SoC from Sri Lanka: A livelihood that empowers and sets us free (REN)

Title: A livelihood that empowers and sets us free

Storyteller: Dhanushi Kumari Menike
Location: Weragala, Payagala
Project: Kalutara Group Enterprise - Rural Enterprise Network (REN)
Collected by: Kumarage Sugath Daminda – REN Enterprise Development officer
Collected on: 25th May 2007


I am Dhanushi Kumari Menike. I live at School Road, Weragala, Payagala. I have served as the Manager of the Regional Institute of Agro Products since 8th March 2006, It is a group enterprise networked with the Rural Enterprise Network (REN).

Before I joined this organisation, I worked for a NGO as a monitoring and evaluation officer. I received a substantial wage but had no freedom or leisure. My family life and children began to suffer as a result. Eventually the pressure of these problems was so great that I had to leave that organization.

Soon after, I heard about a group enterprise which was set up recently (September 2005) in my village by an organization called the National Pre-school Development Foundation- Lighthouse Christian Centre for Child Sponsorship and Community Development Programme (funded by Christian Children’s Fund of Canada). The enterprise was run by a 7 member executive committee (all from within the village) and had started with producing Kitul treacle and jaggery and were now about to start production of dehydrated vegetables. I was also told that they were looking for a manager for this enterprise and that the working hours would be flexible. At the beginning I was a bit apprehensive as to whether I could handle the responsibilities as manager of such an enterprise as I had no knowledge about running such as business or what vegetable dehydration involved. The REN officers made the group members aware of the potential for dehydrated vegetables in export markets, provided us with a dryer and trained us on the technical knowledge required to operate it as well as how to maintain quality. The enterprise was to purchase Jak and bread fruit, dehydrate these and then sell the products to REN who was willing to take on the responsibility of selling these in export markets. REN also gave us a training on bookkeeping, and how to manage the business. I gained a lot of knowledge from the training and felt more confident about taking on the job of manager of the group enterprise.


Although the salary I receive is less than what I had got at my previous workplace, now I I am less stressed out so I have greater peace of mind. Because of the flexibility of working hours I am able to attend to the needs of my husband and children as well as contribute to the family income. Now the group has a membership (shareholders) of about 60 and 14 members are employed by the organization to carry out production of dehydrated products. Since all 14 employees are also women the flexibility in working hours is something that we all value.

Before vegetable dehydration was introduced to our village jak fruit and bread fruit use to go to waste as these had no commercial value. The introduction of vegetable dehydration in the village turned things around completely. Now villagers have realized the value of these fruits and what use to go to waste is being converted into a source of income. We can get about Rs. 340-350 /kg of dehydrated jak of bread fruit. Thus this group enterprise has not only benefited a few group members, but the entire village. I feel that this is truly an achievement.

The team spirit within the group is something which could improve. Sometimes disagreements cause rifts between members. These disagreements sometimes get extended and can affect their relationship as neighbours. The sense of ownership for the enterprise too needs to be further strengthened. The other problem is that sometimes members work at night, either because they have to meet a deadline for an export order or because they prefer to work nights because they attend to the needs of their families during the day. However their families tend to object to this. We have tried to minimize working at night but I think it is essential that we build up a good family support system. It is only then that we will be able to continue this enterprise successfully.

There are also some other problems we need to resolve if this enterprise is to be successful. We require advisory services on how to rectify the defects that occur sometimes in the dehydrating machine. We also need advice on how to manage the enterprise better. A system to ensure an adequate raw material supply is also required. In the past, unnecessary expenditure was incurred by the organisation. We have now managed to reduce this to a great extent. There are also quality problems with regard to jaggery. Not too long a go a large batch of jaggery was returned due to poor quality and fugus growth. We have got advice from REN on how to avoid such problems in the future. However it is still necessary to make the raw material providers aware of the importance of providing the right quality of Kitul treacle if we are to maintain the quality of our jaggery.. During the seasons we average a production of about 1500kg of dehydrated Jak fruit and bread fruit a month. It would be good if the price for dehydrated Jak fruit could be further increased as this would give us an impetus to increase production.


Working for this organization has not only given us the flexibility required to balance our roles as housewife, mother and supplementary income earner but also provided the opportunity and freedom to take part in making decisions regarding how to improve the enterprise in the future. We have control over our future. This is something that we don’t have the opportunity to do if we work for a big private organization. We also have the opportunity to improve our skills and abilities to run an enterprise. The more successful we are the more profits we will have to distribute among ourselves. It is my intension to give my 100% to develop the organization and make it a success. I feel I owe this not only to myself and the members but the whole village.



Domain : Change in psycho-social wellbeing


Reasons for selecting this story:

- Highlights the value placed on flexibility to attend to family needs over economic gains
- Has made use of previously unutilized resources (Jak fruit and bread fruit) and given a monetary value to it
- Evidence of learning, commitment, dedication to improve as a person and further develop the organization
- Is open about the problems faced by the organization and what needs to be improved. Shows a clear grasp of the areas for improvement.

SoC from Sri Lanka: Traditional wisdom to the rescue - paddy rice

Title: Traditional wisdom to the rescue
Storyteller: S.B. Ranjith
Location: Manajjawa, Ambalanthota
Project: Improving Livelihoods & Market Access for Small Scale Tsunami Affected Paddy Farmers
Collected by: Varuna Rathnabarathie (project manager) & Hemantha
Abeywardana ( consultant)
Collected on: 25th May 2007


I am Ranjith. I took up paddy farming just like my forefathers before me. Our paddy lands have always had a high level of salinity due to the proximity to the sea and harvests have been low. The sea water that gushed with the Tsunami of 2004 got deposited in the paddy fields in this area and further aggravated this condition. Due to the high level of salinity in the field, paddy seedlings started dying. Little by little, with each season, the harvest reduced. After the third season it became almost impossible to plant paddy. The modern hybrid varieties of paddy which we were used to growing were unsuccessful in this high saline condition. We were on the verge of abandoning the only form of livelihood we knew.

