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Re: Pc slammed in Whole Earth Review
Thanky you, Russ!
that is exactly the problem I am facing.
I am convinced that pc has something to offer, but if I want to approach a
donor to give me money for a development project, they want evidence that
the money spent will have a positive effect and that the approach I am
suggesting is better than the approaches of other people who have also
applied for money with them.
I want to convince some donors that it is a good idea to finance a
permaculture design course in Cameroon. What can I tell them to support the
idea?
One thing that you can do is to make the course address the needs of the
people it is designed to assist. I suggest - and I know this may annoy the
permaculture purist - that you be prepared to adapt the permaculture design
course to do this. Some things in the course are not relevant to people
living in village situations in developing countries.
I assume you are familiar with the people who would benefit from the course
and have analysed their needs, so I would address whatever their areas of
need are - food security, land access, health, income generation or
whatever, to discover solutions that are within their capacity (knowledge,
skills, financial resources, training etc).
ILIEA in the Netherlands publish a magazine (LEISA - Low External Input
Sustainable Agriculture) that is full of case studies and ideas if the
people you will deal with are an agricultural community.
Then they will want to see evidence of success. I would have to write
reports about the reports. If nothing came out, I will not get money again,
and that agency will not support any pc project in the future. They want
verification. I must be successfull, and I must be able to prove somehow the
success.
If pc develops a reputation among donor agencies of unverified claims,
should I better ommit the lable of permaculture and try to sell agroforestry
and aquaculture instead to them and better not mention that I am
sympathizing with pc (even if I use some methods borrowed from pc?). In the
end it is the content that counts for me, not the label.
This can be a realistic strategy if donors are likely to get stuck on the
word 'permaculture'.
I don't think that permaculture has developed a 'reputation' for 'unverified
claims' among development professionals, it's just that a few of them have
pointed out that there is little by way of supporting evidence. I know
that, were skeptics to visit the projects, they might come away thinking
differently.
Question 1: does pc actually work.
Because permaculture is a design system synthesised from ideas, techniques
and practices drawn from many disciplines, it works at least as well as any
of the things drawn from those disciplines.
Because permaculture integrates these things, you could expect higher
performance that from a design where the components were not integrated to
make best use of the potential benefits coming from utilising the outputs of
some components as the inputs of other processes.
In permaculture, I think that it is optimal performance, rather than maximum
productivity, that we look for.
For me, permaculture serves as an overall framework through which I think
about the design of a project - it's a thinking tool feeding design.
In the Solomon Islands project in which have been involved, permaculture
design was used in this way. The need identified was to boost food security.
When a wholistic approach is taken you look at the inputs, processes and
outputs of the food production system, its effectiveness and its
sustainability.
This led to a program of activities encompassing training in new
agricultural techniques that incorporate the most effective from traditional
systems blended with new ideas (in the West we would call this organic
gardening - in development jargon it becomes LEISA), Participatory
Technology Development with farmers (see the book 'Developing Technology
With Farmers - a Trainer's Guide to Participatory Learning'; 1997, van
Veldhuizen et al; ETC Netherlands (Zed Books, London)), community food
security assessment (a process), Participatory Rural Appraisal (for decision
making and direction setting), primary health care (training in nutritional
health and gardening in association with a hospital), establishment of a
seed bank and exchange - the Solomon Islands Planting Material Network (in
operations since 1995 and recently funded through the European Union),
training activities and project design and management/ administrative
activities.
Question 2: if the answere is yes, where is the evidence?
You will have to search for evidence. In the West, there are sometimes
centres where permaculture is demonstrated.
You will have to search the relevant literature too. The March-April 1997
edition of 'International Agricultural Development' (19 Woodford Close,
Caversham, Reading, Berks, UK RG4 7HN; ph: 44 (0) 1734 476 063;
101620.3145@Compuserve.com)carried a special on permaculture - an interview
with Mike Feingold (billed as a permaculture specialist), Chris Evans'
Jajakot permaculture project in Nepal (I heard that Chris returned to the UK
because the fighting in the unfolding civil war in Nepal had created trouble
for the project), a permaculture project in the Peruvian Amazon and
permaculture in Zimbabwe (I don't know how the present land grabs and
political turmoil have affected the Zimbabwe project) and Uganda.
Question 3: does a permaculture design course enable people to do work that
makes a difference? (I don't expect a 72 hour course to teach everything, it
is enough if it can provide a basis from which these people start working
_successfully_).
Yes, in the sense that it inspires people to take action. It can, however,
produce the 'eureka' effect where people become enthused to take action but
enthusiasm declines quickly in the absence of a program, organisation or
other initiative to feed them into.
A course has perhaps greater chance of being used when the student already
has, or is acquiring, other relevant skills for which permaculture would
provide a direction. The course would provide insight and design knowledge
but actually implementing that would call upon the existing skills.
A Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is insufficient by itself for work in
development assistance or in the community because the time spent in the PDC
- characteristically 72 hours as stipulated by the Permaculture Institute -
is insufficient for anything but an introduction to the areas covered.
In development aid, a PDC is useful in the project management role because
it can stimulate the integration of specialists into the overall project
workflow.
In working with developing country peoples, the PDC should be adapted to
address their needs - that's why a 'needs analysis' might be best completed
before project or course design, perhaps as the first part of project design
or part of the feasibility study, if there is one.
Question 4: What is the added value pc has to offer compared with other
approaches. What makes it better?
In theory, integrated design should produce optimal outcomes, higher and
diversified productivity and meet client group needs in a way that produces
as many inputs locally as is practical, reduces and reuses/ recycles waste,
is low-cost, utilised local skills, stimulates local innovation and is
achievable within their financial, skills, training and resource
limitations.
The 'value added' might come through: cost savings from utilisation of local
materials, skills and other inputs; preservation of useful local skills and
knowledge; stimulation of regional market demand for local production/
skills/ materials; greater security in the face of changing weather and
markets through a diversified production; increased food/medical/ resource
security during times of conflict or natural disaster; provision of a
'subsistence' food base for local security and as a basis from which extra
production is traded in local and regional markets. There would be more
value-added components dependent upon the type of project.
...Russ Grayson
Andreas
----- Original Message -----
From: Pacific Edge Permaculture + Media <mailto:pacedge@magna.com.au>
To: permaculture <mailto:permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: Pc slammed in Whole Earth Review
When I worked in overseas aid with its continued monitoring and evaluation
of projects, production of regular reports and accountability to donors,
government and other stakeholders, it occurred to me that, in comparison,
permaculture was largely unmonitored and was seldom evaluated to identify
results such as what worked and why and what could be done better.
Then, midway through last year, a permaculture aid consultant - Rick
Coleman from Southern Cross Permaculture Institute in Victoria, Australia -
visited the same territory when he called for evidence proving permaculture
was a workable technology so he could present it to decision makers in the
aid industry who wanted evidence of its usefullness. Why, they asked, should
they support an approach which could provide no evidence of its
effectiveness?
And that's a fair question and one I've heard from others in that industry
(a consultant to the Australian government's AusAID - from the CGIAR - once
described permaculture to a meeting as 'a technology with no role in
development assistance').
At issue here is hard evidence - and by 'hard' I mean verifiable facts and
figures - not undocumented observations and personal experience - of how
well permaculture is at doing its job.
That would call for studies and the problem here is that such studies call
for funding, and that is something in short supply when it comes to
monitoring, measuring and evaluating permaculture projects and claims.
Unless it is done, however, permaculture is likely to be increasingly
disregarded by decision makers and, as the writer suggests, is likely to
become discredited.
...Russ Grayson
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