MAY 17, 2004

Ending Hunger in Africa:
Strategic Planning-in-Action to mobilize and empower
grassroots people to end their own hunger

This document summarizes the elements of a holistic, decentralized, people-centered approach to meeting basic needs that has evolved in partnership with the rural people of Western, Eastern and Southern Africa.

The term “strategic planning-in-action (SPIA)” distinguishes this from conventional strategic planning in which experts devise a plan which is then implemented by others on the ground.

SPIA turns conventional planning on its head. Instead of a prepared plan being the context for action, action becomes the context for planning by the people themselves as they meet their basic needs.

SPIA is a two-prong strategy. First, it mobilizes grassroots people to take self-reliant action. Second, it mobilizes dedicated leaders at the national and district levels that are committed to this approach and have the clout to clear away obstacles, cut through red tape, and connect people to resources.

Guiding and facilitating the SPIA process demands rigorous adherence to certain key principles such as self-reliance and gender equity, as well as the mobilization of leadership of exceptional skill and integrity. This approach is particularly beneficial in a landscape of limited resources because external funding needs are modest and the effects are inherently sustainable.

Mobilizing the international and national leadership

An international team to facilitate this process. The first requirement is to have a core team of staff who are unyieldingly committed to this strategy and have the willingness, skills and humility to call forth local leadership in a spirit of authentic partnership. Too often, “outsiders” come into developing countries with an apparent need to exhibit their knowledge and expertise. As was stated in the 1995 Social Development Summit in Copenhagen, what’s needed is a new kind of expert – experts at bringing people together.

Support from national political leaders. Leadership at the presidential level must support this strategic approach and ensure that facilitators have access at the ministerial level.

National Strategy Conference. The first milestone for any country beginning this process is to bring together top national leadership from all relevant sectors of society – health, education, nutrition, agriculture, rural and social development, government, academia, civil society, grassroots and women’s organizations, the media and the private sector. A background “What’s So” paper is prepared by local scholars before the meeting, providing a “big picture” look at the situation of hunger and poverty in the country from all sectors. Opportunities for action are identified, and a shared vision is created consistent with this people-centered approach to self-reliant development.

One key to success is that no per diems are paid. It has been our observation that paying local people to attend meetings for the well-being of their own country shifts the nexus of ownership from the local people to the donor. Participants need to choose to attend out of their personal commitment.

National Advisory Council. The next milestone is to form a 7 to 10 member council of respected and influential leaders from key sectors of society who will bring their credibility and clout to the success of the strategy.

Staff to lead the mobilization. The council – in partnership with the international team - identifies inspiring, dynamic, highly committed staff who can work well with grassroots people and with government officials to lead this strategic process. One of the greatest challenges is to find leaders who are willing to embody and espouse a vision of Africa based on self-reliance, rather than on external assistance.

Mobilizing and empowering people at the grassroots

Selecting initial areas for mobilization. The council and staff identify a first rural area where the process is likely to succeed and serve as a catalyst for mobilization elsewhere. An initial area is selected that (a) has an impoverished, hungry population, (b) is close enough to the capital to enable staff to work there as well as allow the place to serve as an example to policy makers and (c) where the people demonstrate a “readiness” for mobilization and a commitment to end their own hunger. The total population to be included in one mobilization needs to be a viable-sized unit for local-level strategy and action, which may vary from 15,000 to 50,000 people.

Get the blessing of the village “gatekeepers.” The next step is to bring together existing leadership sectors in the rural area – traditional chiefs, religious leaders, local government officials, and leaders of local civil society – and enlist their support for this strategy of self-reliance. In some cases, some of these leaders may move beyond moral support and make specific commitments for active participation. For example, a landowner or chief may contribute land; district-level officials may provide health workers, teachers or supplies.

