Project Name

                        Righting/Writing “Ribeirinho[i]” History

Project Purpose

To train  youth from seven poor “ribeirinho” communities within the Pantanal area to work with their communities to develop a clear understanding of the future development options that their community has, and to help them start moving toward the community’s preferred options.

  

Project Description

 The adage that the “youth are the leaders of tomorrow” is old, but exact. Deep, lasting changes that can help solve the social and environmental problems we face today, necessitate deep lasting changes in the people who will be making the decisions in the near future. As Albert Einstein said “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

This project will work with a group of youth to help start that process of deep transformation. The project does not aim to give the youth a new vision for the future, rather, it will train them in the tools needed to create and  activate a new vision for themselves and their home community.

 Through a series of intensive seminars, interspaced with activities within their communities, the youth will create a “Living History” of their community. A history that starts with the formation of the community, and only ends when their children are adults.

 Using fully participative and highly creative processes, participants will learn to assess their own abilities and strengths and plan a better future for themselves. These lessons will be scaled up into the community. They will lead their community through an analogue process until the community has determined and emthuisiastically grasped a better future for themselves.

 

Estimated Budget

                        R$120.000,00

 

Project Details

Activities/Sub-Activities	Objectives
Preparation Develop Case Study Documents Visit each Community (community to select participants)	The main objective of the Case Study Documents are to act as aids to expand the general vision of what may be possible, of what other communities have achieved
Conference – Discovering our History a.       Sharing of experiences and start to write the past history of the “ribierinhos” b.      Study Case Studies in Small Groups c.       Plan the collection of information to complete this past history, in home community	During the first Conference/Community Interaction phase, the objective is for the youth, and through them their communities to evaluate and record their resources, assests and abilities and to start documenting all this information as part of their history.
Participatory Research within home Community a.       Collect information using participative methods. b.      Discuss the options presented in the Case Studies with the community c.       Start suggesting that their community can decide its own future.
Youth Conference – Creating Scenarios for the Future a.       Report information collected from the community b.      Finish writing the past history document c.       Brainstorm possible future trends for their communities d.      Select and start to detail the four most interesting scenarios	In the second round of Conference and Community Research, the objective is start a ferment of the future, and to have the communities define the various possible future scenarios which are available to them.
Participatory Analysis of Scenarios within home Community Discuss Scenarios with Community
Youth Conference – Stepping into the Future Report community discussions Detail and present the scenarios Brainstorm actions and strategies required to develop each scenario	The third round  sees the youth defining and crystallising the four most possible, most interesting scenarios and further researching the details of each possibility, to start to develop a set of actions that the community may need to consider in light of these scenarios
Participatory Planning in home Community Brainstorm actions and strategies with the community Form Working Groups to start actioning each prefered strategy
Youth Conference – Making it Happen – Plenary Report of community decisions Plan future cooperation, modes of working Finish document “Righting Ribierinho History” Final Plenary Session	The fourth conference is an opportunity for the youth to finish their research and to present the “living history” document both to fellow participants, representatives of their community, local government authorities and the public in general.
2.      On-going Support Visit each community each three months.	The goal of the support period, is to help each group of youths and their communities start the process of implimenting their desired future. This will generally involve helping with access to more detailed information, writing submissions, or negotiating with other organisations. The community itself, and especially its youth core, will spearhead all these activities themselves, the project staff will simply support as necessary, and when requested.

           

Audience

The project audience directly involved with the project are the 30 youth representing 7 poor “ribeirinho” communities in the Corumba region. Throughout the training, these youth will interacte intensively with their communities and help the community think about its future and develop various viable options – scenarios. To the extent that the community will have a clearer vision, and indeed a plan of development, the whole community is really the key stakeholder in this project (this represents approximately 4000 individuals).

 

Note that the youth of each community will decide who actually participates in the program, the only restriction being imposed by the project being that, the decision process be fully democratic and that genders are equally represented, ie each community will be represented by 2 males and 2 females. 

 

Operating Proceedures

 

The basic methodology underlying this whole project is the Futures Scenarios[ii] process as promoted by Global Business Network. Within this guideline, the project methodolgy is considerably influenced by George Roths “Learning History”[iii] approach and the graphic communication concepts of Michael Erickson[iv].  In addition, within the conferences, the process of Open Space Technology[v] and Action Learning  will be used extensively.

