hygiene and transportation. In response, they introduced aluminum cans and cooling and established pooled transport arrangements. Demand for camel milk is gradually increasing, also beyond the Somali communities in Kenya, but there is need for further improve business process. Women traders are now using M-PESA as a means of cash transactions, increasing security and reducing losses. Bank accounts have been opened and the cooperative is planning to take a loan to purchase their own truck tond improve their transport.

Other challenges remain beyond their control, such as the lack of trained specialized veterinarians in the country and recurrent tribal conflicts in the Isiolo area based on competition over pasture, calling for continued collaboration and partnership among the different actors.

Within their capacity, the Anolei women have significantly increased their incomes and their decision-making power in their households and communities. With their commitment and business skills, camel milk production and marketing has become the backbone of the livelihoods of the Isiolo people.

M-PESA: The power of mobile technology in livestock marketing. Kenya Learning Route, case 3.

By Elaine Reinke and Silvia Sperandini

“I don’t need to go to the bank, I have the bank in my phone.” This is what all the actors in the Kenyan livestock and meat value chain have in common: they use M-PESA. On our journey of good practices across Kenya, the learning route participants discovered why this innovative solution has not only revolutionized the Kenyan business sector but also facilitates market access of rural pastoralists and livestock traders day by day.

Since 2007, Safaricom (Vodafone group) leads the way with an electronic money transfer system based on SMS messaging that has changed the lives of millions of Kenyans across all demographic and social segments of the population including the rural poor. M-PESA allows quick, easy and immediate payments from one person to another and from individuals to businesses, from supermarket expenses over electricity bills to school fees and remittances. To exchange e-money into cash and vice versa, customers use M-PESA kiosks to deposit or withdraw bank notes when needed.

For pastoralists and livestock traders in rural areas M-PESA has innovated their way of making business. Even who is miles from the next commercial bank and moving cattle along remote grazing areas and trekking routes can now transfer money back home anytime or easily sell livestock without the risk of carrying cash over long distances as well as reducing debts and delayed payments caused by promissory payments.

The success of M-PESA among pastoralists also links back to the availability of mobile network coverage even in remote areas and prevalent use of mobile phones in pastoralist communities. Thanks to this technology pastoralists are now connected to their family and friends, can quickly find out where to bring their cattle for grazing instead of roaming in search of water and pasture, and communicate with their business contacts at livestock markets while still at rangelands, saving time for other income generating activities and household chores.

Today, 15 million M-PESA customers use about 28,000 agent outlets countrywide for cash disposal and withdrawal. Safaricom’s innovation started as a small pilot project which now transfers more money than all Kenyan commercial banks together.

Designed to reach the poorer segments of the population who are not able to access the formal banking system, it is also becoming important gateway to enter into the commercial banking system since Safaricom in collaboration with Equity Bank introduced M-Kesho. This innovative banking product offers a bank account that includes micro-savings, micro-credit and micro-insurance products. M-PESA customers who join M-Kesho can also withdraw cash from the bank using their M-PESA accounts, save money and obtain small loans using the MPESA e-money as guarantee.

But what is it that made M-PESA such a success here in Kenya, while the uptake in other countries in the region remains relatively low?

This is one of the questions the “ruteros” discussed with our hosts of this case which include local M-PESA agents, maasai pastoralists, livestock and meat traders. Enabling factors which emerged from the discussion are the investment and commitment of Safaricom but also the entrepreneurial culture and readiness of the business sector and supportive government policy.

From pastoralists to terminal market: journey along the livestock value chain. Kenya Learning Route case 2.

by Silvia Sperandini and Elaine Reinke

“If you want to understand the livestock value chain, just follow the cow!”, is the first thing that the “Ruteros” learned once we arrived in Kenya. By now, following the cow, we have reached the terminal market of Kiseria, south-eastern Kenya, where the Keekenyokie slaughterhouse is located and where the livestock value chain ends and the meat value chain starts.

During this journey we met various actors of the livestock chain from pastoralists and agro-pastoralists at village level (producers) to different types of traders which include: primary itinerant traders who move cattle from producers to primary markets, middle level traders who sell cattle into secondary and terminal markets, middlemen who operate as brokers, mainly at the market, taking animals from producers, itinerant traders and middle level traders, and negotiating with buyers and transporters.

Interacting with them we learned the tips and tricks of grading systems and pricing mechanisms but also understood that all these actors along the chain face a variety of challenges. Frequent drought periods cause market fluctuation and massive depreciation of stock. High incidences of livestock diseases and pests affect production as well as trading due to frequent quarantine. Poor market infrastructure and absence of organized facilities (feeding, water, vet services, troughs etc.) put animals and humans at risk. Limited capital and scarce access to credit affecting the production as well as trading. Limited livestock transportation mechanisms and continued moving on the hoof to markets affects quality of stock.

Kiseria is the most vibrant pastoralist-managed livestock market in Kenya and the Keekonyokie slaughterhouse is more than an abattoir. It is the gateway to the urban market and offers business opportunities to the pastoral Maasai communities located in southern Kenya and Tanzania. It is an innovative business enterprise that was established by Maasai pastoralist groups controlling the slaughterhouse management to the benefit of their communities.

The most innovative aspect of the business was found to be the IFAD-supported biogas plant to convert slaughterhouse waste into energy and bio fertilizer, reducing the environmental impact linked to its business activity. The company uses the biogas produced to generate electrical power for the meat cold room, processing equipment and heating water for cleaning the abattoir.

The Keekenyokie community has strong ambitions for the future of their slaughterhouse. Apart from expanding the facilities for slaughter, meat processing and biogas generation and storage, the business seeks to improve its hygiene and sanitation in order to meet quality standards for the export market. Packaging meat products with the Keekenyokie branding and selling them directly to supermarkets will further require additional capital to purchase machinery and training on using technical facilities. But the main innovation they would like to introduce is packaging and selling biogas to rural and peri-urban consumers.

The “Ruteros” were particularly impressed with the initiative and business-orientation of the Keekenyokie community, the effective integration of the value chain, as well as the biogas innovation, and gave a wealth of constructive recommendations to their hosts.

Bridging the gap: Connecting Maasai pastoralist communities to livestock markets. Kenya Learning Route, case 1.

