Wanted: Brave people. Contemporary Palaver Supports Local Self-Government
Wanted: Brave people. Contemporary Palaver Supports Local Self-Government
Imagine well-informed people, who know how to present their ideas and opinions to others, who actually listen to each other, who balance all their interests and visions and make decisions together. Nobody wins the-winner-takes-all prize, and, meanwhile, everyone is reaching a compromise. Authorities who sponsor 'open day' activities explain how they govern their jurisdictions. For us in the West, this all doesn't sound so incredible - even though many things still go wrong here as well -but in many parts of the world, this is only a very distant ideal.
When she was dreaming her dreams of a transparent and democratic society, Awimbo deliberately referred back to the ancient African consultation model of the palaver, which is a kind of meeting that often takes place outdoors, in the shade of a tall tree like the baobab, where people keep on talking as long as necessary until everyone comes to an agreement. The palaver is not hindered by agendas and schedules. The palaver is a typical African method and reflects the African rhythm of life.
The palaver has not disappeared; it is still very alive in rural areas, although the related notion of self-governance has faded into the background. Since the colonial powers began their domination of Africa, the traditional chiefs - as the major consultants - came under government control long ago. Awimbo considers the palaver to be an expression of self-governance. "In a certain sense, I want to recuperate this traditional way of making decisions, with people governing themselves. It's a system that is quite understandable. The elders determined when the seeds were to be planted, and when it was time to harvest the crops, how the harvest was to be divided, and what part of the harvest was for the poor. But the world has changed. I also want women and young people to be given a place." She laughs: "We no longer want a group of old men making all the decisions."
However, this form of local government takes courage, as Awimbo notes: "The courage to stop complaining, to take your life into your own hands, and to actively contribute to the development of your own neighbourhood, community and country." Awimbo, who lives in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, supports organisations in Eastern Africa that play a role in local palaver activities. The "Capacity for courage" is what she calls it, the ability to be brave. "I want to strengthen that capacity. This requires people being informed and feeling responsible for making decisions on how they want to live and where." Awimbo is convinced that people want this and, "because they don't lend themselves to pre-programming," the results are impossible to predict.
"We are not as brave as we should be," Awimbo observes. When she says 'we', she means: 'we, Africans'. Too many people prefer hiding behind others because then they don't have to take action themselves. "If you speak with them, they say: 'we don't know because no one tells us'." She also blames those in power, who are interested in keeping others poorly informed. This turns the search for truth into an almost impossible task. "It has everything to do with power and control." Most African politicians and traditional local chiefs don't like sharing information. Officials at the district and central government levels are unwilling (or barely able) to provide information that would enable people to make informed decisions about their own lives. She is not positive about the media either: "We have radio, television and newspapers, but journalists do not provide us with the information necessary to close the gaps in our knowledge." The result, Awimbo believes, is that many people have a distorted world view. "They think it is inevitable that some people dominate others. Or that change is simply impossible."
Acting Based on the Truth
As a result, the problems of our time will continue to fester. "Everyone knows by now that natural recourses are rare. But few people are willing to seek out alternatives. They're afraid that they'll have to change their lives. This also applies to climate change. People deny that it exists because they're afraid of the consequences of recognising this phenomenon. So we need people who are able to accept, and act from, the truth. That is what I mean with 'capacity for courage'. They - and in fact this goes for all of us -must learn to face the truth and act accordingly."
When people have access to better information and are better able to understand how they are being governed, they can respond creatively, suggesting their own ideas instead of simply waiting. "And we should have the courage and determination to demand the same of our brothers and sisters, children, neighbours, friends, and colleagues."
Awimbo's ideal is to have "open days" during which authorities from all levels of government explain what they do, the decisions they make and their performances, and also discuss this with their employers. Awimbo believes this does not necessarily entail, for example, the number of public toilets built, but should focus mainly on informing the citizenry. "In other words: What have the authorities, from a ministry or a municipal government office, done to increase the 'governance literacy' of its citizens?"
Breeding Grounds
Citizens also need to get to work. Awimbo encourages them to express their ideas about how society should be governed, and to test those ideas against the opinions of others. She calls it a breeding ground: where people have the necessary space to safely discuss their ideas. "If you have an idea about your town or your neighbourhood, you need to be able to figure out if it works. Whether it is a good or a bad idea and without automatically having to join a political party. People have to feel that, through negotiation and compromise, they can achieve maybe 70 instead of 100 percent of their wishes, but that, in this way, the other parties will also be satisfied."