It was at this crucial juncture (2005 September) that two organizations, namely Practical Action and the National Federation for the Conservation of Traditional Seeds and Agricultural Resources (NFCTSAR) came forward to help us. This problem had been highlighted in the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) which was conducted in our village following the Tsunami. These organizations suggested that we grow 10 traditional rice varieties on a trial basis. They said according to indigenous knowledge there are certain traditional rice varieties suitable for growing in saline conditions and they had done some trials which proved this. NFCTSAR provided us the required seed paddy. They also trained us on appropriate cultivation methods. Sixteen farmers in this area (including myself) tried out these traditional varieties for 3 seasons. At first we were rather sceptical. However to our surprise and delight, seven of the varieties did in fact flourish in the saline conditions.


We used organic fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizers for growing these traditional varieties, as recommended by the above organizations. During the same period, a modern hybrid paddy variety was cultivated in the paddy field adjoining mine. This paddy field was fertilized with costly chemical fertilizer. Pesticides had to be sprayed as well to safeguard the crop from pest attacks. Finally this was largely unsuccessful. I on the other hand used only organic fertilizer, the raw material for which could be easily sourced within the village with minimal cost. Pesticides were unnecessary since the indigenous seed paddy was capable of resisting pest attacks. I realized that If I grew these varieties commercially, the cost of production could be reduced significantly.


Our trials revealed another unexpected result. In the case of certain saline resistant traditional rice varieties such as “Rathdel”, “Dahanala”, “Madathawalu” and “Pachchaperumal” the yields were high. Earlier when we grew modern paddy varieties, we got only 15 to 20 bushels from an acre. Now with these traditional indigenous varieties of paddy, yields can be as high as of 60 to 70 bushels per acre.

The biggest problem we faced even prior to the tsunami was that prices for modern varieties was low and hence there was almost no profit for small scale farmers such as myself. We are told some consumers are willing to pay high prices for organically grown traditional rice varieties. Although we are able to sell whatever amount we produce, we are yet to properly link with established marketing channels. Thus we are still facing some problems in disposing the crop on time. What we need now is an efficient system to market our produce.

Because of the help we received from the above organizations we able to put our paddy land to productive use. If not for these organizations we would never have known or believed that there were traditional varieties suitable for cultivating in saline paddy lands. We were used to modern varieties and thought that these would bring forth a better yield. However after receiving training and observing the results I am now convinced that growing traditional rice varieties is a good option for saline affected paddy fields such as mine.


Domain : Attitudinal change

Reasons for selecting this story

ü There is evidence that the individual has realized and is convinced of the merits of cultivating traditional rice varieties especially in saline conditions
ü Shows keenness to continue growing traditional varieties
ü Is open about the problem of linking with markets thus providing useful feedback for improving our efforts
ü Without the intervention the paddy land mentioned in the testimonial would have be abandoned and unproductive.

How the Sri Lanka team is piloting MSC

Pilot Test of the MSC process in Sri Lanka

The team decided that it would be a good idea to pilot test the MSC process prior to full scale implementation as monitoring and evaluation tool for the ongoing Community Participatory Sustainable Development Project.


The pilot test ran for 2 weeks. ( 21st May to- 4th of June). June has been a very busy month for all due to several holidays falling in April and May. As such the team was not able to collect a large number of stories. Seven stories were collected in total.


The selection was scheduled the 12th to coincide with the monthly team meeting. This was to ensure everyone’s participation.


A presentation was made on MSC process and moving forward. (See full presentation for details). Issues were discussed (e.g. what should be the domains, doesn’t it take a long time to see a change, ) and clarifications were made. It was made clear that we should not wait for the big change but should capture the smaller changes that lead to the big change.


Overall feedback was provided on how to improve story collection.

e.g. To make sure details such as who the story tellers is, who collected the story, when the story was collected, how the beneficiary got involved with the project, most significant change and why the change was significant is clearly captured. Some of the stories seemed to get lost in the narration and it was difficult to understand what the significant change was and why. The need to include relevant background information especially since these stories will be read by many who may not know the background was also mentioned. At the next session field staff themselves will be asked to look at ways of improving their stories. Everyone agreed that video clips was a convenient way of capturing stories and an effective and powerful way of communicating the stories at selection group level as many found reading to be rather tedious and boring.

It was also communicated that feedback on individual stories will be shared shortly


Selection Process

Since there was only a small number of stories, the Team leader and PMs selected the stories together. The QA Manager was unable to attend due to a prior commitment but provided written feedback on the stories.

Domains were not pre-decided. It was left for the selector to decide on appropriate domains during the selection process.

During the discussion some of the domains suggested were:

Changes in…
Attitude/ mindset
Psycho social wellbeing
Use of technology
Gender equity/inclusion/empowerment
Access to new markets
Social empowerment
Environmentally friendly practices
Relationships between market actors
Business skill development

These will be further discussed and refined to suit the Community Participatory Sustainable Development Project

The stories were read individually and comments shared. Using a iterative discussion process two stories were selected. Reasons for selecting these have been provided in the section following the stories.

SoC from Bangladesh: Mizan, a paravet who is 'touching his dreams'

Story of Changes

Title: Mizan! On to touch Dreams!!!


Time of collection: 31 March’2007

Name of the collector:
A.S.M Shahin,

Name & address of story teller:
Md. Mizanur Rahaman
Veterinary Service provider (Paravet)
Catra, Birampur, Dinajpur

Domains of Changes:
Changes in the quality of Mizan’s life
Changes in the nature and quality of his services
Peoples reaction to his approach
Changes in his demand and expectation

Developing process:

At first shared on SoC with the team and selected issue / person .Necessary information has been collected using a format. The rough case was prepared by the case collector. Then sharing and discussion was held within the team members to reform the case. After that the case was shared a second time within the team and a prepared final case.

