Keywords

1 Introduction

BA ISAGO University College in partnership with Kellogg Foundation initiated a Community Based Planning Programme that was based on the ZOOMING PROCESS in the DKAR Community and its surrounding resettlements areas, which are occupied by the minority San Tribe. The Zooming Process is a participatory and interactive engagement approach to local development, developed and refined by the WKKF’s Africa Programme on the basis of lessons and experience from its work in the region. It is based on the assumption that development is essentially about building the capacity of communities to make their own economic, social and spiritual decisions. The process is targeted at selected sites and communities, where careful experimentations of change processes can be undertaken and documented, in order to generate new insights and knowledge that can be shared with other sites and communities across the sub-region.

The aim of the approach is to help build local capacity for self drive—particularly in youth, women and families. The capacity to self-drive is developed through supporting rural communities to learn to self-start, self-assess, and self-correct. The approach further aims to build the leadership systems and the capabilities needed to provide local people with a favourable environment, as well as the confidence and resources to lead their own social and economic transformation.

The chapter is structured in 3 main parts:

  • First, the history of the program in Southern Africa and the lessons learnt;

  • Second, the rationale, objectives and the implementation the second phase- the zooming process; and

  • Third, a brief summary of the framework and tools used to make zooming operational. Some operational guidelines are presented on the basis of the authors’ prior experience with similar processes. The processes also involved interacting with participants who workshopped to learn about the Zooming Approach to entrepreneurship.

2 Background on the W.K. Kellogg Africa Program

The Kellogg Foundation Guidelines on community development are based on the assumption that development is essentially about building the capacity of communities to make their own economic, social and spiritual decisions. This chapter further provides the BA ISAGO University College and the Kellogg Foundation partnership and guidelines and how these were applied to the ITMUA case study project since 2009 when Kellogg started working with the community. Community development poses challenges of understanding the demographic characteristics of the poor and making an input to the betterment of their lives.

The process is targeted at selected sites and communities, where careful experimentations of change processes can be undertaken and documented, in order to generate new insights and knowledge that can be shared with other sites and communities across the sub-region. The aim of the approach is to help build local capacity for self-drive—particularly in youth, women and families. The capacity to self-drive is developed through supporting rural communities to learn to self-start, self-assess, and self-correct. The approach further aims to build the leadership systems and the capabilities needed to provide local people with a favourable environment, as well as the confidence and resources to lead their own social and economic transformation. The emphasis is thus on local communities’ ability to initiate, implement and assess programs and initiatives that serve their own needs and thereby reinforce their self-drive mindset.

In practice, the third mission of universities—community service for development—provided the space to address such challenges of developing the D’kar community in a way that refocussed its research and teaching missions to transform and revitalize the relationship between higher education and national development needs through the BA ISAGO University College and Kellogg Foundation.

The initial training sessions focussed on creating an entrepreneurship mindset.

2.1 Historical Evolution and Lessons Learnt

The purpose of the WKKF’s Africa program is to support the social and economic transformation of Southern Africa and reverse the cycle of rural poverty. The programme aims to build healthy, viable and sustainable rural communities and makes investments in civic engagement, economic opportunities, skills and leadership development, as well as health and well-being for families, women, and youth- towards achieving this aim.

The African Programme began comprehensive grant-making in 1998, in the Southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. In the first phase of programming (1998–2003/2004), the Foundation pursued its program goal through the implementation of three strategic initiatives:

  • Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP)

  • Initiative for Development and Equity in African Agriculture (IDEAA)

  • Leadership Regional Network (LeaRN)

During this first phase, the WKKF program team decided to select target areas and focus the programmes’ investments in these areas. The team defined a target area as a focused geographically-specific area, which offered an opportunity to address rural poverty through the integrated rural development investments outlined above. The implementation design emphasized regional level structures, with the above three initiatives coordinated regionally through the Universities of Pretoria and Zimbabwe, but implemented locally, in selected target areas.

2.2 Lessons Learnt from the First Phase

The implementation of the first phase of the programme yielded some lessons and insights, which led to the evolution of the next phase of the programme. Practical experience and feedback obtained from the assessment of the three initiatives, indicated that the target area defined by the WKKF programme team, was too large to produce the community transformation required- even with concerted and concentrated effort. The program team came to a realization that in order to facilitate the transformation process within the target areas, focused attention and intense activity had to be ignited within these areas.

