One of the main challenges that we have encountered working in the field with local communities is the lack of statistics. In Tanzania there isn’t a culture of keeping records of what has been done in the past and what is currently happening. The failure to do so has a negative impact on planning for the future because adequate statistics are just not available. Whether it is the individual farmer, local community initiatives or even the official village or sub-village representatives: they are all united by having little or no statistics available to very important and basic things of their surroundings. This gap is not a minor challenge, it is in fact one of the main challenges that rural community development is facing!
Inquiring data on water issues in Mhero The challenge starts with wanting to know how many people live in a sub-village, differentiating between gender and age. Whenever we go to village, it is basically a guess how many people actually live there. Although there has been a census published on 1 January 2013 of the Tanzanian population and the amount of people in each village is available, a lot of people say that these numbers are not very accurate. While KIHO has instructed all villages we are visiting to keep statistics on the population as a first major step, the actual numbers that are presented to us at the next visit usually have to be taken with a grain of salt because the numbers don’t really seem to reflect reality when you walk around the village. The numbers delivered usually seem to be too low, which originates from a distrust of some people to be counted, even in such an informal census, and the failure to actually visit all households.
While it should be comparatively easy to count the people of a sub-village, we have experienced that it is even much more challenging to determine the yield of the harvest. We are dealing with villages where the huge majority consists of smallholder farmers and basically everyone is involved in some farming activities. In order to improve the life of these farmers, it would be really important to know the yield of each year, differentiating between domestic consumption and what is sold on the local market or elsewhere. In addition it would also be important to know why it might have been a particularly good yield in a certain year (e.g. enough rain, the introduction of an improved crop variety, the use of fertilizers or a training workshop on improved farming). Doing an external intervention is indeed a hard thing to do when the data is not available and it’s necessary to rely on rather random stories from farmers, which might give a glimpse of the overall picture, but does not necessarily tell the whole story.
While it should be comparatively easy to count the people of a sub-village, we have experienced that it is even much more challenging to determine the yield of the harvest. We are dealing with villages where the huge majority consists of smallholder farmers and basically everyone is involved in some farming activities. In order to improve the life of these farmers, it would be really important to know the yield of each year, differentiating between domestic consumption and what is sold on the local market or elsewhere. In addition it would also be important to know why it might have been a particularly good yield in a certain year (e.g. enough rain, the introduction of an improved crop variety, the use of fertilizers or a training workshop on improved farming). Doing an external intervention is indeed a hard thing to do when the data is not available and it’s necessary to rely on rather random stories from farmers, which might give a glimpse of the overall picture, but does not necessarily tell the whole story.
Food distribution committee Another point that can be mentioned is the lack of writing down notes of community initiatives meetings. Often there are just no official documents available at all and even a constitution is lacking. KIHO promotes writing a constitution as a first step so that it is clear to KIHO what this initiative really wants but it helps the initiative as well of what they really want to do. Moreover, KIHO encourages having an organizational memory by keeping records of the main points that were discussed in meetings. Such documents make it much easier to answer questions from NGOs that want to contribute and want to bring in the donor community. A lot of time can be saved from the beginning and a lot of potential misunderstanding can be avoided. After all, a well-prepared community has just a much bigger chance to get funding.
Statistics and data are providing important information to make informed decisions. This is true not only for the people from the outside who want to understand the community, but very much so for the community itself. Having statistics available with the necessary explanations why a certain harvest has been particularly good or bad will help to understand what works and what doesn’t. Otherwise, it is just a best guess what is useful. Knowing what to do is tough if not impossible.
The challenge to keep statistics is very much linked to education and KIHO wants to start at the school level. It will be necessary to train teachers as models for their students in how to keep statistics. However, also current local community initiatives are in high need of training. For KIHO, it will be one of the main activities to get out to the villages, particularly to community initiatives, and raise awareness on keeping statistics and provide the necessary training that will allow for taking more informed decisions in the future.
Statistics and data are providing important information to make informed decisions. This is true not only for the people from the outside who want to understand the community, but very much so for the community itself. Having statistics available with the necessary explanations why a certain harvest has been particularly good or bad will help to understand what works and what doesn’t. Otherwise, it is just a best guess what is useful. Knowing what to do is tough if not impossible.
The challenge to keep statistics is very much linked to education and KIHO wants to start at the school level. It will be necessary to train teachers as models for their students in how to keep statistics. However, also current local community initiatives are in high need of training. For KIHO, it will be one of the main activities to get out to the villages, particularly to community initiatives, and raise awareness on keeping statistics and provide the necessary training that will allow for taking more informed decisions in the future.
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