KAWANGWARE

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

CONSULTATI ON

SUMMARY STATEMENT

November 1975

KAWANGWARE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

CONSULTATION SUMMARY STATEMENT

PROLEGOMENA

THE OPERATING VISION

THE UNDERLYING CONTRADICTIONS

THE PRACTICAL PROPOSALS

THE TACTICAL SYSTEMS

THE ACTUATING PROGRAMMES

CONCLUSION


NOVEMBER 1975

This is a publication summarizing the

Kawangware Human Development Consultation

and recommendations towards the actualization of its results

which took place at

Kawangware, Nairobi, Kenya

9­15 November 1975

organized by

THE INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

CONSULTANTS

KHDP

ICA CONSULTANTS

PROLEGOMENA

I

INTRODUCTION




KHDP







KENYA

The Kawangware Human Development Consultation is the initiating step of a comprehensive development demonstration by the people of Kawangware. Kawangware village is situated five miles west of the centre of Nairobi on one of the main roads leading into the city and displays many qualities that make it similar to rural settlements elsewhere in Kenya. Actually Kawangware is an urban village. The development project is a comprehensive effort that involves both the social and the economic development of Kawangware's people. It was conceived with the collaboration of members of the local community who have provided the substance for its planning and are ready to begin its actualization. Their intention is to dramatically upgrade the economy on the local level; to improve and modernize facilities and services; to provide the practical training necessary for realistically enabling full employment; and to fully realize the social cooperation implicit in "Harambee", the Kenyan spirit of local self­help. This demonstration project is further seen as a pilot programme, the methods of which can be replicated in other parts of Kenya, thus being of service to the development of the whole nation, as well as to other nations in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

From the beginning of Independence on December 12, 1963, Kenya has focused its attention on national development through local participation. Harambee, as both the national theme of "let us build together" and the local vehicle for self­help, has become the spirit of Kenyans in building their nation. Harambee takes place when a village or local community decides to create a social service that is needed ­ a school, a road, or a health centre ­ and builds that needed service with its own labour and resources. When the project. has operated successfully for a year or so the Government then enacts a policy of gradual subsidizing with additional materials, expertise of operating costs. The expressed intent of Harambee is threefold. First, it is a vehicle of self­support for a community which seeks to build needed services. Second, it is a grassroots development scheme that involves everyone in his local situation in taking responsibility for building not only his community but his nation as well. Third, it is a programme aimed at creating corporateness by encouraging local decision­making and community consensus. At a time when all over the world the deficiencies of overcentralized planning and decision­making have become only too apparent, Kenya's unique experience in the practical working out of Harambee over the last thirteen years represents a priceless gift to mankind as a whole. It is at this point that the Kawangware Human Development Project might be of signal value to the Harambee movement.

KAWANGWARE
Kawangware is located southwest of the city of Nairobi and is about a twenty minute city bus ride from the centre. It is bounded on the south by Naivasha Road, on the north and west by the Nairobi River and on the east by a suburban community. There is much open land surrounding the immediate area of the village which would be suitable for intensive agricultural development. The people of Kawangware have their own unique history of social responsibility and national obligation. From 1904 to 1959 African farming and land ownership was confined to native reserves. During this period of time, Kawangware and the neighbouring area of Satellite became a principle section of Nairobi in which land was made available for African freehold ownership. While many residents of Kawangware own their land and homes, the village has experienced rapid growth in recent years as people from all over Kenya have moved into the city. The population is approximately 10,000 people. This rapid growth has radically shifted the economic and social character of the village as all the urban problems associated with a relatively poor transitional area are being experienced. It is interesting to note that the village's name, Kawangware, means "place of the Guinea bird," a creature used elsewhere in Africa to symbolize glory or fulfillment. The people of Kawangware today are eager and ready to demonstrate that in reshaping their village into a place of glory, nation building at the local level might be symbolized for Kenya, the continent and indeed the world
II
THE KAWANGWARE CONSULTATION


