Why facilitation?
In the field of community development, “facilitation” is considered as one of the key concepts that make development activities effective and sustainable. There are a lot of “facilitators” involved in various development projects who work for “facilitating” activities of stakeholders. In workshops, seminars or training courses for development issues, there are also “facilitators” who help process of learning, discussing, and finding out solutions by the participants.
In fact, it is not only in the field of “development assistance”, but also in the other fields such as school education, group activities (community-based or issue-based), and business enterprises, where the concept and skills of facilitation have become more and more popular and important. In the field of education or training, facilitation skills help the learners or trainees to find out and learn something important by themselves. Many people have already realized that the traditional way of teaching (teachers just give lectures and students just receive them) is not effective for anyone to increase his/her capabilities. If a person is “facilitated” to find out something, he or she will be able to utilize it. Similarly, in a group or an organization, if a group of people is “facilitated” to share, analyze, and find out something together, they will be able to tackle the problem together. It is true in the field of business enterprises as well. In the fast-changing world, conventional top-down leadership and centralized hierarchal management can not deal with complicated issues. All the members of an organization should be “facilitated” to take initiatives for analyzing the issue, finding out the solutions, and cooperating each other for concrete actions. And it is true not only for the cases of business enterprises, but also for any types of development activities. Rather than top-down centralized approach, it is far more effective that all the stakeholders such as government officials, field workers, NGOs, various experts, and local community people think together, find out the solutions, and take initiatives for actions by themselves. Facilitation is a key for sustainable development actions involving multi-stakeholders.
Basics of facilitation – from the field experience
Japanese NGOs have been experiencing various kinds of practices of facilitation in the field of community development both inside and outside the country. One of experienced development practitioners, Mr. Toyokazu Nakata, who has worked in the communities of various developing countries and in Japan as well, has analyzed various cases of facilitation that he has been involved, studied theories related with facilitation such as behavioral science, and established a basic theory of facilitation. According to Mr. Nakata, the basics of facilitation can be summarized into the following four points;
1) Problem analysis is not easy for a person directly involved
When a single person or a group of people wants to solve a problem, it is necessary to analyze “cause-effect” relations how the problem occurred. However, in many cases, it is not easy for the persons who are directly involved in the situation to analyze the cause-effect relations objectively. It is natural that a person is reluctant to understand his/her fault and tends to ignore failure. If someone succeeded, he/she naturally thinks it is because of own effort, and if someone failed, he/she wants to concludes that it was beyond his/her control and he/she was unlucky. In these ways, people often fail analysis, and as a result they reach wrong conclusions.
2) FACT is a key for successful analysis
So, here it is facilitator’s turn. An outsider can play a vital role to “facilitate” someone to analyze problem (cause-effect relation) in a proper way. In order to do that, you should focus on “FACTS”. If someone starts thinking and telling about his/her own “Perception”, he/she will not be able to reach the right cause-effect analysis. Analysis goes astray when one mistakes his/her perception as facts. Therefore, a facilitator should ask facts. If someone is asked to “recall” the memory or focus on what he/she observed or experienced, gradually various facts are revealed, and finally he/she will be able to analyze the problem, and find out ways for solving it. By asking facts, a facilitator can also help the person learn from experience, and that person will also be aware of his/her potentials which can be utilized for the next actions.
3) SELF-ESTEEM motivates people to initiate
Another important point for facilitation is to increase “self-esteem” of the person. It is natural that if someone is criticized or even blamed for his/her own action or idea, the person will become defensive and reluctant to change his/her mind. On the contrary, if someone feels his/her own action or idea is appreciated by others, the person will become proud of what he/she did/has and consequently he/she will try to do something more in a better way. Increasing self-esteem is an important key for behavioral change. So, a facilitator should be sensitive to how the person feels on the topic you are talking. It is also important for a facilitator to be aware of the relationship with the persons who are being facilitated. If those persons feel equal to a facilitator, he/she will be free to analyze the problem based on the facts.
4) If I find it, I will use it
The last point of successful facilitation is to make the person find out something by himself/herself. In most of the school education, the students are expected to hear what a teacher teaches, to memorize it, and to understand the contents. However, it is not easy to realize what is given by others. If you want someone to change his/her behavior, it is necessary that he/she should realize something by himself/herself. You should not teach the answer. You have to wait, and let the person find out by himself/herself. If a facilitator is asked an important question, you should not answer directly, but you help him/her to find out the answer by oneself. If someone finds out something, he/she will definitely start actions based on the finding.
Case study of successful facilitation
The PCUR-LINK project started in July 2004 as one of the Grass-Root Technical Cooperation Projects of JICA. The project duration was three years, and SOMNEED (a Japanese NGO based in Takayama city of Japan) is an implementing organization together with its Indian counterpart organization, SOMNEED Trust India. The project purpose is “creation of new type of producer-consumer relationship and common property resources through women SHG (Self Help Group) empowerment”, and the target groups are the women SHGs at urban and suburban slums in Vishakapathnam city in State of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Within the three years of the project period, it is a really exciting achievement that the slum women who participated in VVK (SHG federation) have become “subject” of their activities. Now, they can manage all the meetings, savings, and loan procedure according to the rules and regulations settled by themselves. The slum women have true sense of “ownership” in the SHGs and their federation (VVK).
However, it was not easy for SOMNEED India and its partner local NGO to facilitate initiatives of the slum women. In general, the field staff of local NGO were accustomed to “teach” and “lead” SHGs in their everyday activities. Book keeping, saving accumulation, loan provision, and even calling SHG members to attend meetings had been major tasks of the NGO staff. When the PCUR-LINK project started, SOMNEED asked the NGO staff not to give any help or instruction to the groups unless they are requested by SHGs. “You should not teach them, and wait until you are asked.”
Like the above point, there are several principles that SOMNEED followed for its successful facilitation of SHGs and VVK activities. Those are;
a) Unless asked, no intervention.
b) Pose question, but do not teach.
c) Believe their capacity, but do not expect.
d) Let them do first, wait, and see.
e) Raise your hands, seek permission, then talk.
f) Set bottom line, and talk such a manner that even 10 year child can understand.
There are also some important points in the strategy of SOMNEED for facilitating initiatives of the slum women.
1) Stimulating curiosity
It had a great impact on the women’s motivation that SOMNEED took them to the successful example of SHG federation bank in Chennai. Showing visible successful cases is a good way to stimulate the curiosity of the people for further actions.
2) Setting achievable targets, and praise if achieved
SOMNEED encouraged the SHG or VVK members to settle concrete targets such as improvement of SHG management, or criteria for joining VVK. If anyone can achieve the targets and is praised by others, he or she increases own motivation.
3) Encouraging feedback and sharing information
It was always emphasized by SOMNEED that every and each information should be shared among all the members. It is a minimum condition for sustainable independent management for any organization to share information and have open discussion.
Process of facilitation
In many cases of successful facilitation practices such as SOMNEED and VVK above, there are commonly observed several important processes of facilitation. Those processes are applicable for various fields of facilitation such as development cooperation, business activities, or any kinds of training and workshop activities.
Designing appropriate “ground” for interaction: Facilitation can be taken place where and when the persons involved feel free to interact each others. If someone hesitates to express his own idea or experience freely, it is difficult to facilitate the process of exploring facts. Furthermore, if there is a hierarchal relation among the participants, a person subordinate feels difficulty to raise any idea which may oppose to a dominant person. Thus, designing an appropriate ground (types of place, atmosphere, sitting arrangement, etc.) is a vital point for creating suitable facilitation. If the participants can share their views freely, trust each other, and construct common goals, it is easy to facilitate the process thereafter.
Partnership building: In most cases, the ultimate goal of facilitation is to help the persons involved to analyze the issue they face and encourage them to initiate actions for solving it. In order to do this, a facilitator should not become a “teacher” who gives answer or instruction to them. “If I find it, I will use it” is a principle. Thus, it is vital for a facilitator to build an equal partnership with the persons he/she facilitates. Similarly, it is also important to construct partnership relations among a group of people so that the group itself can collaborate among the members. For the partnership building, there are various skills of communication that a facilitator should be equipped with. Hearing carefully, observing participants’ conditions and their relationship, receiving and sharing emotion and experience, and raising appropriate questions are some of those important skills for partnership building.
Analysis: It is necessary to analyze the issue if someone wants to tackle it. A facilitator should help the participants to find out facts, to relate them each other, to structuralize, and to find out ways for solving the issue. Again, it is not a facilitator who analyzes issue. He/she only helps the persons. However, as an outsider, a facilitator may have different perspective such as potential resources, or knowledge of similar cases in other places. If so, a facilitator should facilitate the persons to ask him/her for advice.
Action Plan: After the issue is analyzed, it is necessary to make an action plan. A facilitator should help the process of making action plan. In an action plan, concrete process of every action (when, where, who, what, and how) should be included. It is also important that an achievable and measurable target is clearly stated in the action plan. If someone feels he/she successfully achieved the target, it becomes good motivation for them to continue the activities.
