Theory of Change

In a changing world, the rural and deprived areas in the world seem to get the 'short end of the stick'. There are numerous calls for action, in all disciplines, but little change is being observed in most rural areas in Africa. However, need for change continues to persist, to attack the lack of availability of skilled people and prohibitive high costs of service provisioning in rural areas.

Based upon an innovative and methodical approach, in Macha change resulted from action and consistent focus on people. Documentation followed, seemingly in a paradoxical process involving well thought/discussed-through interventions with on-the-fly model adjustments. This interactive learning processes, consistent over eight consecutive years, is based upon action research using observation methodologies like appreciative inquiry and backward mapping. The resulting Theory of Change now guides the overall process and fuels programs aimed at special user groups or at large-scale capacity building, all designed to bring about community-wide change.

All in all, the focus remains – and must be - people, in our case 'the local talent' (or local hero, or change-maker, whatever you call them). A local talent sacrifices an imminent, and often hallowed, ambition for western/urban self-development to a season of personal growth benefiting traditional/rural community-development. The local talent has reached a measurable level of fruitfulness when that person is training her/his successor.

The organisation facilitates this process by capacity building in both human and engineering assets – involving values, training and funding - and aiming for retention capacity thus created in the Works Group. We learned that when the local talent is supported within a respectful learning environment, whether on site or remote through e-learning, while taking care of bare existential necessities (food, shelter, health, etc), personal growth can be explosive. That growth of local talent is aligned with a process of involving all stakeholders deciding on local priorities and focus within recognized local cultural expressions.

And the local talent, seeing the environment progress sustainably, with quality of education and healthcare for her/his children improving, is encouraged, and stays, and leads.

Reminiscense

Almost one year after formal hand-over of leadership at Macha Works to Fred Mweetwa and his team, I look back with gratitude. It has been a roller-coaster ride for the team, from the word 'Go' being brutally tested by suppliers, stakeholders, and users alike. Against all odds, and with much discouragement from those apparently in denial that Africa-Can-Lead, Fred and his team have shown unique aptness in leading a rural based African cooperative organization forward.

There is still lots to learn and innovate, for instance on African relatio management styles, and how to reconcile such with dominant rational approaches. Also there is need to grow the collective environment to embrace both the intangible and the tangible, so all will be able to recognize the team's great achievements.

Of course, in successful institutes, usually the originator is not there five years later. Maybe the person might be on the board, or somewhere else, but the person is out, usually with bitterness. "At its inception, a company is often the 'lengthened shadow of one man,'" Peter Drucker wrote in Practice of Management, "But it will not grow and survive unless the one-man top is converted into a team." Inspiring team work is not an overnight event. It takes time, and maybe even more so in a resource-challenged environment as rural Africa.

In my perception, from its inception, LinkNet/Macha Works has been a team effort. From a western perspective it might have looked like Drucker's description. But from an African perspective it has not looked like that at all; From that perspective the governing attributes are clearly seen, encompassing inclusiveness, cooperation, flexibility, and care. Thus, there is no room for bitterness, there is real joy.

Focus on progress of Local Talent has resulted in teams of highly talented persons, set free to progress towards reaching their collective and individual potential. These women and men are taking their commitments seriously, and develop competences in a thoroughbred African culture inclusive of innovation. As such a wonderful future is assured, whatever the circumstances.

It's About People

It is all about People. We need remind ourselves about that, consistently, and certainly before interacting. All-the-rest is supportive to this notion.

People are the context for technology, change models, and subsequent investments. And dealing with people necessitates contemplation and apprehension. Assessment of the outset, potential, and the capacity to reach it.

And with humbleness, servitude - a pile of those desirable human attributes - oh yes.

People's voices are now being heart globally, and we are stunned by the sheer magnitude of differences in the world, by trauma experienced by so many, on both sides of the equator; People dwelling in plenty virtually impotent in connecting with those living with so little. And a thin veneer between a smile and frightful discontent.

It is amazing what a great variety of cultural contexts exists in our global village. So much I hear and read in The West makes so much sense in The West, but makes no(n)sense in The South, and so much I hear and read in The South makes so much sense in The South, but makes no(n)sense in The West.