Mizan – a household name among the milk producer in Catra Village!

Armed with skill development training, the demand for Mizan’s service as a skilled veterinary service provider has increased, reflecting a boom to his income from it. Mizan is the same Mizanur Rahaman of Catra village at Birampur Upazilla, who used to provide the service for Artificial Insemination and Veterinary medicine that had been described two months ago in his early baseline story. Back then, he was capable of providing artificial insemination services but not veterinary services as he had hardly any knowledge on modern veterinary medicine, production management or business plan. He used to serve in the traditional way, i.e. if some one called him in he would tap in on his experience and provide medication as an AI worker. Sometimes the results were satisfactory and at other times, fruitless. In case of the latter, his clients would not call back. Thus, despite his arduous efforts, he hardly earned more than Tk. 4500/= a month. He began to realize that he needed the sufficient skills to establish acceptance amongst his clients in order to increase his income. Thus, he always longed for training that would help him overcome his shortcomings and help him metamorphose into a skilled veterinary service provider so that he could receive calls from more clients around the area. That would ensure a higher income and hence a better family life.

Mizan administering vaccine to one of our cows. Consequently, he also participated in the skill development training for veterinary service providers facilitated by the Department of Livestock and coordinated and influenced by Practical Action Bangladesh held on January’07. This training helped him overcame most of his weaknesses as it exposed him to teachings from the expert veterinary surgeons. As a result, Mizan was more confident and competent in his profession.

After he received his training, Mizan chalked out a business development plan with the help of Practical Action Bangladesh. According to this plan he started to create awareness building and conduct learning sessions on livestock husbandry and disease prevention for groups of producers alongside establishing a rapport with them. As a result calls from the targeted groups doubled (3-4 calls /day) from his previous score of 1-2 calls a day. He also provides veterinary services for minor problems/ diseases while he conducts his learning sessions. His services are more reasonable than that of those paravets who have limited training and lack a business plan.

To quote, “Today I am more confident and reliable than I was before receiving the training.” He says, “With the blessings of the Almighty, all the cases that I treated or prescribed for so far, have been successful.” He further added “My good will as a veterinary service provider is propagation from one producer to another. Calls are coming from further and further a field via the mobile phone. These days, I stress on promotion of my market rather than charge higher fees. In the future, if the Almighty wishes, I need not look for any alternative means of livelihood.”

When asked about the number of calls he received daily he replied “I used to get 5-7 calls daily before receiving the training whereas now I am getting 10-12 calls daily. Moreover, I have people coming to me for Artificial Insemination of their cows in heat, which should be attributed to the awareness building sessions conducted by us (Paravets) under the influence of Practical Action Bangladesh. Furthermore people from nearby villages are coming to me to form such producers groups there too so that they receive Veterinary services through a group approach.
He also supposed, “Some times when the liquid semen supply is not available I resort to natural method with indigenous bulls to meet the demand. I am getting on average 2-3 calls per day for AI.” When asked to comment on his income, he said “I made a profit of 6500-7000/= from Veterinary and AI service excluding all expenses this month, which is 2500-3000/= more than that of the previous month. In coming days I expect to earn 10000-12000/= per month if the growth continues.”

When asked about whether he had increased his investment in the last month compared to that of the previous one, he replied “I didn’t invest anything more than the previous month. However if I get the Government approval for the reestablishment of AI sub center in Catra I will invest in necessary items such as refrigerators and others.

With regards to his future plans he replied, “I want to establish a permanent AI center with the help of livestock in Catra Union Parishad. So I have already applied for it through the UP chairman to the livestock Department. But it is difficult for me to reach the higher officials at the Livestock department for persuasion of approval. Perhaps their support may be solicited by Practical Action Bangladesh.” He claimed “if the sub centre gets approved it will be possible to provide Artificial insemination service at a reasonable price(30-50 tk/ service) to the poor producers of this area. Besides, I am cooperating with the staff of the Development Council (PNGO) for the formation of more milk producer groups in the area. After formation of new producers groups I will expand my business through rapport building and motivation in the form of learning sessions and ultimately I will contribute to the development of Dairy Farmers by ensuring increased milk production through providing better service”.

SoC from Bangladesh: Shapna, a woman farmer, member of the milk producers group

Shapna is a house wife who lives in Khanpur (Jataharpara) under Dinajpur Sadar Upazila with her husband and two daughters. Her husband is a farm laborer and earned 50-60/-per day. Shapna has been rearing two cows in the traditional manner for the last 3 years. They (Shapna and her husband) could not support their family for more than 4 months. She became a member of the milk producers group when the ‘Cold Milk Hot Profits’ project took off in their village and was very optimistic about it.

She began using the knowledge she had gained from the learning sessions for her cattle rearing. She gave the balanced feed to her cows and took necessary initiatives for vaccination and deworming. As a result milk production has reached from 2.5-3 lit to 4-4.5 lit per day, a rise of 1.5-2 lit than before.

She never realized the importance of vaccines and deworming before she began the learning sessions. Now she is aware and thus taking vaccines and giving deworming tablets to her cows regularly. When she realizes that her cows are suffering from any kind of disorders, she calls in a modern trained paravet as opposed to the non trained herbal doctor, that she would’ve gone to previously. As a project member Paravets are charging reasonable price (less than before) for the treatment and medicine value from her. Now her cows are healthy and productive.

Before starting the project she used to sell her milk to another milk collector @ 12 Tk per Kg. But 5 months ago (Nov’07) group members started group milk marketing. She took part in that activity. She is getting 4 Tk more per lit than before (previously 12 Tk/ kg, present 16 Tk/lit). She is attending the group meeting and learning sessions regularly and helping the group for development planning and implementation.