How to accommodate different views: In the planning stage, it is important that all the participants agree with what they analyzed and what they will do. However, it is not an easy task to accommodate all the views and ideas of the participants. If they can realize each other’s background, worldviews, experiences, and emotions, certainly they will be able to find out ways. So, do not be in a hurry. A facilitator should patiently help the participants to interact each other with Honne (from the true sound of heart). Story telling, picture drawing, or role playing can be effective tools for such interaction.
Reflection and feedback: If all the above process is properly facilitated, the persons or a group will automatically start actions based on what they found, analyzed and planned. The only task for a facilitator is to help active and lively reflection and feedback by the persons / group. If a reflection and feedback process is facilitated, the actors will improve and continue their actions by themselves.
Fundamental attitude for facilitator
Lastly, as a facilitator, the most important thing you have to keep in your mind is that “you are not a main actor”. Facilitator is not a person who takes actions for solving issues, but he/she is a person who stays close with the others (main actors) and who facilitate the process of their self-empowerment. Being a facilitator does require some specialist knowledge and skills, but more importantly, you need to be prepared to be patient, to wait, to trust, and to believe potential capacities that everyone is blessed with.
(M. Nagahata, i-i-network, Japan)
2009-02-26
JIMOTOGAKU - based on what we have here! (2)
(Continued from the previous posting)
Process of Jimotogaku
Going out for fieldwork
The main activity of Jimotogaku is a fieldwork to find out what we have in the community. It is a simple work. Community members together with outsiders just walk around the community and record what they found interesting. The most important thing is that you need to find out what you feel unique, interesting, or surprised. It is very important to search for “FACTS”, not just a thinking, opinion, or perception of the participants. Any kinds of concrete things including natural environment, human activities, products, skills, infrastructure, building, equipments, or even spiritual symbols can be searched for and recorded. When you found something interesting, you can ask questions about it to a community member by using concrete questions. You can record on a notebook, or draw a picture or sketch, or take photos. It is also important to record what the community members talked about it.
How to work out the results
After coming back from fieldwork, you need to compile the result (what you found). There are several ways to do it.
a) Local information card: every item will be recorded in each card describing what is found, photo or illustration, what the community people say, your comments
b) Local resource map: the participants can compile the information collected into a local resource map using pictures, drawings, and comments
c) Detail description of a household: one typical household can be described deeply in a detail picture map showing their equipments, housing styles, plants, animals, etc.
d) Agriculture calendar: if you study about agricultural activities, it can be compiled into a calendar of those activities. Fishery or forestry calendar can also be made.
e) Story of community members: especially if you had a chance to hear from old generations, it is a good chance to find out community history and local wisdom.
f) Human resource map: you may find various kinds of unique activities of community people. Those findings can be compiled into a human resource map.
Making actions
Mr. Yoshimoto mentions that there are four steps to create community development actions based on the results of Jimotogaku. “Knowing the past”, “analyzing the present”, “predicting the future change”, and “starting what we can do” are those processes. By Jimotogaku practice, local community can understand themselves from much wider and deeper perspectives, and they start thinking what can be or should be done, and finelly they will be able to take initiative to do something.
According to Mr. Yoshimoto, Jimotogaku can contribute to the following things;
- Enhance the understanding on your own community
- Acquire deep knowledge on the locally produced goods and services, explain about it to people from outside of your community, which will ultimately stimulate ideas for new products
- Enjoy local life and be willing to guide visitors
- Cope with and adapt to external changes
- Set up future vision of the community and think what people can do for it
Through those impacts, Jimotogaku will become a basis for continuous local actions for community development.
Actions after Jimotogaku
One of the examples of Jimotogaku application in Minamata is “Field Museum of Village Life” at Kagumeishi village. Kagumeishi is located at the last end of Minamata city in mountain area at the border of Kagoshima Prefecture. It is a tiny agricultural village with around 40 households. The community people started the “Field Museum” in 2002 as a result of “searching for what we have” activity of Jimotogaku. The principle of the museum is to show their own local resources that were discovered through Jimotogaku. There is no building as “Museum”, but only signboard. The “Museum guides” are ordinary villagers who show various places of the village such as rice terrace which has been inherited for hundreds of years, small stream and large rocks that became origin of the village name, traditional small shrine that has been taken care of by the community, water resources of the village, and other traditional equipments or household effects. They also serve local foods that utilize local materials and cooked in traditional ways. It is really a “simple” museum, but there have been more than 3,000 visitors from all over Japan so far now.
According to a leader of the village, Mr. Yutaka Katsume, at the beginning, the villagers wondered whether such simple things could attract the outsiders. In fact, when the new idea of “field museum of village life” is introduced to the villagers, most of them were skeptical to the idea. Only because the city official, Mr. Yoshimoto, stated that the idea of field museum would not give any bad impact to the village, they agreed to start the activity. They firstly practiced the Jimotogaku fieldwork, found out what they have, made resource maps of the area, and prepared for explaining about their communities to the visitors.
After starting the museum, they could receive many guests from outsiders, and as those outsiders show interest in the village nature, tradition, lifestyle, and foods, the villagers started to become aware of richness of village life, and restore self-confidence in their own village. Recently, the village women started food processing activity that cooks traditional local foods and packs them into lunch box delivered to the city office. In addition, stimulated by outsiders interest and their advices, there are some villagers who started innovating own traditional products such as vine baskets or trying to plant new crops that can be sold to the town people. Mr. Katsume, the village leader, expects that opportunities of exchanging with outside people through the Museum activity will lead to re-vitalizing economic activities of the village. He hopes to attract young generation to come to and live in the village where over-aging and depopulation have been a major concern for many years.
Implications to community development in other countries
Jimotogaku was born in Japanese communities. However, its concept and methodology is highly applicable to any other fields of community development outside Japan. As the practice of Jimotogaku can be regarded as an “antithesis” to conventional centralized top-down approach of community development, it can be utilized by anyone who wants to facilitate local community’s initiative to start actions based on existing local resources, not depending on outside ideas, projects, or funds. Through Jimotogaku practice, community members will re-discover their own history, culture, skills, wisdom, human relations, and other existing local resources, and as a result, they will be able to start actions to tackle their issue based on what they have. A lot of participants of JICA training who have been exposed to the concept and practice of Jimotogaku in Japan expressed that it is a very useful approach for their community development activities, and there are some ex-participants who have already started practices.
Based on those practices of Jimotogaku in developing countries, there are some key points for successful application of Jimotogaku in the field of community development.
a) Constructing equal relationship with local community
In many cases, outsiders who want to introduce Jimotogaku are development experts. The outsiders should be sensitive to construct equal relationship with the local people so that they will be able to search, discuss, and think freely.
b) Do not teach, advice, or instruct
Even if you are outsiders with high education, you must not teach, instruct, or give advice to the community. You are here to facilitate the community people themselves find out what they have.
c) Involving people from other communities
It may be a good idea to involve ordinary people from other communities so that they can stimulate each other.
d) Finding out concrete things
It is not our objective to think about abstract concept. For example, you need to find out concrete things (equipments, buildings, or skills) rather than mentioning “tradition”.
e) Continuing follow-up for next actions
Jimotogaku is not just a “treasure finding”. After fieldwork, community people will analyze, find out what can be done, and start something. If necessary, the outsiders should continually be involved in the process as facilitators.
So, let us find out what we have, and start something base on it. We are waiting for your practice of Jimotogaku in your field. And of course, let us share our experiences each other!
Process of Jimotogaku
Going out for fieldwork
The main activity of Jimotogaku is a fieldwork to find out what we have in the community. It is a simple work. Community members together with outsiders just walk around the community and record what they found interesting. The most important thing is that you need to find out what you feel unique, interesting, or surprised. It is very important to search for “FACTS”, not just a thinking, opinion, or perception of the participants. Any kinds of concrete things including natural environment, human activities, products, skills, infrastructure, building, equipments, or even spiritual symbols can be searched for and recorded. When you found something interesting, you can ask questions about it to a community member by using concrete questions. You can record on a notebook, or draw a picture or sketch, or take photos. It is also important to record what the community members talked about it.
How to work out the results
After coming back from fieldwork, you need to compile the result (what you found). There are several ways to do it.
a) Local information card: every item will be recorded in each card describing what is found, photo or illustration, what the community people say, your comments
b) Local resource map: the participants can compile the information collected into a local resource map using pictures, drawings, and comments
c) Detail description of a household: one typical household can be described deeply in a detail picture map showing their equipments, housing styles, plants, animals, etc.
d) Agriculture calendar: if you study about agricultural activities, it can be compiled into a calendar of those activities. Fishery or forestry calendar can also be made.
e) Story of community members: especially if you had a chance to hear from old generations, it is a good chance to find out community history and local wisdom.
f) Human resource map: you may find various kinds of unique activities of community people. Those findings can be compiled into a human resource map.
Making actions
Mr. Yoshimoto mentions that there are four steps to create community development actions based on the results of Jimotogaku. “Knowing the past”, “analyzing the present”, “predicting the future change”, and “starting what we can do” are those processes. By Jimotogaku practice, local community can understand themselves from much wider and deeper perspectives, and they start thinking what can be or should be done, and finelly they will be able to take initiative to do something.
