[Kictanet] African choices...critical voices...crossing borders...African stories... harnessing local knowledge in Africa

alice at apc.org alice at apc.org
Wed Oct 25 13:39:48 EAT 2006


This issue of The Soul Beat looks at the role of communication in harnessing 
local knowledge in Africa. The edition covers a range of project 
descriptions, strategic thinking documents and materials related to local 
knowledge specifically in the fields of agriculture, sustainable development 
and health.

>From the SOUL BEAT AFRICA partnership - Soul City and The Communication 
Initiative

...African choices...critical voices...crossing borders...African stories...


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EXPERIENCES
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences.html


1. LinKS Project
This project is a regional programme working in Mozambique, Tanzania, 
Zimbabwe and Swaziland, that aims to enhance rural people's food security 
and promote sustainable management of agrobiodiversity. The project is 
called LinKS, because it explores the linkages between the crucial issues of 
local knowledge systems, gender roles and relationships, food provision, and 
the conservation and management of agrobiodiversity.  LinKS aims to 
strengthen the capacity of institutions in the agricultural sector to apply 
approaches that recognise men and women farmers' knowledge in their 
programmes and policies. It does this through training, research and 
communication and advocacy. LinKS is administered by the Food and 
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/Pds82006/experiences-3950.html
Contact Dr. Sachin Das linkstz at africaonline.co.tz OR Estevão Filimão 
Estevao.Filimao at fao.org OR Dr. Patricia Musi  faolinks at agric.uniswa.sz


2. Traditional Knowledge and Community Healthcare - Nigeria
Organised by the Fantsuam Foundation, this programme involves drawing and 
building on the health knowledge possessed by local people, especially 
women. Specifically, the project works with women in rural Nigerian 
communities in order to understand various traditional healthcare practices 
and introduce best practices and safer techniques for selected treatments. 
The purpose of the project is to produce a written catalogue of traditional 
medical wisdom, the content of which is largely generated by local people.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds32003/experiences-2447.html
Contact John Dada johndada at fantsuam.com


3. Sahel Oral History Project - Africa
This project by the UK-based SOS Sahel is an oral history project that took 
place in eight African countries in an effort to record the culture, 
history, and environment of the Sahel through the recollections, 
experiences, and perceptions of its people. The aim was not only to record 
indigenous knowledge but also to develop a practical methodology which could 
then be incorporated into development planning, project implementation, and 
evaluation.  By talking with - mostly ageing - farmers, pastoralists, 
refugees, and others, researchers hoped to gain a better understanding of 
traditional land-use practice, land tenure, farming and pastoral systems, 
the causes of desertification, and other aspects of Sahelian life.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds092003/experiences-2134.html
Contact Siobhan Warrington Siobhan.warrington at panos.org.uk AND 
otp at panos.org.uk OR Risha Chande risha.chande at panos.org.uk


4. Desertification 2002 - Southern Africa
Organised by the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia (DRFN), this regional 
network works to halt the spread of southern African deserts and enhance 
rural livelihoods. The purpose of the project is to provide a forum for the 
exchange of knowledge between scientists, development practitioners, and 
dryland community members; to generate an understanding of the value of 
linking local knowledge with scientific research; to interpret and 
disseminate information; and to offer working examples of community action. 
It does this by linking communities, field practitioners, governments, and 
scientists through a website, conferences, workshops, training, and 
community exchanges.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds32003/experiences-2291.html
Contact info at drfn.org.na


5. Community Documentation of Indigenous Knowledge - Kenya
Implemented by the Kyanika Adult Women Group (KAWG), this two-year project 
aimed to conserve the diversity of Kitete - a bottle gourd that is found in 
virtually every aspect of the Kamba people's traditional and cultural life - 
and its associated indigenous knowledge. The project involved the collection 
and sharing of knowledge about the Kitete through resource centres. Here, 
recorded materials, documents, and a collection of Kitete samples and seeds 
are available for use by members of the local community and others. Other 
activities include storytelling by elders - sharing myths, songs, dances, 
riddles, poems, and drama as well as listening to taped materials, looking 
at photographs, watching videos and reading written reports.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds32003/experiences-2282.html
Contact Yasuyuki Morimoto y.morimoto at cgiar.org