Why not leave this task to the politicians? Isn't that why they were elected? Awimbo: "Many people don't understand that the government is there to implement the wishes of the people. They have no idea how they can exercise their influence. We must take responsibility for our own lives. But for the record: the breeding grounds are not there to replace politics, they are there to influence the decision-making processes."
Enhanced governance is not the ultimate goal; Awimbo wants to improve governance over all of the nation's natural resources. "It's our water, our air, our country - what we designate as cropland, what land we need to build houses and businesses, how extensive agricultural production should be. Those kinds of decisions."
Awimbo's ideas stem from her profession as an ecologist; she studies the relationship between plants, animals and humans in an effort to create ecological harmony. This is quite tricky because each of the elements gets in the way of the others. The solution is a compromise in which everyone gives in a little. "I am particularly interested in how ecology affects people's lives."
Awimbo works together with local community organisations to carefully examine how to preserve special natural habitats, without it having an adverse effect on the people who depend on these areas for their livelihood. In other words, with and by these people. "In Africa, nature preserves are often precisely where people live. The worst thing that can happen - and which often indeed does happen! - is that decisions concerning the protection of ecologically important sites are made at the national government level, and thus excludes the people most affected by the decisions. The question thus becomes: for whose benefit are you protecting these areas? The interests of nature obviously do not always coincide with those of the people. So a balance between the two must be found and compromises must be made. A forest where a community harvests honey is essential for the people who live there: it is their traditional way of life. They sell their honey in neighbouring communities. If the forest becomes a totally protected preserve, the local residents can no longer use it to cultivate their honey and they would be prohibited from chopping down trees to create areas for their beehives. Maybe others can do this, but by rigorously protecting the forest from everyone, you also prevent the people who have a vested interest in actually protecting it from having access to it."
'Nairobi Used to Decide Everything'
Top-down decision-making is the normal practice in much of Africa. But Awimbo has observed some changes. Kenya's government is located in Nairobi, the capital, but it is in the process of transferring more and more power to the provinces. "Nairobi used to decide everything. Even the notion of 'local' used to be defined at the central government level. That does not work in a large and diverse country like Kenya. You cannot govern a big city in the same way you do an agrarian community. One perfect solution for all of the different regions is not feasible."
The Kenyan government has established numerous Community Forests Associations together with the local communities in Kenya's swampy coastal region. They give the local people the power to manage and protect their own mangrove forests. They can also analyse whether protection of the natural habitat is possible without adversely affecting local fishing. "This is what we are negotiating now. Twenty years ago, this would have been impossible in Kenya. But after much pressure from the people, it now works. Those in power have always considered the Kenyan people as a source of cheap labour, but never as a part of the decision-making process. That is changing now. That gives me much hope."
What also makes her hopeful is how the mass media in her country are changing. "Fifty years ago, the media were totally controlled by the government and wealthy businessmen. Now anyone can voice his or her opinion. So change is possible."
Experiencing the beauty of a forest while having dinner Janet Awimbo (1964) has been protecting nature and involving people in this effort for over twenty years. She focuses on educating and training people (capacity building), so that they can better employ their talents and skills to take their lives into their own hands. She also teaches (local) governments how to negotiate with each other and how to reach compromises. She also works on social and environmental justice, including through the Global Greengrants Fund, which she coordinates in Eastern Africa. This fund provides small grants to local groups. "For example, we have given money to a group of people who are protecting a mangrove forest near the coast. They started a restaurant with this money. That attracts people who can experience the value and beauty of the forest." Awimbo has previously worked for organisations such as the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Impact Alliance, Pact Kenya and the NGO Resource Centre (Zanzibar). She is now a senior consultant with Casework Equatorial, helping individuals and organisations in coastal Kenya become agents of positive change. |
Read more about this subject
-
News / 10 January 2023
In Memoriam: Irene Dankelman
With pain in our hearts we say farewell to Irene Dankelman. She was pioneer in the field of gender and environment and one of the founders of Both ENDS.
-
Video / 31 December 2022
Let's work together towards a green, just and healthy 2023!
At Both ENDS, we were happy to finally be able to meet many of our partners again in 2022. Although digital meetings are here to stay, they will never beat a live encounter every once in a while where we get to know each other's contexts, learn from each other and motivate and inspire one another.
But be it live or online, together we will work towards a green, just and healthy 2023!
-
Letter / 15 December 2022
No export credit support for Santos FPSO
In October this year, the Dutch government published a policy to implement the COP26 statement in which it promised to stop public finance for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of 2022 . In spite of this pledge, the Netherlands is considering granting an export credit insurance to a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel that will be used to produce oil and fossil gas in Brazil for a period of 30 years.