According to Mr. Yoshimoto, Jimotogaku can contribute to the following things;
- Enhance the understanding on your own community
- Acquire deep knowledge on the locally produced goods and services, explain about it to people from outside of your community, which will ultimately stimulate ideas for new products
- Enjoy local life and be willing to guide visitors
- Cope with and adapt to external changes
- Set up future vision of the community and think what people can do for it
Through those impacts, Jimotogaku will become a basis for continuous local actions for community development.
Actions after Jimotogaku
One of the examples of Jimotogaku application in Minamata is “Field Museum of Village Life” at Kagumeishi village. Kagumeishi is located at the last end of Minamata city in mountain area at the border of Kagoshima Prefecture. It is a tiny agricultural village with around 40 households. The community people started the “Field Museum” in 2002 as a result of “searching for what we have” activity of Jimotogaku. The principle of the museum is to show their own local resources that were discovered through Jimotogaku. There is no building as “Museum”, but only signboard. The “Museum guides” are ordinary villagers who show various places of the village such as rice terrace which has been inherited for hundreds of years, small stream and large rocks that became origin of the village name, traditional small shrine that has been taken care of by the community, water resources of the village, and other traditional equipments or household effects. They also serve local foods that utilize local materials and cooked in traditional ways. It is really a “simple” museum, but there have been more than 3,000 visitors from all over Japan so far now.
According to a leader of the village, Mr. Yutaka Katsume, at the beginning, the villagers wondered whether such simple things could attract the outsiders. In fact, when the new idea of “field museum of village life” is introduced to the villagers, most of them were skeptical to the idea. Only because the city official, Mr. Yoshimoto, stated that the idea of field museum would not give any bad impact to the village, they agreed to start the activity. They firstly practiced the Jimotogaku fieldwork, found out what they have, made resource maps of the area, and prepared for explaining about their communities to the visitors.
After starting the museum, they could receive many guests from outsiders, and as those outsiders show interest in the village nature, tradition, lifestyle, and foods, the villagers started to become aware of richness of village life, and restore self-confidence in their own village. Recently, the village women started food processing activity that cooks traditional local foods and packs them into lunch box delivered to the city office. In addition, stimulated by outsiders interest and their advices, there are some villagers who started innovating own traditional products such as vine baskets or trying to plant new crops that can be sold to the town people. Mr. Katsume, the village leader, expects that opportunities of exchanging with outside people through the Museum activity will lead to re-vitalizing economic activities of the village. He hopes to attract young generation to come to and live in the village where over-aging and depopulation have been a major concern for many years.
Implications to community development in other countries
Jimotogaku was born in Japanese communities. However, its concept and methodology is highly applicable to any other fields of community development outside Japan. As the practice of Jimotogaku can be regarded as an “antithesis” to conventional centralized top-down approach of community development, it can be utilized by anyone who wants to facilitate local community’s initiative to start actions based on existing local resources, not depending on outside ideas, projects, or funds. Through Jimotogaku practice, community members will re-discover their own history, culture, skills, wisdom, human relations, and other existing local resources, and as a result, they will be able to start actions to tackle their issue based on what they have. A lot of participants of JICA training who have been exposed to the concept and practice of Jimotogaku in Japan expressed that it is a very useful approach for their community development activities, and there are some ex-participants who have already started practices.
Based on those practices of Jimotogaku in developing countries, there are some key points for successful application of Jimotogaku in the field of community development.
a) Constructing equal relationship with local community
In many cases, outsiders who want to introduce Jimotogaku are development experts. The outsiders should be sensitive to construct equal relationship with the local people so that they will be able to search, discuss, and think freely.
b) Do not teach, advice, or instruct
Even if you are outsiders with high education, you must not teach, instruct, or give advice to the community. You are here to facilitate the community people themselves find out what they have.
c) Involving people from other communities
It may be a good idea to involve ordinary people from other communities so that they can stimulate each other.
d) Finding out concrete things
It is not our objective to think about abstract concept. For example, you need to find out concrete things (equipments, buildings, or skills) rather than mentioning “tradition”.
e) Continuing follow-up for next actions
Jimotogaku is not just a “treasure finding”. After fieldwork, community people will analyze, find out what can be done, and start something. If necessary, the outsiders should continually be involved in the process as facilitators.
So, let us find out what we have, and start something base on it. We are waiting for your practice of Jimotogaku in your field. And of course, let us share our experiences each other!
JIMOTOGAKU - based on what we have here! (1)
“Jimotogaku” is an approach of community development born in local communities of Japan in mid-1990s. It focuses on existing local resources and facilitates community people’s initiative to utilize those resources. “Stop asking for what we do not have, let us start from finding out what we have” is a principle of Jimotogaku. It also emphasizes collaboration among “Soil and Wind” (community people and outsiders) to find out what the local communities have and how to utilize them. “Etiquette of outsiders” is attached more importance in the practice.
Jimotogaku practice was firstly started in Minamata where local communities had been destroyed by adverse impact of Minamata disease. It helped the local people to re-construct and revive community actions there, and then Jimotogaku practice was spread out to various local communities throughout Japan where local people and outsiders collaborated each other to find out existing resources and to utilize them for community development. Now, practice of Jimotogaku has crossed the border by ex-participants of JICA training courses, and we can hear from many friends engaged in community development in various countries telling that they are trying to apply approach of Jimotogaku in their fields.
This article aims at briefly introducing background and basics of Jimotogaku for those who want to practice its approach in each field. It will help you to explain Jimotogaku to your colleagues or community members, and it will give you some useful tips for practicing Jimotogaku in your field.
Origin of Jimotogaku – Minamata disease and reviving local community
Minamata disease is a disease of the central nervous system, caused by the consumption of fish or shellfish contaminated with methyl mercury compounds which were formed as by-products in the acetaldehyde synthesizing process of Chisso Minamata Factory and then discharged as waste into the Minamata bay, Kumamoto Prefecture of Kyushu Island, Japan. The first recognized outbreaks occurred around Minamata Bay in 1956. More than twelve thousand people living around Minamata have been officially recognized as patients affected by mercury. “Minamata disease not only caused serious health damage, but it has also had a massive and broad-reaching effect on local community, in terms of environmental devastation and the breakdown of community ties”, the Minamata City Mayor, Masazumi Yoshii mentioned in December 2000 . Chisso factory, that contaminated the bay and caused the disease, have been the main industry in the city for around 100 years employing many residents and contributing economic development in the area. At the time of the outbreak of Minamata disease, after it was made clear that the cause was the mercury in the wastewater of Chisso factory on which Minamata was economically dependent, the residents were divided against each other, and communication between people on different sides of the issues was severed for a long time.
However, in 1990s, some citizens and local government officials who realized that antagonism produces nothing, started to re-generate the local community. The activity was called “Moyai-Naoshi”. “Moyai” literally means to tie something together, and “Naoshi” means doing something again. They formed “Yoro-kai” at each local community (there are 26 communities in the city), where the residents explored their own locality searching for “what we have”, that is, finding out own local resources, their values and meanings for own lives, and plotting those resources into picture maps. Through the activities, the community people could rediscover the values of traditional life styles, rich natural resources, own culture, and various works that have been supporting their life for many years. They found that the community life of Minamata is strongly related with rich natural environment - mountains, rivers, and the sea .
Through “Yoro-kai” groups, the community people in Minamata reviewed and rediscovered their own local resources, and reconsidered the relation among their life, culture, and environment. As a result of those activities, the citizens started various projects that aimed at constructing environmental friendly sustainable society, such as “21 type-wise garbage collection”, “formation of Women’s Liaison Conference on Waste Reduction”, and “introduction of environmental ISO for schools”, “Eco-shop Recognition system”. Besides, each community began reviving traditional foods, festivals, games, and tools that were reconsidered through “searching for what we have”, and the community ties that had once destroyed were restored. And the process of the Yoro-kai activities - rediscovering local resources, formulating vision, and facilitating local initiatives for actions, was named “Jimotogaku” (literally means learning from the local) by the leader of the activities, Mr. Tetsuro Yoshimoto, an official of the city Minamata.
Principle of Jimotogaku
Mr. Yoshimoto emphasizes importance of studying own local community by the community members themselves. “Only those who studied / researched can become wiser” is the motto of Jimotogaku. Thus, the community people themselves should be the main actors of Jimotogaku practice. Jimotogaku is a practice to find out own local resources by the community members with help of outsiders, and it starts with field work to look for what we have in the community.
According to Mr. Yoshimoto, there are seven fundamental attitudes that anyone should keep when he/she is involved in the fieldwork of Jimotogaku;
1) Study in the field: you need to walk there, watch, listen to, and study the facts there.
2) Study with outsiders: Outsiders’ perspective can help the community members find out uniqueness of the area. However, outsiders should not teach, but they have to draw out potentials of the community by asking questions.
3) Listen without preconception: you should ask to the local people and record what he/she talks. Do not guess and write something based on your own perception.
4) Being on equal position: you should not teach and advise. Even if you talk to a small child, you should be on equal position to him.
5) Ask concrete things (FACTS): you should not ask opinions or perceptions. You need to ask about what he/she does/uses in his/her daily life.