As her production has increased and she is getting 4 Tk per liter more by group milk marketing so, she is earning additional Tk 500-600 per month. Using her additional income, she has opened a DPS at Agroni Bank and pays 200 Tk in monthly installments. She hopes that the savings will ensure financial stability for her daughters future education and marriage. Today, she gives financial support to her husband to maintain their family. She is saving some money for purchasing tin to build the roof on the veranda of her home. Within 5-6 months she wants to save more 2500-3000 Tk for purchasing a bundle of tin.

She is more confident now. At the initial stage of the project she did not express her opinions but now she advices the group on different development issues. She wants to improve the variety of her cows via artificial insemination in order to increase the production. She wants to depend on the cow rearing profession fully to support her family in the future. For immediate development of her family she wants take a loan out to purchase an improved Deshi cow by She wants to take a loan from micro credit organizations (Grameen Bank, Asa, UDPS, Shomaj sheba, PDBF etc.) at a small amount over a long period ( at least 2 years) so she can pay weekly or monthly installments by selling milk.

SoC from Bangladesh: Rural Veterinary Service Provider are Contributing to the Organization of the Milk Farmers for Expanding Business

Provision of animal healthcare services alongside training has resulted in a high demand for training amongst cattle farmers. Added to this, the availability of good healthcare facilities has led to reformed practices and has led to the doubling of income of vets in a few villages.

This situation has taken hold of Khanpur in Dinajpur and in two unions in Birampur. Most of the families in this region own cattle that are a source of their income. These families were not business oriented at all and had very basic knowledge about cattle farming. As a result, they would have to resort to limited production and sell it at very low prices at the market. If the cow suffered from any illnesses, they would approach the quack doctors ( kobiraj) as access to government doctors and village paravets were difficult.

Practical Action Bangladesh took stock of the situation and arranged a 10 day skill development training workshop for paravets so that producers can anchor their trust on them and thus develop the animal healthcare sector. 19 people participated in this training program. This training program not only changed the opinions about animal healthcare but also developed business skills and knowledge. The paravets arranged learning sessions (animal rearing, producing high quality milk, marketing, etc.), vaccine and health camp (in cooperation with the Dept. of Livestock). According to the business plan, 25 learning sessions, 7 vaccine and health camps and 7 AIS have been carried out in the last two months, alongside regular provision of healthcare administered at the group visits.

As a result the cattle farmers have shown a great interest in learning. Constant connections with the paravets have enabled them to obtain vaccines and healthcare facilities in return for some fee, and some have even begun feeding their cattle a high nutrition diet. An effort to distribute and produce milk collectively that has led to the establishment of a business oriented venture. Thus many of them are thinking about supplementing their number of cattle. Furthermore, the demand for paravet services has also increased, and even though the charges for their services is minimal, this has led to an increase in the level of income of paravets. Paravets with training (11 of those who have been practicing since before) receive 10 – 12 calls per day, whereas before it was 5 – 7 calls per day. Their present earnings are Tk. 6000 – 7000, up from Tk. 3000 – 3500 before, the cause for which has been attributed to the paravets increased levels of skills. They believe it is necessary to develop skills further and create a trend whereby health services can be obtained in return for a fee.

At present, paravets and milk producers are gaining from their communication and business orientation that imply at a solid development. The paravets feel that business administration and this method is very effective and useful. So, they have taken their own initiative to establish 3 new groups of paravets in different villages and are constantly following up on them. It is important to increase the number of cattle in order increase the level of income of paravets and cattle farmers

FIRST SET OF SoC SENT BY KHALIL (SUDAN)!!!

Salaam Luis,
I am Khalid Al-Badrabi - Project Manager for Making Hibiscus Markets Work for the Poor, Practical Action Sudan. Kindly requested to go through the stories & do the necessar corrections - as you see up to now we are running software activities - the growing season started July to finish up by December.
Thanks Luis, your response is aprreciated
Khalid al-Badrabi

Stories of Change &
Most Significant Change

Collected by / Engineer Khalid Al-Badrabi
April 8, 2007
Khartoum - SUDAN

If you want to see the doc in Word (including some pics) go to http://www.4shared.com/file/13894264/902a58cc/Stories_of_Change_Sudan_Hibiscus.html . Wait for a moment and click on 'download file'

1. Fatima Story

o Fatima, is a Lead Female Farmer living in at-Tabldia village Umruwaba locality – North Kordofan State. She is one of the earliest adopters of the Hibiscus Project concept. Since she was a 15-years old Fatima is a Karkadeh grower
o When Karkadeh field interventions started by Practical Action through Eid en Neel the local Partner; Fatima was the first woman to attend the inception meeting, she has disseminated the concept and the objectives of the project to her community members. Gradually the community got to benefit from the training sessions on pre-& post-harvest tools
o Fatima collected her Karkadeh harvest that have been produced according to the new introduced best practices required by the markets – started from picking technique, drying, packing, storing & ending by selling the crop at a competitive price
o Fatima produced one quintal Karkadeh[1] [100 pound, hundredweight] – she sold the product at SD10, 000 for one quintal, while the current Farm Gate Price at that time was SD 7,000 for the quintal [so the best practices increase the Karkadeh selling price 30%]
o Fatima used the money to buy some assets for her family, definitely this initial value increment will make an improvement in Fatima's family livelihood
o The most important outcome is that – Fatima & her community have known how to make Karkadeh Markets work for their benefit by effecting the best cultural practices, networking, lobbying, negotiating, monitoring & evaluating their situation

2. Azeeza Story

Azeeza Muhammad Adam is living in Dar as Salaam el-Fashir locality, North Darfur State. Azeeza is one of Karkadeh local executive committees; she is 37 year old, married having a sun. By profession Azeeza is an elementary-level-teacher. Voluntary Azeeza used to extend to her students sessions concerning Karkadeh cultivation - discussing with them potentiality of this crop in its two dimensions as cash and as well as food crop too. Also Azeeza used to encourage students to erect living fences using Karkadeh during the fall season

