Ideas on involving grassroots levels in Africa

After writing An Inclusive World, on the inclusion and empowerment of African engineers in the world wide developments, which content was subject in IEEE GOLDRush magazine March 2008, a lot of developments have taken place. Unfortunately, also a lot of development did not take place. After writing nice words and witnessing nodding heads in agreement, we run the risk of celebrating words and avoid the sweat that action brings. As the proof is in the eating, we continue getting our hands out of the sleeves, and take action.

Meetings on the needs in Africa are mostly done in convenient settings in the West. It might also be helpful, even more effective to get out here. Possibly meetings on rural development should be done in the rural areas themselves. Participants will be exposed to new experiences and issues, and one is prone to see and understand at a different level. Also, it helps for sustainability, as relationships are build and deposits in the relationship accounts are being made.

Let us think out of the box. My contribution on Innovating and Learning versus Reporting deals also with that, and the issues are real. Sustainable progress activities in dis advanced places can be pin pointed. It is also time for (social) venturing onto new roads. Such can be done with more cooperation, across expertise, geographical and cultural areas. As an example, see our list of partnerships, growing by the day. Partnerships are productive as we accumulating knowledge and understanding in a continuously accelerated manner, and - for the first time ever - we are really able to partner because we are connected! We embrace the challenges, agree that change is a constant, and seek to establish and maintain new equilibrium.

Africa's intelligentsia, like engineers, can be involved (and get back to Africa!). It would be great to assess how many resources for projects in Africa are actually remaining in the West. Donor syndrome can be countered by engendering and soliciting innovative proposals from Africa. We need to think from African user perspectives and might need to find ways as how to empower users. And African providers must gain access to wholesale pricing. Then social venturing is a good vehicle to assure plowing back of margin and results into the communities.

Current trends are think big, however grassroots level now has a voice, is empowered, and testing ideas. Connected communities explore ideas, and report findings. Initiatives are starting at grassroots levels, and ideas on solving issues at hand should be valued and allowed to be explored. Ways of interacting between the grassroots level and big, institutionalized bodies can be found, certainly now with the development of connectivity, and the Internet. Possibly definition of Internet's NET4.0 could come from grassroots level in Africa! The social networks for grassroots level interaction, utilizing the multitude of technologies and possibilities available, are empowering interaction across geographical and cultural divides.

Africa is really large

Following up on my observations in "Africa is large", I recently noticed this drawing, which explains it well:

A Triangle of Partnerships

A triangle of networking and relationships for progress and development of the Western World, South Africa and Southern Africa can be recognized to benefit all corners of the triangle. The following benefits result:

1. Southern Africa can execute indigenous ways of developing, which includes breeding new developments from within existing communities in an culturally adapt manner;
2. South Africa can support neighboring communities with resources and understanding of the African environment, being able to build and facilitate bridges between first and third world environments, relational and rational environments, and horizontal and vertical development approaches.
3. The Western World can support in culturally adapt development; visit African settings in an appropriate manners, and report on progress in a western culture adapt fashion.
   

Recognized issues of availability of empowered local leadership, holistic/horizontal approaches including aspects of health (hiv/aids), education, and communities play pivotal roles. Cross pollination of all parties by building multicultural (electronic) community exchange of mature concepts and ideas between the corners of the triangle grows mutual respect and understanding.

Focus on Getting It Done
Africa and the development world has seen many meetings, conferences, and other well-meant discussions passing without them leading to sustainable actions and progress. Now we can build upon a number of exiting and existing projects that are alive and kicking today, often build up in adverse circumstances, having stand the test of time and often well regarded in their respective communities.

Currently we witness a unique time of opportunities. South Africa can show an impressive list of practical work done in township and rural communities, over a period of many decennia in South Africa. Such has been done using indigenous South African resources, often aided with funding from oversees donors over an extended period of time.