Another major lesson from the first phase was the need for greater focus on the community, and stronger integration of the three strategies in pursuit of the development of a self-drive mindset at community level.

These lessons led the Foundation to evolve its programme into a new phase- one that invests in building a self-drive mindset through community visioning, planning and implementation of community-initiated development agendas. This second phase, titled the zooming phase- has consolidated the three initiatives into an integrated systems change model that emphasizes the bottom-up community participation approach established in the first phase. The initiatives have been consolidated into one program with four impact strategies- civic engagement; economic opportunities; skills and leadership development; and health and well-being. This consolidation sharpens the primacy of the community and national levels in the WKKF programme, and enables sustainability through local and national institutionalization.

The zooming phase happens in a zoom site- defined as a geographically-specific, small area in which communities are fully engaged in comprehensive and intensive visioning, planning, strategy development, implementation, assessment and learning activities.

3 Building the Self Drive Mindset of Communities—the Zooming Approach

3.1 Defining the Approach

The zooming process is a participatory and interactive engagement approach to local development, developed and refined by the WKKF’s Africa Programme on the basis of lessons and experience from its work in the region. It is based on the assumption that development is essentially about building the capacity of communities to make their own economic, social and spiritual decisions. The process is targeted at selected sites and communities, where careful experimentations of change processes can be undertaken and documented, in order to generate new insights and knowledge that can be shared with other sites and communities across the sub-region.

The aim of the approach is to help build local capacity for self drive—particularly in youth, women and families. The capacity to self-drive is developed through supporting rural communities to learn to self-start, self-assess, and self-correct. The approach further aims to build the leadership systems and the capabilities needed to provide local people with a favourable environment, as well as the confidence and resources to lead their own social and economic transformation. The emphasis is thus on local communities’ ability to initiate, implement and assess programs and initiatives that serve their own needs and thereby reinforce their self-drive mindset.

3.2 The Development of a Self-Drive Mindset

The WKKF operates on the hypothesis that self-drive develops as communities acquire the following capacities:

  • Capacity to analyze one’s own situation. The WKKF’s prior experience on the ground emphasized that ability to investigate truth for one’s self is critical to development. In the context of a community, collective investigation of truth and group decision-making requires capacity to consult and draw on the strength of the group to foster unity of purpose and action.

  • Capacity to articulate the changes one wants to make. Too often the poor and marginalized are unable to express their own needs and desires to outsiders as well as to themselves. Developing the capacity for articulation of intended changes enhances both the understanding and implementation of the community vision.

  • Capacity to create alliances with other development partners: To a large extent, the economic and social underdevelopment experienced by poor communities is the consequence of inability to initiate and sustain mutually supporting and reinforcing dynamics of collaboration and partnerships among the different actors and institutions operating in a given area. It is also the consequence of dysfunctional and unbalanced articulations between the local, district, provincial and national levels. It is therefore critical for communities to develop capacities to create alliances with a whole spectrum of development partners- including development agencies; community based organizations, other development agencies, the private sector and government (Warner and Sullivan 2004).

  • Capacity to act: Without the capacity to translate goals into actions, many development efforts flounder. The WKKF approach contributes to the development of this capacity within communities; through the participatory engagement of communities in program implementation. This capacity to act is the engine that ensures that change will begin.

  • Capacity to assess and self-correct: The capacity to assess and self-correct is as vital to the success of the community programme as all of the other capacities stated above. This capacity enables communities to adapt to the exigencies of the time. It further enables the establishment of a learning system to ensure that the community takes time to reflect and learn from its mistakes, rather than repeating them with no changed or new results.

In order to assist communities to develop a self-drive mindset through the development of the above capacities, the WKKF supports a facilitation process led by traditional leaders, along with local support organizations and the community itself.

3.3 How the Process Unfolds

The process takes place in a favourable setting, in which it is possible to facilitate a social mobilization process that can lead to collective action. At least three elements are considered by teams planning to zoom:

  • Firstly, each team decides at which administrative scale the zooming exercise would take place. This administrative scale needs to be significant enough in terms of engagements and interface opportunities between several types of actors (farmers, traders, local authorities and institutions, representatives of central authorities, NGOs, churches).