School Farming is an integral constituent part of the government syllabus – but to lack of resources this course is omitted, Azeeza in her non-stopping good will & ambition used to train students & the interested persons doing Karkadeh agro-processing. Azeeza & the school team cultivated in total 4 Small Mukhamas[2] area the yield was 15-quintal [hundredweight], used as follows:

It is clear that the school community benefits out of the training sessions and the processed yield as well, in addition the beneficiaries appreciated the idea of maximizing returns through adding value to their crops

3. Sabiel Story

Sabiel Ali Sabiel is living in Dar as Salaam, el-Fashir locality, North Darfur State, Sabiel is a Karkadeh local committee member. He was in charge of distributing Karkadeh seeds [avail for them by Practical Action- Hibiscus project] to the farmers during the distribution he illustrated for the community the economical importance of Karkadeh and how they can get maximum benefit through their local committees & Hibiscus project interventions. However, he reported his neighbours the Karkadeh grower's number was increased from 1,000 to 1,100 at the same time their area is increased too.- that lead to 10% increment in the Karkadeh cultivated are this year 2006. Although during the last five years farmers used to grow large areas, but due to market deterioration and the decreasing of the Karkadeh price farmers grow just part of their land by it for their own use

4. Hawa Story

Hawa Shommo Muhammad [widow] is living in Dar as Salaam el-Fashir locality – North Darfur State. Hawa is a Karkadeh farmer, she said that two years ago she didn’t cultivate Karkadeh but this year after the project intervened "I have been encourage to cultivate Karkadeh" as Hawa quoted she continued " I received seeds from the Karkadeh Community-Based Organisation and I cultivated an area of about 36,750 square meter locally it is estimated to be seven Small Mukhamas [1-Small Mukhamas equivalent 5,250 square meter]. Also Hawa attended the harvest & post harvest training sessions conducted by Practical Action. She received the new harvesting tools [Injaz[3] & Gargara[4]] which help her to harvest much extra quantity of Karkadeh, [3.5 Quintal per 1 Small Mukhamas instead of only 3.0 quintals]. Hawa Shommo marketed her product in Umdurman at SD 245,000 gross returns (US$ 122,500). She said "I managed to buy a milking cow[5] to benefit my children, in addition to new TV set[6] and I paid US$ 75.0 as school fees for my children]

Clearly the beneficiary feels pleased and happy about her successful endeavours and accomplishments - we share with her the same feelings

Notes:
[1] The mean yield is 350 pound per 4,200 square meter area
[2] One Mukhamas is equivalent to 5,250 square meter
[3] Improved de-seeder tool
[4] Just iron pipe 5-inch diameter & 30-cm long for de-seeding the calyx
[5] At cost of SD 50,000 (US$ 250)
[6] At cost of US$ 250

Barnaby Peacocke responds to Jayantha: using SoC/MSC to build baselines and the problems of analysing SoC with a historical perspective

I'm discussing this with Jayantha, but thought I'd share you some initial thoughts straight away.

Essentially the question Jayantha is raising is about the validity of collecting stories at the onset of a project

Myself I think this is a good approach - equivalent to a kind of narrative baseline. Instead of asking "over the last month, what have been the most significant changes..." the question is something like, "as things stand now, what are the most significant issues you are facing in relation to...[dimension of change]".

[Example:]
So for instance, for coir producers, "what are the most significant influences affecting your abilties to produce and market coir". From a range of stories shared by coir producers they could then select the one or two they feel best reresent the situation as it is today. It then becomes interesting to compare their selected stories over the next couple of years against their current perceptions

This in effect supports Jayantha's first bullet point - asking whether it is ok to collect stories where we expect future changes to happen as a resul of certain activities

Concerning documenting stories that look back to what was happening some time ago - I have done this kind of thing in field assessments asking people about how they perceive changes in things like production and rainfall patterns compared with 10 years ago or so; this timeline approach in participatory rural appraisal is quite common. But this is risky. We have to be careful not to overinterpret the data/stories we get. There are many biases that will confuse people's perceptions of change when looking back historically.

[Example:]
People who are facing current difficulties as a result, say, of economic downturns may share stories of the past that are in fact too rosey. "Oh the rains were much better then" - looking back to the good old days which actually never existed - so when you look at historical rainfall patterns there's actually been no change, it's the prices that slumped. Or vice versa.

So while the approach may be useful to see what people were doing in the past I'd suggest if anyone does do this they use the same principles of triangulation as recommended in PRA; for instance by getting historical stories from other stakeholders (market middle men, ministry and other actors) with which to compare (and triangulate) historical stories from producers.

Overall therefore you can see I am much less keen on this approach. I feel much more comfortable if we are asking for stories about the current situation and/or recent changes. Otherwise we do risk opening up a bit of a methodological minefield for ourselves

Best wishes
Barney

Lucho responds to Jayantha: Some suggestions (HELP! ANY IDEAS?)

Dear Jayantha:
Your question is very important.
I do not really know The Answer to it but I can reflect with you using the elements I have learned from Davies and Dart (a link to the doc is in the blog) and some common sense.

According to these authors (page 11), The kernel of the MSC process is a question along the lines of ‘Looking back over the last month, what do you think was the most significant change in [particular domain of change]?’

My first reflection is that even short times of interaction with the community can have impacts that we could document using SoCs. I would say that if you want to stick to the coir subsector it seems feasible to attempt an exploration of impacts related, for example, to the PMCA. If your team has already held PMCA workshops with coir producers and other market actors you could try to identify changes produced by these workshops. It does not matter if at the end you find no changes... but what if you do? It would be fascinating to understand how the initial PMCA workshops produce changes in the domains of change defined by your team (a discussion on domains of change can be found in the blog http://socmsc.blogspot.com/).

