Watu Afrika - Local implementation

[t!b!]

Let's discuss here about local implementation of the Watu Afrika project. 

• Map Africa’s resources (a comprehensive list/map of local resources)
• Housing and food (construction and sustainable agriculture)
• Multitude Innovation (adding value to local resources)
• Develop your organization (build organizations for production and distribution of local products)
• Funding - Diaspora Bank (financing toolbox)

 

[t!b!]

Let's co-edit a manual for Local Implementation of Watu Afrika. Open the document below to collaborate. If you don't have permission to edit ask a community member for access.     

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f4friV44tl3m3Zu0Nd7yWQLojInoGmzpUX8WJE5EEoE/edit?hl=en#

[t!b!]

A few initial thoughts  

• You need to address the community through one of its trusted members, in order to increase the receptivity of your message.
• You are a facilitator, not a leader, not a coordinator.
• Listen to the needs of the locals. Understand what they are doing, what they need now, and where they want to be in the near future.
• Try to assess if you can help their cause by using the new technology.
• Evaluate their technological infrastructure, see what’s needed to reach a minimal base
• Find stakeholders within the community and put them in charge of the development.
• From the start try to implement a decentralized structure. This is important. No single individual can control the infrastructure of communication, collaboration, and coordination you are setting up for them. This infrastructure must be treated as a public resource.

 

[t!b!]

Kate, 

I think you will encounter difficulties with the technology infrastructure, especially in rural areas. We need to be very creative to maximize what there is. If the strict minimum is not present we need to find ways to build it. For example we could use public infrastructures, libraries, schools, cultural centers, to bring Internet and a few computers to the locals, and to educate them on how to use them. 

I think in the beginning in Africa we can establish connections at the level of the community, because not every individual has access to technology. In doing that we let these communities inform each others and exchange value. Moreover, these communities can also exchange with the entire planet. 

My experience so far: 

In my case, here in Canada, 80% of households possess a computer with internet connection. The exchange and collaboration can, in this case, descend to the level of the individual. At our last meeting, for example, some people expressed the desire to share some of their unused land with other people who needed it for gardening. I suggested them something like http://www.landshare.net/ . Other people expressed their desire to share and to exchange seeds for their vegetables. Again, I proposed them an Internet-based tool to do just that. Because the vibe here is good, I built a CCC infrastructure for these people to express other needs in an open forum, and to brainstorm for solutions  https://sites.google.com/site/devdurablelaurentides/  . I also created a Facebook page, to connect to the majority of the local community. Again, this infrastructure is only used to support a virtual space where people come together to express their needs and to find solutions based on the new technology, based on sharing and collaboration. Some solutions might already exist, so we just use them, others need to be created. We are also planning to build a portal website, which will orient new comers. Apart from facilitating local exchanges, which makes the system more reliable, more efficient, we are also planning to build bridges with Montreal, the big city near this small community, in order to increase the flow of goods and services towards it. 

Immediate impact: 

By giving people tools to share we reduce redundancy within the local economy: the family that has extra unused land can share it with the family who doesn't have enough, in exchange of other services. You also allow the community to better manage their resources. Extras, surpluses are distributed through these exchange channels. This can also happen at the level of communities. By informing locals about their local resources you allow a better allocation. By giving people a public forum to exchange ideas and to innovate you allow innovative groups to form, and to increase the added value to their products. The Internet is a gate to the global market, these products can find their way into nearby cities, and even into other countries.      

What do you think? 

[Kate Nkansa]

Finally have some feed back with regards to implemention.

I've had the opportunity to discuss implementing such a project to a gentleman called Augustine Kunbuor. He is keen on getting involved and helping to provide funding where he can. Augustine is a Northerner who has good relationships with the opinion leader, chiefs , local (women) and politicians in the region. We will need all the role players to agree to this initiative before we can kickstart it. He's volunteered to be help forge these ties.

As the pilot project we have chosen the three regions in Northern Ghana namely the Upper West Upper East and Northern Region. One of the main underutilised resource or raw material in this region is shea nuts.  There are many shea trees and many Northerners farm this product so the farming infrustructure is already available to create a thriving market and economy. One of the main problems in the area is that upon cultivating the nuts there is no market to sell and the shea nuts rot.

Areas of need would be machinery to crack the nuts, technology and machinery to create various products for the shea nuts, linking the local communities with overseas markets and lastly building a strong local and national market for the product. At the moment, this industry is dormant with only a few farmers able to participate and sell their product successfully.