Secondly, a large array of relationships are developed and developing with great potential for further growth. These relationships contain those focussed on using resources to getting the job done, and those with focus on participating and empowering those who get the job done, which often are the people in the areas of development themselves.

Developments in Macha, in the rural area of Southern Province in Zambia, have been interesting to national and foreign visitors. Zambia’s Vice-President opened Vision Community Center that did boast over 10 interdependent units, acting as an innovation hub in the rural area. Infrastructure development like those transport, communications, and energy are tackled in a manner empowering all in the local rural community, and supporting multiplication and growth beyond the rural Macha area, and is recognized by national government and the regulator. One of the projects, LinkNet – empowering rural communities including health and education institutions, by building and maintaining internet service provisioning - has branched out to other rural communities. A change process is defined, and a large and growing multifaceted array of partners in these developments is established.

In the West a conglomerate of institutions, private individuals recognize the unique situation at hand. Social venturing investments are made cautiously, with donor organizations empowering projects to grow beyond their current status, which ironically were most often implemented without institutional donor funding. Professional organizations in the West and South Africa are becoming aware of their own capabilities and resource for supporting developments in Africa, in their strive for global social responsibility and study of emerging markets.

All these developments are more and more supported by visionary, holistic, and inspired leadership on grassroot and national level, which is striving for culturally adapt management of programs, projects and resources. With the further emerging of transport and communication possibilities and resources at all corners of the triangle new ways of interaction and cross pollination of leadership is available.

Activities
It needs to be recognized that change in the developed world will emerge mainly from urban areas, while in the (Southern) African setting real change can emanate out of rural areas. Thus activities on several levels must take place.

First of all, on grass root level, projects have to emerge that show the feasibility and sustainability of progress in Africa. Concepts and activities as shown in Macha and (sub urban) South Africa must be guarded, nurtured and multiplied, going from ‘proof of concept’ via ‘proof of reproduction’ to ‘proof of production’.

Funding, Research, and Organization
In all corners of the triangle there is a growing understanding that current mechanisms of funding often do not align with the realities at grassroots level. African knowledge and growing understanding of the value of cultural diversity must lead to consideration of proposals for trust-based funding schemes, including output target funding.

Reviewing actual and sustainable projects established on the ground in Zambia and South Africa will show feasibility of a new approach, closely guided by experts from many nations. Existing and new relationships will act in benchmarking and active monitoring of the program and projects taking into account ethical and managerial frameworks.

Applied and fundamental research is encouraged in further understanding the ethical and African paradigms, cultural ingredients, and actual physics needed in African (rural) environments.

Greet and Smile

The penguins in Madagascar movie got is almost right "Smile and Wave" is actually in Africa "Greet and Smile". Again this morning, while moving to and fro MICS to bring the children to school I met lots of people walking and on bicycles. With each one greetings were exchanged, and I was greeted with kind words and a Smile. How nice to start the day good words, recognition of each other existence, and broad smiles!

Heeding Calling

Often I am asked: "why do you live in rural Africa". This in the context of having the option of living somewhere else, for instance in the West. This is the big WHY question. The answer is: I live where I sense my calling, I am within my purpose.

Purpose is the driver. Without purpose, what do we do? I believe we all have a unique purpose, and thus it is important to know that purpose. We are all unique, and thus have a unique purpose. Taking it to the extreme: competition signals that possibly one is doing the wrong thing (activity), is in the wrong area (location), or in the wrong season (time period).

When working in line with the purpose and calling one can be effective, and make sense of it all. It provides a strong inner drive towards action, whatever the circumstances.

Entities exits to be a home for where people are together, and combine their individual purposes to bring about a common purpose. It might need metaphysical or religious experiences to know one's purpose, and recognize where people combine in the common cause, the international community. This valid in the whole world, both in the South and in the West. In the West, where individuality is a driving force the common purpose will unite people. In the South, where people's individuality is an expression of the common purpose, it start the other way around, but all with the same result.