My second reflection is that if you feel that the coir process is still very raw, you can focus on a project that is a bit more advanced. No problem with that. I know that for the AMAP each team selected a subsector to work with but at this point I am more interested in allowing ourselves to learn how to use SoC/MSC than on the subsectoral focus.

Finally, I notice that you use the term 'story' in singular. This could be a language issue but I want to make sure that the concept is fully understood. The plurality of stories is fundamental to this technique. The MSCs are identified through a process of deliberative selection of many SoC at different levels of the organisation.

That is all for now.
Please come back to us with your reflections and thanks a lot for this important contribution.
Hugs,
Lucho

PS:
Barnaby... can you discuss this issues with Jaya when you meet with him please?
Could you please report your reflections to all of us (via email) or directly to the blog (even better)?

Jayantha: CAN WE USE SoCs FOR PROJECTS THAT ARE JUST BEGINNING?

Hi Lucho,

A small clarification

We have not made any interventions (apart from the PMCA and coir sector development strategic planning which is not implemented in full scale yet). Even if we made any intervention, we cannot expect a significant change during this short period. In this situation I am afraid whether we can document a story of change.

My question;
As we discussed during the int’l meeting are we going to start recording a story that we expect some changes in the long run (after two or three years) or
Can we document a story that initiated 2-3 years back? In this case not coir but paddy or other non farm enterprises

Regs

Jayantha

Jayantha Gunasekera
Team Leader - Markets and Livelihoods
Practical Action
Sri Lanka

The latest development: DEFINING THE DOMAINS

The following thoughts are based on the latest comments from Barnaby and Marshall (I copy them below):

Barnaby Peacocke said:
A. On the second domain of change the question about 'perceptions' leaves it very open to interpretation by those telling their stories as to what changes are relevant to the domain. The first domain is much clearer here. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but needs an eye kept on exactly what we want to learn in this domainB. Similarly the third domain about technologies is very much dependant on different interpretations as to what technologies are - are they just bits of kit, or do they include skills, knowledge, methods etc?

And Marshall Shumba from Zimbabwe suggested:
I think it is usefull to use domains but these domains should be built with markets chain actors. This will enable us to capture or cater for the various stories of change from different actors in the chain.

So... to keep the conversation moving, I suggest the following:

The domain of

• 
  Changes in the capacity of marginalised producers to engage with other market actors
  

seems to be clear.

I would say that, in order to make it clearer, examples of types of capacity to engage can be:

- Access to market information.
- Possibility to talk (face-to-face or on the phone or via email, etc) with other market actors (including politicians and other policy-makers).
- Possibility to organise meetings where they are the ones who invite other market actors (It is important to see how the level of attendance and interest from other market actors to participate in the meetings organised by farmers change through time).
- Access to spaces where policies are discussed.

The domain of

• 
  Changes in the ways in which marginalised producers perceive themselves as market actors.

seems to be less clear (according to Barney).

I do not agree totally with Barnaby, in the sense that self-perceptions are broad but once you specify that the self-perception we are interested in is as a market actor, it becomes more specific. For example:
- The person can feel that at the beginning of the project, he/she was feeling as a subsistence farmer and later on s/he feels that s/he can begin a small-enterprise; or s/he feels that s/he wants to move away from farming because s/he sees now as a trainer of farmers and the s/he can make a living out of it. etc.

On the domain of

• 
  Changes in the access of marginalised producers to technologies that contribute to their participation in a particular market system.

I do agree with Barnaby, I think that we can think of technology in a broad sense; i.e. hardware (machines and ICTs), software (techniques, knowledge, technocal info, procedures, standards, etc) and other technology-related inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizers.

This domain of change responds to the need we have to keep an eye on technology dynamics.

Concerning marshall's comment, Davies and Dart suggest that it is OK to allow participants to define domains of change. However, I think it is important to maintain the number of domains as small as possible. Otherwise, the excercise can become practically impossible to undertake in a reasonable time. It is also important to keep in mind that collecting the stories is time-consuming and that it might be very difficult to collect them form market actors who do not belong to the community of farmers.

To Marshall (and the other project managers), I have three suggestions:

1. You can allow the participants to define all the domains of change before hand and allow them to tell their stories within those domains.
2. You can simply collect the stories without suggesting any domain and then, when we analyse the stories, we can see if there are domains that emerge from the stories collected
3. You can use the domains we define here amongst us (three so far) with one domain that can be defined by the farmers (I suggest maximum one because experience seems to show that more than 4 domains make the excercise very time-consuming).

Each project manager can have a different approach. It will be interesting to contrast the results at the end.

I need your ideas. What do you all think? Marshall?

Domains recommended by Lucho

If you think that domains are a good idea, then I would suggest you use the following:

- Domains of change defined by the Markets and Livelihoods Programme strategy:

• Changes in the capacity of marginalised producers to engage with other market actors.
• Changes in the ways in which marginalised producers perceive themselves as market actors.

- Domains of change defined by Practical Action's strategy:

• Changes in the access of marginalised producers to technologies that contribute to their participation in a particular market system.

When you are asking people about these domains, I recommend that you always bear in mind the three dimensions of the market map and dig deep around them:

• The market chain: set of steps that bring a product to the final consumer.
• The service providers: actors who provide services and inputs (e.g. seeds, fertilisers and tools) to market chain actors.
• The business environment: the issues and factors that affect how market chain actors and service providers interact and make business (e.g. legislation, roads, telecommunications, physical environment, and business culture).

What do you think?

If you decided to use 'domains', which are the most appropriate?

This is a difficult question. Let's see what Davies and Dart (2005, pages 20 and 21) suggest...

What should domains focus on?

One question that often arises is whether the domains of change should only be about changes caused by the organisation that is using MSC, or include changes caused by other people, organisations or influences in general. For example, increased participation by individuals could result from changes in government legislation relating to the right to free association rather than anything to do with the organisation’s own activities. Nevertheless, in most societies, such changes would be considered significant.

