MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN INFORMATION PROVISION ITDG – Intermediate Technology Development Group

In this connection WAJIBU sought an interview with David Kuria, a Programme Manager with the Eastern Africa Regional Office of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG). ITDG is the outcome of an idea espoused by the radical German economist E.F. Schumacher, author of the classic book Small is beautiful. Schumacher was the brains behind the idea that small or intermediate technology can be utilized by the common people, that it can assist in improving their quality of life in such a way that they become more than mere cogs in the wheels of “industrialization” or “development.” Below is the information Mr. Kuria shared with WAJIBU.

Improving the lives of pastoralists and of the urban poor
The vision of the Intermediate Technology Development Group is to bring about “a more equitable and just world in which technology enriches and benefits the lives of poor people.” Mr. Kuria has been involved especially with the section in ITDG that seeks to provide information to the common people so that they can indeed become empowered.

One of the main ITDG efforts in Eastern Africa in this respect is the Ethno-Veterinary Programme. This programme is seeking to assist the nomadic pastoralist peoples to recover the indigenous knowledge about sustainable community based animal health. This knowledge had been passed on from father to son for generations but had nearly been lost during the colonial era since it was not considered “scientific.” Yet, modern veterinary medicine was very often out of reach of the pastoralists, due either to distance from a centre where such medicine could be obtained or because of lack of money. ITDG is cataloguing the indigenous knowledge (recovering it from the older people who still know about it) and making sure that younger pastoralists are trained to use it. This Programme is active especially in the Rift Valley and in North Eastern Province.

Another Programme, which flowed almost naturally from their work with pastoralists and from another one on Rural Agriculture, was the Urban Livelihoods Programme. It seeks to improve the livelihoods of the very many people who are moving from the rural areas to seek work in the city. ITDG became concerned about their living conditions. They noticed that their shelter environment was not conducive to healthy, let alone, dignified living. They supported a multi-sectoral team that aimed at reviewing the building policies and legislation with regard to housing in order to ensure application of accessible building standards. This eventually developed into the umbrella network Shelter Forum that was to advocate and inform the public and government agencies on the need to give special attention to housing the poor. They found the building byelaws to be the biggest stumbling block in the way of improving shelter for the poor. These byelaws were based on weather conditions in the UK (British Standards) that were totally irrelevant to conditions in the tropics. For instance, the strength of roofing materials in Kenya certainly did not need to be calculated on the basis of the weight of snow they were able to withstand!

It took the group seven years to have the building code changed. When it was eventually changed and adopted (in 1995) it then became important to find municipalities who would be willing to put the code into practice. Nakuru Municipality happened to be the one.

Breaking new ground in information provision
---------------------------------------------
This is how the pilot project, Enabling Housing Standards and Procedures in Nakuru was established. The project received financial support from the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK. Nakuru was the first municipality to adopt the new building code. They set aside seven zones in the town where the code would be implemented. The approvement of the Council was needed for all new buildings to be constructed in these zones. ITDG collaborated with the people of the community and with the Architectural Association of Kenya to develop seven housing prototypes using low cost building materials, namely: ferro-cement, rammed earth and stabilized soil technologies. Using these materials, housing costs were brought down by at least 40 per cent. The low-income population now had a number of options from which to choose. A team of local artisans were trained in the production of these materials and in the building of houses, using these materials. The project has demonstrated notable success in the adaptability and replication of housing stocks not only within Nakuru Municipality, but also in the neighbouring peri-urban settlements..

There was a drawback, however, as far as ITDG was concerned. They were not reaching the very poor, those who had neither the land on which to build nor the money for building. What to do for them?

In order to answer that need, ITDG, from the year 2000, adopted several sectoral approaches, dealing with Water and Sanitation, with Waste Management and with Micro-enterprise. These were areas where improvements would benefit everyone alike. For instance, if people were preparing and selling mandazi or selling sukuma wiki2, how could they be helped technically and in other ways to improve their business? ITDG was able to give the technical support needed to these small enterprises, like establishment of effective baking using energy saving-technologies, peanut butter making, charcoal briquetting, and other waste recycling initiatives.
The increasing urban challenges increased the desire to restructure the institution for more effective delivery. This led to a clear definition of four main strategic areas, namely:

· Reducing the vulnerability of the very poor;

· Making markets work for the poor;

· Improving access to vital services, systems and structures by the poor; and

· Responding to new technologies.