By Elaine Reinke and Silvia Sperandini

“To improve a value chain, you have to be part of it”. With these words Michael Kibue, Director of Agritrade and one of the three PROCASUR Technical Coordinators of this route, opened his briefing to the “Ruteros” before visiting the first case in Amboseli, south-eastern Kenya. Here, in a beautiful natural scenario in the savanna near the Kilimanjaro, the participants met the Siana Masaai Women and Kilitome Market Access Committees (MAC) to discuss the livestock value chain and learn how these pastoral groups gained better access to the livestock market.

Thanks to a partnership between the local Maasai communities, African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), an international NGO, and Agritrade, a private sector company, MACs were created in 2009 to facilitate the development of an efficient pro-poor market chain that benefits livestock producers including pastoral women.

AWF established the conservation areas in which the Maasai groups live, gave a loan to Agritrade under the condition that the private sector player provides start-up trading capital to the Maasai groups and do business with them.
After witnessing and participating in traditional singing and dancing with jingling jewels, the group entered into a lively discussion with the MACs to better understand how they were able to bridge the gap between producers and markets. After many hours of storytelling, role plays and question and answer sessions, the route participants fully immerged into the MAC concept based on an integration of social, economic and environmental aspects through effective win-win partnerships.

The MACs replace the role of the middlemen shortening the livestock value chain and, in combination with value addition through fattening, enable the pastoral communities obtaining better income from livestock marketing. It also offers pastoralists access to urban meat markets, hence higher returns for producers who are typically exploited in the standard livestock marketing practices. In addition, MACs facilitate the transfer of awareness, knowledge and skills that empowers pastoralists to gain profitable returns from their livestock resources.

Another innovative practice that emerged from this case is the Siana women group which successfully ventured into a sector traditionally dominated by men. Given that male community members hold control over family herds and means of production, women occupy a lower status in decision-making processes with limited opportunities for their socio-economic empowerment. Transforming such culturally rooted norms and systems requires the commitment of champions to drive the change.

The Siana women group is leading this change process.With technical and financial support mobilized through the aforementioned partnerships, they are now more experienced in dealing with market dynamics, pasture and livestock management. Last year they also established their own cattle head thanks to a small donation received from the IFAD Help Fund. They are now livestock producers and traders with a stronger decision-making role within their households and communities. The challenges to overcome are still many (such as market and climate instability, animal diseases and poor access to veterinarian services etc.) – but the “Ruteros” believe that with their strong commitment and entrepreneurial spirit, the Maasai groups will continue their journey towards a better livelihood.

How do innovations travel? In people’s mind. Kenya Learning Route on Innovating Livestock Marketing, day 1

by Silvia Sperandini and Elaine Reinke

“We are the birds who letting innovations travel around the world”, is how Diana Puyo, PROCASUR Africa Coordinator, yesterday opened the Learning Route on innovative livestock marketing from Northern to Eastern Africa organized by PROCASUR in partnership with IFAD’s Near East, North Africa and Europe Division and technical support of the Policy and Technical Advisory Division.

22 “Routeros”, route participants from various IFAD-supported projects and implementing partners, are now gathered for an intense 12-day journey across various districts and communities in Kenya. The majority of them comes from Sudan but the group also includes participants from Somalia, Madagascar, Ethiopia, the US and Europe, who are all connected through the common interest of improving their practice in the livestock sector and become agents of change in their countries by bringing new ideas and successful solutions back to their projects, organizations and communities packaged in concrete innovation plans they will develop during the route.

Over the next days, the route participants are the knowledge seekers who will learn directly from rural communities and practitioners – the local champions. The trainers probably never went to school, and are unlikely to read or write, but they are the real experts since faced similar challenges and identified solutions to overcome them.

The first day in Nairobi was preparatory for the field experiences but already stimulated a lot of rich and lively discussions , fueled by group of Kenyan livestock experts who presented an overview of the national livestock industry. Now many questions are on the table and are waiting to be answered by the good practices that will be visited: What are effective ways to bridge the gap between markets and producers? How to meet market information needs of different stakeholders, and how to improve effectiveness and performance of development projects aimed at livestock marketing?

In the next days the participants will visit the following host cases:
- Siana Masaai Women and Kilitome Market Access Committees
- Using M- PESA as an Innovative Livestock Marketing Tool for Pastoralists
- Linking Community Slaughter Houses to Urban Markets
- Anolei Camel Milk Cooperative
- Meru Goat Breeders Association

Tomorrow will be our first encounter with some of the rural champions who will be our trainers during this route … don’t miss it. Remember, innovations travel in people’s mind – stay tuned join our journey!

IFAD scales innovations through the ‘Learning Routes’

by Valentina Gullotta Sauve 

On 27 October, IFAD held an informal lunch‐time seminar on the “Learning Routes” as a knowledge management and capacity building tool to scale up best practices and innovations during the “Scaling Up the Fight against Rural Poverty” Event.

Ariel Halpern (PROCASUR) and Roberto Haudry (IFAD) ‐ with the intervention of  Paineto Baluku from Uganda (Bukonzo Cooperative, partner of PROCASUR)‐ presented PROCASUR and the learning routes methodology showing how knowledge sharing can open learning and innovation scale up spaces.

PROCASUR started as a Latin America and Caribbean regional training programme for IFAD and it is now, fifteen years later working at a global scale, implementing Learning Route Programmes for Latin America, East and Southern Africa and Asia and Pacific divisions of IFAD.

PROCASUR’s objective is to feed learning loops by making visible the voices of the ones that are invisible.

‘Already being in this room is an achievement for PROCASUR’, Ariel said, because it is an opportunity to make visible an approach and a movement to which many partners are involved and engaged. The LR is a methodology but also a way to promote rural development knowledge market with a positive inclusion of project staff and grass root organizations learning and local champions: this methodology is allowing IFAD projects approaches and tools to stay after closed, being recreated, adapted and expanded.

Helen Gillman from IFAD intervened underlining the fact that the Learning Routes are not just field trips or study tour, but a systematized journey with an intensive learning process, considering carefully the design, implementation and follow up phase.

Replying to Johannes Linn’s final question on how PROCASUR see itself in 5 years from now, it was explained that PROCASUR wants to keep the strategic partnership with IFAD on its expansion process and complement each other role.