In practice, most users of MSC have focused on changes that are a direct or indirect result of what their organisations are doing. There is, however, an argument for saying that many organisations already see the world too narrowly, and that it would be healthy to identify SCs arising from any cause.

These options do not need to be mutually exclusive. It should be possible to track both types of changes through the one application of MSC. One or more domains could be about changes caused by the organisation’s work, while another could ask specifically about changes not caused or influenced by the organisation. Doing so would help provide what Chris Roche (1999) has described as a ‘project out’ and a ‘context in’ perspective.

Who should be involved in determining domains?

In some organisations, existing commitments to the pursuit of specific objectives are likely to lead to the use of domains based on program objectives. Hopefully they will already be well-known and owned by the staff and clients. Where there is more freedom to select the domains, using a participatory process to identify appropriate domains is likely to encourage all participants to take a more active interest in the MSC process and its products.


PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

• Do you think we should also look at changes generated by factors outside of our projects?
• Do you think that allowing key market actors to participate in the definition of the domains will encourage them to 'take a more active interest in the MSC process and its products'?

Step 2: Defining domains of change. (KEY POINTS)

Davis and Dart (2005, pages 17-22) say that domains are broad and often fuzzy categories of possible SC stories. In CCDB, participants in MSC were asked to look for significant changes in four domains:

• changes in the quality of people’s lives
• changes in the nature of people’s participation in development activities
• changes in the sustainability of people’s organisations and activities
• any other changes.

A domain of change is not an indicator. Good indicators are supposed to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). Indicators must be defined so that everyone interprets them in the same way. Domains of change, on the other hand, are deliberately fuzzy to allow people to have different interpretations of what constitutes a change in that area.

How many domains should be used?

In our experience, between three and five domains is a manageable number. The limiting factor is how much time participants are willing to spend in discussing each domain. Participants may find the process too time-consuming if it takes more than two hours to review changes in all the domains in any one meeting.

Are domains essential?

Domains are not essential. MSC stories can be collected and analysed as a group without first being categorised into domains. Participants can be asked to go out and look for significant changes without being given guidance in the form of specific domains of concern. With smaller organisations where there are likely to be fewer SC stories to examine, the MSC approach will probably be easier without domains.

In organisations such as VSO, field staff are asked to identify and document MSC stories of any kind. It is only when the stories reach the country office level that they are categorised into domains that are of concern to the country office and to VSO headquarters in UK.

Letting middle and upper level staff within an organisation categorise MSC stories into domains produces some incidental benefits. If the domains are focused on organisational objectives, then the sorting decisions tell the rest of the organisation how those staff interpret the meaning of those objectives.

PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

• Should we use 'domains' or not?
• If yes, which 'domains' are appropriate for the Markets and Livelihoods Programme?

Step 1: How to start and raise interest. (KEY POINTS)

We have been using SoC in Practical Action for many years now, and despite the fact that we are not using them properly (see summary of 2003 Evaluation), we can assume that project managers are already managing to raise the interest of several people in telling their stories. However, it is always good to take some advice into account (from Davies and Dart 2005, pages 15-17)

• 'If you want to raise interest in MSC, you need to be clear about the purpose of MSC and the role it will play in your organisation'.

So, what is the purpose of SoC and MSC for the Markets and Livelihoods Programme?

I think it is a good way to open the team to the voices of other market actors (especially marginalised producers) AND to become more responsive during the implementation of our projects.

And what is the role that SoC/MSC will play in the organisation?

I think it will become one of our most powerful tools to learn and communcate with market actors (especially marginalised producers).

• 'Another really important lesson we have learned from experience is to start small'.

We will start small and step by step. One market system at a time in each of the countries where IA2 works.

PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

• Do you think you will have problems to raise the interest of marginalised producers to tell you their stories? Why?

An evaluation of PA's experiences: How were things in 2003 in terms of SoC?

Summary evaluation of 2003 experiences

In introducing Stories of Change in 2003 we failed to distinguish their difference from human-interest stories. As a result, staff viewed Stories as just a more systematic way of reporting qualitatively on the (positive) aspects of the project. They often neglected to involve stakeholders and to explain why the story was significant, or what would be done differently in future to achieve the same successes. This learning is crucial to organizational learning.

While project staff identified with the need for a method like Stories of Change, it is not yet prioritised within the project. It is an initiative being pushed from QA with little reinforcement from the project managers or Aim Leaders. Having the QA and project managers reintroduce the method together might help staff to invest more effort into working with beneficiaries or partners to identify the most significant Stories of Change. Stories need a champion at the highest levels of a project and programme.

Practical training at the field level should make a real impact on the uptake of Stories as a core approach to evaluating impacts. Introducing the method through the Annual Review and expecting it to disseminate down meaningfully to project staff was unrealistic and counter to the bottom-up nature of the approach. No amount of written guidelines can substitute for going through the process with field staff and with partners. Practical training should help staff see the value of sharing stories - good and bad - as opposed to just passing them up the line, as the Annual Project Review has done in the past.

In the 2003 Review, it was found that a majority of projects responded to this section with ‘stories of success’ often affecting ‘communities of people‘ with no clear identification with the partner or pointer to the lessons learned. It is felt that ‘Domains of Change’ could help focus Stories of Change on a particular set of ‘relevant’ issues that were largely missed by he 2003 Annual Project Reviews. 2004 includes a domain for stories of disappointment. These are encouraged since they help project staff to make critical Action Recommendations for the year ahead.This could compensate for a tendency of staff to see M&E, the Annual Project Review and Stories of Change as important only for meeting accountability requirements. What we need to achieve is a constant feedback into lesson learning and better implementation approaches.

The steps we will follow

Dart (page 3, undated) suggests the following three steps:

A • establish domains of change
B • set in place a process to collect and review stories of change
C • conduct a secondary analysis of the stories.