What to say and write when commuting between the two? Let's translate, build bridges, amend, augment, and transform. How to reach the potential? Appropriate technologies? Very much so! Exposure and guidance? Of course! All in context-appropriate ways, that is.

Thus the need for applied, transformational research. Inquisitive, cross cultural, exiting research. Research Education Developments (RED), The North filling the void for appropriate (rational?) technologies that fit the context and needs of people in The South, The South filling the void for appropriate (relational?) technologies that fit the context and needs of people in The North.

Living in a connecting world, with abilities to feel different worlds can be discomforting. However, we are all people, and that is where it is all about.

What is Going On?

Interact with the underneath to find what how Macha Works!

Demand Driven Solutions

Many well intended solutions are showered benevolently upon communities in which I roam. Upon implementation, these solutions often end up dormant and discarded. Although from certain perspectives these solutions did seem to make sense, locally they have an extraterrestrial ring to them as tangible representation of mismatch emerging from prevailing deconstructively dealings with 'the What' in contrast with local demands holistically expressed through 'the Who'. It appears that often stuff (= what) are put into communities without thorough consideration of people (= who) aspects.

A prerequisite for a solution is a demand. Thus prerequisite for implementation of a solution is a satisfying answer on the question "Whom is asking?". Without real expression of local demand there is only shaky ground for implementation of local solutions. A-person-or-community-asking is necessary infrastructure over which solutions, including resource alleviations, can be rolled in. Possibly only those whom ask - whom express demand - have the initial capacity to recognize an intervention as a solution. When no-one expresses the local demand, no-one recognizes the local solution.

A multidimensional balance is involved, including aspects like exposure, anticipation, communication, equality, relationship, freedom, and more. Also, involvement of all stakeholders, leadership of the person-or-community-asking, sustainable use and growth of existing resources, and strengthening of already existing capacity are part of the mix. Implementing solutions involves piecemeal expansion of the local resource base, aimed to grow capacity and capability, also in preparation for local demands and their local solutions that will inevitably follow.

Although time is runs fast, it is still one-step-at-a-time, with cooperation, collaboration, in unity. Thus our focus on (local) demand driven solutions.

Awe-struck, Jaw-dropping Wonder

Today I saw a grandmother wheelying her handicapped grandson in a broken wheelchair through slush and mud to the Kids-club in the Care House. Purposefully. I saw a list with tens of volunteers from the Macha community noting their willingness to assist in keeping the transitional care flowing, with nobody asking anything in return. I went through the community and saw people palavering with other people, nodding, often with displaying smiles on their faces. I heard of equipment being blown up by lightening and electricity surges, and saw concerned engineers wondering about how to help people going without service. I heard of ideas and plans how to alleviate difficulties. I heard a call from exotic birds. While standing outside I heard the rain approaching. I heard nice words spoken by many, and saw most people trying their level best to bring out the best from themselves to serve others. I used four different computers linked to the Internet, I communicated from the rural African bush with peers around the world via various means of media. I saw a photographer taking pictures with a digital camera, documenting what is happening.

Wow, and we are not even halfway through this day. When news papers would report on all positive news, they would be too thick to read.

Each day is worth living, a memory to cherish. A Wonder.

Here and Now

4.200 km, 13 day car-with-trailer round trip brought me from rural Zambia through rural Zimbabwe to South Africa and back. We went as a family to meet and greet, and get supplies to Murambinda Works (Murambinda Foster Trust) in Zimbabwe. Now back home remains a lingering amazement over the time-factor.

When traveling vast distances over ordinary, single lane roads one appreciates distances. Covering 300 kilometers a day is a significant achievement. And when covering large distances with a family, while tenting along to keep cost down, in challenging conditions - for instance 130 mm rainfall a day - one encounters many and various uncertainties. This did accumulate into a three days delay in returning, thus we came back later than planned. And here nobody minds or comments on it.

This experience combines with observations from Local Talent from rural areas that visited the West. They mentioned the time-factor as one of the most impressive impressions they witnessed. In the West people keep time, with time seemingly superseding relationships. This in contrast to rural Africa where relationships influences (keeping) time. They testify that after witnessing this phenomena in person, they are able to position the high pressure from people oversees. That pressure is not readily understood as it confusingly seem to interfere with relationship building.