I'm waiting for official data and information from the local government with regards to the resources, technology and machinery already available in order to understand how we can adapt and fill the gaps.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Kate

[Kate Nkansa]

Forgot to add that the timing is perfect as April is the start of the shea nut season so we would have about 3 months to plan.

[Multitude AllOf Us]

Perfect! Very good start!

This is what I am thinking now… It is important to start this in the right way, i.e. to create an environment that gives everyone the same chance, and at the same time rewards work and innovation proportionally. In other words, we want to avoid the creation of centers of power and control, which will ultimately tend to monopolize resources and to reduce the rest of the population to cheep labor. So I advise to go beyond the concept of the corporation AND of the cooperative, to build a value-based system.

Now, the African cultures are special and the best practice is to respect social structures and local traditions. Kate, you need to find the very fine balance between giving capable individuals the possibility to build successful enterprises, from which everyone will benefit, and respecting the established social hierarchies, which are power structures and will not necessarily help the economical and the cultural progress. This is where the secret lies... How can we integrate the new ideas of sharing, collaboration, peer-to-peer with the local tradition? We can get some help in this area from other groups. I think we need to be very careful here. There is no magic solution. Every case will be different. The idea is to adopt the right attitude. I think we need to spend 80% of our time listening. The worse thing is to push solution on the local people. We need their involvement. Locals must be convinced that the solutions work for them, all solutions must come from them, with our help. I see our role as facilitators.

While I was exchanging with the local community here in Val David (near Montreal) I felt that I know very little about their needs. I started proposing things and I realized very rapidly that I was not reaching people. Armed with our knowledge, we need to inform locals of new possibilities, of the new tools, and to let them find the solution.


Financing

Another thing that goes through my mind is about financing. I am more into creating wealth ex nihilo, meaning to start with whatever is there and to build from that, slowly and in a sustainable manner. If the community needs an expensive machine I think it is better to let them collect the money to buy it. We can help them on the way with all sorts of things obviously. In my opinion, there is nothing better than to empower people to do stuff on their own. In some sense giving is killing. Giving doesn’t build a sense of accomplishment. I think it is better to let locals taste victory along their development, build a sense of accomplishment, become empowered.

I have another objection to financing. Who do you give the money to? Who do you put in change of the thing (a machine or something) that you buy for them? Who decides on who will be in charge? Is it the person/organization who make the donation? On what bases? Is this creating a power structure? Is the act of giving and putting someone in charge planting the seeds of a future monopoly? I believe that if the initiative to buy some expensive machinery comes from the locals, if the locals are entirely in charge of a process to acquire this machine, a structure of sharing, for maintenance, for usage will also emerge with the project.

I realize that an ex nihilo approach to economical development is not an easy one, and I admit that we need to compromise on this issue of financing. I guess it’s easier to follow it here in the west, where people already have the means to acquire expensive machines to expand their production. So you need to compromise, but we need to stay focused on our goal, which is to create a value-based system, one that gives everyone a change and rewards hard work and ingenuity. So whatever we do, we must minimize the risk of creations of centers of power and control. In other words, if the ingredients are there for such things to arise, we need to put in place other mechanisms to counter balance this natural tendency of humans to control, to get more for less.

This discussion is getting interesting. I like action! Please feel free to destroy my arguments and to teach me a few things about Ghana’s culture.

On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Kate Nkansa <africans...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Forgot to add that the timing is perfect as April is the start of the shea
> nut season so we would have about 3 months to plan.
>

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[Multitude2009]

Kate, you can invite your contacts to exchange their ideas with us on this forum.

[Multitude2009]

More from Val David. This is the community is   

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Val-David,+Quebec&aq=1&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=31.959046,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Val-David,+Les+Laurentides+Regional+County+Municipality,+Quebec&t=h&z=13   

Some funny things are happening, we are going through a small crisis, which is basically a power struggle. I hope it will be resolved and that out of this will emerge a decentralized value-based organization. Power struggles are inevitable at the beginning of our project. As the collaboration group is forming, if the rules and the norms are well communicated (we need to write these things down!!!), people will adapt their behavior in order to fit into the group. The ones who are not able to evolve within this framework of sharing and collaboration will either quit or will be ignored by the rest of the group. So I think that given the right amount of time the group will stabilize.