  • Second, relevant information and knowledge on the area and its institutional setting is obtained. The information is necessary to allow for rapid identification and involvement of all the relevant actors in the zooming process. In this respect, priority is given to localities which have already demonstrated some tangible evidence of organizational dynamism and openness- mainly through the successful initiation of collective action and the inclusion of women and youth.

  • Third, the team explains the objectives of the process of zooming to the local and national leadership, and secures their understanding and agreement. The explanation grounds zooming as an explicit strategy for reaching out to the most needy and empowering them.

3.4 The Different Phases of Zooming

The entire process is schematically represented in Fig. 1 below, and involves five main steps designed to generate specific outputs which contribute to the building of a community’s self-drive mind-set. The main steps are: Entry or the “Community Consultations and Appreciative Inquiry”Footnote 1; Covenanting and Dedication; Community Mapping; Implementation; and Learning.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Zoom site process model

Full size image

The expected result of this process is to contribute to the community empowerment agenda by achieving at least four main outputs:

  • Firstly, Community Leaders are fully informed and they understand and agree with the program to be supported by the WKKF;

  • Secondly, a covenant is established and it represents an agreement with the community leaders as to what the WKKF’s involvement will be in the future;

  • Thirdly, a comprehensive community mapping and plan is supported and becomes the basis of discussions with community’s members; and

  • Fourthly, community members are able to learn through this process.

The combined outcome of this process over time is an increased capacity of the community to self drive and to take control of their own development.

4 Operational Guidelines

4.1 The Entry or Community Consultations and Appreciative Inquiry Phase

During this phase, the country Program Directors consults with community leaders to inform them about the WKKF’s values, objectives and the strategies it employs to achieve them. All leadership- built on different legitimating processes, and with different accountability mechanisms- is consulted. It is essential to be as inclusive as possible in the consultation phase, in order to secure a broad base of understanding and support for the program, it is not uncommon to find traditional authorities, representatives of central government, religious authorities, as well as other powerful economic and social elites in one locality. All these leaders need to be consulted and consensus built on the development program to be implemented,

For these reasons, the WKKF recommends the following guidelines to the Programme Directors and their operating agencies responsible for zooming:

  • To identify and consult with all the sources of authority and legitimacy in the locality; this can be done by reviewing the information available on the area, but also by conducting semi structured interviews with key informants, knowledgeable about the local institutional and social settings.

  • To define and share a local zooming plan (objectives, roll out plan, roles and responsibilities), with the leadership and stakeholders concerned.

This is the primary focus of the entry process, as the WKKF needs to secure the communities understanding and agreement with its values, objectives and strategies. The discussion with the local leadership pays particular attention to the objectives and the implantation schedule of zooming exercise, as they need to give their blessing to the capacity-building motivation of the exercise, and the required open and broad participation to the process. Once this objective is met, then attention is shifted to specifying and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each party in the whole process.

4.2 The Covenanting and Dedication Phase

This phase has three main objectives:

  • To identify adequate institutional mechanisms to involve local players in the process

    Depending on the local circumstances, the following mechanisms are developed and agreed upon in order to manage the entire process:

    • A local steering committee- created under the local authority’s leadership. It is given an explicit mandate to oversee the zooming process and to be accountable to the local authority. The composition of this committee is carefully defined to reflect a broad base representation of the economic, social and political realities of the locality.

    • An organization committee- charged with technical and methodological implementation of the zooming process. This committee could comprise both local facilitators and resources people from the locality and from outside.

    • A local sensitization and facilitation unit- assigned the social marketing campaign and the popular sensitization of the zooming message and process. Their role is to keep everybody informed about the zooming process- its objective, as well as the roles and responsibilities of each party. This unit plays a crucial role in popularizing the results and the different outcomes of the process. It builds on the usual communication systems and vehicles of the area. Tailored support is provided to this unit in order to enlarge its local, and district level audiences.

