Kudos to fellow Mali RPCV and one of the architects of Africa Rural Connect, Molly Mattessich, for inviting me to participate.
I encourage all to listen to the podcast and especially Arlene's opening comments. I just want to highlight a few things that jumped out at me from this conversation.
African Women Matter
It is great to hear from someone from an organization like the Gates Foundation talking about the importance of women in agriculture in Africa. Arlene starts off the conversation by pointing out that this is a promising moment in agriculture, but one that will depend on African women as they make up 3/4 of the farming population in the developing world. They need to be the target. Coming off the recent G8 summit agriculture has jumped to the forefront in development, as it should. But, I think Arlene hits the nail on the head that a new focus on agriculture cannot succeed without addressing the needs of the farmers on the ground, and particularly the women.
Voices from the Fields
It is also encouraging to see the Gates Foundation recognizing the need to partner with an organization like NPCA. As Arlene points out they need knowledgeable, caring, and creative minds to focus on the issues facing agricultural development in Africa. The development community doesn't have all the answers, and those answers are not going to come from people who don't care about rural Africa. She points out that it is hard for the developed world to visualize the realities of working on the ground. Thus, the need for connecting with rural African farmers and people who know and have worked with rural Africans. NPCA, Peace Corps, and the African diaspora are three important groups who can help serve as the liaison between rural farmers and the development community.
Appropriate Technology
The final piece that struck me was the conversation revolving around technology and coming up with innovative solutions in rural Africa. Again the overarching them is that these solutions need to come from the ground up and should be driven by Africans. Bringing outside technology to rural development is problematic. There needs to be a focus on local needs. Outside technology needs to be taken and redone from a local perspective. Technology needs to be tailored to address the real target audience, rural African farmers (particularly women), and needs to be done so in real and practical ways. At present technology isn't reaching this target audience because there exists a disconnect in understanding implementation on the ground. Again, this is an area RPCVs, Peace Corps volunteers, members of the diaspora, and small grass roots organizations can play a key role in communicating the realities of farming in rural Africa and giving voice to the true needs of the farmers.
My Personal Spin
For me this initiative and the support of the Gates Foundation is very exciting. My wife is from a rural farming village in Mali, and our whole extended family are all rural farmers who are just scraping by. It has always been a struggle for us on a very personal level to find ways to address their needs. So to see and be a part of an initiative like Rural Africa Connect is exciting. For me the biggest challenge will be to bring the needs of people like my family in Mali to the table, and then to come up with innovative solutions to address them. I really believe this project to be a step in the right direction in terms of bringing a community of people together who understand and care about rural Africa. But, again the real challenge will be to make sure rural Africans and especially rural African women are involved. This is why the project I've submitted is called "Helping Farmers find their voice and be hear." (I know not the most creative name.)
The project is very much an idea at this point that still needs a lot of thought and fleshing out. However, I believe it to be an important issue to find a solution to. We need to find a way to create a platform for rural farmers to express their needs and be heard by the development community. This platform would also be a means for bringing farmers together and enabling them to organize on their own. I'm not sure I have the right approach, and am sure a lot will change in terms of how I've laid it out as I develop it more. But I feel the idea is worth putting out there. And I plan on continuing to work on it and build it into a project that could realistically be implemented. And while I focus on Mali (since that is what I know and where I am most closely tied to), the ideal is to find a solution that could be replicated elsewhere.
There are certainly a lot of questions I still need to answer. Here are some I'm struggling with:
- How do you move from idea to actionable project?
- How do you organize a project from abroad?
- How do you get "on the ground" where the action is with limited funds?
- How do you motivate farmers to participate?
- How do you ensure women's participation?
- How do you find and connect with existing local organizations on the ground?
- How do you present the farmers ideas and needs to the development community?
So I encourage all to read through the idea, and to offer constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement. You can do that on the ARC site or here in the comments. And I thank all those who have already left comments or reached out with advice and suggestions. I'm already working on ways to incorporate your ideas.
I also encourage everyone to check out all the other great ideas formulating on the site and to please endorse your favorites.
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