Next 5 years vision is to reach out an increasing number of rural people in the Global South offering and demanding knowledge and skills generated by practicing rural poverty in the front line. Establishing this network, or hub as Ariel calls it, bring to a successful adaptation and adoption of the Learning Route methodology to the regional settings where IFAD is operating.
Check this cartoon to understand what a is Learning Route is and visit PROCASUR site in Spanish and English

A conversation with Etienne Wenger about Communities of Practice…

by Willem Bettink

On Tuesday morning some 20 colleagues from FAO, WFP and IFAD gathered in the Qatar centre at IFAD for an informal conversation with Etienne who (upon Roxi‘s request) had volunteered his spare time in Rome before traveling on to Portugal.

Etienne is a practitioner, writer on CoP, Networks, a researcher of learning and much more! I encourage you to visit his website and read for example an article about Communities of Practice (http://www.ewenger.com/theory/) and many other interesting articles and publications.

Etienne started the conversation by telling us that the term CoP was created while he was studying apprenticeship as a learning model. He said, usually we think of apprenticeship as a relationship between a novice and a master. His studies of apprenticeship revealed a more complex set of social relationships through which learning takes place. It was not the master but fellow travellers and more advanced apprentices that were providing learning. This sounds very similar to what PROCASUR has been elaborating in its learning routes methodology.

We asked him what makes a CoP? Etienne referred to the three core characteristics that are crucial: which domain or what is this CoP about- its identity or shared interest of the members ; which community –given the domain or shared practices who are the partners to be engaged given their relevance to the domain; and which practices- members of a CoP have to agree on a focus –their shared practices-stories ,tools ,ways of solving problems. These practices should create “value” for people through conversation and other activities.

Most CoPs come to life by having a “core group” of practitioners who are willing to invest some of their energy to the CoP (Let’s not forget that supporting a CoP is no one’s first job!!). A CoP requires commitment or accountability to develop the practices of a domain to make it succeed. The core group can provide a learning leadership –-not to direct the CoP or projecting its ideas on how it should be, but being as leaders open to the community to improve one’s own practices. A key ingredient and motivator is the willingness and interest to learn together, from each other, to improve capabilities and practices in the domain.

Quite a few of us asked how we should/could keep a CoP active. As in a human being the “rhythm” or energy level of each CoP varies-thus there is no prescription or model to follow. Some CoP may meet only a once a year in an f2f -meeting which satisfies their interests and needs. Others interchange very intense interactions over shorter periods with more regular and less intense forms of engagement. To keep energy in a CoP it is important that the core group is clear about what energizes the community. Every now and then one may create a PULL to this energy - in other word attract people in what engages them in conversation about their practice. An example of such a pull activity is for example a case clinic- a member of the CoP present a concrete problem on which I got stuck and for which I seek advice from the CoP.

For me a very valuable observation was when Etienne said “the point of knowledge management is to develop our strategic capabilities that we need to succeed in our work”. As such a CoP -a learning partnership with relevant partners- is to focus on strategic capabilities critical for our work.

And I ask myself how far our CoPs are helping us to develop the strategic capabilities to succeed in our mission?

Value of cross-continental learning route

by Nguyen Thanh Tung


After flying from Hanoi across Asian, African and Latin American countries and taking long transit hours in Kuala Lumpur, Cape Town and Buenos Aires we finally landed in Lima, Peru after 44 long hours. Our team of 11 people including provincial leaders, IFAD project directors and staffs from Vietnam then climbed to Arequipa, Chivay and Sibayo in the Andes mountains and wondered if the intercontinental trip would have learning value. “I thought farmers in my province suffer harsh conditions, but really here their livelihood is much more challenging, the area has more stones than we have ”, said Mr. Tien, Vice-Chairman of Ha Giang Province when he saw the land surface in the southern region of Peru made up only of stone like on the moon.

We were surprised from the first day of the Learning Route, by the cold climate in the highlands at altitudes of 3,800 meter and above and by such a warm atmosphere of the community’s dynamics and ownership of development. “No need for reading the project completion report or any of monitoring and evaluation, the presentation skills and understandings on business management by the women’s groups we met in the villages and during a CLAR contest showed us the successes of the IFAD project”, concluded Ms. Vien, IMPP Project Director from Tra Vinh province after the four-day visit to women’s household-tourism and handicraft associations in Sibayo and their actual participation in the final CLAR contest on poverty reduction impacts of their activities. Recalling similar Cham ethnic minority women in her province who are shy and reluctant to talk at community meetings, Ms. Vien added: “I do think that the CLAR mechanism makes the local poor women change their capacities and we need to learn from this from Peru for replication under IFAD projects in Vietnam”.


Why the CLAR mechanism was so attractive to the Vietnamese team? CLAR in Spanish is “Comité Local de Asignación de Recursos” (local resources allocation committee), in which community groups compete with their business ideas and plans for accessing pubic resources that they will own and manage to procure technical assistance and build up infrastructure they need. CLAR members are representatives of the beneficiary communities and enterprise associations and information on the CLAR process and decisions are publicly announced. Resources allocated by the CLAR are up to the 80% of the total budget of a business plan and the other 20% is invested by the local communities, so both become partners. This factor makes the community groups the real owners of their business plans, e.g. they decide to hire someone locally available to teach poor women weaving handcrafts or cooking food for tourists. There is no need to wait for training services by government staffs.


The principle of competition in the CLAR contest is also a key factor, motivating creation of new business ideas and assurance of product quality. Trade fairs, integrated with the CLAR contest, generate opportunities for producer’s associations to promote the marketing of their products in urban areas. All these factors were discussed by our team during analysis workshops conducted during the Learning Route right after each day of field visits and interviews with local stakeholders. The more we learned about the CLAR mechanism the more we fell in love with this tool and asked for its detailed guidelines. We believe that this tool may overcome the current constraints to development of producer’s associations under IFAD projects in Vietnam, in particular in their access to financial and technical assistance due to bureaucratic and top-down mechanisms of public service management.


“I found CLAR a very effective and efficient system for pro-poor public resource management. However, adopting CLAR in Vietnam will need the political commitment of local government for introducing changes like in Peru. Thank you, IFAD and PROCASUR very much for helping me in crossing the world’s continents to learn many new things that we are ready to replicate in Vietnam”, said Vice-Chairman Tien during the final workshop of the Learning Route in which each of us presented our follow-up innovation plans based on the Peru experience.