How does one find out the purpose governing one's life? There are many books in the subject and much motivational literature. I found Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life interesting, and Reuel Khoza's Let Africa Lead. A good talk among friends, time for introspect and needs assessment, contemplating and prayer in the fields of what does one hope for, where one does have faith for might lead somewhere. In any case, it is often a process of seeking and finding.

Calling will give the energy to stick it out, to keep going when the going gets tough, energy for breakthrough when there are obstacles. Calling will help to stand up for what is right, to shed inhibitions and ignites a person to be more then a conqueror. It also helps to live unhidden, wherever and whenever. It guides the environment - including family and friends - with a base for understanding the reason of otherwise sometimes difficult to understand action and perseverance.

Purpose will give reason to connect. It births optimistic action. Optimism gives energy. Negativism drains energy, so lets steer away from that.

Calling will allow dreams to be dreamed. It can provide sense of excitement, testing and weeding of burdens. It provides for hope, and engenders faith. It allows growth, entry into the impossible.

Knowing one's calling is prerequisite for engendering change, both internal and external. I have the privilege to live in a fast changing and challenging environment. Heeding to my calling is one of the reasons why I live in rural Africa and not anywhere else.

Excruciating costs of Internet in rural Africa

Looking at budgets for operations in rural Africa the costs of Internet bandwidth are major and excruciating. Strangely, it seems one of the least known or understood hurdles for development. It is difficult to stomach that we pay thousands of USD per month for internet connections with 'speeds' that the West considers peanuts. In the West one gets 1 Mb/s connectivity wholesale for less then USD 20 per month. For us in landlocked Africa, such connection costs wholesale between USD 3,000 and USD 4,500. When one has to opt for lesser speeds and shared connections, significantly higher prices are calculated. Basically, we in rural Africa pay thousands of times more for Internet connectivity then one pays in the West.

There are not too many websites that mention this situation. In reviewing pricing of satellite capacity, like-for-like comparisons are almost impossible. When preparing for Macha over six years ago, I spend one year studying pricing and service options before being able to make an informed decision. Cost/benefit ratios are masqueraded in the plethora of price/offerings and quick overviews do not show multiple issues involved. In the mean time the situation on satellite capacity pricing, and availability, has significantly deteriorated. For instance per 1 January 2009 our prices have gone up with at least 10%.

There is some movement in the situation. Major institutions and companies show interest, and sea cables are emerging. There will be a learning curve, and there is lots to learn about the way Africa works, and it remains to be see what will really emerge.

The world must recognize the current role they play in keeping Africa in darkness. Current high prices for access to satellite technology, crucial for Africans to connect to the Internet, are really problematic. Of course, with economic principles, capacity constraints lead to higher prices. But, as also we at Macha Works are showing real and major social benefits, and growing demand for special user groups, breakthrough and more providers provisioning capacity over Africa must emerge, with prices going down instead of current rising of prices.

I will continue to write comments and air views on this issue, as in Free Internet for Africa and various websites.

Resource alleviation collateral

Peculiar observations can be made in an environment where resources are being added within a situation of poverty. When resources appear - and a situation with nothing changing to something - there is a significant amount of new stress added to the scene. The stress of resource allocation.

Poverty - which is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine quality of life - influences everything. Rural Africa has also major shortages in electricity, transport, communications, housing, finances, education, and health care, to mention a few. When such resources become available, often those with access to such (still rather limited) resource pay a high price, both financial and intangible.

One has to get used to the availability of the resource, even if it is just emerging. Complexity is added when the resource is shared, and it all becomes even more complex when it is shared across cultural or age boundaries. Often those with access to the resource harbor implicit or even explicit distrust of the other with whom the resource is shared. Resource limitations feed distrust that the other is misusing the resource.

