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2--Open Space in Zambia
3--Toward Ending a System of Slavery
4--Coming Events
5--Impressions from Berlin, and a poem
John Wilson, England, free-lance consultant and educator specializing in ecological land use and sustainable agriculture, mainly in Africa
Up until 1991 farmers' organisations in Zambia (for small-scale farmers) were government created. They were part of a chain to channel inputs (primarily fertilisers and seed) to farmers and to get produce back to the market. They were hardly more than cogs in a machine. They were inefficient and subsidised. However, these co-operatives, as they were called, did give farmers an assured price and did mean that they were not exploited by middlemen.
With the new government in 1991 came a liberalised economy. Everything changed. Small-scale farmers were now on their own, new players in a market economy of which they had no experience. Non-government organisations stepped into the void left by government's withdrawal. Over the last ten years these NGOs have tried all sorts of ways of working with farmers in groups. While there has been lots of experience gained there has not been much sharing of this experience and learning from it.
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The technique gave me time to discuss my
burning issues; I liked the difference in opinions on certain things.
Comments around what people did not like included:
- Not that they are not useful, but a weakness I have thought about in this open space technique is that if a facilitator (one who proposes a topic and leads the discussion) is not very conversant with the topic or not good at facilitating then the group discussion does not seem to go so well.
- There was not time to come back together and discuss as a group and come up with recommendations, since the ideas were so diverse in some cases.
- There was no plenary presentation to all the participants - this would have allowed other people from different groups to add or subtract from what was presented.
On the afternoon of the second day, after the open space had been
closed, we went into the following exercise:
"Drawing on the discussions of the last day and a half and on your own experiences, identify what you think are likely to be the 10 most critical areas as far as strengthening farmers' organizations over the next 5-10 years."
After raising these critical areas they then scored each in terms of how important they felt them to be and then in terms of current capacity in the country to deal with them. In both cases 10 was high and 1 low. This exercise pointed to those areas needing most attention (high in importance and low in current capacity).
Both the Open Space and the exercise on the second day formed a crucial part of the consultation process. What made the whole thing especially effective was that people were not only feeding into the consultation exercise with the view and hope that they will benefit in future from the proposed programme. They also gained a great deal of immediate learning out of it themselves.
I see tremendous possibilities for Open Space to enable rich exchange and learning to take place amongst rural development practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a very difficult field of operation and a great deal is being learnt all the time. Unfortunately most of the time the debate is dominated by northern academics, probably because they have the capacity to articulate issues best. Those working out in the field have the real and direct experience but are often not heard. Open Space would give them the opportunity to share and learn from their different experiences. In the proposed Zambia programme there are plans to hold annual open space events around the issue of strengthening farmers' organisations.
John Wilson jwilson@spiritvaults.freeserve.co.uk for STORIES, Newsletter of the Open Space Institute (US) usa@openspaceworld.org
Coleen Heglin and John Engle, Limye Lavi and Beyond Borders, Haiti
The word, restavčk, comes from the French, "reste avec," meaning, to stay with. In Haiti, it defines a social class of children who live with families other than their own immediate family, and who work in these homes as servants. Typically, they are victims of extreme poverty. Their parents, too poor to take care of them, give them to other families out of desperation. More than 60% of Haiti's 8 million people live on less than $100 (US) per year. In giving their children to a family of better means, impoverished parents hope that their children might find a better life.
These children who, by many standards, live as slaves, typically range in age from nine years to young adulthood; a majority are girls. It is estimated that over 300,000 children in Haiti make up the restavčk social class. Work tasks required by these children include: fetching water, washing clothes, ironing, sweeping, washing floors, running errands for the household, preparing meals -- wherever the family has a need. Rarely do these children ever attend school. They are often not considered a member of the family, but if so, always someone of lesser privilege and status. Frequently, these children suffer terrible abuse, physically and sexually. Many street children in Port au Prince are children who had lived as restavčks but who ran away as a result of abuse.