We all fully in agree with Vice-Chairman Tien that we learnt more than expected. In addition to the CLAR itself we learnt in Peru how to develop sustainable community-based tourism and off-farm activities in remote and difficult areas, how to conserve indigenous techniques among ethnic minority groups and integrate the production workshops within tourism activities, how to promote public private partnerships (PPP) in development of saving groups in cooperation with private banks, provision of training to government staffs and communities by private mining companies, etc. but there are more and more interesting things to list here. For example Vice-Chairman Tien was most happy when he saw in the Peruvian household he stayed with in Sibayo village the model of wood-saving stove that he was looking for promoting in his province.

Saying goodbye with warmest hugs with our Peruvian friends we invited them to join us soon in a Learning Route to IFAD projects in Vietnam since we believe that sharing knowledge does need to be organized focused on key innovation that we want to bring back home, and in face-to-face interactions with project stakeholders, in particular the poorest ethnic minority women in the most disadvantaged areas.

Competing to overcome rural poverty

By Giulia Pedone

This morning the main square of Chivay is a celebration of colours: representatives of rural producers’ associations, mostly women in their traditional clothes, gathered to compete in a CLAR (Resource Allocation Local Committees) contest. The establishment of CLAR is one of the most successful innovations introduced by the Sierra Sur Project in the Southern Highlands of Peru, which is now being scaled-up in the frame of the Sierra Norte IFAD- funded project.

CLAR consists in a transparent, competitive and democratic way to allocate resources to local associations through public contests. Local talents (individual or associated) are invited to present their business plans to the CLAR jury, composed by representatives of local authorities, women associations, micro-enterprises and peasant communities. The evaluation of the business plans is accompanied by a field visit, during which the CLAR jury directly assesses the results described by local associations in their plans. On this base, the best associations are selected to participate at the final competition. In this occasion, local associations are asked to present their own business plans in a public place, generally the main city square, to be evaluated by the jury at the presence of a large public.

The final evaluation takes into account a broad rage of factors, including the recovery of cultural assets (such as the use of indigenous languages and traditional vestments), the degree of coordination and organization among associations’ members, the efforts made to reach the presented results and the possibility of their scaling-up.

Therefore, the public contest becomes a joyful and colourful event, where rural associations get together to share their experiences and learn from the others.

This morning we are pleased to assist to a very special CLAR, since the competing associations have been already recognized as the best organizations from all Caylloma province. Handicrafts, foodstuff and other local products are nicely exposed in the associations’ stands; we have the chance to walk around, taste local food, admire the women’ dresses finely embroidered and learn about the successful local experiences directly from rural producers.

The case of the a women association from Chivay particularly called our attention. Thanks to the establishment of a saving group, these ex-housewives (with no access to financial resources) have been able to put together a common capital and to invest in small rural businesses. The ladies are now managing an informal communal bank, providing credits to those women that can not have access to banks. The interests are cumulated to make the capital growing, while part of the savings are invested in the production and trade of local products. Membership, credit and business are funded on the mutual trust among participants. As women pointed out, the project gave them the opportunity to change their lives, not only in term of incomes but also for the self-esteem they acquired during the process and power decision they were able to get within their community.

This only one of the several successful experiences we have had the chance to learn from during the day and many others could be listed.

Perhaps, the red thread that links all these experiences (making CLAR a such an innovative mechanism) can be summarized in few key elements: added value to local knowledge (including the opportunity to make business out of it), increased inclusiveness and local participation, built citizenship and ensured transparency in funds allocation thanks to a competitive approach.

Public contests have demonstrated to be excellent tools to promote transparency, social control and improve partnerships between different actors of rural development at local level, such as communities, governments, public and private enterprises, among others. Furthermore, these contests promote the participation of local “champions” (or local talents, as they are called in Latin America) in the “market of knowledge”, investing in the people’s capabilities.

However, a special ingredient that couldn’t be missed out is the “political commitment to change”: on the one hand, this implies having a political space favourable for the replication of these experiences and their scaling-up in the frame of regional and national policies; on the other hand, this means counting on the commitment of local people to engage together to overcome rural poverty. As it was pointed out: overcome poverty together, not individually.

Some lessons learned from the Route

After one week of being together, sharing ideas, doubts, meals and mountain roads, we feel happy and a bit tired. Despite of the first obstacles due to the different climate conditions and alimentation, our Vietnamese colleagues finally look relaxed. Under the alpaca hats they have bought to survive to the freezing wind of the Sierra, they are smiling.

The first lesson learned is the power of the Learning Routes themselves, as special moments to get people together, learn from others, change perspective and strengthen alliances. A Learning Route is much more than a simple field visit, it stimulates to critically reflect on the learning process while you are living it, providing at the same time the methodological tools to transform ideas in proposals, inputs in innovations. This conceptual exercise, made of listening and asking, observing and reflecting, getting inspired and being creative is the first achievement we are taking back home with us.

There are also other conclusions we can draw from this specific learning experience. As it will be remarked during the closing session of the Learning Route, one important lesson is “flexibility”. IFAD- funded projects in Peru have been designed and implemented with some degree of flexibility, allowing to adapt projects’ principles and approaches to local reality. In this sense, Sierra Sur is an example of demand-driven project that responds to people’s needs and aspirations. This has made possible to build mutual trust between local people, project staff and authorities. This process implied a change in perspective, meaning to consider local people not only like beneficiaries but also as partners of project activities.

The allocation of resources through public contests demonstrated to be a key element to strengthen people participation and empower local communities, showing that the best results in overcoming rural poverty are those based on local people’s initiatives and self-capacities. Recognizing and enhancing people’s capabilities and knowledge is thus a first step to eradicate rural poverty.

This change in perspective allows to make another step further, meaning focussing on what people have (and that can increase) instead of what they lack. The glass is half full, not half empty.

As Ariel Halpern from PROCASUR pointed out, we need to learn to hear and learn to learn, what will also increase our self-esteem as professionals. In this sense, we should be prepared to learn from other people’s ideas, facilitating processes but also giving to others the chance to make mistakes, and therefore, to learn. The risk is part of the investment.

Develop an attitude for human understanding also means to let innovations and ideas circulate, and this is much more efficient when people are vehicle of knowledge transfer, instead of papers.

By changing our perspective and opening up our minds we can better ensure the construction of a rural world with more opportunities for everybody.

IFAD Innovations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The case of Peru

By Giulia Pedone


Day 1. Quequeña
Getting together

It was 6am when we left Lima and the salty breeze of the coast to fly towards Arequipa, over 2000 metres in the Southern Highlands of Peru. Here our journey begins, a one week Learning Route that will guide us through the rural areas of the Arequipa Department offering the opportunity to learn from the successful experiences supported by the SIERRA SUR IFAD-funded project directly from the people that are managing and implementing these activities.

