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The last edition of the EPI News was over six months ago, which is not a good record for a bi-monthly newsletter! And one of the reasons why this publication comes out so infrequently – something probably familiar to many of you – is that reflecting on, and writing about what we do and what we see always takes a poor second (or even third) place to the "important" work of our organisations.
And so, without further ado etc...
Many of us are familiar with the "scientific research" process in which a question or problem is identified, data is objectively collected, a dispassionate analysis developed, ultimately leading to recommendations for someone to act on – or not. The philosophy and the techniques underpinning hard scientific research have unfortunately become the norm for research into environmental and social situations, but are not always appropriate.
Action Research offers an alternative. This is no new age challenge to the solid foundations of modern scientific thought, but is a sound and rigorous methodology for researching socio-environmental situations.
At the root of applied scientific research is the desire to find, or improve, the means to reach some or other pre-determined goal. The process begins with identifying the "problem". A process of research and investigation is identified in order to find a "solution". With the beginning-point and end-point thus established, complex situations are reduced to their component parts so that each can be studied separately and the relationships between them analysed. Thus a model of cause and effect can be built and… voila!… the way forward is clear!
This is great when you are fixing a vacuum-cleaner or analysing a virus. But is it really an appropriate mind-set to approach situations where the key dynamic is the relationships between groups, between individuals and between people and their environment?
In a conventional "scientific research" process, both natural phenomena and people are treated as "objects" of research. The researcher is seen as somehow separated from the situation, not engaging with it, or influencing it in any way. But in reality, people are self-determining subjects – like the scientists and practitioners themselves, and cannot be studied as mere objects. Neither can the researcher claim not to influence the situation he or she is researching. Socio-environmental systems themselves are endlessly complex and scientifically constructed cause-effect models are severely limited in what they can describe.
If regarded by researchers and development workers as “objects”, people tend to develop perceptions of inequality and feelings of alienation. The researcher is seen as something "other", not part of the same universe, and the researcher's data and interpretations are treated with suspicion or disbelief. Whatever knowledge is gained through the research is gained by the researcher not the subjects. The "solutions" which emerge from the research are consequently imposed from outside, and are unsustainable. One does not need to go too far to encounter the resentment and mistrust so typical of "over-researched" communities in South Africa.
While scientific reasoning may be comprehensive and rigorous in its own right, and may provide a sound basis for decision-making in certain situations, practical reasoning is what most people do, and for most of the time, this is what informs the choices we make and the actions we take. Call it gut feel or common sense, its useful to understand some of the characteristics of practical reasoning before moving on to discuss research in social situations.
Necessity: Some questions must be answered, as they are both practical and urgent. We cannot always wait for a comprehensive assessment of all the variables before making a decision. Our survival may depend on it.
Uncertainty: The grounds on which we make decisions are made are essentially uncertain. No one can know infallibly whose interests should be consulted, exactly what evidence should be taken into account, or which arguments should be given precedence.
Realities: It is seldom possible to make a "clean start". Past histories and current realities inform our choices. We all bring our "baggage" to a situation and have to take it into account.
Uniqueness: Each practical question belongs to a specific time and context. Today is different in a million ways from yesterday, from last week, from last year. Tomorrow will be different again. Precedent can inform, but cannot determine our decision.
Sacrifice: No decision or course of action leads to the perfect solution. Competing goals and values will always have to be taken into consideration. Even if an optimal solution is chosen that will result in the satisfaction of a range of needs, some will either not be satisfied, or will not be satisfied fully. Optimal decisions for the group may favour some individuals more than others.
Unpredictability: The outcomes of any decision and course of action are never entirely predictable. Even less so are the outcomes of the alternative courses of action that might have been chosen. We can never know what will happen... or what might have happened.
Ambiguity of actions: Our practical decisions are based on both on the anticipated desirability of the expected result, and on the act itself. Just as we may argue that the end justifies the means, so we may choose or choose to avoid, certain means for themselves.
Scientific and practical reasoning both have their obvious shortcomings. Action research provides a third way. To begin with, action research requires an ethical approach that acknowledges co-responsibility for the outcomes of actions. This is not an arms-length, objective exercise. Researcher and subject both take responsibility for the unfolding future.