ORIGIN




ICA




CONSULTANTS






METHOD




REPORT






IMPACT

The residents of Kawangware have for a long time dreamed about and indeed planned to do something about the living conditions in their village. The local people furthermore, are not the only ones concerned with this situation. Many individuals in the city of Nairobi ­ governmental officials and private citizens ­ have also been interested for a long time in seeing a development effort in Kawangware. Indeed it would be difficult to locate a place where there would be more concern for a comprehensive human development project. Out of this kind of broad and deep seriousness was born the November 8 to 15 Kawangware Consultation, as the initiating move toward an inclusive socio­economic development project for Kawangware village. The Institute of Cultural Affairs was invited to organize, coordinate and provide the rational planning methods for the consult.

The Institute of Cultural Affairs is a subsidiary programme division of its parent corporation The Ecumenical Institute, a not­for­profit organization registered in Nairobi. The ICA is a global research, training and demonstration group concerned with the human factor in world development. The ICA is convinced that effective human development must be initiated on the local community level. Toward this end, the Institute is engaged in planning and actuating community development projects in various parts of the world. The ICA has headquarters in Chicago, and coordinating offices in Brussels, Bombay, Singapore and Hong Kong. In addition, there are ICA offices in more than one hundred major cities serving twenty­three nations of the world. The support of the Institute around the world comes from government departments and agencies on the national and regional levels, from private foundations, major corporations and concerned individuals.

The consultation was held in Kawangware for seven days in November, 1975. The team of consultants numbered eighty­one, of whom forth­five were from Kawangware village itself. Approximately one hundred additional local people participated in the consult sessions on a part time basis. In addition, many were interviewed in their homes. The expertise represented by the total body of consultants encompassed a variety of fields: agriculture, animal husbandry, crop farming, community development, business management, early learning, public health, community organization, social research, marketing, masonry, veterinary science, social development, graphic art, sanitation, drainage engineering, secondary education, primary education, social engineering, public security, electrical engineering, carpentry, real estate, music composition, finance management, medicine, heavy machinery operation, family education, mechanical engineering, computer programming, radio broadcasting, health insurance, nursing, urban housing and industrial methods. Those who came from outside Kawangware were from Kenya, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Germany, Belgium and the United States. The consultants represented both the private and public sectors and attended at their own expense. Their work was facilitated by the gracious hospitality of the officials and the people of Kawangware.

This diversified group of consultants acted as a single unit as they used common methods of comprehensive community reformulation. The consult first charted the operating vision out of which the Kawangware people are presently living. Second, they discerned the underlying contradictions restraining the operating vision. Third, they used the methods to build overall practical proposals to deal with these contradictions. Fourth, they built a set of tactical systems by which these proposals could be implemented. Finally, they discerned the seventeen actuating programmes by which the tactical systems could be actualized. The intent of the consult was not to impose a human development model, but to employ a set of methods to enable such a model to arise comprehensively from the aims and efforts of the people, that it might be grounded concretely in their own future.

The­tangible product of the consult is the Consultation Summary Statement. This document begins with an introduction, the Prolegomena, which gives an inclusive overview of the consult. The document then delineates in five major sections the five phases which represent the flow of the six­day design and the methods employed. The first section deals with the operating vision out of which the people of Kawangware live; the second describes the underlying contradictions which locate the foundational deterrents to human progress in the village; the third articulates the futuric proposals which serve as a model of operation in direct relation to the set of basic contradictions; the fourth presents the tactical systems which indicate the practical action necessary to initiate social change; and the fifth presents the seventeen programmes which focus the tactics and inaugurate the entire social and economic development plan at once. In the Conclusion of the document consideration is given to the broad arenas of project implementation, the task performed by the local people after the conclusion of the consult. These arenas include the forces, phasing and funding designs necessary for project actuation.