  • Prepare an appropriate communication plan

    In order to meet the challenge of promoting social cohesion and popular acceptance of the local development plan, the steering committee develops a communication strategy targeted at the different stakeholders of the local development process. The objective of the communication campaign is to reduce the differences in perception between the different actors and to promote the cohesion needed for a successful collective action. The following approaches and tools are considered for the communication campaign:

    • Use of community meetings to spread the word, provide the rationale for the exercise and explain the different steps and the parties involved;

    • Use of community meetings to learn about the locality’s history, opportunities, challenges and achievements.

    • Use of community forums to give feedbacks on the zooming process and its outcomes.

    • Use of community radios and local newspapers to provide timely and sustained information about the process and its results.

    • Other approaches and tools are considered and used as appropriate, depending on the particular settings and circumstances of each site.

  • A capacity building package:

    Once the objectives of the exercise are defined and the appropriate facilitation mechanisms are agreed upon, a systematic need assessment is conducted to define the adequate support package that is required for successful completion of the zooming process. Following this assessment, a planning grant is made to the community or to the facilitation agency, in order to allow for the more detailed visioning and planning that would follow. This in turn generates a more comprehensive multiyear program derived from the community’s detailed planning to be supported by the Kellogg Foundation and other partners.

5 Supporting Community Detailed Planning Process

The following guidelines apply to this phase:

  1. a.

    Conduct consultations with local actors and stakeholders about the communities’ opportunities, challenges and priorities. These consultations are done using several approaches:

    • A territorial approach to systematically identify the limits of the locality; to make an inventory of all its resources; and to scan its main actors and how they interact with each other, as well as with the larger environment. At this stage, emphasis is on a series of maps of opportunities, constraints, institutional dynamics, etc. This territorially-focused work could use several discussion formats, including localized workshops involving a range of participants residing in the locality.

    • A collegial approach by organising focus group discussions with more homogeneous groups, defined by the similarity of their activities, concerns, and/or social status. Depending on the area, the focus groups could be women groups, youth associations, traders associations, traditional healers, locally elected officials, extension workers, etc. This particular forum could also provide a much needed forum for peers to share their experiences, ideas and prospective about the issues that they perceive as important.

    • A thematic approach to learn more about and discuss issues and recommendations related to a particular issue or theme such as access to market information, commercialization of a certain commodity, development of a local irrigation scheme, sensitization campaign related to HIV/AIDS, Orphans and Vulnerable Children etc.

  2. b.

    Facilitate community members’ exchanges and analysis of their situation:

All these approaches are mobilised to make a general exploration of crucial issues, diagnose and identify problems or to generate ideas and plans about how to deal with the issue at hand. During this process, certain standard Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods and tools are used to facilitate the deliberations of the community. For instance, a problem tree analysis can help local people to systematically explore the relationships between a central problem, and factors and parameters that are associated with a given challenge. Emphasis is put in exploring possible solutions, and building on the ideas and experiences that were generated during the different discussions.

  1. c.

    Synthesize the information gathered and the proposals made in the various sectoral meetings, and organize a general restitution to the community at large, to seek their comments, criticisms and approval of the ideas generated. The objective of the synthesis of the information is to find common ground for selecting projects and proposals that the community would focus on. Care is taken to ensure that the process is sensitive to the needs and requirements of several social categories and explore win-win solutions that accommodate the needs of different actors.

Because of the need for the local action plan to get a broad base acceptance and support from the local constituencies, the zooming process relies as much as possible on institutions and mechanisms known and trusted by the different stakeholders. It might therefore be necessary to reinforce local conflict mediation and social facilitation skills. It is essential that all parties involved feel that the solutions arrived at serve the community at large, and have been a result of local consensus.

5.1 Methods and Tools for Learning and Sharing

The WKKF recommends the use of the outcomes mapping framework and its accompanying tools to facilitate the zooming process.

  1. a.

    Outcome mapping as a working framework

Outcome mapping is a participatory facilitation, planning, monitoring and evaluation tool which provides the concepts and the tools needed to manage the desired changes pursued by any development program. The framework recognizes that the kind of social and economic transformations sought by the WKKF’s program relate to changes in behaviours and attitudes that may not occur as a direct consequence of one specific program. These are rather the outcome of several factors whose combined effect brings about the desired outcome.