We are a heterogeneous group, mostly composed by Vietnamese representatives from IFAD projects, which have been travelling during more than 2 days crossing the globe from East to West to reach the shining mountains of the Sierra, and by the management team of the IFAD Sierra Norte Project, Peru. Despite of the tiredness and the few hours of sleep, our Vietnamese colleagues look fresh and excited to participate at this unique experience of mutual learning.

The Learning Route has been designed by PROCASUR jointly with the local management team of IFAD projects in Vietnam to explicitly respond to Vietnamese’ needs. In this framework, 3 main topics have been identified as priority areas to be addressed during the Route: 1. public, transparent and competitive ways for allocating resources through public contests; 2. development of rural business and access to market and; 3. public and private partnerships for rural development. These issues will be framed within a broader context, which will include value chains, cultural assets, gender, NRM and participatory planning under territorial approaches, among others.

The first day of the Route is intended to brief participants on IFAD long term trajectory and operations in Peru, main achievements and current challenges, and to define the context in which the Route will be articulated. But, even more, this first day provides the opportunity to get together and break the ice, know each other and from each other, strengthening among participants the feeling of being part of a group which will share ideas, meals and mountain roads during the following days.

We reach Quequeña by road, passing through the white city of Arequipa and the mountainous, dried landscapes of the Sierra; our Vietnamese colleagues are amazed by seeing how local people was able to take advantage of such apparently hostile natural environment.. as it will be remarked, this is an example of the power of local knowledge we have to capitalise on!
We just stepped into the Route, but we are already Learning..

Day 2. Sibayo

The bus climbs up the twisting roads of the Sierra during more than 4 hours before reaching the village of Sibayo, province Caylloma, Arequipa Department. The name Sibayo in Quechua means “the city of stones” and actually the community is made up of low stone houses with thatched roof. The stones shine under the bright light of midday and the altitude makes a bit hard to breath (we are almost at 3810 meters over the sea level); the place is clean and peaceful, surrounded by green mountains. We are warmly welcomed by the women and men of the ASITUR Association, which since 2006 is managing the experience of “convivial tourism” with Sibayo’s families.

During the day we have the chance to get together with the members of ASITUR, as well as with local authorities and with the local association of women artisans, and to learn from them about the innovative experience of Sibayo, or to say it in other words, about how Sibayo’s population was able to step out from poverty by revitalizing and investing in their own culture.

Indeed, when the idea of investing in sustainable tourism first came out, Sibayo’s community was close to collapse. The presence of gold mines, the increasing traffic on the main (close) road and the lack of opportunity for local people had led to a progressive depopulation of the area. It has been thanks to the long-term vision of capable local authorities, the commitment of local population and the support of the SIERRA SUR Project that tourism activities first started to be developed. Within a few years, the situation of Sibayo has radically changed. Today, there are approximately 25 “hosting” families directly involved in tourism activities, while others indirectly benefit from tourism by selling their products (mostly trout, local vegetables and alpaca’s meat) and handicraft or organizing excursions, trekking and rafting activities for the foreign guests. The revenues are invested in training aimed at improving the quality of the service, as well as in improvements in infrastructures, education and savings. From this year, the tourism experience is completely sustainable and the Association is using its own money to pay for external training services.

Tourism didn’t bring only money: thanks to this experience, local people has been incentivized to recover their own cultural patrimony, to improve the quality of their alimentation and to progressively acquire self-confidence in their own capabilities. This has been particularly key for women that have been able to overcome their initial resistance to speak in front of foreign peoples, and therefore to present and sell their products out of the village. Women started to recover the ancient art of embroidery and to participate to local, regional and national fairs to sell their handicrafts, getting more and more experience and success.

Indeed, the successful experience of Sibayo has been made possible thanks to the conjunction of a set of positive factors, such as the presence of a fertile social environment, the commitment of rural people to get together and collaborate and the positive attitude of local authorities, which have been able to recognize the potentiality of this experience and to invest in it since the very beginning. As Raul Mamani, major of Sibayo Municipality pointed out, the strengthening of synergies between authorities and local people and the active participation of this last in project’s activities are fundamental in order to ensure the sustainable development of new income-generating activities.
So, a first lesson we can learn from Sibayo’s experience, is the need of creating opportunities for rural people by combining these two aspects, local people participation and policy dialogue. Indeed, successful experiences are those that respond to people’s needs and ambitions and that therefore can count on the engagement and long-term commitment of the people that will directly benefit from them. At the same time, it is important to raise awareness among local governments, bridging the gap between people and their authorities and opening up opportunities for collaboration with mutual benefits, so to create a political environment able to respond to local people’s needs.

(to be continued…)

Africa!!!. La ventana abierta por los servicios financieros

Como imaginar un lugar sin estar ahí, desde todo punto de vista el mundo tiene muchas inequidades pero lo que hemos visto aquí, en estos primeros días de Ruta, es de gente que trata de salir de la forma que sea de su pobreza, gente que ha estado reprimida a lo largo de la historia moderna y que a la pequeña oportunidad abraza el entusiasmo y con sus limitaciones nos muestra que con poco si es posible hacer mucho.
Lo que hemos visto en estos primeros cinco dias, es una enorme capacidad de hacer cosas grandiosas, algunas con resultados debatibles, pero en fin de cuentas generadoras de un enorme capital social, relacional y de capacidades que no deja de sorprendernos, desde el inicio de la ruta nos dimos de cara a una realidad dura, o hasta hostil con una población casi olvidada, pero con las mismas inquietudes y miras inquitas de saber quienes éramos y que cosa podíamos dejar para su utilidad.

Pasando los días nos abriga la calidez de la cercanía a la línea ecuatorial con un paisaje que incluye elefantes, cebras, antílopes, hipopótamo y miradas extrañas de ver a gente ………..

Che esperienza meravigliosa questa Ruta! Mai nella nostra vita ci siamo svegliati cosi presto ma cosi volentieri! Ogni giorno della Ruta e´ un giorno in piu´ di apprendimento, di conoscenza, di scambio di informazioni, di straordinario arricchimento professionale e personale. L´idea che tutti i partecipanti rientrino nei loro paesi di origine e applichino cio´ che hanno imparato e cio´ che ritengono piu´ utile per il loro paese e per la loro comunita´, e´semplicemente elettrizzante e rappresenta la forma di cooperazione allo sviluppo (cooperazione sud-sud) dei prossimi decenni!