Resource allocation, which is the assignment of the available resource, is mostly defined - and organized - in a rational way. Challenge is blending 'resource allocation' in the relational, rural African cultural way. In such environment resources are shared and catered for quite differently, with responsibilities valued higher then rights.

Currently we are fortifying the scaffolding for the works at Macha, with Zambian management and international volunteers. When that scaffolding is gone, wholesome grown resources should be environmentally sound and sustainably embedded and available. Scaffolding goes with rules and requirements, which go with expectations. Guilt, and shame, and judgment follow suit, and thus hurt, especially in cross cultural environments with wide varieties of people and expectations. Management in poverty situation often equals management of hurt.

Engendering trust, over borders and cross cultural, turning expectations based upon regulations towards expectation based upon relationships, that is what must guide resource allocation in resource limited environments; All tests of character.

Living at Altitude

At Macha we live about 1,100 meters above sea level. Much part of Southern Africa is more or less on a plateau, and it often feels that reflects in our life. Life , almost cannot be more full with events and experiences, it is life to the fullest! Some of the ‘news items’ of the four weeks:

I drove about 6,000 kilometers in three weeks, through Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Most of it we pulled our trailer along, with goods from Zam to Zim and from South Africa. It was great to see many of our friends in these countries, and we stayed in their houses, or camped in their driveways. We found the team in Zim well catered for copying in their specific circumstance. Together with the local community lots of efforts are put in successfully improving the facilities. Of course, going it relative and tough. However, the local team effort is commendable, and requests for support by the local Social Welfare, and the Hospital are being accommodated to the best of capabilities. We are grateful for this collaborative effort.

All this driving around is now possible with our ‘new car’ available and operational. We received the number plates and assembled all paperwork - including registration papers, insurance, Interpol clearance, driver license validation, yellow card, letters of authority, and road taxes - just three days before commencing for the long journey. During this time we also had room for relaxing (our summer holiday) with family visits to Pilanusberg (RSA) and the Vumba (Zim). During all travels we had local talent from Zambia and Zimbabwe along, giving them a needed break and new experiences. All in all we already drove more then 10,000 kilometers since the car arrived in Macha late 2008.

Just before New Year large donor funds hit the accounts of PrivaServe Foundation, allowing us to settle all current activities and debts. It is wonderful to enter the new year with a clean sheet, and to facilitate the flush of activities that we expect to happen. The new year started with every local talent dived in planning and administration.

Professionally we started the new year with operational separation of units with different business models, to facilitate specialization, coordination, and growth. LinkNet's leader is now Gregory Mweemba and the Building activities are led by Cynthia Mumba. Leadership Academy and Transport branches also operate more or less independent, with 'Macha Works' overarching the activities in a coordination role, assessing local plans and reports. It is exiting to see the maturity of the team, and how they relish the opportunities ahead.

Also the past period gave me an opportunity to catch up on some reading. ‘The Shack’ is a best seller in South Africa and served as a cup of fresh water, I enjoyed the read.

The year also started with many hours in the air, facilitated by Flying Mission. Pilot family Rick and Tracy Rempel settled in Macha, with housing gracely provided by Macha Hospital. And, Macha now also has its own resident airplane, a Cessna 210, often flying over 150 knots an hour! Miracles and progress abound. With its connectivity, quality primary education, and abilities in transport, Macha even becomes attractive for international coordination activities. In that manner Mennonite Central Committee Southern Africa coordinators are settling in Macha for their work in coordination of MCC travels in Southern Africa.

More cooperation efforts are being established with joint activities within the setting of the Global Research Alliance. Applied research in rural internet connectivity is the agenda, and grant proposals, white papers, and the like are being penned down. Currently the cooperation includes applied research partners in Finland, Germany, South Africa and Netherlands. Even contacts with Australia are growing.

In the mean time we continue to grow our knowledge base of the rural areas, and as such I continued discussions in Lusaka, touched down in Loloma, and visited Chitokoloki (near Angola) last week.