The outcomes mapping framework provides a set of tools which assist in facilitating the development of a Vision for the future; Mission to be pursued in order to contribute to the vision; Determining the Boundary Partners -the most important actors and institutions whose actions and behaviours are crucial in bringing about the desired change; Determining the strategies that the program needs to implement in order to influence the behaviours of the boundary partners; as well as Definition of progress markers which will inform the local actors about the effectiveness of their change strategies and what they need to do in order to improve them.

The framework further provides tools for the documentation of progress made in influencing the behaviour of boundary partners, the strategies used, and the lessons learnt in doing so. This action learning process offers community members with opportunities to reflect on their experience, and to make the adjustments needed in order to improve their performances.

  1. b.

    Defining a community change management strategy

The following table presents a sample of possible strategies targeted at specific boundary partners and expected results from implementing the strategies. For each category, specific influence strategies are determined and applied.

Key actors

Influence strategy

Expected results

Opinion leaders

Advocacy, sensitization

Human and financial resource mobilization;

Sponsoring, social affiliation;

Conflict alleviation

Local authorities

Information

Official approval and endorsement;

Resource allocation;

Legality control

Technical state institutions

Cooperation

Technical support;

Facilitation;

Technical control

Social economic categories and head of household

Negotiation/demonstration

Adoption et diffusion of new practices ad behaviours

  1. c.

    Promoting boundary partner understanding of their roles and responsibilities

The strategy for dealing with this issue is to organize a participatory workshop on roles and responsibilities which lead to the optimal repartition of roles, based on the comparative advantages. This workshop format allows the different parties to develop a common understanding of their responsibilities with regard to each other. In this way, they develop clear accountability principles and mechanisms which can be enforced at the local level.

6 Defining the Community Development Approach

The emphasis is thus on local communities’ ability to initiate, implement and assess programs and initiatives that serve their own needs and thereby reinforce their self-drive mindset.

The activities outlined in this chapter demonstrate the initiatives that have been undertaken over the last three months in pursuance of the philosophy and partnership of Kellogg Foundation, BA ISAGO University and the Kuru Dkar Trust for the benefit of the locals and in support of Vision 2016 and the Millennium Development Goals, to which the Government of Botswana is a signatory. The project was undertaken by BA ISAGO University College under the auspices of WW Kellogg Foundation.

D’kar is a private farm, belonging to the San Reformed Church in D’kar, and therefore not eligible for government funding. Trusts work as partners to the 1700 marginalized D’kar inhabitants as they face the health, economic and political challenges of a minority group in Botswana. The goal of Kuru D’kar Trust is to assist D’kar community especially the poor and marginalized to develop sustainable livelihoods through education, training, and community mobilization. Amongst other things the Kuru D’kar Trust mobilizes the youth, local women, and the elderly to undertake community projects, support health services to the community and develop San leadership to guide the village, and the community into the future

The Ba Isago University in partnership with Kellogg Foundation initiated a Community Based Planning Programme that was based on the Zooming Process in the D’kar community and its surrounding resettlement areas which are occupied by the minority San Tribe. According to the project, “The aim of the approach is to help build local capacity for self-drive particularly in youth, women and the families.

The capacity to self-drive is developed through supporting rural communities to learn to self-start, self-assess, and self-correct. The approach further aims to build leadership systems and the capabilities needed to provide local people with a favorable environment, as well as the confidence and resources to lead their own social and economic transformation.”

7 Kellogg Foundation Guidelines and There application to D’kar Community Development and Capacity Building Initiatives

The background of the planned training program recognized that D’kar Trust had been running many projects to improve the self-sustenance of the local people through job creation and income generating projects to curb unemployment. That, this was in line with the emphasis Government of Botswana placed on the creation of self-employment opportunities at the micro level.

The proceedings of the workshops were conducted in Setswana, and English with translations by an interpreter to Naro the local language, as some participants spoke only their local language. It was a mixed group of members who had studied at tertiary, secondary, primary level, non-formal education, and some who had not been to school.