6) Select appropriate place: it is important to meet community people at a place where they feel informal and easy to talk each others.
7) Ordinary man/woman has own specialty: you do not have to select any special person who is considered to be “specialist” of the community. Each and every ordinary community member has various experience you can find out many interesting skills, knowledge, and stories from those persons.
After the fieldwork to search for what we have in the community, it is necessary to analyze what are found. Mr. Yoshimoto introduces three ways of analysis;
a) Relating or linking what are found with each other
b) Overlapping different issues
c) Looking into the things below surface
The topics or themes of the Jimotogaku field study can be the following items;
Water passage / useful plants / play in the sea, river, and forest / calendar of food or plants / history of the community / map of artisans / housing style and climate patterns / rout map of local products / how garbage is treated / movement of wild animals / old streets and new roads / traditional beliefs and natural environment, etc.
(To be continued to the next posting)
Jimotogaku practice was firstly started in Minamata where local communities had been destroyed by adverse impact of Minamata disease. It helped the local people to re-construct and revive community actions there, and then Jimotogaku practice was spread out to various local communities throughout Japan where local people and outsiders collaborated each other to find out existing resources and to utilize them for community development. Now, practice of Jimotogaku has crossed the border by ex-participants of JICA training courses, and we can hear from many friends engaged in community development in various countries telling that they are trying to apply approach of Jimotogaku in their fields.
This article aims at briefly introducing background and basics of Jimotogaku for those who want to practice its approach in each field. It will help you to explain Jimotogaku to your colleagues or community members, and it will give you some useful tips for practicing Jimotogaku in your field.
Origin of Jimotogaku – Minamata disease and reviving local community
Minamata disease is a disease of the central nervous system, caused by the consumption of fish or shellfish contaminated with methyl mercury compounds which were formed as by-products in the acetaldehyde synthesizing process of Chisso Minamata Factory and then discharged as waste into the Minamata bay, Kumamoto Prefecture of Kyushu Island, Japan. The first recognized outbreaks occurred around Minamata Bay in 1956. More than twelve thousand people living around Minamata have been officially recognized as patients affected by mercury. “Minamata disease not only caused serious health damage, but it has also had a massive and broad-reaching effect on local community, in terms of environmental devastation and the breakdown of community ties”, the Minamata City Mayor, Masazumi Yoshii mentioned in December 2000 . Chisso factory, that contaminated the bay and caused the disease, have been the main industry in the city for around 100 years employing many residents and contributing economic development in the area. At the time of the outbreak of Minamata disease, after it was made clear that the cause was the mercury in the wastewater of Chisso factory on which Minamata was economically dependent, the residents were divided against each other, and communication between people on different sides of the issues was severed for a long time.
However, in 1990s, some citizens and local government officials who realized that antagonism produces nothing, started to re-generate the local community. The activity was called “Moyai-Naoshi”. “Moyai” literally means to tie something together, and “Naoshi” means doing something again. They formed “Yoro-kai” at each local community (there are 26 communities in the city), where the residents explored their own locality searching for “what we have”, that is, finding out own local resources, their values and meanings for own lives, and plotting those resources into picture maps. Through the activities, the community people could rediscover the values of traditional life styles, rich natural resources, own culture, and various works that have been supporting their life for many years. They found that the community life of Minamata is strongly related with rich natural environment - mountains, rivers, and the sea .
Through “Yoro-kai” groups, the community people in Minamata reviewed and rediscovered their own local resources, and reconsidered the relation among their life, culture, and environment. As a result of those activities, the citizens started various projects that aimed at constructing environmental friendly sustainable society, such as “21 type-wise garbage collection”, “formation of Women’s Liaison Conference on Waste Reduction”, and “introduction of environmental ISO for schools”, “Eco-shop Recognition system”. Besides, each community began reviving traditional foods, festivals, games, and tools that were reconsidered through “searching for what we have”, and the community ties that had once destroyed were restored. And the process of the Yoro-kai activities - rediscovering local resources, formulating vision, and facilitating local initiatives for actions, was named “Jimotogaku” (literally means learning from the local) by the leader of the activities, Mr. Tetsuro Yoshimoto, an official of the city Minamata.
Principle of Jimotogaku
Mr. Yoshimoto emphasizes importance of studying own local community by the community members themselves. “Only those who studied / researched can become wiser” is the motto of Jimotogaku. Thus, the community people themselves should be the main actors of Jimotogaku practice. Jimotogaku is a practice to find out own local resources by the community members with help of outsiders, and it starts with field work to look for what we have in the community.
According to Mr. Yoshimoto, there are seven fundamental attitudes that anyone should keep when he/she is involved in the fieldwork of Jimotogaku;
1) Study in the field: you need to walk there, watch, listen to, and study the facts there.
2) Study with outsiders: Outsiders’ perspective can help the community members find out uniqueness of the area. However, outsiders should not teach, but they have to draw out potentials of the community by asking questions.
3) Listen without preconception: you should ask to the local people and record what he/she talks. Do not guess and write something based on your own perception.
4) Being on equal position: you should not teach and advise. Even if you talk to a small child, you should be on equal position to him.
5) Ask concrete things (FACTS): you should not ask opinions or perceptions. You need to ask about what he/she does/uses in his/her daily life.
6) Select appropriate place: it is important to meet community people at a place where they feel informal and easy to talk each others.
7) Ordinary man/woman has own specialty: you do not have to select any special person who is considered to be “specialist” of the community. Each and every ordinary community member has various experience you can find out many interesting skills, knowledge, and stories from those persons.
After the fieldwork to search for what we have in the community, it is necessary to analyze what are found. Mr. Yoshimoto introduces three ways of analysis;
a) Relating or linking what are found with each other
b) Overlapping different issues
c) Looking into the things below surface
The topics or themes of the Jimotogaku field study can be the following items;
Water passage / useful plants / play in the sea, river, and forest / calendar of food or plants / history of the community / map of artisans / housing style and climate patterns / rout map of local products / how garbage is treated / movement of wild animals / old streets and new roads / traditional beliefs and natural environment, etc.
(To be continued to the next posting)
2009-01-31
Training Course Report - JICA Tokyo "Creation of Enabling Environment for Civil Society and Community Development" in 2008
Course outline
“Promotion of enabling environment for civil society and community development” is a training course organized by JICA Tokyo and implemented by Shapla Neer with cooperation of i-i-network. The course in Japan was held from September 7 to October 2, 2008. Overall Goal of the course is that the participants will improve community development activities/projects/programs in organizations or communities the participants belong to. And the objectives are settled as described below;
(1) The participant(s) will be able to draft one of the three models or strategies mentioned below appropriate for their assignment.
a) A model method or strategy of community development concerning the respective local context is formulated.
b) A model method or strategy of participatory planning for community development is formulated.
c)A model of creating enabling environment for participatory community development is drafted.
(2) Based on the above mentioned outputs, an Action Plan for a pilot activity of community development is formulated.
(3) A final report after returning home country is formulated, or a proposal of mini project concerning to community development is formulated.
Eleven (11) participants (male 8, female 3) came from seven countries (Bhutan, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, and Turkey), 5 of them are from NGOs, and the rest belongs to government institutions.
The course in Japan consists of workshops and discussions in the classroom, field visit to two Japanese rural areas (Toyooka and Kikuchi), and action plan preparation and presentation.
Principle of the course
At the first session of the course in TIC (Tokyo International Center), the participants were asked to fill the blanks of the sentence with appropriate words;
If I hear it, I will it. If I see it, I will it. If I do it, I will it.
And, If I it, I will practice it.
The participants proposed various words that can fit the sentences, and finally agreed that in the training course, they have to find out something by themselves rather than just waiting for being taught by others, so that they will be able to utilize what they found and realized in Japan when they will be back to their home.
What is community?
The first day of the class room session started with discussion on “what is community?”. The participants were divided into three groups, and asked to list up what the community people do collectively. The followings are the examples of what they listed up as collective actions of community people.
CULTURE
Wedding ceremony / Big festival / play music / Christmas celebration / Holly weeks / singsong and dances by children /Sunday-Sunday –cookout between families in a street / Arts development / Organization of trips to different sites
ENVIRONMENT
a cleaning campaign day (health conscious) / Garbage and waste management / Drink water management / Vaccination / Forest & mangrove preservation / Cleaning up the streets
SOCIAL
Fight against drug abuse /Non-formal education / Drug problems solution / Father and mother societies / management of schools / Sports / Against adolescents pregnancy / Celebration of Independence day / Construction of houses / Gotong-Royong / Primary school assistance / Support of vulnerable children
ECONOMY
For agriculture production / Handicrafts / Selling food items / Waste-picker association / Exhibitions / Landless workers movement
COMMUNITY SECURITY
Neighborhood watch / Defense and security issues
ADVOCACY / POLITICAL
Promotion and advocacy of HIV/AIDS program / Community/Village meeting planning and problem solving / Parent-teacher meeting / Anti-terror demonstrations / Demonstrations for animal rights
After that, a resource person of the session explained three functions of local communities in Japan; Common property management, mutual help for production and reproduction, and source of identity. It was also stated that there is a traditional decision making system in Japan such as “Yoriai” where community people gather, exchange experiences and thoughts, and finally decide unanimously.