Our employers, Beyond Borders, a US based non-profit, and Limye Lavi, a Haitian foundation, have been financing and supporting the work of a Haitian NGO, PAPE (French acronym for Program for Literacy and the Promotion of Childhood), a four-year literacy program for children living in domestic servitude, for more than ten years. During the last two years, board and staff members of both Beyond Borders and Limye Lavi have been seriously questioning our limited commitment to restavčk children. While we are helping in the work of improving the lives of the 2,000 children involved in the PAPE program, we are doing nothing directly to end this social system of slavery.
During our annual meeting in May of 2000 in Port au Prince, members of Limye Lavi and Beyond Borders articulated a long-term goal, committing ourselves to "Building networks and partnerships which will collaborate toward the abolishment of the restavčk system." All agreed that the priority for this fiscal year would be to hold an open space meeting with other interested organizations.
In the months that followed, Limye Lavi staff members gained the full cooperation of the International Program for the Eradication of Child Slavery (IPEC), a program of the International Labor Office, (BIT in Haiti), to hold a one day open space meeting. The intention: bring together all known individuals and institutions working to improve the lives of restavčk children, and provide a space for discussion and reflection on the topic, "What can we do to end the social system in Haiti of child domestic servitude?"
On December 7, 2000, 77 people, representing 45 organizations, came together at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to wrestle with the above stated theme. Eight discussion groups were held during the morning session, and 5 during the afternoon session. Participants included the Minister herself and others from the Ministry of Social Affairs, representatives of large, international and non-governmental organizations (UNICEF, Save the Children, for example), members of grass-roots organizations, a famous Haitian author, a children's radio journalist, psychologists, a judge on legislation for children, representative from the US embassy, and a teen-ager who had previously lived on the streets.
The meeting was carried out in Haitian Creole and French. People were encouraged to use the language with which they were most comfortable. The Director of B.I.T. opened the meeting at 8:40 am, ten minutes behind schedule, just after the Minister of Social Affairs arrived. Approximately 45 people were present. Respecting protocol and cultural tendencies, we arranged to have several short presentations and the opportunity for everyone present to introduce themselves during the first 30 minutes. Following the Minister's ten minute speech from 9:00 to 9:10, we broke for a 20 minute coffee break. At 9:30, more than 70 people were sitting in the circle and learning about open space. By 10:30 break-out sessions were underway.
People took the principles and law of mobility with seriousness. There were bumblebees and butterflies, breakout sessions that decided to sub-divided early, a spontaneous session of about 20 people who wanted to hear directly from Patrick, the teen-ager. At 3:10, 57 people returned to the large circle. Following presentations from representatives from the break-out sessions, there was opportunity for large group dialogue. We closed the meeting at 4:40 pm.
"We need to establish a platform to ensure that the type of dialogue and exchange that took place today can continue until this terrible system of slavery is abolished" was among the impassioned comments during the last 15 minutes together. Two radio journalist encouraged organizations to be in touch with them, offering there medium to get messages to the public. During one of the break-out sessions, participants established a follow-up meeting on January 25th. In the closing circle all were invited to participate.
Pictures and a video of the event will be available, thanks to the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Colleen Heglin and John Engle englejohn@hotmail.com for STORIES, Newsletter of the Open Space Institute (US) usa@openspaceworld.org
(for details and contact information, see the Worldwide Open Space Bulletin Board at http://www.openspaceworld.org
May 19-23, 2001 in Greve, Denmark, Open Space Training Workshop, Harrison Owen/Annette Hartwig Larsen/Gerard Muller.
Open Space Technology Training Workshop, Birgitt Williams, various dates and locations.
Joelle Lyons Everett jleshelton@aol.com for STORIES, Newsletter of the Open Space Institute (US) usa@openspaceworld.org
In seasons of darkness, may we each have heart and courage to hold space for the coming of light into the world.
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