Kellogg Foundation Guidelines advocate for Community Engagement, which “… he process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the wellbeing of those people. It is a powerful vehicle for bringing about environmental and behavioural changes that will improve the health of the community and its members. It often involves partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems, change relationships among partners, and serve as catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices.”.

Out of the community engagement experiences in D’kar one can also conclude that while making extensive use of the Kellogg Foundation Guidelines, there are critical issues that all partners must agree on and appreciate their corresponding benefits:

  • Agenda—Engagement changes the choice and focus of projects, how they are initiated, and their potential to obtain funding. Clear areas for collaboration are identified, and funding that requires community engagement becomes accessible.

  • Design and delivery—Study design, tools, interventions, representation/participation, data collection and analysis, communication, and dissemination must be agreed upon. The speed and efficiency of the project can be enhanced by rapidly engaging partners and participants and identifying new sources of information.

  • Implementation and change—This must be done in such a manner that all parties are fully committed to the process and carried out at a pace that does not force one into complying with the demands of the others.

  • Ethics—Engagement must be seen as an opportunity to improve the consent process, identify ethical pitfalls, and create processes for resolving ethical problems when they arise.

  • The public involved in the project—The knowledge and skills of the public involved in the project must be enhanced, and their contributions must be recognized (possibly through financial rewards). These efforts foster goodwill and help lay the groundwork for subsequent collaborations.

  • Academic partners—Academic partners gain understanding of the issue under study and appreciation of the role and value of community involvement. In addition, new insights into the relevance of a project and the various benefits to be gained from it can result in increased opportunities to disseminate its findings and their wider use.

  • Individual research participants—They must be used in such a way that they bring benefits to participants.

  • Community organizations—These organizations must grow in knowledge, a higher profile in the community, more linkages with their community members and entities, and new organizational capacity. These benefits can create goodwill and help lay the groundwork for subsequent collaborations.

  • The general public—The general public is likely to be more receptive to the research and reap greater benefits from it when they see tangible success in projects.

7.1 Community Participation

In D’kar Community project it became apparent that “community engagement requires participation of community members in projects that address their issues and that meaningful community participation extends beyond physical involvement to include generation of ideas, contributions to decision making, and sharing of responsibility.” Among the factors that motivated people to participate were wanting to play an active role in bettering their own lives, fulfilling social or San community obligations, feeling a need for a sense of development, and wanting cash or in-kind rewards. Whatever people’s motivations, obtaining meaningful community participation and having a successful, sustained initiative required that engagement leaders respect, listen to, and learn from community members? An absence of mutual respect and co-learning can result in a loss of time, trust, resources, and, most importantly, effectiveness.

7.1.1 Community Needs Analysis

  • During the preliminary stages of the projects, visits were made to a few homesteads to make observations on the way of life and what they needed to better their individual and community lives.

  • Interviews were conducted with a few community members who gave insight into the Kuru Family of Organizations: Letloa Trust is the lead organization of the Kuru Family of Organizations (KFO) with a mandate to give strategic direction to the KFO, to build the capacity of members, to provide technical and financial management and fundraising support to members of the organizations that make up the KFO. These were cited as follows:

  • Bokamoso Trust, providing pre-school education to children in communities.

  • Gantsi Craft, supporting over 800 craft producers primarily women, in 15 settlements across the Ghanzi District and Kgalagardi North Sub-district. They purchase craft in the communities to supply the Gantsi Craft shop for their wholesale orders.

  • Komku Trust focuses on livestock syndicate work involving about 31 members, including training in agricultural related activities. Komku supports Letloa’s Health initiatives.

  • General comments included: Community members who want to live better lives come forward, whilst others give up easily.

  • Women worked in groups on their crafts in homesteads, however stating that, the availability of the market was challenge. They received training, but need money to start their business projects. Many residents moved to the Afrikaner farms located between Gantsi and D’kar to work there.

  • Up to mid last year community members were provided with food packages after assessment by government, but this service has since been terminated. Only old people receive such rations as well as Old Age Pension. The community survive on cattle rearing, subsistence agriculture, as well as food vendors. The problem of excessive alcohol consumption particularly by the youth was reported as posing a big challenge.

  • A Focus Group Discussion was conducted with 20 participants who attended the workshop. The language used was Setswana and English, with interpretations made to the local language Naro.