6. Indigenous Knowledge Program - Sub-saharan Africa
The World Bank's Indigenous Knowledge (IK) programme aims to facilitate 
dialogue between local communities, NGOs, governments, donors, civil 
society, and the private sector. This dialogue is intended to help bring 
indigenous/traditional knowledge into the activities of development partners 
and to optimise the benefits of development assistance, especially for the 
poor. The programme works primarily through a website that provides 
resources on IK such as a database on indigenous/ traditional knowledge and 
practices with over 200 case studies, a report on IK for development and 
videos, which document success stories in applying indigenous practices. The 
programme also supports over 15 resource centres across Africa that focus on 
the identification and dissemination of indigenous/traditional knowledge and 
practices. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds32003/experiences-2331.html
Contact Nicolas Gorjestani ngorjestani at worldbank.org OR Reinhard Woytek 
rwoytek at worldbank.org


7. Aang Serian - Tanzania
Aang Serian, which means "House of Peace" in the Kiarusha language, is a 
non-profit cultural organisation that aims to promote and protect indigenous 
knowledge. It focuses on education in an effort to raise the self-esteem of 
young people, to empower them to work together for a peaceful future, and to 
promote environmentally and socially sustainable development. The 
organisation has established a community college with a curriculum covering 
indigenous knowledge. They also undertake research in collaboration with 
other NGOs and have formed an international network of organisations that 
work to improve education for indigenous peoples while simultaneously 
preserving and promoting indigenous knowledge.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds32003/experiences-2233.html
Contact aang_serian at hotmail.com OR Gemma Enolengila enolengila at yahoo.co.uk 
OR Yunus Rafiq mrafiq at indiana.edu OR Bob Webzell bob at webzell.co.uk


STRATEGIC THINKING
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking.html


8. Grandmothers Promote Maternal and Child Health: The Role of Indigenous 
Knowledge Systems' Managers
by Judi Aubel
This article looks at the importance of community elders as knowledge 
providers in the context of child health. The results of experiences in Asia 
and Africa illustrate how change can be brought about from within indigenous 
knowledge systems when key actors in those systems, i.e. the indigenous 
knowledge managers, are involved in deciding if and how to combine global 
knowledge with traditional knowledge.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking/st2006/thinking-1846.html


9. The Utilization of Indigenous Knowledge in Range Management and Forage 
Plants for Improving Livestock Productivity and Food Security in the Maasai 
and Bargaig Communities of Kibaha
by Nelson Kilongozi, Zabron Kengera and Samwel Leshongo
By examining how the Maasai and Barbaig communities have traditionally cared 
for their livestock and environment, the report suggests ways to sustain 
indigenous knowledge and incorporate this with conventional, 'scientific' 
techniques of livestock care and land management. The authors recommend that 
policymakers and development workers should continue to recognise, identify, 
validate and document indigenous pastoral techniques and integrate them into 
conventional management approaches for pastoral land and should encourage 
knowledge sharing among the pastoral communities to allow them to expand 
their existing knowledge.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking/st2006/thinking-1902.html


10. Gender, Local Knowledge, and Lessons Learnt in Documenting and 
Conserving Agrobiodiversity
Research Paper No. 2006/69
by Yianna Lambrou and Regina Laub
This paper explores the linkages between gender, local knowledge systems, 
and agrobiodiversity for food security by using the case study of LinKS, a 
regional FAO project in Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania over a 
period of eight years. The project aimed to raise awareness on how rural men 
and women use and manage agrobiodiversity, and to promote the importance of 
local knowledge for food security and sustainable agrobiodiversity at local, 
institutional, and policy levels. They did this by working with a diverse 
range of stakeholders to strengthen their ability to recognise and value 
farmers' knowledge and to use gender-sensitive and participatory approaches 
in their work.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking/st2006/thinking-1828.html