Then, the participants were asked to think about the changes of local community. The followings are what they found disappeared and emerged in recent 30 years.
DISAPPEARED in 30 years
・Trading and exchange of gods between inland people and coastal people (barter system).
・Lower law and order problems.
・No laws that protect rights of children, women culture.
・VIPs were the priests, judges, bank manager and land owners.
・More canoe making (due to no road, infrastructure).
・Good public schools (for a minority).
・Election through ordinary box.
・Traditional method.
・Bringing water from fountain/river.
(・Giving birth to babies by a local person.)
・When someone died the neighbors took control of funerals.
・Really close community relationship (help without asking to be repay) [now, everything has the price].
・Respect for community rules [now, everything being compare to law].
・Involvement of all.
・Community collective child management (behavior shaping).
・Group house to house visit.
・Baking bread (women gather at a certain house, at certain times).
・20 years ago, I play at to TIJUCA forest, but my children can’t.
・More respect for private property.
・Cooperative sense to help each other.
・Children used to be protected for someone in the community.
・When someone died, everybody stay awake all night long.
・20 years ago, I swim in FLAMINGO Beach, but now is impossible.
・Lots of undisturbed resources such as river, forest, canal [now, some of the resources has been lost due to lack awareness development].
・Religious value in family group.
・Peaceful in community and neighborhood.
・Gender respect [regarding to women condition].
・Cheaper prices for store goods and other basic services as health, education and low tax.
・Helping to make activities together by the community.
・Patriotic events were important display of local balance of power.
・City agricultural fair for local production.
・After give birth woman take 41 days in risk.
・Head of block.
EMERGED in 30 years
・Funeral rooms.
・Scheduled activities.
・Neighborhood association.
・Registered association.
・Larger participants.
・Community hall.
・Infrastructure –high rise buildings, diverse roads.
・CGI sheet roofing.
・Electricity.
・Documented evidence.
・Farm roads.
・Local hospitals/clinics are more common.
・Less canoe making due to road infrastructure.
・Good facilities to do community program.
・Basic health units.
・My family come from a small village to PANTANAL where didn’t have health assistance, but I have.
・My mother didn't have opportunity to study, but I have.
・Tap water.
・Democracy.
・Bakeries where you buy your bread.
・Better financial support.
・Patriotic events are empty and unimportant.
・Better knowledge of technology.
・City fair for the products of big business and tourism.
・Linux.
・Internet.
・Low cooperation for common problems.
・Un-safety environment.
・Un-respectful for human being.
・Increased prevalence HIV worldwide.
・VIPs remain the judges, land owners –industrialists and business owners, college professors.
・Young people can not respect elderly.
・Bad public schools, good private schools (for minority).
・No combined activities by the community.
・Low faithful.
・More social problems due to road.
As a conclusion, the participants understood that the power of modernization that consists of formation of nation state and introduction of market economy has inevitably change the roles and functions of local communities. Common property resources previously local communities had managed were demolished and became public or private properties. Many kinds of mutual helping activities have been outmoded as people become busy for earning money, and it become the government’s responsibility to provide various services. And as a results of such rapid change, the people are losing their pride of being a member of local communities. However, it is also obvious that public sector and private sector can not fulfill all the necessity of everyday life of the people, thus we need something like local community where people gather and work together.
Roles of outsiders
So, if we need something like local community, then, what are the roles of outsiders such as NGOs and government officers who come to a community to implement some activities? In order to think about this question, the participants discussed on “what are the things community people know / do not know, and what are the things we know / do not know”. Based on the discussion, they found out that the reason why the outsiders are needed in community development can be described in three points;
1) We (outsiders) come to a community because there are something that we know but they (community people) do not know. So, we can contribute something new (information, knowledge, etc.).
2) We come to a community because there are something that we do not know but they know. We can learn from the community, and maybe we together with community people exchange and combine those knowledge, information, skills, and tradition to create new things.
3) There are something that either we (outsiders) and they (community) do not know. Among them, “hidden” or “covered” local resources in a community can become potentials for community development. Outsiders together with community people can explore and find out local resources. It was introduced that “Jimotogaku” is an interesting Japanese approach of finding out local resources through collaboration of local communities and outsiders.
Soft Systems Methodology (1)
On the third day of classroom session, the participants started to learn “Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)”. SSM is a methodology to find out ways of solving problems and making plans of action by involving all the stakeholders throughout the process. It gives importance on sharing each others’ views and reaching “accommodation” among all the actors involved. Accommodation (Otoshidokoro in Japanese) is a point that is created from and embracing all the worldviews of the stakeholders based on sharing tacit knowledge. After the process of reaching accommodation, all the actors involved start to participate actively in actions for solving common problems found.
As a first practice of this SSM, each participant was asked to draw a “Rich Picture” that describes what he/she thinks “community development” that he/she is engaged in. After drawing, each rich picture was presented, and active discussion followed. It was to share views and feelings among the participants about what situation they are working and how they think of local communities. It was also good practice to realize that everyone has different perspective on the same issue.
Skills for facilitator – interview and observation
In the next session, the major topic was “skills required to be a good facilitator”. As outsiders, it is important to find out FACTS in the field in order to facilitate community people’s initiative. So, what are the questions asking for FACTS? “What do you like to eat in breakfast?”, “What do you usually eat in breakfast?”, and “What did you eat for breakfast in this morning?” Among those three questions, what is the exact question to ask FACT? Yes, it is only “What did you eat?” that asks FACT. The first question asks about feeling or emotion, and the second question asks only a perception or thought of the person asked. The training facilitator showed an example of interview exploring facts, and the participants realized that in order to find out facts, they should use only “what” “who” “when” and “where”, and they should not use “why” and “how”. If you ask “why”, then, the person asked start to think the reason, and the answer is only his/her perception. And if you ask “how”, there is also possibility that the person asked will think the process and answer only perceptions. If you need to know the process, you can simply keep asking “when” “where” “who” and “what”.
In an interview, it is also important to try to increase the self-esteem of the interviewees, so that he/she feels easy to remember and talk, and then, if he/she gets proud of himself/herself, it becomes easier to facilitate his/her initiatives.
Apart from interview skills, it is also important for facilitators to practice observation. By observing in the field, we can acquire many kinds of information such as geographical, topographical, demographical, economic, social, agricultural, cultural, and other features of the community. And based on such observation, we will be able to construct hypothesis on the reality of the field that can become one of core ideas for community facilitation.
In the training course, the participants were asked to go outside the training center. In two groups, they walked around Hatagaya and Yoyogi-uehara area for one and half hour. After coming back to the center, they tried to construct hypothesis based on what they observed at Hatagaya and Yoyogi-uehara.
This observation and hypothesis making has become good practice for the participants before going out for field work. After this practice, the training place moved to a rural city, Toyooka in Hyogo prefecture, around four hours ride in train from Tokyo.
Field work in Toyo-oka
The training participants left Tokyo to visit Toyo-oka city in Hyogo prefecture on 15th September 2008 by the Shinkansen Super Express Train. After two hours in Shinkansen, they changed at Kyoto station and took an ordinary express train for another two hours. The Toyo-oka field trip was planned to have joint session with participants of JICA Osaka training course “Participatory Community Development”. Therefore, altogether 16 participants from 11 countries with 10 Japanese facilitators, coordinators, and secretariat members gathered and visited the city of Oriental White Stork “Konotori”.
After having introductory session in a meeting room at Toyo-oka, the fieldwork team met Ms. Y. Mikasa, an official of Toyo-oka city government who is a head for environmental policy section of Konotori Co-existence Division in the city office. In the morning of September 16, she took the team members to a brief tour of Toyo-oka city to show geographical and historical features of the area. In fact, Toyo-oka city occupies around 70,000 hectare with its variety of natural landscapes such as “Kannabe Highland”, “Maruyama River”, “Toyo-oka Basin”, “Takeno Seashore”, “Kinosaki Hot spring”, and “Izushi old castle town”. There are many tourist spots that attract more than 5 million visitors in a year. However, it is not such natural or historical features that makes Toyo-oka known as one of unique cities throughout Japan. The city’s policy and activities of “Living with Oriental White Stork (Konotori)” are the major topic that the field work team from JICA Tokyo and Osaka intended to learn.
The details of the city’s policy and strategy are introduced in the previous edition of this newsletter (“Living with the Oriental White Stork”, page 2 – 7, Community Facilitation & Mediation Vol.6, October 2008). The fieldwork team received lecture presentations on the city’s general policy and various activities to reintroduce Konotori into the wild. Ms. Mikasa also explained the city’s strategy on “co-existence of environmental conservation and economic growth” that makes the city really unique. Besides, a special measure to promote “Konotori Friendly Agriculture” (no-pesticide organic cultivation) was also explained. Two farmers who actively took part in implementing the Konotori Friendly Agriculture method were invited to the session, and the fieldwork team members had an opportunity to interview with those stakeholders. How the new agriculture measure was introduced and what were the process that the farmers took initiatives to apply the new farming method were explained and shared.