Alla fine della Ruta potremo dire di aver visitato 4 casi concreti di istituzioni microfinanziarie (e di averle poi analizzate e approfondite durante i wrap-up meetings, ciascuno esprimendo i propri compiacimenti o le proprie preoccupazioni), di aver imparato molto ma di aver anche risposto noi alle domande che le nostre amiche e i nostri amici africani ci ponevano per sapere cio´ che accade nei nostri paesi.

Durante la Ruta si lavora, ma il piacere e il divertimento non mancano di certo! Che divertenti i nostri viaggi in bus, cantando le canzoni piu´ conosciute (Akuna Matata,ecc…) ma anche quelle dei singoli paesi dei partecipanti, cosi come i vari inni nazionali! E poi mangiare i piatti tipici ugandesi (platano, riso, fagioli, patate, carne di capra, verdura…) cucinati dai nostri amici che cosi calorosamente ci ospitano nei loro villaggi e nelle loro case! E che accoglienze indimenticabili, con balli e canti che ci coinvolgono tutti! Alla fine della giornata siamo tutti un po´ stanchi, ma felici di essere stanchi perche´ esserlo ha significato passare una giornata intensissima e bellissima! Ogni giornata della Ruta e´ come un seme piantato, con tutte le possibilita’ che diventi presto albero e dia i suoi frutti non appena i partecipanti rientrano a casa!

Per finire non possiamo non citare le bellezze naturali apprezzate durante tutta la Ruta, tra foresta e savana, montagne e laghi, campagne, piantagioni di te´ e tanto altro, e poi gli straordinari animali! Abbiamo imparato molto anche della storia, della cultura e della tradizione ugandesi grazie agli appassionati racconti dei nostri amici ugandesi. E infine il gruppo, un gruppo di persone da vari continente e infiniti paesi (Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Camerun, Somalia, Italia, Olanda…!!!!) che gia´ a meta´ Ruta son in realta´ un gruppo di amici!!

A questo punto non possiamo che dire grazie a chi ha permesso che tutto cio´ abbia avuto luogo: grazie Procasur, grazie Diana, grazie Fred!!!!"

Land pathway getting on their Learning route!

By Willem Bettink

This second day has been very dense with discussion and sharing of experiences that has moved the land pathway onto developing its initial thoughts for the learning route(s). The morning session opened by presenting a first digestion of thoughts based on the country experiences presented yesterday. The experiences with various local land use planning shared the concern of the risk to exclude some particular groups of the local population from access to land in particular pastoralists, and very poor women.

An innovative approach by the SWADE-project in Swaziland enabled the integration of local land use planning into local development planning involving the communities throughout the process. This led Sharefair participants in the land pathway to consider if they should address the local land issues in the broader context of a sustainable livelihoods plan instead of as a stand alone issue.

These reflections fitted well with the presentation of the scoping paper¹ prepared by Fiona Flintan, which provides an overview of the benefits and challenges of customary land tenure systems. These include aspects such as: a focus on groups versus individuals; what factors influence the development of the customary system; and what are the challenges for various stakeholders involved.

But how does all of this work in practice-what was learned so far? There needs to be an enabling environment in place; achieving a shared vision and consensus between stakeholders; provision of legal backing for defining roles and responsibilities and a CBO with strong leadership, ownership and capacity.

Halfway though the day the land pathway opened its doors to Ariel Halpern of PROCASUR who completed his Odyssey leaving Chile last Saturday arriving today at the Sharefair at ILRI in Addis. For sure he had not lost his energy to stimulate us with his personal reflections and thoughts. He took us through what is known as the learning route –a tool developed and successfully delivered to support small farmers, women and youth in about 23 countries by PROCASUR.

Learning Routes has proven to be a flexile tool adapting it’s use to a diversity of topics(e.g.local government, land, gender, culture assets, rural business, rural ICTs, rural youth) and a wide range of people and countries specificity. Ariel defined the learning route fundamentals to be:

• Recognize that in rural areas it is possible to find successful solutions to existing and common problems which can be adapted and multiplied in other context; and
• Use a learning strategy that enables participants to acquire direct knowledge and arouse their curiosity and interest in learning.

Mino Hardi from Madagascar, who participated in the learning route on Women and Land rights, said that she started the learning route with a lot of ideas about what to do. The powerful experience for her was to visit communities and see how people had achieved putting similar ideas she had into practice –this gave an enormous push to her motivation to pursue her ideas once she returned form this learning route to Madagascar.

At this deep hour into the day, maps of Africa were pulled out! Participants were asked to map out the challenges they face in their countries, what they have to learn and what experiences/practices they can share. Enough for now, but more to follow tomorrow from this committed lot of practitioners!!!

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[1] Recognizing, formalizing and supporting customary land tenure in multi-use landscapes- Scoping paper (work in progress) by Fiona Flintan for the International Land Coalition.  

América Latina y Africa comparten conocimientos y estrategias de fomento del desarrollo rural

5 septiembre 2010. Kigali/Rwanda — Planificadores y responsables de proyectos de desarrollo rural de 14 países africanos y latinoamericanos se reunieron la semana pasada en Kigali, Ruanda, para identificar desafíos comunes y compartir experiencias exitosas en la promoción del desarrollo rural.

El taller ‘Aprendiendo del Sur Global: tejiendo redes de talentos locales en Africa y América Latina’ fue organizado por la Corporacion PROCASUR —una institución latinoamericana especializada en el diseño y prestación de serviciós técnicos para el desarrollo rural y la promoción de los conocimientos locales— con el apoyo del Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), la Fundación Ford y la red regional de conocimiento Fidafrica.

Participaron en el evento más de 50 profesionales del desarrollo —entre ellos directores de proyectos de desarrollo rural en ambos continentes, oficiales del FIDA, gestores del sector privado, organizaciones de la sociedad civil y especialistas en gestión del conocimiento.

Desafíos comunes, aprendizajes compartidos

El principal objetivo del taller fue el de identificar áreas de interés común con el fin de establecer canales de colaboración e intercambio de conocimientos locales. Se presentaron además metodologías de capacitación como las Rutas de Aprendizaje que la Corporación PROCASUR organiza desde hace más de 15 años en la región latinoamericana con gran éxito y reconocimiento internacional.