Overcome the mindset of resignation and dependency. Virtually all successful movements for grassroots mobilization find they need to take a dramatic large-scale action to awaken the population to a new sense of possibility, and overcome the deeply entrenched conditions of resignation and hopeless. This can be done in a dynamic one- or two-day workshop bringing together equal numbers of women and men along with all other stakeholders in the community. This workshop must be designed for grassroots people, and must be able to be led by local people. For example, in The Hunger Project’s workshops, the people create a vision for how they would like their village to be in the coming few years. They analyze this vision, and discover that – although they had always been waiting for help from outside – they are actually able to achieve their vision through their own efforts. They take a stand to achieve specific priorities, and commit themselves to their own three-month program of action to achieve them. In a few areas, one workshop will unleash the community into dynamic action immediately – more often, it requires several workshops to generate a commitment to self-reliance.

Train “animators.” During these workshops, some villagers will demonstrate real leadership potential – often bright, young women and men who exhibit real enthusiasm for the strategy. They receive a special one-day of training to be “animators” – spark plugs to mobilize people in their villages and facilitate their development activities. Out of a public workshop of 200 people, perhaps 20 may step forward to become animators.

Identifying the priorities of the community. Once people begin to be mobilized, they work with staff to identify a set of priorities needed to end hunger in the area. These are almost always consistent with the priorities outlined in the Hunger Task Force interim report, and will be described in the section below.

Build “social infrastructure.” As the community begins to mobilize to meet its basic needs, it elects committees to be responsible for each aspect of work: a committee to be responsible for meeting community needs overall; and sub-committees for health, education, food security, employment generation and other priorities of the village. An absolute requirement is that there must be equal numbers of women and men on each committee.

Create local strategies to meet the priorities. Initially, the national leadership needs to link the local committees to additional local experts (such as extension and health workers) to assist the community to create its own specific strategies to meet their goals.

Build the physical infrastructure. A major milestone in the mobilization strategy is for the community to construct a building that will house its school, health center, food processing, food bank, adult literacy classes, other training, a meeting room and a rural bank. For most villagers, this is an achievement beyond the realm of what they could ever imagine – yet they do it themselves. Someone contributes land – including land for a community farm. Others contribute labor, learning to make bricks and construct the building. It’s important that the community has established a 6-month track-record of collective, self-reliant action before construction, and the construction process may require 4-7 months.

Create strong linkages with local government. Local government officials are included at every stage of the process. As the village gains confidence, it also gains stronger voice and is more able to negotiate with local government to gain teachers, health workers, extension workers, and pharmaceutical supplies.

Catalyze action in surrounding areas. Animators carry the spirit of commitment, information, skill development and services of the central community to surrounding villages. These villages see the success and want to re-create it. The entire process of mobilization takes on a life of its own, becomes demand-driven and expands dramatically.

Sustainability. In our experience, one cannot start a project that is primarily dependent on outside funds, and then make the transition to sustainability. Sustainability must be established from the start, by ensuring that people’s own skills and resources are the basis of the strategy. The strategy includes programs that generate funds for the community sufficient to maintain the community facilities, such as proceeds from the community farm, interest payments to the bank, usage fees for using mechanized food processing equipment, and rental of the main community hall for weddings and other local celebrations.

Costs. Mobilizing and empowering self-reliance costs money: staff must be paid and transported to the rural areas, and there are some capital investments which the people simply cannot provide. Every effort is made to minimize external capital investments, and have them experienced as secondary to people’s own investment. We’ve found that the national core team for mobilization costs approximately $250,000 per year per country, and that each community mobilized requires an average initial external capital investments of $35,000.