Activities of reintroduction of Konotori into wild are supported not only by farmers but other citizens are also actively involved in some of the nature conservation projects. The fieldwork team visited “Toshima Wetland” where a citizens’ group (NPO) cooperate with the city government to rehabilitate the wetland for creating appropriate habitat for Konotori. The members of NPO “Shicchi (wetland) net” shared their views and activities with the fieldwork team.
On the last day at Toyo-oka, the team members were asked by the facilitator, Mr. T. Nakata, the main facilitator of the JICA Osaka course to reflect what they found and thought during the two days. The followings are some of their findings;
Konotori: used as a symbol of unity, and promotion of tourism
NPOs: organizing the citizens to encourage environment conservation
Farmers: initiative to introduce organic farming
City government: having good relations and interactions with the citizens
The city: “shutter street” [shopping street but many shops closed], the streets of Toyo-oka is very silent after about 8 pm, and many old people are working in agriculture
What they said: “My starting point to get involved in activities at NPO was the kitchen at home－thinking about eco-friendly life style” “What we need to bring back is the mind that people used to have when they live with the nature” “We have to live with natural disaster”
The second fieldwork: Kikuchi
The second fieldwork was started on 21st September after one day review session at TIC. Before the second visit, the participants received brief lecture on “Jimotogaku” concept as there will be practical sessions on Jimotogaku at Kikuchi, the second fieldwork.
The participants took airplane from Haneda airport (Tokyo) to Kumamoto airport in Kyushu Island (eastern part of Japan). From the airport, they took bus to Kikuchi city where a local NPO “Kikuchi Suigen Mura” has its activities and where a community-based green tourism facility “Furusato Suigen Koryu-kan” is located. Kikuchi city, Kumamoto prefecture, is located at western foot of Aso mountain. Suigen literally means “water (river) source” in Japanese, and the area is surrounded by beautiful mountains with full of forest, and it is really a place where rivers originate.
(The details of background and activities of Kikuchi Suigen Mura was introduced in the previous newsletter Community Facilitation & Mediation, vol. 6, page ///////)
The first day in Kikuchi started with lectures presented by core members of Suigen community. They explained how the community members took initiatives to utilize a closed junior high school for community development activities. After four years of their efforts, “Kikuchi Homeland Suigen Koryu-kan” was established as a base facility for green tourism, and the community members formed a NPO (Non Profit Organization) named “Kirari Suigen-Mura” to promote and manage green tourism activities based on Suigen Koryu-kan. In the lectures, the community members expressed their deep concern on community development through green tourism, and the NPO members explained various activities that utilize rich local resources that have been existing for many years in the area.
After the lectures and brief sight observation, on the next day, the participants were asked to walk around Kikuchi area doing “Arumono-sagashi” (searching for and finding out what we have) as one of Jimotogaku practices. The team was divided into two groups, and each group walked around, visiting farm fields, local houses, forests, rivers, small trails, shrine, temple, etc. guided by local community members.
Then, after a half-day walking of Arumono-sagashi, each group started making “resource map” of the area based on what they found at the field.
After presentation of the results and discussion, a welcome / farewell party was held. The community members prepared local food prepared in local recipe using local materials, and all the participants enjoyed dinner. Two of them (from Dominican Republic) showed their original dance, and Kikuchi community members (women) joined with them.
In the reflection session, one of participants from Brazil expressed very impressive comment saying that “I realized that we should not search for new things, but we need to watch the existing things in different perspectives to find out our own resources.”
Soft Systems Methodology (2)
After finishing two field visits (Toyo-oka and Kikuchi), the second session on “Soft Systems Methodology” was held by Mr. N. Hazeyama. He introduced “Root Definition”, and explained how it is important to reach accommodation in search for root definition among various stakeholders. A root definition is an expression of the results of accommodating different worldviews of those who participate in development process. The participants are asked to find out a root definition on “what is to manage community development”. Honne (true sound of heart) discussion was recommended. Without knowing others’ Honne, it will be difficult to accommodate different world views, and find out Otoshi-dokoro.
The participants were divided into two groups, discussed among them, and reached the following root definitions.
1. Group name: Yoriyoi-Kurashi
Group members: Anete, Esin, John, Manuel, Phub, Zaha
“What is to manage community development?”
Root definition: “A system to do X by mean(s) of doing Y in order to achieve Z”
X: to struggle for changes in the community
Y: by means of understanding, motivating and organizing the community people, local government, NPOs and businesses
Z: for promotion of a better life in the community
2. Group name: Iriai group
Group members: Carlos, Fuga, Kedu, Laila, Rafa
“What is to manage community development”
Root definition: “A system to do X by mean(s) of doing Y in order to achieve Z”
X: Promoting actions which enable community individuals to acknowledge their own qualities, resources and potential in identifying and addressing local issues
Y: Cooperation of outsiders and locals through combination of specific knowledge and experience by means of rich picture, arumono-sagashi and community discussion in pursuit of accommodation
Z: In order to improve and maintain living conditions
After that, Mr. Hazeyama explained about CATWOE analysis which is a tool to reconfirm the accommodation through considering each element (customers, actors, transformation process, worldview, owners, and environmental constraints).
Lastly, based on the root definition, Mr. Hazeyama introduced “comparison table” that enable the participants to think about actual actions that can be concluded through comparison between subjective world of accommodated root definition and real world.
After preparation and presentation of comparison table, the participants were then asked to draw a “Rich Picture” on community development. It was an interesting exercise to do because we can see the difference between what he/she drew at the beginning stage of the training and at the last one. Obviously, most of the participants show significant change in his/her understanding on community development.
Action Plan preparation and presentation
At the final stage of the training in Japan, the course facilitator asked the participants to review and reflect what they found out throughout the course. In order to make action plan, it is necessary to be based on what they found or learned in the course, and furthermore, the learning should be based on the facts that they encountered. Then, based on what they found, the participants prepared their Action Plan consisting of the items of “Target”, “Actions necessary”, “Time”, “Place”, and “Involving persons”. Some of the target actions are shown below;
“to SHARE my learning & finding in Japan with my group and would like to CHANGE their way of thinking / perspective”
“To implement education or awareness raising on agriculture in community schools through people’s participation”
“Formation of village plan back stopped and improved using Jimotogaku and soft systems methodology”
“Soft Approach workshops to involve NGO, communities, local government, and tourism corporation, and field practices using JIMOTOGAKU and Arumono-Sagashi in the field of eco-tourism promotion”
“To fight poverty and social exclusion is not to transform people and communities into passive and permanent beneficiaries of assistance. Instead, it is a process of strengthening the capabilities of people and communities to satisfy need, resolve problems, and improve quality of life.”
Evaluation
After presentation of each action plan, course evaluation was held before closing ceremony. The participants gave comments and suggestions on the contents, methods, and management of the course. The followings are some of impressive comments made by the participants.
I could witness initiatives of local communities in Japan. As a result, I become aware of knowledge, resources, and values that our local communities have on their own. (Mr. Juan Carlos from Dominican Republic)
I thought Japan is a developed country in terms of technology. However, here, I found initiatives of local communities to utilize local resources. People has power to change. (Mr. Erasto Mfugale from Tanzania)
The methods of workshop was very nice. We were able to think, discuss, and find out by ourselves step by step through workshop and field visit. (Ms. Esin Ozdemir from Turkey)
In the first session, I was asked to think about “what is community”, and found out that I am engaged in community activities although I mainly work for environmental education. I need to know more about community programs in Kikuchi. (Ms. Fahmi Norlaila from Malaysia)
I found importance of looking into community, rather than focusing on individuals. The process of course management and facilitation is also interesting for me. (Ms. Anete Rodorigues Capelli from Brazil)
“Promotion of enabling environment for civil society and community development” is a training course organized by JICA Tokyo and implemented by Shapla Neer with cooperation of i-i-network. The course in Japan was held from September 7 to October 2, 2008. Overall Goal of the course is that the participants will improve community development activities/projects/programs in organizations or communities the participants belong to. And the objectives are settled as described below;
(1) The participant(s) will be able to draft one of the three models or strategies mentioned below appropriate for their assignment.
a) A model method or strategy of community development concerning the respective local context is formulated.
b) A model method or strategy of participatory planning for community development is formulated.
c)A model of creating enabling environment for participatory community development is drafted.
(2) Based on the above mentioned outputs, an Action Plan for a pilot activity of community development is formulated.
(3) A final report after returning home country is formulated, or a proposal of mini project concerning to community development is formulated.
Eleven (11) participants (male 8, female 3) came from seven countries (Bhutan, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, and Turkey), 5 of them are from NGOs, and the rest belongs to government institutions.
The course in Japan consists of workshops and discussions in the classroom, field visit to two Japanese rural areas (Toyooka and Kikuchi), and action plan preparation and presentation.
Principle of the course
At the first session of the course in TIC (Tokyo International Center), the participants were asked to fill the blanks of the sentence with appropriate words;
If I hear it, I will it. If I see it, I will it. If I do it, I will it.
And, If I it, I will practice it.
The participants proposed various words that can fit the sentences, and finally agreed that in the training course, they have to find out something by themselves rather than just waiting for being taught by others, so that they will be able to utilize what they found and realized in Japan when they will be back to their home.