Una ruta de aprendizaje es un proceso continuado de conocimiento sobre temas relativos a la planificación y gestión del desarrollo local que se desarrolla en el terreno a partir de visitas a experiencias seleccionadas, entrevistas con diferentes actores locales y ejercicios de reflexión colectiva e individual. Las Rutas de aprendizaje tienen como objetivo poner en valor, social y económicamente, el conocimiento generado por los ‘talentos locales’ en sus respectivos procesos de desarrollo.

Los participantes del taller, reunidos en grupos temáticos, identificaron seis áreas de interes común para las que se podrían organizar rutas de aprendizaje el año próximo, entre ellas: desarrollo económico en las zonas rurales; acesso y gestión de los recursos naturales; servicios financieros rurales; políticas públicas y asociaciones entre actores públicos y privados; planificación participativa y acceso competitivo a los recursos para el desarrollo rural, y acceso a los mercados e inserción en cadenas de valor para pequeños productores.

Más información sobre esta iniciativa de cooperación sus-sur pueden ponerse en contacto con la Corporación PROCASUR en el siguiente correo electrónico: procasur@procasur.org

Para conocer mejor la metodología de las Rutas de Aprendizaje pueden visitar el sitio web de la Corporación Procasur.

By Nuria FelipeSoria

Learning routes: the quintessence of knowledge sharing

Remember the series of blogposts “Africa meets the new world - Procasur learning route…. Well, guess what, the “Learning Routes” have come to IFAD.

Over the last two days I had the privilege of sitting in on two brainstorming and learning and sharing events organized by our Procasur and Latin America and the Caribbean colleagues.

In the true spirit of learning route, these meetings were a great source of inspiration and a unique learning opportunity.

It is very hard to explain a learning route as these are experiential experiences. You have to live one to understand and appreciate it. I believe they are the quintessence and great embodiment of knowledge management and knowledge sharing.

You’re probably wondering what I am talking about….. If you’ve been on learning route you’ll now know the difference between learning from seeing something in action and reading about something in a report.

Learning route methodology covers the three stages of learning – that is learning before, during and after. In a way it is also a form of peer assist.

When you face a challenge and feel that someone must have already faced it and overcome it, you do not need reinvent the wheel and solve it by yourself, you can present your challenge and learn from those who have already been there and done that.

One of the extraordinary characteristics of a learning route is the fact that you learn from people… That’s right, you learn from the real experience of REAL PEOPLE. It’s that a treat….

How many times have you read a report and wondered how much of what you are reading is really grounded in reality and how much of it is written just to show that the targets and indicators have been met!

In a learning route you engage in a conversation with the actors – be it the farmer, the policy maker, the representative of the local government, the rural development worker, the artisan, the mother, the nurse. And all these people are willing and are keen to share their experience, knowledge, know-how, challenges and fears. So in a learning route you have the opportunity to bounce off ideas, hear and learn from a myriad of perspectives. You have an immense portfolio of experience and knowledge at your finger tips!

Learning routes are a great example of double learning loop and a personification of knowledge sharing in ACTION!

As you may know in a single learning loop, the emphasis is on techniques and making the technique more efficient. This means while exploring the technical side you focus on following routines and some sort of present plan. A double learning loop on the other hand, involves questioning the role of the framing and learning systems, it is more creative, reflective and reflexive. A double learning loop is about incremental learning that improves the answers, helps the learner to modify his/her mental model and allows the learner to make informed decisions in a rapidly changing and uncertain context.

In a nutshell, experiencing a learning route allows the learner to explore different solutions for a given challenge and definitely helps you clear up the cobwebs!

My take home messages

As I was listening to colleagues exchanging ideas and sharing their experience, I realized one of success elements of Procasur and the Learning routes are people managing this programme. They are PASSIONATE and COMMITED. They are proud of what they are doing and believe 300% in what they do. I wonder if the programme would be what it is today with a different set of people…. Probably it would be something different…. So this reinforced my thinking that it is the PEOPLE driving KM initiatives that make the difference!!! Kudos to Ariel, Juan Moreno, Roberto and all the others!

Perhaps my biggest wake up call was the fact that we desperately need to put in place learning routes mechanism in IFAD itself. We need to get much better in sharing and exchanging amongst ourselves and within our own four walls. We are surrounded by inspiring and knowledgeable people, yet we often resort to outside resources rather than looking inside.

We need to scout for and identify our own local talents and use them as our learning route guides.

I often hear people saying, we need to put in place incentive mechanism to encourage knowledge sharing – and I must admit so far, I’ve failed to understand what this means…. Listening to the exchange made me think, what is the incentive for the learning route local talents to share their knowledge? And if their incentive is to learn from others, isn’t that a good enough, if not a noble incentive for the rest of us?

I really felt privileged to have participated in these conversations and I sincerely hope we can institutionalize internal IFAD learning routes so that FINALLY we start breaking down the silos!!!

Better late than never: last post for the Learning Route on Women's Access to Land in Uganda and Kenya

Due to being overwhelmed by a wave of emails and other things, this last post arrives late, from Rome..

Hakuna Matoke: Day 6 to 8 of the Learning Route and its end in Nairobi

After nearly a week together, much friendly teasing was going on between participants, especially of the Ugandans and their love of matoke, the plantain mash that is an essential part of every lunch and every dinner – and those of us not coming from Uganda weren’t missing this too much as we crossed into Kenya. Another noteworthy moment of the trip was our drive through the Rift Valley, I saw pink flamingos from afar and zebras just on the side of the road!

Day 6 we continued on relatively early in the morning to go to Gatundu South district to visit Gatundu Mwirutiri Women’s Initiative. Again, we were welcomed with a singing, dancing, and a round of hugs – something to introduce to meetings in Rome, too, maybe, as it really lightens up the mood! We were led into the courtyard of a house, where a tent had been built to shelter us from the sun. Just behind us, there were some cows, mooing, as well as sheep and chicken. We started the meeting by presenting ourselves, first our hosts, who also sang a song they had specifically come up with that affirmed a woman’s rights, including the right to vote and the right to land.