 

Time Schedule

1.      Preparation                                                                  4 weeks

2.      Youth Conference – Discovering our History                         1 week (Conf = 3 days)

3.      Participatory Research within home Community                        4 weeks

4.      Youth Conference – Creating Scenarios for the Future                    1 week (Conf = 4 days)

5.      Participatory Analysis of Scenarios within home Community            4 weeks

6.      Youth Conference – Stepping into the Future                                1 week (Conf = 3 days)

7.      Participatory Planning in home Community                              4 weeks

8.      Youth Conference – Making it Happen – Plenary                  1 week (Conf = 2 days)

9.      On-going Follow-up and Support                                   8mnths (12 days contact)

 

Anticipated Outcomes/Impacts      

Physical outcomes from the project include

• Case Studies Documents, which will be published on the WEB and are themselves useful training aids for community development workers and associated occupations.
• “Righting Ribeirinho History”  document itself. Hard paper copies will be limited, but CD versions will be freely distributed. The communities themselves will use this document to lobby for funds for specific projects and to lobby for legislative or infrastructural changes in areas that effect them. This document will contain sufficient information on the process itself to ensure that other projects could be developed, based on the methodology used in this project.
• Scenario Posters – each scenario, will also be summarized into poster form, along with a very brief summary. These can again be used as part of each communities loddying process.
• Detailed report on the methodoloy of the project, to be published on the WEB as a guide to any community-based organisation wanting to use this approach in their work.

 

The social outcomes are less tangibe, and yet more important and more powerful. Through the program of interactions with their youth, each of the seven communities will be challenged to think about themselves as a community, and to think even more deeply about the future they want for themselves and their children. The result will be a community with a clearer vision of its direction of development and a determination to achieve that development.

 

The youth themselves will be the most important outcome. The sequence of activities will encourage the youth to become self-organised and self-motivated. In order to collect the information they need to complete the various activities, they will engage most of their community in interviews, they will connvene and conduct group meetings and discussions, they will facilitate community meetings, they will analysise and summarise all this input, and finally they will present their work in a clear, concise form. The skills learnt through this process will be invaluable for them to continue a role of leadership and influence within their community in the future.

 

Methodology

 

To date, the methodologies of Open Space Technology, Learning Histories and Future Scenarios have been exclusively used in corporate and larger-scale settings.  This project will apply these recent developments in truly participative technology to the rural and community development fields. While the corporate sector is rapidly developing advanced participative tools, the development sector is lagging well behind. Despite much rhetoric about participation ever since the Earth Summit in Rio (1992), the reality of the situation is that many communties are still being offered solution-oriented programs, developed by outside experts, and often offered on a “take-it-as-is-or-get-nothing”  basis. This project will demonstrate the advantages of using deeply participative processes within a rural community development project. As such is has important implications for all project planning and implimentation.

 

The youth will be encouraged to develop their own work plans and will almost totally decide the details of the format of their presentations. All assessments during the program will be peer-based assessments. Creativity, initiative and self-motivation will be constantly supported and rewarded.

 

Resources Required    

In addition to the two key facilitators from the Instituto, the human resources needed include a graphic artist and secretary during the conference periods.

 

The physical resources required are those normally required for a conference; venue, accomodation, communication system, meeting facilities, photocopier, computer access, telephone access…In order to facilitate the data collection within the communities, each community group will be supplied with a small camera, a tape recorder and an allocation for film and processing.

 

In addition to wages for staff, basic travel costs and consumable items, the main financial resource needed is financial support for the youth during the 4 months they are totally enganged with this project. In addition to covering their travel, accomodation and food costs during the conferences, participants will receive a support allowance of R200,00 a month, for the four months of the project, as it is recognised that their intensive involvement with the project represents  a  severe financial strain on their families, during this period.

 

Organisation Details

Contact Name            Snr. Skye

Organisation             Instituto de Permacultura Cerrado-Pantanal – a not-for-profit organisation registered within the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil.

Address                      Rua Horto das Olivieras 738, Granja São Luis,

                                    CEP 79074-070,  Campo Grande, MS,  Brasil

Telefono                     67 385 0546

Email                          florar@terra.com.br

 

 

Summary            

With the coming of the Pantanal Project, this project is especially critical for these communitites. Rather than meekling accepting whatever externally-designed scheme Project Pantanal may offer, these communities will be in a position to pro-actively state clearly what they want for their own development. These communities, and their inspired youth, will be able to take advantage of the resources offered, and step boldly into the future – a future determined by themselves.