What is community?
The first day of the class room session started with discussion on “what is community?”. The participants were divided into three groups, and asked to list up what the community people do collectively. The followings are the examples of what they listed up as collective actions of community people.
CULTURE
Wedding ceremony / Big festival / play music / Christmas celebration / Holly weeks / singsong and dances by children /Sunday-Sunday –cookout between families in a street / Arts development / Organization of trips to different sites
ENVIRONMENT
a cleaning campaign day (health conscious) / Garbage and waste management / Drink water management / Vaccination / Forest & mangrove preservation / Cleaning up the streets
SOCIAL
Fight against drug abuse /Non-formal education / Drug problems solution / Father and mother societies / management of schools / Sports / Against adolescents pregnancy / Celebration of Independence day / Construction of houses / Gotong-Royong / Primary school assistance / Support of vulnerable children
ECONOMY
For agriculture production / Handicrafts / Selling food items / Waste-picker association / Exhibitions / Landless workers movement
COMMUNITY SECURITY
Neighborhood watch / Defense and security issues
ADVOCACY / POLITICAL
Promotion and advocacy of HIV/AIDS program / Community/Village meeting planning and problem solving / Parent-teacher meeting / Anti-terror demonstrations / Demonstrations for animal rights
After that, a resource person of the session explained three functions of local communities in Japan; Common property management, mutual help for production and reproduction, and source of identity. It was also stated that there is a traditional decision making system in Japan such as “Yoriai” where community people gather, exchange experiences and thoughts, and finally decide unanimously.
Then, the participants were asked to think about the changes of local community. The followings are what they found disappeared and emerged in recent 30 years.
DISAPPEARED in 30 years
・Trading and exchange of gods between inland people and coastal people (barter system).
・Lower law and order problems.
・No laws that protect rights of children, women culture.
・VIPs were the priests, judges, bank manager and land owners.
・More canoe making (due to no road, infrastructure).
・Good public schools (for a minority).
・Election through ordinary box.
・Traditional method.
・Bringing water from fountain/river.
(・Giving birth to babies by a local person.)
・When someone died the neighbors took control of funerals.
・Really close community relationship (help without asking to be repay) [now, everything has the price].
・Respect for community rules [now, everything being compare to law].
・Involvement of all.
・Community collective child management (behavior shaping).
・Group house to house visit.
・Baking bread (women gather at a certain house, at certain times).
・20 years ago, I play at to TIJUCA forest, but my children can’t.
・More respect for private property.
・Cooperative sense to help each other.
・Children used to be protected for someone in the community.
・When someone died, everybody stay awake all night long.
・20 years ago, I swim in FLAMINGO Beach, but now is impossible.
・Lots of undisturbed resources such as river, forest, canal [now, some of the resources has been lost due to lack awareness development].
・Religious value in family group.
・Peaceful in community and neighborhood.
・Gender respect [regarding to women condition].
・Cheaper prices for store goods and other basic services as health, education and low tax.
・Helping to make activities together by the community.
・Patriotic events were important display of local balance of power.
・City agricultural fair for local production.
・After give birth woman take 41 days in risk.
・Head of block.
EMERGED in 30 years
・Funeral rooms.
・Scheduled activities.
・Neighborhood association.
・Registered association.
・Larger participants.
・Community hall.
・Infrastructure –high rise buildings, diverse roads.
・CGI sheet roofing.
・Electricity.
・Documented evidence.
・Farm roads.
・Local hospitals/clinics are more common.
・Less canoe making due to road infrastructure.
・Good facilities to do community program.
・Basic health units.
・My family come from a small village to PANTANAL where didn’t have health assistance, but I have.
・My mother didn't have opportunity to study, but I have.
・Tap water.
・Democracy.
・Bakeries where you buy your bread.
・Better financial support.
・Patriotic events are empty and unimportant.
・Better knowledge of technology.
・City fair for the products of big business and tourism.
・Linux.
・Internet.
・Low cooperation for common problems.
・Un-safety environment.
・Un-respectful for human being.
・Increased prevalence HIV worldwide.
・VIPs remain the judges, land owners –industrialists and business owners, college professors.
・Young people can not respect elderly.
・Bad public schools, good private schools (for minority).
・No combined activities by the community.
・Low faithful.
・More social problems due to road.
As a conclusion, the participants understood that the power of modernization that consists of formation of nation state and introduction of market economy has inevitably change the roles and functions of local communities. Common property resources previously local communities had managed were demolished and became public or private properties. Many kinds of mutual helping activities have been outmoded as people become busy for earning money, and it become the government’s responsibility to provide various services. And as a results of such rapid change, the people are losing their pride of being a member of local communities. However, it is also obvious that public sector and private sector can not fulfill all the necessity of everyday life of the people, thus we need something like local community where people gather and work together.
Roles of outsiders
So, if we need something like local community, then, what are the roles of outsiders such as NGOs and government officers who come to a community to implement some activities? In order to think about this question, the participants discussed on “what are the things community people know / do not know, and what are the things we know / do not know”. Based on the discussion, they found out that the reason why the outsiders are needed in community development can be described in three points;
1) We (outsiders) come to a community because there are something that we know but they (community people) do not know. So, we can contribute something new (information, knowledge, etc.).
2) We come to a community because there are something that we do not know but they know. We can learn from the community, and maybe we together with community people exchange and combine those knowledge, information, skills, and tradition to create new things.
3) There are something that either we (outsiders) and they (community) do not know. Among them, “hidden” or “covered” local resources in a community can become potentials for community development. Outsiders together with community people can explore and find out local resources. It was introduced that “Jimotogaku” is an interesting Japanese approach of finding out local resources through collaboration of local communities and outsiders.
Soft Systems Methodology (1)
On the third day of classroom session, the participants started to learn “Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)”. SSM is a methodology to find out ways of solving problems and making plans of action by involving all the stakeholders throughout the process. It gives importance on sharing each others’ views and reaching “accommodation” among all the actors involved. Accommodation (Otoshidokoro in Japanese) is a point that is created from and embracing all the worldviews of the stakeholders based on sharing tacit knowledge. After the process of reaching accommodation, all the actors involved start to participate actively in actions for solving common problems found.
As a first practice of this SSM, each participant was asked to draw a “Rich Picture” that describes what he/she thinks “community development” that he/she is engaged in. After drawing, each rich picture was presented, and active discussion followed. It was to share views and feelings among the participants about what situation they are working and how they think of local communities. It was also good practice to realize that everyone has different perspective on the same issue.
Skills for facilitator – interview and observation
In the next session, the major topic was “skills required to be a good facilitator”. As outsiders, it is important to find out FACTS in the field in order to facilitate community people’s initiative. So, what are the questions asking for FACTS? “What do you like to eat in breakfast?”, “What do you usually eat in breakfast?”, and “What did you eat for breakfast in this morning?” Among those three questions, what is the exact question to ask FACT? Yes, it is only “What did you eat?” that asks FACT. The first question asks about feeling or emotion, and the second question asks only a perception or thought of the person asked. The training facilitator showed an example of interview exploring facts, and the participants realized that in order to find out facts, they should use only “what” “who” “when” and “where”, and they should not use “why” and “how”. If you ask “why”, then, the person asked start to think the reason, and the answer is only his/her perception. And if you ask “how”, there is also possibility that the person asked will think the process and answer only perceptions. If you need to know the process, you can simply keep asking “when” “where” “who” and “what”.
In an interview, it is also important to try to increase the self-esteem of the interviewees, so that he/she feels easy to remember and talk, and then, if he/she gets proud of himself/herself, it becomes easier to facilitate his/her initiatives.
Apart from interview skills, it is also important for facilitators to practice observation. By observing in the field, we can acquire many kinds of information such as geographical, topographical, demographical, economic, social, agricultural, cultural, and other features of the community. And based on such observation, we will be able to construct hypothesis on the reality of the field that can become one of core ideas for community facilitation.
In the training course, the participants were asked to go outside the training center. In two groups, they walked around Hatagaya and Yoyogi-uehara area for one and half hour. After coming back to the center, they tried to construct hypothesis based on what they observed at Hatagaya and Yoyogi-uehara.
This observation and hypothesis making has become good practice for the participants before going out for field work. After this practice, the training place moved to a rural city, Toyooka in Hyogo prefecture, around four hours ride in train from Tokyo.
Field work in Toyo-oka
The training participants left Tokyo to visit Toyo-oka city in Hyogo prefecture on 15th September 2008 by the Shinkansen Super Express Train. After two hours in Shinkansen, they changed at Kyoto station and took an ordinary express train for another two hours. The Toyo-oka field trip was planned to have joint session with participants of JICA Osaka training course “Participatory Community Development”. Therefore, altogether 16 participants from 11 countries with 10 Japanese facilitators, coordinators, and secretariat members gathered and visited the city of Oriental White Stork “Konotori”.