Access to information infrastructure thus became a major effort of ITDG; they wished to ensure the availability of useful information to the poor, as well as to policy makers and planners. They asked themselves: what is the information the poor must have so that they can become aware of their rights and demand them? In Nakuru, this led them to the decision to concentrate on providing information to the municipality so that they would be able to provide services to all the residents of the town. For what had happened? The councillors had been doing their planning and management without any data whatsoever. Any data that was available was completely out of date, going back to the colonial era. Services were provided haphazardly. This meant that the low-income people were by and large left out.

This was made clear by the Municipal Local Urban Observatory Project. This is a satellite-facilitated programme that ITDG initiated in Nakuru in collaboration with the Municipal Council of Nakuru, and with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation. The data obtained, together with field visits, showed that the relatively small area that housed 40 per cent of the Nakuru low-income population had only two schools and not even one clinic. The school was in bad shape without properly functioning sanitation systems. There were as many as 100 children to a classroom so that the children were sitting on the floor: there was no room for desks. The student-teacher ratio was 1:67. The decision-makers for the area were hardly aware of this situation. As in most other places in Kenya, there was no money
to do research of any kind.

The project is now providing information to policy makers in Nakuru on many different subjects. For the first time, they, as well as the citizens, have the necessary data, whether on sanitation, water supply, public facilities, etc. to do proper town planning. The project is the first of its kind in East Africa; it is aimed at optimising local governance systems through the provision of local information.

Nakuru is a pilot project and for this reason it is important that as much support as possible is attracted to the project. ITDG’s aim is to have sufficient resources for the establishment of a comprehensive urban observatory for Nakuru. This can then be replicated in other urban areas in order to be able to measure urban performances in the meeting of the Millennium Development Goals.

Changing policy and attitudes in waste management
One of the main components of the project is in the area of Waste Management. It is divided into four sectors, as follows:

· Policy;
· Change in attitude;
· Provision of appropriate technology;
· Private sector involvement.

With respect to policy, in spite of the fact the Environmental Management and Coordination Act was passed in 1999 and that the National Environmental Monitoring Authority was established, not much has really happened as far as the urban environment is concerned. The Authority still needs to clearly steer coordination and protection of our urban environment. This is therefore one area where ITDG will lend support, especially in the strengthening of local capacities to effectively manage the environment, utilise waste as a resource, and monitor the quality of the urban environment.

As far as change in attitude is concerned, this is a continuous rocess for which ITDG, in collaboration with other agencies, will launch municipal campaigns on waste management. The first campaign is in Nairobi; it brings together the City Council, the Nairobi Central Business District Association and the National Environmental Monitoring Authority, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme and the corporate sector. It is dubbed: “Garbage is killing you- Act Now!” and involves school going children. The awards for this will be given out in April 2005

Appropriate technology will come in once the attitude change has been effected. Say, people have been taught to separate their garbage into dry (recyclable) materials and wet (biodegradable) waste. Then what to do with the resultant materials? What is economically viable? What can make an impact in poverty reduction? Here is where appropriate technology will play a role.

Finally, there is need to involve the Private sector in this whole area. Industrial concerns are the greatest polluters of the environment. They must therefore be engaged in the struggle to improve the environment. For example, if a large supermarket chain could be persuaded to ban the use of polyethylene, this would have an enormous impact on the environment.

What is gratifying is that the people in the low-income areas are already involved in improving their living environment It is in fact the Community Based Organizations (CBOs) who are involved in the garbage management project in their areas.

In order to coordinate the efforts of the many organisations involved in waste management a waste secretariat has been set up; it aims to be a one-stop waste information and resource centre. The secretariat is supported by UNDP, UNEP and ILO; it also involves the Nairobi City Council as well as a number of international and national NGOs. Community-based and neighbourhood organisations are included in the network as well. Some of the key objectives of the secretariat are:

· To promote the transfer and application of appropriate technological interventions on urban environment and their impact on the livelihood of the poor;

· To strengthen collaboration and linkages between existing waste managers so as to improve information and knowledge sharing.
Much has changed for some of the scavengers collecting waste. With the support of the network they have been able to form themselves into groups dealing with the various areas of waste, such as recycling and composting. The network continues to support them with information and advice.

It is very evident, therefore that in Kenya, ITDG-EA is offering practical answers to poverty by directly confronting it. It is thus living up to its motto to create “a more equitable and just world in which technology enriches and benefits the lives of poor people.”
They are indeed making a difference.