7.1.2 The Training Techniques

Lecturing

This was used extensively to explain by giving spoken explanations of the subject that is to be learned. Lecturing is often accompanied by visual aids to help participants visualize an object or problem. Lectures, on the other hand, are often geared more towards factual presentation than connective learning.

Demonstrating

This is the process of teaching through examples. Demonstrations were used to prove facts through a combination of visual evidence and associated reasoning.

Demonstrations were used as much as writing sessions, storytelling and examples in that they allowed participants to personally relate to the presented information. Workshops avoided memorization of facts because they are a detached and impersonal experience. The same information, conveyed through demonstration, became personally relatable. Demonstrations helped to raise student interest and reinforce memory retention because they provided connections between facts and real-world applications of those facts.

Collaborating

Collaboration was used to allow participants to actively participate in the learning process by talking with each other and listening to other points of view. Collaboration established a personal connection between participants and the topic of study and it helped participants think in a less personally biased way. Group projects and discussions were used as an effective teaching method. Trainers employed collaboration to assess student’s abilities to work as a team, leadership skills, or presentation abilities.

Collaborative discussions took a variety of forms, such as fishbowl discussions. After some preparation and with clearly defined roles, a discussion may constitute most of a lesson, with the trainers only giving short feedback at the end or in the following session.

Learning by Teaching

In this teaching method, participants assumed the role of teacher and teach their peers. Participants who teach others as a group or as individuals must study and understand a topic well enough to teach it to their peers. By having participants participate in the teaching process, they gain self-confidence and strengthen their speaking and communication skills.

The purpose of training was not only to pass information but to empower trainees in many respects including: to instill a sense of confidence within themselves to take risks and work on something new; to unearth hidden and inborn qualities and talents for survival; to impart innovation and creativity skills for the new project; to develop team-work and techniques of working with others and seek information; to form the habit of thinking positively to own and work to start on their own projects.

On-the-Job Training

With on the job training, employees receive training whilst remaining in the workplace. The main methods of one-the-job training include:

Assignment Rotation

Where the trainee is given several jobs in succession, to gain experience of a wide range of activities (e.g. a graduate management trainee might spend periods in several different departments).

Projects—employees join a project team—which gives them exposure to other parts of the business and allow them to take part in new activities. Most successful project teams are “multi-disciplinary”.

7.1.3 Format of Training

The first day of every training would always focus on Understanding Self and Self Assessment before getting into the new topic. Participants were given opportunities to share their life histories and what motivated them to attend the workshops, as well as their expectations. Each workshop covered a SWOT ANALYSIS of their lives. The main question they were required to answer was“ Do I want to remain where I am, or do I want to change my situation”

What is community development and what is the role of members?

Most participants appreciated some general qualities of successful communities which included:

  • -They are ordinary people like us

  • -They look for opportunities

  • -They use their talent/skills

  • -They use their resources (human, materials, time & money)

  • -They take the risk of investing and working on a business venture

  • -They make profit for themselves

7.1.4 Highlights During Workshops

  • Need to consider skills needed –leadership, interpersonal, problem solving, networking skills, innovation, creativity, survival skills, passion/vision and mission, strategic planning etc

  • Consider the new ideas in the context of change for the better

  • Consider risks, costs and benefits of working together.

  • Need to solve problems constructively, manage conflict within shortest possible time, action review- how is your business performing? Associate with people who have your interest

Training Approaches Included:

  • Brainstorming on business ideas using the SCAMPER Model-S-Substitute, A-Amplify, M-Modify, P-Put to other use, E-Eliminate, R-Reduce.

  • Most sessions were carried out in groups of seven (7) with each group given a different assignment to complete and then report back to the rest of the group.

  • Round Robin Brainstorming –This involved throwing a ball at anyone to name an idea that had not been mentioned;

  • Picture Association-The trainers pinned pictures on the wall for learners to list as many business ideas, goods or services that can be developed from what was shown on the picture;

  • Environmental Scanning- Participants were asked to go outside and look around the premises and list down as many ideas could contribute to the change of socio-economic conditions in the community and

  • Macro Screening to summarise the best ideas after the workshop, and

  • Micro screen the best ideas they liked at a personal level.