11. Indigenous Management of Wetlands: Experiences in Ethiopia
by Alan Dixon
Using the case study of a wetlands project in Ethopia, this study discusses 
how the stability of wetlands has been undermined by development initiatives 
that ignore indigenous knowledge. The study states that while neither 
indigenous nor scientific knowledge alone can solve the problems of 
development, they can be complementary sources of wisdom in wetland 
management. The research recommends that maintaining an effective network 
for sharing local knowledge and experimenting with new techniques should be 
a key principle of sustainable wetland management. In addition 
non-governmental organisations and donors should introduce reviews of 
varying local knowledge, to support these networks. For example, they could 
organise meetings between members of the wetland farming community to assess 
the strengths and weaknesses of different management techniques.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-1390.html


12. ICTs in Namibia's Communal Area Conservancies
by Carol Murphy and Sandra Slater-Jones
This article describes the use of participatory GIS (Geographic Information 
Systems) in Namibia's Communal Area Conservancies. The approach used by the 
Conservancy Programme, according to the authors, is innovative in not only 
capturing local knowledge of an area through participation of local 
residents, but in improving the spatial accuracy of maps through a 
geo-referencing procedure. The procedure involves village mapping workshops 
and careful recording to capture indigenous knowledge with regard to local 
area names, the spatial location of resources such as grazing, cropping and 
useful plant species, as well as wildlife sightings and movements.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-1400.html


MATERIALS
http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials.html

13. Toolkit I: Capitalising on Local Knowledge - Methodological Overview & 
Case Studies
by Noel Oettle and Bettina Koelle
This Toolkit is designed to give decision-makers in government and donor 
agencies an overview of the concept of community-to-community knowledge 
exchanges, as well as practical approaches to their use in developmental 
processes and programmes. The volume contains case studies from Africa that 
aim to illustrate the successes achieved with the approach as well as the 
challenges faced during implementation.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials/ma2006/materials-3054.html


14. Toolkit 2: Capitalising on Local Knowledge - Guidelines for 
Implementation
by Noel Oettle and Bettina Koelle
This Toolkit is designed to provide practical guidance in designing and 
implementing community-to-community exchange visits. It is intended for 
practitioners and service providers who wish to implement knowledge exchange 
processes. It is also aimed at students and development professionals who 
would like to better understand how the methodology is implemented.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials/ma2006/materials-3055.html


15. Unleashing the Power of Knowledge for Meeting MDGs and Sustainable 
Development in Africa
Fundamental Issues for Governance
by Jacques L Hamel
The paper critically reflects on the notion of knowledge, African knowledge, 
African knowledge economies (AKEs), African knowledge societies (AKSs) and 
African knowledge policies for sustainable development. Its purpose is to 
contribute to sustainable development thinking in the African region and 
open a new front in the development discourse. 
http://www.comminit.com/africa/materials/ma2005/materials-2534.html


LINKS
http://www.comminit.com/africa/links.html


16. Tanzania Indigenous Knowledge Database
This is a database that has been established to enhance sharing and 
dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) information, experiences and 
practices in Tanzania.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/links/linksngos/links-1645.html


17. Creating & Exchange of Local Agriculture Content (CELAC)
This Ugandan organisation aims to develop agricultural content from rural 
farmers for dissemination through digital technologies, radio, and print.
http://www.comminit.com/africa/links/linksngos/links-1709.html



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aventh at comminit.com

For more comments on the Soul Beat Africa website see 
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A. Wanjira Munyua
National Coordinator, Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA)
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
alice at apc.org
http://www.apc.org
http://www.catia.ws






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