-
Transformative Practice
Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)
About one in every six people, particularly women, directly rely on forests for their lives and livelihoods, especially for food. This shows how important non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and forests are to ensure community resilience. Not only as a source of food, water and income, but also because of their cultural and spiritual meaning.
-
Publication / 14 December 2022
-
News / 14 December 2022
Irene Dankelman, founder of Both ENDS becomes Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau
Last Saturday, 10 December, Both ENDS' founder, board member and advisor Irene Dankelman was awarded the title of Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for her work supporting marginalised groups around the world. Both ENDS is delighted that that Irene has been honoured for the work she has done to achieve a fair and sustainable world.
-
Press release / 5 December 2022
Groups react with dismay to FMO’s position statement on Financial Intermediaries, pointing to outstanding human rights and climate concerns
On October 13th 2022, FMO published the final version of its Position Statement on Impact and ESG for Financial Intermediaries (FI statement). As civil society groups which have engaged with FMO on this topic for more than four years, we are extremely disappointed with the result. In the statement, FMO does not show sufficient commitment to ensuring its investments into financial intermediaries – which represent the bank's largest investment sector* – do not violate human rights or contribute to environmental harms.
-
News / 1 December 2022
“Connecting people for change”: that is what Both ENDS did at the COP
After a busy week filled with side-events, meetings, negotiations and covid, our colleagues Daan and Niels are back in the office in Utrecht. Together, they look back to their expereiences and results during the climate conference COP27 in Egypt.
-
News / 24 November 2022
Women Barefoot Ecologists won a Gender Just Climate Solutions award at COP27
At this year's UN Climate Conference COP27, Bhavya George, Climate Change coordinator of our partner organisation Keystone Foundation won one of the Gender Just Climate Solutions awards. Her project "Women Barefoot Ecologists", which also is supported by the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), won in the category "Transformational Solutions".
-
Event / 14 November 2022, 18:30 - 20:00
Climate finance towards resilient and agroecological food systems
UNFCCC COP side event
Food systems account for 33% of GHG emissions, but receive only 3% of climate finance. Climate finance is urgently needed to fund the food systems solutions that can have real impacts and wide-ranging benefits in a diversity of contexts. How do we improve on current funding pathways?
Join this UNFCCC side event to find out more!
-
Event / 12 November 2022, 15:00 - 16:30
Local perspectives to make gender-just climate finance a reality
UNFCCC-COP side event
In this session hosted by NTFP-EP and the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), we will discuss the crucial steps to be taken to make gender-just climate finance a reality.
-
News / 10 November 2022
African women raise their voice ahead of COP27 and call for climate justice
In October 2022, 150 women from 14 African Countries gathered in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the first African Women's Climate Assembly. The aim of this Assembly was to strengthen and unify women-led struggles against dirty extractives and false solutions to the climate crisis in West and Central Africa, and propose the real development solutions that support women's interests in a good and decent life and livelihoods in a time of climate crisis.
-
Publication / 7 November 2022
-
Publication / 4 November 2022
-
Publication / 4 November 2022
-
Publication / 4 November 2022
-
News / 4 November 2022
Both ENDS to attend climate conference in Egypt
Climate action is urgently needed to slow down global warming. The effects of climate change are already showing themselves. Floods in Pakistan and closer to us, in the Netherlands, are causing loss of life and much emotional and economic damage, while local climate solutions are still largely being ignored. That's why Both ENDS is going to participate in COP27, the climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
-
Press release / 3 November 2022
The Netherlands breaks major climate promise to end public financing for international fossil fuel projects
Today, a week before the international climate summit in Egypt, the Dutch Government has broken a major climate promise it made last year to end public financing for international fossil fuel projects. International and Dutch NGOs argue that the new policy published by the Dutch Government on restricting finance for fossil fuels has such significant loopholes, that it essentially means The Netherlands has reneged on its promise.
-
Transformative Practice
Analog Forestry
Analog forestry is a transformative approach to the ecological restoration of degraded lands. Natural forests are used as guides to create ecologically sustainable landscapes, which support the social and economical needs of local communities.
-
News / 26 October 2022
Senegal: 26 innocent people including Both ENDS' partner arrested in Senegal
Update October 27th:
Today our friends have been released after five nights in detention. We welcome this great news and we are happy and relieved that Babacar Diouf and the others who were arrested will soon be back with their loved ones.
Nonetheless this was a very bad signal from Senegalese authorities and police and an indication of the growing restriction on civic space in Senegal. It is unacceptable that freedom of expression is restricted, people should not have to go to jail for peacefully expressing their opinion - especially when their livelihood is at stake.