Observations

  • Participants knew what they wanted and how to get it. They came up with a variety of ideas and projects/businesses they were either already engaged in, or aspiring to get started with, if they were assisted with funds.

  • During the workshops the participants came up with projects for implementation which included: vegetable gardening; street vendor; crafts production; bakery; poultry farming; restaurant; leather works; small stock-goats; craft making; commercial gardening; beef production; butchery; sewing traditional attire etc.

  • Participants learnt the value of business management, business planning, customer care, how to resolve conflicts in the workplace, market research, and many other concepts critical to the success of a business.

  • While the Kellogg Foundation Guidelines help tremendously in working with stakeholders, the utility of the guidelines in a workshop setting is limited. They are good for the project manager and the institutions he or she may be representing but the trainers may not get much guidance from the manual.

8 Training Methodology

The workshop methodology was based on the CEFE Participatory Training Methodology which deliberately involves the learners in the learning process. It included the use of class/group discussions, games, structured learning exercises, simulations, field study and one-to-one training.

The training approach/methodology of this workshop was highly participatory hence deliberately keeping the participants awake. The simplicity of the trainer’s presentation was very good.

Participants demonstrated high potential; they were positive and showed readiness to do their own income generating projects.

There were some participants who had already started their own small businesses and there was need for the project to take them to another level. The course was well structured.

Each participant signed a Training Commitment Contract to take the necessary steps to ensure that they participate fully in the project. At the end of each workshop there was an Evaluation of Workshop by participants, and what they needed to move forward with their community projects.

9 Conclusions

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s response to the challenges of massive rural poverty is captured and encapsulated in its theory of change: “self-recognition should energize communities to seek to transform their reality to a better quality of life, to plan for it (with outside assistance), and to strategize for access to opportunities that would allow the achievement of an improved quality of life (WKKF 2004)”. At the heart of such a theory lies the relationship between the self drive mind-set of individuals, and communities operating at the local and national level; and the activation of social and economic transformations of rural communities in Southern Africa. What is needed is that “at the local level, communities; their leaders; businesses; organizations and institutions assume an “I can do” disposition. At provincial and national levels, this requires bureaucrats, politicians, business and non profit organisations’ leaders to start to listen to local communities’ needs and facilitate such that community initiatives have access to opportunities and resources, and to look out for regional opportunities that would enhance local social and economic development (WKKF 2005)”.

The Kellogg Foundation’s program will succeed in bringing about the kind of change described above- if it manages to effectively help the targeted communities to develop ability to collectively elaborate a vision for their future; and engage in dialogues and conversations with other stakeholders to find feasible and compatible answers to common challenges.

These imperatives compel the local actors to invent new patterns of behaviours, new modes of management and regulation (of power, resources, conflicts,) that are congruent with what is the fundamental challenge of African rural societies- to exist and to be recognized with specific values and cultural heritage, in a global world. This transformational agenda requires not only innovative programmes and activities, but more fundamentally new ways of doing social, economic and political transactions. In sum, in order to achieve the objective of alleviating poverty in Africa, not only do we need new businesses, but we also and probably more fundamentally, need new ways of doing business. The zooming approach being currently developed by the Kellogg Foundation Africa program can be a significant move in that direction.

The Kellogg Foundation Guidelines on Community Development have been very instrumental in facilitating the work in D’kar, particularly the initial stages of building rapport with community leaders and getting their support for effective implementation of the project. Through the use of the Kellogg Foundation Guidelines, we have learnt that,

“We need to establish relationships, build trust, work with the formal and informal leadership, and seek commitment from community organizations and leaders to create processes for mobilizing the community. Effective community engagement is based on community support. All partners must be actively respected from the start. For example, meeting with key community leaders and groups in their surroundings helps to build trust for a true partnership. Such meetings provide the organizers of engagement activities with more information about the community, its concerns, and the factors that will facilitate or constrain participation. In addition, community members need to see and experience “real” benefits for the extra time, effort, and involvement they are asked to give. Once a successful rapport is established, meetings and exchanges with community members can build into an ongoing and substantive partnership.”(Focus group discussion notes 2011).