After having introductory session in a meeting room at Toyo-oka, the fieldwork team met Ms. Y. Mikasa, an official of Toyo-oka city government who is a head for environmental policy section of Konotori Co-existence Division in the city office. In the morning of September 16, she took the team members to a brief tour of Toyo-oka city to show geographical and historical features of the area. In fact, Toyo-oka city occupies around 70,000 hectare with its variety of natural landscapes such as “Kannabe Highland”, “Maruyama River”, “Toyo-oka Basin”, “Takeno Seashore”, “Kinosaki Hot spring”, and “Izushi old castle town”. There are many tourist spots that attract more than 5 million visitors in a year. However, it is not such natural or historical features that makes Toyo-oka known as one of unique cities throughout Japan. The city’s policy and activities of “Living with Oriental White Stork (Konotori)” are the major topic that the field work team from JICA Tokyo and Osaka intended to learn.
The details of the city’s policy and strategy are introduced in the previous edition of this newsletter (“Living with the Oriental White Stork”, page 2 – 7, Community Facilitation & Mediation Vol.6, October 2008). The fieldwork team received lecture presentations on the city’s general policy and various activities to reintroduce Konotori into the wild. Ms. Mikasa also explained the city’s strategy on “co-existence of environmental conservation and economic growth” that makes the city really unique. Besides, a special measure to promote “Konotori Friendly Agriculture” (no-pesticide organic cultivation) was also explained. Two farmers who actively took part in implementing the Konotori Friendly Agriculture method were invited to the session, and the fieldwork team members had an opportunity to interview with those stakeholders. How the new agriculture measure was introduced and what were the process that the farmers took initiatives to apply the new farming method were explained and shared.
Activities of reintroduction of Konotori into wild are supported not only by farmers but other citizens are also actively involved in some of the nature conservation projects. The fieldwork team visited “Toshima Wetland” where a citizens’ group (NPO) cooperate with the city government to rehabilitate the wetland for creating appropriate habitat for Konotori. The members of NPO “Shicchi (wetland) net” shared their views and activities with the fieldwork team.
On the last day at Toyo-oka, the team members were asked by the facilitator, Mr. T. Nakata, the main facilitator of the JICA Osaka course to reflect what they found and thought during the two days. The followings are some of their findings;
Konotori: used as a symbol of unity, and promotion of tourism
NPOs: organizing the citizens to encourage environment conservation
Farmers: initiative to introduce organic farming
City government: having good relations and interactions with the citizens
The city: “shutter street” [shopping street but many shops closed], the streets of Toyo-oka is very silent after about 8 pm, and many old people are working in agriculture
What they said: “My starting point to get involved in activities at NPO was the kitchen at home－thinking about eco-friendly life style” “What we need to bring back is the mind that people used to have when they live with the nature” “We have to live with natural disaster”
The second fieldwork: Kikuchi
The second fieldwork was started on 21st September after one day review session at TIC. Before the second visit, the participants received brief lecture on “Jimotogaku” concept as there will be practical sessions on Jimotogaku at Kikuchi, the second fieldwork.
The participants took airplane from Haneda airport (Tokyo) to Kumamoto airport in Kyushu Island (eastern part of Japan). From the airport, they took bus to Kikuchi city where a local NPO “Kikuchi Suigen Mura” has its activities and where a community-based green tourism facility “Furusato Suigen Koryu-kan” is located. Kikuchi city, Kumamoto prefecture, is located at western foot of Aso mountain. Suigen literally means “water (river) source” in Japanese, and the area is surrounded by beautiful mountains with full of forest, and it is really a place where rivers originate.
(The details of background and activities of Kikuchi Suigen Mura was introduced in the previous newsletter Community Facilitation & Mediation, vol. 6, page ///////)
The first day in Kikuchi started with lectures presented by core members of Suigen community. They explained how the community members took initiatives to utilize a closed junior high school for community development activities. After four years of their efforts, “Kikuchi Homeland Suigen Koryu-kan” was established as a base facility for green tourism, and the community members formed a NPO (Non Profit Organization) named “Kirari Suigen-Mura” to promote and manage green tourism activities based on Suigen Koryu-kan. In the lectures, the community members expressed their deep concern on community development through green tourism, and the NPO members explained various activities that utilize rich local resources that have been existing for many years in the area.
After the lectures and brief sight observation, on the next day, the participants were asked to walk around Kikuchi area doing “Arumono-sagashi” (searching for and finding out what we have) as one of Jimotogaku practices. The team was divided into two groups, and each group walked around, visiting farm fields, local houses, forests, rivers, small trails, shrine, temple, etc. guided by local community members.
Then, after a half-day walking of Arumono-sagashi, each group started making “resource map” of the area based on what they found at the field.
After presentation of the results and discussion, a welcome / farewell party was held. The community members prepared local food prepared in local recipe using local materials, and all the participants enjoyed dinner. Two of them (from Dominican Republic) showed their original dance, and Kikuchi community members (women) joined with them.
In the reflection session, one of participants from Brazil expressed very impressive comment saying that “I realized that we should not search for new things, but we need to watch the existing things in different perspectives to find out our own resources.”
Soft Systems Methodology (2)
After finishing two field visits (Toyo-oka and Kikuchi), the second session on “Soft Systems Methodology” was held by Mr. N. Hazeyama. He introduced “Root Definition”, and explained how it is important to reach accommodation in search for root definition among various stakeholders. A root definition is an expression of the results of accommodating different worldviews of those who participate in development process. The participants are asked to find out a root definition on “what is to manage community development”. Honne (true sound of heart) discussion was recommended. Without knowing others’ Honne, it will be difficult to accommodate different world views, and find out Otoshi-dokoro.
The participants were divided into two groups, discussed among them, and reached the following root definitions.
1. Group name: Yoriyoi-Kurashi
Group members: Anete, Esin, John, Manuel, Phub, Zaha
“What is to manage community development?”
Root definition: “A system to do X by mean(s) of doing Y in order to achieve Z”
X: to struggle for changes in the community
Y: by means of understanding, motivating and organizing the community people, local government, NPOs and businesses
Z: for promotion of a better life in the community
2. Group name: Iriai group
Group members: Carlos, Fuga, Kedu, Laila, Rafa
“What is to manage community development”
Root definition: “A system to do X by mean(s) of doing Y in order to achieve Z”
X: Promoting actions which enable community individuals to acknowledge their own qualities, resources and potential in identifying and addressing local issues
Y: Cooperation of outsiders and locals through combination of specific knowledge and experience by means of rich picture, arumono-sagashi and community discussion in pursuit of accommodation
Z: In order to improve and maintain living conditions
After that, Mr. Hazeyama explained about CATWOE analysis which is a tool to reconfirm the accommodation through considering each element (customers, actors, transformation process, worldview, owners, and environmental constraints).
Lastly, based on the root definition, Mr. Hazeyama introduced “comparison table” that enable the participants to think about actual actions that can be concluded through comparison between subjective world of accommodated root definition and real world.
After preparation and presentation of comparison table, the participants were then asked to draw a “Rich Picture” on community development. It was an interesting exercise to do because we can see the difference between what he/she drew at the beginning stage of the training and at the last one. Obviously, most of the participants show significant change in his/her understanding on community development.
Action Plan preparation and presentation
At the final stage of the training in Japan, the course facilitator asked the participants to review and reflect what they found out throughout the course. In order to make action plan, it is necessary to be based on what they found or learned in the course, and furthermore, the learning should be based on the facts that they encountered. Then, based on what they found, the participants prepared their Action Plan consisting of the items of “Target”, “Actions necessary”, “Time”, “Place”, and “Involving persons”. Some of the target actions are shown below;
“to SHARE my learning & finding in Japan with my group and would like to CHANGE their way of thinking / perspective”
“To implement education or awareness raising on agriculture in community schools through people’s participation”
“Formation of village plan back stopped and improved using Jimotogaku and soft systems methodology”
“Soft Approach workshops to involve NGO, communities, local government, and tourism corporation, and field practices using JIMOTOGAKU and Arumono-Sagashi in the field of eco-tourism promotion”
“To fight poverty and social exclusion is not to transform people and communities into passive and permanent beneficiaries of assistance. Instead, it is a process of strengthening the capabilities of people and communities to satisfy need, resolve problems, and improve quality of life.”
Evaluation
After presentation of each action plan, course evaluation was held before closing ceremony. The participants gave comments and suggestions on the contents, methods, and management of the course. The followings are some of impressive comments made by the participants.
I could witness initiatives of local communities in Japan. As a result, I become aware of knowledge, resources, and values that our local communities have on their own. (Mr. Juan Carlos from Dominican Republic)
I thought Japan is a developed country in terms of technology. However, here, I found initiatives of local communities to utilize local resources. People has power to change. (Mr. Erasto Mfugale from Tanzania)
The methods of workshop was very nice. We were able to think, discuss, and find out by ourselves step by step through workshop and field visit. (Ms. Esin Ozdemir from Turkey)
In the first session, I was asked to think about “what is community”, and found out that I am engaged in community activities although I mainly work for environmental education. I need to know more about community programs in Kikuchi. (Ms. Fahmi Norlaila from Malaysia)
I found importance of looking into community, rather than focusing on individuals. The process of course management and facilitation is also interesting for me. (Ms. Anete Rodorigues Capelli from Brazil)
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