The Gatundu Mwurituri Women Initiative, or GMWI, is working specifically to protect these rights, by forming watchdog groups at the community level that any woman chased away by her in-laws after the death of her husband can appeal to for help in claiming her inheritance rights. The watchdog groups include members form the community, elders, paralegals, male and female, some of whom had come to share lessons from their work. One man in particular impressed all of us, starting from his introduction: “I am Joseph and I am a grassroots woman.” He experienced injustice against women in his family and decided to do something to fight for equal rights – and that he considers himself as a grassroots woman for that reason. Another male watchdog member present later referred to the reason for his participation in the group as the “grabiosis”, the greed that leads men to grabbing land from women and which he considers to be at the root of a lot of the family disputes over land that occur in the community.

The watchdog groups, which are supported by GROOTS Kenya with training and some funding, are run on a volunteer basis, and it was evident that the drive and dedication of its members was a key factor for their successful resolution of disputes in the community. In addition to the watchdog groups, GMWI also works on HIV/AIDS awareness, encouraging testing so that people are aware of their HIV status and can seek treatment if they have already been infected. GMWI has a group of orphans that meet regularly to help each other rebuild their lives after the death of their parents, including through revolving funds to help them set up small farming and business activities to generate income. One of the girls from the group gave a talk on HIV/AIDS, something which she does regularly to inform other children and youth in the community to inform them about how to prevent infection. She also spoke about the practise of wife-inheritance, i.e. the widow being wed off to another man from her late husbands family so as to “cleanse” her, and which has led to some of the highest infection rates in Kenya in the provinces were this practise is still common.

Following a lunch rice and stew and the sweetest mangos, the programme continued with a role play to tell the story of a family devastated by HIV/AIDS – one of the actors in this role play was Peter, who later took us to his inherited piece of land that he claimed with the help of the watchdog groups after the death of father and mother. His paternal uncle had grabbed the land from him, but thanks to the intervention of the watchdogs, which work in close collaboration with the local administration to make sure that the law is respected, Peter and his sister now have a title to the land in both their names. A key accomplishment of the watchdog groups is their focus on reconciliation of families even in such difficult situations, but also that those who seek help are empowered to stand up for their rights.

However impressive the work of the watchdog groups, however, it is evident that in addition to the problem of property grabbing from widows and orphans, there is a general issue of the perspectives young people have to stay in the rural areas and earn a living from agriculture. The area which we had come to is covered by tea plantations, with farmers producing for a market controlled by the Kenya Tea Board and middlemen buying their harvest for further processing. Peter told us that he was planning to continue his studies, provided he could come up with the money, to become an accountant. He still wants to use the land, but he wants to develop it and will probably, should things go according to his plan, not be farming full time. We all went away from this visit to Peter’s thinking about the pull of the cities, the opportunities opened up by education, and couldn’t help wondering whether staying in the rural areas was feasible or a romantic illusion.

This visit almost eerily prepared us for the next day, when we went to Kayole, a semi-slum (meaning most structures are permanent) on the outskirts of Nairobi, to visit the Young Widows Advancement Programme (YWAP). We were welcomed at the local administration, which doubles up as a community centre, and a dance class was in full swing in the courtyard. YWAP members introduced their stories, moving accounts of women that were infected with HIV/AIDS by their late husbands, who were left in a difficult and previously rarely occurring position of being a young widow, with small children, unable to defend herself against in-laws that wanted property back for their family, as they think that these young women are probably going to remarry, thus taking family property away into another man’s family. In this situation, the women have to fend for themselves, try to earn an income to maintain their children, facing social stigma as widows, thought to be outcasts until remarried. YWAP tries to provide support, immediate with small amounts of money and some space in their offices where women can stay for short periods of time, as well as with information on legal rights to inheritance, including to land in the rural areas. At the same time, they help the women face a live with HIV/AIDS and the fear of death, for instance, through the preparation of memory books about their family history, which they put together for their kids, should they be orphaned at a young age.

In Kayole, we also had a chance to listen to some stories in more depth. We went for house visits in small groups of 4 people, with our host walking to where she lives with us, a building with small bedsits, or rather, rooms, as there are really no facilities to speak of, with a communal toilet outside and the cooking done on a small gas cooker. Our host, Lilian W., is a mother of two who lost her husband, who was a matatu (minibus) driver, and has had to move to Kayole since she could not afford to keep the place they were living in as a couple. Since the death of her husband, Lilian has worked in a vegetable packing factory as a casual labourer, with no social security or anything (no unions allowed, obviously), working night shifts so that she can be back in the morning to take her children to school. Despite this, she has trained to become a paralegal to advise other women, and she told us that she is doing all she can to give her children a good education, so that one day her daughter can be a lawyer. Think of that next time you buy those neatly packed green beans from Kenya!

After the day in Kayole it took us almost two hours to get back to the guesthouse in Nairobi, even though the distance is only about 35 km, the infernal traffic that everyone who lives in Nairobi has to deal with every morning and every evening as they are going to work, be it in an air-conditioned four-wheel drive favoured by expats and rich Kenyans or a crowded matatu that is the only option for the majority of the population, though the latter at least have the liberty to overtake some of the traffic on the pavements and get to their destination just that little bit faster. Day 7 of the learning route was hot, dusty, and tiring, a week of impressions that gave us a lot to think about and ended on a note that was very relevant considering the increasing migration from rural to urban areas.
Day 8: the last day of the Route, a day of closure, as much as that is possible after a week of travelling, listening, discussing, sharing, arguing, singing, being welcomed in diverse places and languages, enjoying hospitality everywhere we went. Before starting, Ariel suggested some time off to go to the Masai market, so participants went and we took some time to discuss how to structure the last few hours. Once everyone was back with their purchases, we worked on the innovation plans, meant to help everyone think through what they learnt, what they liked, and what they think could improve their own work once they get home. It was a quieter day than most as people went off to sit in their project teams discussing what they want to take home. In the late afternoon, everyone presented a short summary of their innovation plans for feedback, and after writing up the hard copies, gave their feedback on the Learning Route itself by filling out the evaluation questionnaire and writing a letter to a future ‘rutero’, i.e. participant in a Learning Route, to tell them about the experience.

On our final evening, at our celebratory dinner, certificates were handed out and many jokes were made, with even those that were slightly at odds with each other during the trip sharing a laugh. We also had a little gift for our massage therapist, Lilia from Madagascar, who contributed a lot to keeping participants happy! After we sang the song composed by Wilkister Oduor from Kenya Land Alliance (“I’m going home to innovate”), there were a lot of hugs and e-mails exchanged, and it seems to me that this was the best result of the Route, it created a lot of contacts, based not only on a common interest in promoting women’s rights to land, but also based on an experience together that all of us will remember for a long time to come.