It is high time that our Tonga Hut in the garden is being repaired. The grass roof caved in one year ago, but we did not work on it as all other projects were of higher priority. Good rains this year stimulated a full roof-collapse, and thus no escape than to really get going with this. Now the grass is getting on a new wooden frame, and we look forward to its completion.

The electricity company ZESCO started to deliver on its contract to connect Ubuntu Campus with an 11 kV line. It was 11 months ago that we paid the contract, but now we can see something happening, with three quarters of the poles standing. Let’s hope that we gain some more speed in this work, which will be a big relieve and support for the activities there.

Innovating and Learning versus Reporting

While today sorting, packing, storing goods and resources received from generous givers all around the world, for pinpointed fueling of empowerment of the rural community, I was contemplating that the works in Macha evolved from a process of innovation and learning. Local talents were exposed, trained, mentored and supported in a process which was not planned nor documented upfront. Basically we were part of change 'on the fly', and maybe even were lagging in our understanding of what really is taking place during the wonderful progress we have witnessed. We have learned a lot, and now have an idea on 'how to be part of change', materialized in a change process that supports constant learning and action research.

While growing, all must be balanced with the often explicit and strictly implemented necessity to produce plans, contracts, reports and assessments. Basically it keeps me glued to the computer, typing many pages of text a day. And not only me is typing full time at Macha. Almost seven persons are already busy in administration for book keeping, accounting and reporting of our activities in Zambia. And then Dick and his group in the Netherlands should be added to this at well. It is good to tell the story, and to share the lessons learned. And of course, the pendulum swings forth and back between control and freedom.

Having gone through significant growth of organizations and activities this year, the feeling lingers that renewal of the value chain and value creation in development aid, with more attention for innovation and learning-by-doing, in a real time and fully connected environment is now due.

This year I have become even more convinced that Information and Communications Technology is a key enabler for progress, especially so in the rural areas of Africa. Preservation of African culture, transformation for those without chances, and in general giving local talent the chance to develop themselves all depend on 'being connected'. This, of course, both in figurative and technical sense. When connected, diversity is supported as well as the opportunity to specialize and join in ventures.

The horizontal, holistic approach in Macha has shown that many specialist parties can work together, and that specialism in providing for connections and flow of information - by means of Internet - between parties in rural Africa is possible, even from a base in rural Africa. We have shown that after priority to connect the rural communities and train local talent, we can deliver tailor-made community driven solutions, adding value to, and engendering, partnerships with expert organizations. Although heavily challenged by in vogue bureaucratic approaches, we must support learning, innovations, and entrepreneurship instead of overly focusing on reporting. It is quite frustrating to live in rural Africa and to spend much time on writing reports instead of being 'out there' doing the job. One just wonders where all those reports go, and if spending so much time on such work is 'all worth it'. Of course, full transparency and accountability is imperative. Such must lead to tangible participation in the work at hand, and not on 'reports to fill filing cabinets'.

Being connected, to work in a fully connected way, and reporting on the fly - multifaceted and real time, focusing on those things that 'make the difference' for the local community, well tuned in a holistic setting, building upon national and international relationships, from a solid and leading base 'in the South', that is the way we have gone and will continue to go in 2009.

Africa is Large

On my way on a day-flight from Lusaka to London there was lots of chance to see Africa. The flight took almost 10 hours, of which more then 7 hours were above Africa! It is the Gall-Peters projection that shows areas of equal size on the globe equally sized on the map, and see: Africa is long!

When looking down, and thinking of the hundreds of millions of people living there, and all need to participate, and interact, it really dawned what massive task there is ahead.

The change of abilities of a community to participate after bringing Internet to a rural settings are significant. For instance, any of the capabilities underneath only became available after Internet was introduced in Macha. Before that event, they were not possible:

So, off I go again, from summer to winter, from South to North, on a quest to assure attention for the plight of the people in rural Africa whom need to be connected now!