Secondly, there is a clear understanding that the process of research itself is a dynamic social process. Action research explores the relationship between the individual and the social, and as clarity emerges, so people act and change. As they act and change, so relationships change and new variables come into play. There may be clear direction, but there is no end-point.
Action research aims to be emancipatory. It releases people from the constraints of irrational, unproductive, unjust and unsatisfying social structures that limit their self-development and self-determination. And it is recursive. It aims to help people investigate reality in order to change it. It aims to transform both theory and practice.
Learning is fundamental to Action Research, and learning is not the same as collecting data or "gathering" knowledge. This is a learning cycle in which both researcher and subject are intimately engaged. Elements of this learning cycle include the following:
Rather than the "outsider" researcher formulating a research question, or a problem that needs examining, this is left open to the community or group. The researcher’s task is to facilitate reflection on the situation the group finds itself in and to lead the group towards a deeper understanding of their situation. The researcher's role is not to limit what may emerge from the group (difficulties, available resources, group dynamics, personal histories…etc.) but merely to keep the process focused and productive.
Based on a deeper understanding of their situation, their capacities, available resources, etc., the researcher would facilitate a planning process that makes clear the actions that the group wants to take. Some of the actions may be allocated to the researcher, others to various members of the group. Planning is as detailed as it needs to be. The key is commitment.
Plans are implemented. Actions are taken and consequences are noticed... or not. Apart from those tasks specifically allocated to the researcher, his/her role is not to police the agreed plan or the actions of others, but merely to observe and understand what is emerging.
At any point, the group can come together and reflect on what it has seen change. These changes may be direct results of the planned action, indirect results, or simply that external conditions have changed. Whatever the external changes, there is invariably an "internal" change in the group – a change in the way the group and individuals see their circumstances.
Significant external changes may mean the plan has to be modified, and the groups deeper understanding will add to the mix.
The learning cycle usually has a number of planning/acting/reflecting iterations, as each reflection yields new information, as the groups understanding of their situation deepens, and as the group’s sense of empowerment and control over their future emerges. There is no clear end-point for the researcher, but rather an increasing sense that his/her expertise is not longer really required.
Of course, there is a lot more to it than this! We hope to bring some more insight on the subject in future editions of EPI News.
Noel Oettle & Stephen Law
EMG, together with EJNF, are amongst a number of partners in a global effort to mobilise civil society responses to the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs are a set of goals that came out of the United Nation's Millennium Summit in 2000. The are supposed to function as both a stimulus for governments and as a means of gauging progress.
In a simple by challenging process, a handful of organisations around the world will monitor and comment on the "sustainable development" aspects of the annual MDG assessments made by their governments, and produce a critique of these. An international secretariat will collate these inputs into an "alternative" view of the progress towards MDGs, or a "sustainability watch" document, which will be circulated and used as a tool for further lobbying.
The certification of South African agricultural producers is growing exponentially. There are around 40 registered producers and there are no signs that this growth is slowing. But despite the fact that this million-dollar "fair trade" system has been created specifically to benefit small-farmers and farm-workers, in practice they are only marginally represented in the political and decision-making structures of the system. To make things worse, producers tend to be isolated from each other and have a limited understanding of the system and how it works. To counter this, EMG has assisted South African fair trade beneficiaries (small-farmers and farm-workers producing for the fair trade market) to set up a network to represent and support their interests. The Association for Fairness in Trade (AFIT) was formally established on the 12th May after a series of workshops involving almost ½ of the existing agricultural fair trade producer organisations. The new organisation will act as a platform for the views and aspirations of fair trade beneficiaries and as a point of co-ordination around information-sharing, learning and solidarity.
In a separate development, local NGOs and fair trade producers have successfully lobbied the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation International (FLO) to implement a special interpretation for fair trade standards as applied to South African commercial farms. Any new applicants will need to demonstrate at least a 25% worker-ownership in the farming enterprise, significant input from workers in the operational management, and an audited programme of skills transfer. Existing producers have a 3 year grace period to comply.
In May, Fair Trade South Africa was formally established as a forum for all South African stakeholders – producers, traders, NGOs, etc.
A dispassionate and balanced assessment of the role of the private sector in water and sanitation services does not exist. The degree of polarisation between those for and those against private sector involvement was one of the reasons why the German government agreed to fund a scoping exercise over a period of 2 years, which hoped, not to find that balanced view, but merely to find out how best to find it.