It is good to travel, to be exposed. Again I experienced the particular challenges that people face in rural areas. And in coping it boils down to how one experiences time. In view of the many challenges, and fragile availability of resources, it appears fundamentally difficult - almost impossible? - to say something definitive about the future. One thus best pivots in the present time, in the Here-and-Now. And that is where we all live.

Strengthen Those That Drive Progress

The 20/60/20-rule talks about performance. This rule-of-thumb predicts that within a community 20% of people will show strong performance, 60% perform on average, and 20% of the persons will show weak performance. Thus 20% drive forward, 60% coast, and 20% slow down progress.

As technology in essence amplifies human intent and capacity, it is imperative to focus on the first 20% group: empowering those whom drive progress. Hence our focus on Local Talent, whom almost per definition roam that category. By supporting such persons one anticipates that the environment change to 30/60/10, as average performers get inspired and energized, and weak performers improve.

Thus, when resources are limited, non-discriminatory role out of technology, including Information and Communications Technology is not the way to go. One needs to carefully look which communities show healthy and positive intentions, vision and real collaboration, with capable persons committed to their environment, and support that local vision with technology. In Macha it has been shown that such contributes to rural communities and its people reaching their collective and individual potential.

Scientific Proof

From following conferences through Twitter Hashtags, with ICT possible while nested in my rural African habitat, I notice many, sometimes rather desperate, calls for scientific proof for the impact of ICT implementations in (rural) Africa. Consensus seems to grow that it is not simple to proof impact of complex intervention as bringing (ICT) infrastructure into new frontiers, but there is little guidance on how to do it.

It is a matter of the realm within which one wants to define/proof impact. In a Western mindset scientist mostly aim to contribute to comprehensive mathematical models, preferably with conclusions in the realm of economics. Implicitly, those models focus on short-term effects, and give clear guidance on risks. They do not necessary cater for long-term effects, nor give clear guidance on uncertainties. Those models have proven track record, working well under standard circumstances.

As there is still much less known of (rural) African realities, for modeling purposes these circumstances cannot yet be defined as standard. Effects of enshrined cultural focus on history, communities of people and inclusiveness, effects of infectious deceases, and dominance of closed societies, are most significant for long-term effects. Thus, necessarily, proof of impact in Africa starts with assessing long-term significance.

We witness changed lives, spurs in local innovation, and inspired communities and people that emerge as players prone to have long term effect in the(ir) world. How does one proof that? I suggest by registering and study of facts and stories of communities and individuals concerning the intervention, evaluating their social consequences seen from various stakeholders' distinct historical and society perspectives, and possibly, when circumstances can thus be modeled, in economic terms.

I consider myself privileged to work with many scientists and students in multiple disciplines, from Africa and the rest of the world, whom dare to go in these uncharted, deep waters. Although we have come a long way, it feels like we are just starting. No wonder! Long-term assessments can take long! And as we aim for scientific proof in these varied cultural contexts, is is good take take time in assessing the results then to rely on elevator pitches only.

Being Together

The notion of technology being external, and of limited relevance, of one's personality is shifting. For instance, one's interaction through technology on Social Networks is becoming recognized as part one's (perceived) identity. Deprived of technology, one is not able to build such identity, and thus one exists partially. Facebook's recent picture depicting friendships worldwide is a striking example of showing those that exist.

Reasoning from radical African communalism, one could provide a new answer to the dominant rational view on identity, that, for instance, an internet search (or services like Gist) of a person now shows. As an antidote to the thus growing distance between individuals stands the African traditional view that 'reality of the communal world takes preference over the reality of the individual life'. Many might heed to such, hence, I guess, growth of building communities on the Web.

In my view, researching technology within the realm of traditional African thought could open new ways as how we perceive, and thus develop, technology. For instance, African social-ethical ideals might provide answers to technology development that otherwise focuses quite singularly on empowering the individual at the expense of the collective. Of course, such research is to be conducted in a different manner, using inclusive, collaborative methods, with open source and non-competitive approaches.

Seeing the difficulties that ensue with the prevailing Western view, I would like to encourage that technology could aim to unite people among themselves to facilitate Being Together.