Achieving specific objectives for the end of hunger through this process

• Capacity building of elected leaders. As every community program is managed by the elected members of the community, the staff and community arrange to train the approximately 100 members of various committees in their responsibilities. In addition, the community may train certain villagers as service providers for various programs, such as midwives and literacy trainers.
• Capacity building of the population. In the people-centered approach to capacity building, a key starting point is literacy and numeracy, particularly for women. In addition, the community provides skill training to individuals to improve their farm productivity, nutrition and income.
• Primary education. A top priority for rural communities is primary education for both girls and boys—beginning with pre-school—run and managed by the community education sub-committee. The mobilized community—with its linkages to the influential national council—is able to negotiate with local government to provide teachers. Note: a requirement for access to credit is that all daughters must be enrolled in school.
• Primary health care. Another top priority is for the rural community to meet its primary health needs, including immunization, pre-natal and post-natal education and care. Communities arrange for professional training for traditional birth attendants or mid-wives to manage the health center, and negotiate with government to ensure regular visits by doctors and regular supplies of basic pharmaceutical. Communities in Malawi have been particularly innovative by creating their own “barefoot doctors” (ambulant pharmacists) to ensure basic pharmaceuticals are available in remote areas.
• Community-based nutrition interventions. As called for in the report, communities form “home grown” free nutritious meal policies at their pre-schools and schools, and emphasize nutrition training in the health centers. Women’s groups in Senegal have actually established income-earning programs developing locally-produced nutritious food supplements for pre-school children, and selling them to NGOs carrying out nutrition programs in other villages.
• Access to credit and savings. Every community forms their own rural bank for microcredit and savings. As a local initiative to redress the traditional marginalization of women in finance – as well as to ensure that the most important producers (women) are served, the community bank is run entirely by local women.
• Increase agriculture productivity in smallholder farms. Farming in every rural African community is the engine of economic growth, and it is women who are the chief farmers. Actions to increase farm productivity include:
  • Individual training in cropping, composting, utilization of new seeds and other techniques.
  • Community farming: a community farm is created so that community members, both men and women, can learn new techniques by doing them together – while at the same time producing food for the community food bank.
  • Extension. Community members take responsibility for providing transportation and lodging of extension workers, who in turn help them learn the latest techniques and solve specific problems identified by the community.
• Off-farm income-generating activities. Communities analyze local market opportunities for non-farm income. Some have launched successful income-generating activities such as tie-dying and dress-making.
• Making markets work for the poor. The factors listed above that increase the productivity of smallholder farmers (primarily women) have directly resulted in greater market power by the local farmers. In addition, the following factors strengthen their hand:
  • Community Food Banks. The community infrastructure includes a food bank to collect the harvest when prices are low, and release food for sale when prices increase.
  • Mechanized food processing, enabling women to greatly increase the scale of what they can sell, and a better time frame over which they can sell it.
  • Group formation. A pre-requisite to credit is that women be organized into enterprise groups so that they can bring more power to bear in market negotiations.
• Food security safety nets / Managing shocks. The community’s food bank – combined with encouragement to diversify crops – has also proven to be effective in protecting the community against flood and drought. During the recent famine in Malawi, no one mobilized by The Hunger Project died of hunger.
• Sustainable resource management. Rural people take responsibility for improving and sustaining their natural resource base. For example, in arid regions of Senegal, the villages chose to pioneer the use of drip irrigation. Composting is a regular feature of these strategies. All communities have some means to generate electricity to protect the cold-chain for vaccinations – some have set up biogas generators or solar systems to meet these needs.
• Stopping HIV/AIDS. To stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, it is imperative to provide education to the entire community on how to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS – including the understanding that gender inequality is fueling the spread of the disease. Men and women take such workshops together, declaring their own responsibility to stop the disease. In partnership with the community health committee, the community launches three-month campaigns to educate everyone in the community.

Bringing this to scale

There is no intrinsic reason why this decentralized, people-centered approach cannot be taken to scale. In fact, The Hunger Project’s experience is that as the process expands, it gains momentum. The concept of self-reliance becomes more of an accepted norm, and the external cost of building facilities decreases as people’s willingness to contribute increases.

As mentioned, the greatest limiting factor will be the time it takes it develop the committed leadership that can facilitate this process. At the same time, as more communities are mobilized, the more experienced communities become a knowledge resource for communities just beginning.