A multi-stakeholder international working group was set up and work began on collecting perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders around the world, which were published in a document entitled Global Water Scoping Process: Is there a case for a multi-stakeholder review of private sector participation in water and sanitation? The full 117 page report will shortly be available on EMG's website, but if you're smart, you'll try to get hold of the shorter Executive Summary!
The process is now hoping that a suitable funder(s) will step forward and help cover the costs of case-studies on private sector involvement in South Africa, Uganda, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Of the 12 or 13 volunteers who originally signed up to be trained in the art of fixing water leaks, only a few have stayed the full distance. One of those (name withheld because she claims to be shy) explained why she had not dropped out of the programme.
"First of all it was the question of understanding and signing the contract, but the commitment started to grow when I was in the first term of the training, where I learnt about the importance of water and how scarce the water is in Cape Town. It really touched me if I am telling the truth. I begun to imagine if Cape Town can run out of water. I imagined the disaster. I felt really that people need to know this also. I pictured the workshops with the Community because I also thought there was no need for the water to be paid for. I was also impressed to see the route of water, that is: water from the dam, to the treatment, to the taps.
Commitment, understanding, dreams, wanting to know more was all over me.
There was a lot that I didn’t know, that I learnt about, even wetland had no significance to me.
Things became worse when we went for training, where we leant about fixing leaks and using water saving devices. According to the research we made I really felt pity for the community, I looked to the Municipality as a big failure who does not care because the people of Harare had high bills, and because of them can end up loosing their houses I felt that there is more to be done to save our Community.
I think commitment, understanding, to be sure of what you want make you to resist what ever comes on your way.
Mostly I think it is because of my grandfather’s story:
He said because the people of Israel wanted to go to the Promised Land, things they came through or difficulties meant nothing to them. They had to pass the Desert, where the was no water to drink, and after that they reached Mara where water was bitter and they could drink the water. Remember the was no water at all in the Desert and they walked for days hoping to get water at Mara. All what had happen to them didn’t make them to cut off their journey or to go back, because they had objectives, they had visions of where they were going. They told themselves that this journey goes passed Mara and the Desert, but these places are not the places to stay, we have to go past through, but we are going to the promised land.
That means the difficulties they went through did not stop them because they knew where they were going and they knew they are going to reach their goals.
It is the same thing that happens with the Water Leaks, we had to reach certain stages, people had expectations, things had to delay somewhere somehow, but the fact is we are still going to reach our goals.
Our apologies if some of these EMG publications have already been profiled in previous editions of EPI News. All of these are available from EMG at a nominal charge.
This 20-page booklet (no.1 in a series of water case studies) examines water delivery to households in Msunduzi, the second largest city in Kwa-Zulu-Natal. Download 3.1MB PDF
This booklet (no.2 in the series) outlines an innovative project to address the problems many households in Khayelitsha have come up against. Leaking taps and cisterns have resulted in huge and unpayable arrears and the threat of evictions. Download 850KB PDF
This booklet (no. 3 in the series) looks at some of the dynamics around water supply and household use in Khayelitsha, and profiles the work of community-based organisation, Ilitha Lomso. Download 170KB PDF
This 25p report was published by EMG on behalf of the SA Multi-stakeholder Initiative on the WCD. It gives some of the background to the Initiative and the process followed, and summarises the discussions and conclusions of this unique body. Each of the "Seven Strategic Priorities" of the original World Commission on Dams Report are looked at in a South African context, and the report ends with a discussion on the way forward for new and existing dams in South Africa. Download 8.6MB MS-Word
All you ever wanted to know about water and how it gets to your tap! Where does it come from? Who uses it? Who pays for it? What do all those numbers on your water bill really mean? This 30p booklet provides and overview of key water issues, and challenges us to take responsibility for sustainable water management.
The number of agricultural enterprises registered to supply fair trade branded produce to northern markets is growing exponentially. Unfortunately the values behind the fair trade movement often get lost in the rush to "make it work". This 50p A5 booklet in English and Afrikaans gives an "beginner's" overview of fair trade and highlights some of the challenges facing the movement in South Africa. Download 104KB PDF