I believe that these are easy to remember and we can stick to them. However, Davies and Dart (2005, page 15) propose a more detailed list of steps, which include the three steps mentioned above (numbers between brackets indicate the pages where you can read about the step)

1. Getting started: establishing champions and getting familiar with the approach (15-17)
2. Establishing ‘domains of change’ (17-22)
3. Defining the reporting period (22-23)
4. Collecting stories of change (23-28)
5. Reviewing the stories within the organisational hierarchy (28-34)
6. Providing stakeholders with regular feedback about the review process (34-35)
7. Setting in place a process to verify the stories if necessary (36-38)
8. Quantification (38)
9. Conducting secondary analysis of the stories en masse (38-44)
10. Revising the MSC process (44-45)

I think we can use both lists; the first one as a broad guideline and the second one as a more detailed 'protocol' to implement the process in the field.

Jessica J. Dart: the importance of transparency

'In the MSC approach, program stakeholders interpret their experiences with the program and select instances of significant change and record each as a story. They are also required to record why this change is significant to them. For example, when a farmer tells a story of significant change, she/he interact with the world and draw meaning from it, and it is in the telling of the story that meaning is constructed. Then when the reviewers read and evaluate the story, they engage with it and construct a further new meaning. When this is done in a group, this construction may be shared. In the MSC approach the criteria that are used to interpret the story are documented, made transparent and attached to the story itself. It is this transparency that makes the whole process even more open to new and more sophisticated constructions of meaning'. (quoted from Dart, undated, page 2)

How will we proceed?

OK. Very nice. It sounds good, doesn't it?

Now, how do we test the potential of SoC and MSC?

Here below there are some suggestions in order to move ahead:

1. Focus:

Between March and June 2007, the International Markets and Livelihoods Programme (IA2) will go through an intensive period of experimentation and reflection about the use of SoC and MSC to learn from marginalised producers.

2. Create a community of practice around this process:

This blog is part of this idea, but emails and telephone calls and conferences will also be used to maintain communication.

Additional to the IA2 team leaders in the country offices and the staff in the UK, it is important that project managers engage in this learning process as well. In fact, it would be great if they become the protagonists!

IA2 staff will be invited to become co-editors of the blog. Special co-editors from other organisations will also be invited.

3. Support:

Provide timely and high quality support to project managers before, during and after they have collected the SoC and identify the MSCs.

Barnaby Peacocke (our QA Manager and the internal champion of the idea of SoC) will be intensively involved with us providing support to the team leaders and project managers. In fact, he will be visiting the Sri Lanka and Sudan offices soon and will be providing hands-on support to the TLs and PMs.

4. Clear calendar of activities:

You can check the updated calendar here.

5. Production of a document to share with our experiences others:

By June, we hope to produce a short doc with some of the key lessons and insights from the process.

The AMAP-BELO programme and where does SoC/MSC fit in?

Under the AMAP programme, USAID, with the collaboration of Pact Inc., is supporting our efforts to become a more effective 'learning team'. The project begun in 2006 and will end in Nov 2007 but it is already helping us build learning processes and tools that will remain active for the foreseeable future.

The AMAP-BELO programme is helping CARE, Freedom from Hunger, WOCCU and Practical Action become effective learning organisations (there is where the accronym BELO comes from). BELO's conception is based on iterative (or repetivite) learning cycles... learning never stops; it revolves and expands like a spiral.

The design of Practical Action's project, called Practical Knowledge: Learning With and For The Poor, is based on four of these iterative learning cycles or loops:

1. The loop within the Markets and Livelihoods Programme (IA2).
2. The loop within Market Systems.
3. The loop between Mkt Sys (mainly marginalised producers) and the rest of the organisation.
4. The loop between IA2 and other organisations working in pro-poor market development.

So, where do SoC and MSC fit?

They fit in loop #3.

We want to test the potential of well-applied SoC and MSC to make the organisation more responsive to the voices of marginalised producers. We expect that these voices or stories will affect the project cycles, the annual business plans, the country/regional strategies and even (hopefully) our five-year strategies! We will see.

A final comment:

Remember the project of our project? Practical Knowledge: Learning With and For The Poor.

The differences in prepositions are important here; not only a nice name. Extracting knowledge from the marginalised has been a practice that, unfortunately, I have seen in many places. There is no sense of joint learning and no responsibility to feedback what we have learned from them.

'Learning WITH' makes us aware of the importance of a joint learning process: learning hand-in-hand with the others. 'Learning FOR' makes us aware of the responsibility we have towards marginalised communities to build knowledge also for them (downward accountability), not only for our line managers or the donors.

I hope we all, as a team, remember this along the way...

Introduction (where to begin?)

Hi everybody!

Hmmm... ok. Let's see... Here I am, trying to begin a blog to help us to use Stories of Change and the Most Significant Change technique to improve our initiatives to making market systems work better for marginalised producers.

SoC are simple narratives where people tell us that there have been changes in their lives related or due to the projects we are implementing. they can be positive or negative changes, but be prepared to hear that they feel no changes at all!

SoC can be a powerful and versatile tool to monitor and adjust the course of our initiatives. They are also a manifestation of the voices of the people who really matter to us (mainly marginalised producers in developing countries). The Markets and Livelihoods Programme is committed to listen carefully to those 'storytellers', learn from them and let them know how their stories help us to improve.

On the other hand, MSC is a technique that allows us to identify the changes that are affecting (for good or ill) the greatest number of people or that the majority of people perceive as the most important.

If we want to get the best out of these tools, we have to use them together. It always helps me to think of MSC as the (qualitative) average of a set of SoC. I cannot be serious if I say that 'my' project has been a success if one farmer, out of 3,000, says that the project has allowed him to buy a Mercedes Benz! I believe that, as a development practitioner, I can really be proud of (or worry about) MSCs generated by initiatives that I am involved in.

Do you also share this belief?