The people of Kawangware already look forward to the development of their village. The enthusiasm of those who participated in the consultation is especially high; they are eager to get the Kawangware Human Development Project started. The consult has given practical form to a dream the people had long held but had been unable to articulate because of its complex demands. One of the young men of the village commented, "The and of planning methods put to use here have given us a way to see a new way and have revived us." The people of Kawangware clearly see the possibility of their project being a demonstration to other communities across the nation. In speaking of the future implications one resident said. "This village could show other places what to do and how to do it." Finally, the results of the Kawangware Human Development Consult were appreciated by participants who reside in locations outside their village itself. One Nairobi resident commented on the benefits of the consult methods alone to villages where there is already a united effort among the local people to renew their community.

III
APPLIED METHODOLOGIES
PROJECTThe next step following the consultation is the actuation of the Kawangware Human Development Project. First, on the local scene, this means the continuing meeting of the local consult participants and other interested people to plan the programme implementaries. It means special meetings with the community leaders, the concerned young adults and the leading women of Kawangware. It means gathering the whole community together toward forming an inclusive consensus. Second, initiating the project requires continuing relations with the public sector on the regional and national levels, and developing the support systems in the private arena in and beyond Nairobi. Initiating the project requires that the catalytic staff settle into the community to begin training and building incentive. Most important in starting such a socio­economic demonstration is raising a communitywide sign that involves a major cross­section of the community. This could be accomplished through a Saturday workday by which the village square was completely rehabilitated within a period of ten hours. What follows are the principles and directions relative to the formation, the economic and social development and the instigating funding of such a project.
FORMATIONIn instigating the project there are certain basic philosophical guide lines. First, social and economic development must be carried out simultaneously to guard against the superficial social change which occurs when one of these dimensions is emphasized at the expense of the other. Eventually either in isolation is self­defeating. Second, the coordinated efforts of both the public and private sectors are required. Neither sector can succeed by itself. The combined efforts of both sectors assures sustained and creative support for the whole project and for each of its specific parts. Third, both indigenous and outside efforts are necessary for any effective community development. No local community can, by itself, objectively stand present to its real situation just as no outsider's appraisal of a particular situation is ever totally adequate. Fourth, both the global and local elements are crucial aspects of the context within which a local development project operates. Without an understanding of their community's role in relation to the creative development of the nation and the world, local residents are unable to sustain themselves in the demanding task of project actuation. Fifth, just as only the local residents can supply the substance for realistic project planning, only they can actualize the project. It cannot be done for them by someone else. However, the catalytic assistance of an auxiliary staff may be necessary for a period of time in order to provide incentive and training. Finally, a human development project requires the engagement of the total community. It is important that the invitation for widespread participation in both planning and implementation be extended from the outset. Without a broad base upon which training, leadership and action can be built, project acceleration cannot occur.
ECONOMICIn relation to local economic development, five broad principles can be identified. First, the local community must initially see itself as a self­contained, independent economic unit. Practically, this will require that the community develop the stability of its own economy in concert with the national economic designs. Secondly, schemes must be developed to generate as large a cash flow into the community as possible. This, ideally can be done through increasing local production as well as salaries earned outside the community, visitors' purchases within the community, in­kind and cash grants, borrowed monies and extended credit lines. Third, as much of that money as possible must be kept within the community for as long as feasible. This can be done by producing locally useable food and other products and by providing services locally where appropriate. Fourth, rapid and continual circulation of money within the geo­social area must occur. This can be enabled by developing small businesses within the community which allow monies to turn over perhaps nine times before flowing out. Fifth, the self­sustaining local economic unit must finally be tied into a more inclusive economic system to be effective. It is necessary to plan within the context of provincial and national economies, which in turn function in relation to global economic realities.
SOCIAL
The third aspect of social change deals with local social development. Here, there are six broad operational principles. First, the project needs to occur in a clearly delineated geographical area. This value is held to prevent the ineffectivity which results when the community's attention and efforts are drawn away from the project locus to the inevitable human need present in surrounding areas. Second, all human problems must be dealt with. To deal with only one problem or some of the problems is to ignore the inter­relationships of social realities. A community in need is never simply in need of this or that issue. It is the community as a social unit that is in need. Third, all of the issues to be dealt with in a community must be dealt with all at once. Thirty percent of socio­economic development on the local level has to do with motivating the people as a whole. Simultaneity is the crucial key to motivity. One issue or program at a time will not work. Fourth, the project must deal with people of all ages at the same time. The children are not the key, the elders are not the key, neither are the youth or the adults; the men or the women. Effectivity in community development requires dealing with baths, sexes in all phases at once. Fifth, the depth human problem must be discerned and dealt with. This involves deciding how to deal with the specific, unique human contradiction beneath all of the underlying socio­economic contradictions. Obviously this has to do with releasing corporate motivation. Finally, social symbols are the substance of profound social effort and alteration. A symbol system provides the commonality that enables the engagement of the people in the practicalities of the project.
FUNDING





As indicated above the implementation of the Kawangware Human Development Project will require the practical support of both the private and public sectors. One of the project tactics calls the development of a Kawangware support system involving a broad network of business and professional people across both the Republic of Kenya and other nations. Such a network can encourage a variety of groups within the private sector to provide direct and in­kind funding as well as to offer time and services. The assistance of governmental departments and organizations on both the national and more local levels will be needed of course but these will be surprisingly low. This is due to several factors. First, project implementation is designed to channel local energy and resources in such a way that maximum use will be made of any available funds. Second, as indicated above considerable funding can be sought from the private sector through international corporations, foundations and concerned individuals. Third, as the programmes directed toward developing a modern economy become operational, strengthened local economic resources will accelerate the flow of local monies. It is anticipated that the implementation of the seventeen programmes will occur within the first year and that in the ensuing years programme funding needs will decrease as the people of Kawangware generate a more productive local economy.



IV

CONCLUSION


STRUCTURE




FUNCTION

In the pages that follow the results of the consult are reported in detail. Part I contains The Operating Vision; Part II The Underlying Contradictions} Part III The Practical Proposals; Part IV The Tactical Systems; and Part V The Actuating Programmes. In the three introductory paragraphs of each of these sections the intent, the procedures and the result of the particular phase of the consult are explained. In each case a holding chart accompanies the prose discussion to provide supporting documentation. In the subsequent paragraphs of each section, the particularities of the findings are discussed, and in certain cases further illustrated with accompanying charts. The concluding section of the document presents models for actuation and for future project replication.

This document is highly functional in orientation, in terms of both its creation and its future usefulness. First, the creation of the document provides the occasion and the means for the citizens of a local community to creatively focus their concerns, their hopes and their dreams upon the practici1 task of local community development. This reflects not only the Harambee spirit of local effort but also the overall thinking of the public sector. Second, the creation of the document utilizes a method which enables grassroots participation in building concrete designs related to the future. This not only insures the effectivity of their efforts, but is also a key factor in providing local motivation for realizing those ends. Third, it can be used as a training instrument for local leadership in Kawangware and for similar occasions in the Republic of Kenya. Finally, this document will serve as a handbook for the local forces in the task of creating the implementing actions and time lines for the actuation of the project.

PART ONE
THE OPERATING VISION



VISION




PROCESS





RESULT







A.

SERVICES



B.

SOCIAL


C.

INCOME

The first task of the consult was to objectify the operating vision of the future shared by the people of Kawangware Such a vision for any people is never totally explicit. It is woven through their frustrations and yearnings: their hopes and fears ­ it is concealed in their stories and social structures ­ it is suggested by their style and symbols and dreams. All of these are deeply a part of who they are and what they hope to become, Although such a vision may initially be unconscious, it represents the latent aspect of a community's attitude towards it self and its destiny. Only when the latent practical vision is made manifest and a community is able to consciously stand present to its operating vision of the future can community development occur. Because of the initially latent nature of the operating vision, the process of objectifying it in a formal model is lengthy. Part of this is explained by the fact that no community alone can grasp its practical vision. It was only when the subjectivity of the local residents of Kawangware was encountered by outside factors ­ such as the objectivity of guest consultants ­ that the practical vision of the village emerged.

The consultants were divided into five teams and spent the whole day in the field becoming generally familiar with the village of Kawangware and the various aspects of community life. They engaged in informal conversation with local residents, visited shopkeepers and the market place and were hosted by local consultants in their homes. Approximately 4,000 people or one third of the village population were impacted by their presence. Workshop sessions were then conducted by each team to report out the hopes and desires of the village people as discerned by the consultants, The 150 pieces of data from the 5 teams were then ordered in a plenary session which grouped all available information into the basic categories of the present model. The model gives rational, objective form to the operating vision that exists more or less consciously in the understandings and relationships of the people of Kawangware. It is in relation to this model, that the underlying contradictions can be discerned in the subsequent phase of the consult method.

The operating vision chart is the result of this first phase of the consult methods. It contains three major sections, all of which are required to clearly state the operating vision of Kawangware's people. Section A, Toward Developing Urban Advantages, reflects the deeply felt need in Kawangware to upgrade the physical environment of the community to provide an adequate basis for urban life. Section B, Toward Reconstituting Social Fabric is indicative of the deep concern of the Kawangware people to develop the tools and capabilities of a unified community possessing common skills, operating out of common meanings and displaying common forms Section C, Toward Developing Local Income 3 reports the fundamental concern of employment. The ex' pension of various profitable enterprises is the keys to full employment. The chart is further subdivided into seven major categories within which are twenty eight subdivisions making a total of 116 items held on chart: These latter items provide the practical substance of the vision Two of the seven major categories deal with Community Well­being: Physical Improvements and Essential Services. Three categories deal with Functional Tooling: Health Care, Social Forms, and Practical Training The remaining two deal with Adequate Livelihood: Village Industry and Productive Agriculture

In the arena of urban community well­being the need for upgrading public facilities is obvious. The physical appearance and the effective operation of the village depend upon dramatically upgrading public space This would include building needed public facilities, improving private housing and modernizing the market place which serves as one of the community nodes. In conjunction with these improvements, the development of various essential services is needed to provide the basic security and urban conveniences by which the creativity of Kawangware can be released. The areas of drainage, sanitation and transportation are particular points of concern where immediate attention is needed. The extension of utilities and the strengthening of community security structures also will provide the means by which village energies can be channeled in new directions.

In the arena of social development two major themes emerged. One had to do with providing the physical, social and educational care needed by the people for them to be prepared to deal creatively with their actual situation Their deep and ready concern for practical training is an affirmation of the deep strength of Kawangware. In the arena of health care, for example, the concern was more for developing local capability to respond to emergency situations than for providing sophisticated care facilities. The other emerging theme in this arena related to enabling the participation of all community residents ­ youth, adults, and elders ­ in programmes providing opportunities for functional tooling. Here the concern for stimulating elder engagement in meaningful modes of serving the community emerged as important and as integral to the community's vision as did the building of care structures for the large preschool population.

In the arena of local income development, the expansion of village industry and the development of productive agriculture emerged as key concerns. Crucial to efforts in that direction were seen the provision of fundamental fiscal services such as developing capital resources, extending credit lines, and establishing banking facilities. As a large percentage of the adult population is unemployed, new jobs are required. The organization of small business and the development of local industry is required to provide many families with a livelihood. The development of the land as a valuable resource, the increasing of agricultural production through the application of scientific farming techniques and the upgrading of animal husbandry were also seen as arenas likely to bring significant monies into the community. Especially relevant here were possibilities for the development of high value market crops for export.