Raising the bar on inclusion in community development

Students learning the alphabet in sign language at the Mudula Primary School.

Inclusion is deeply rooted in WEEMA’s community-led development work in Ethiopia. But what does inclusion exactly mean and how do organizations achieve it in their everyday practices, whether in Ethiopia, Bangladesh or Indonesia?

Last month, WEEMA joined global development experts in Washington DC to examine the growing focus on inclusion, and challenges and lessons that can be learned as more NGOs, governments and philanthropic groups make it a bigger priority. The conference, Social Accountability and the Challenge of Inclusion, was organized by the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA), a seven-year-old coalition that includes 300 organizations.

Among the key takeaways from the conference:

Meaning: Inclusion is focusing on the most marginalized populations who have historically been left behind, including children (especially girls), women, older people and people with disabilities. WEEMA is keenly focused on all of these groups, whether by launching hundreds of Self-Help Groups for more than 2,000 women or providing first-ever primary school access for dozens of children with disabilities.

Giving Voice: Inclusion is about listening to marginalized groups and doing so in ways that give them power and confidence. Too often, solutions are developed without those voices being heard. In the case of education projects, students and their parents should have input – a practice WEEMA follows. “Where are the children themselves? Do they get a chance to (provide feedback)? If not, why not?” said Marinke Van Riet, a director at Voice, a Dutch grant facility that supports marginalized and discriminated people in Africa and Asia.

Framing Matters: In engaging with marginalized groups, avoid making them feel like “beneficiaries” who are poor and powerless. Instead they should be made to feel empowered and mobilized. One speaker captured the sentiment this way: “The question we should ask is, ‘What are your struggles?’ not, ‘How do we reduce your poverty?” said Flavia Milano, Team Leader, Citizen Engagement Policy and Strategy at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Instilling Trust: Marginalized groups are long accustomed to promises that are not kept. To build buy-in, NGOs and governments must meet their commitments and hold themselves accountable. WEEMA has made accountability a key priority in all of its projects. “When you say you’ll come back in two weeks and you come back in two weeks, it builds trust. It gives them more reason to help on projects,” said Charity Komujjurizi, Project Coordinator of the African Freedom Information Centre in Uganda.

All of these insights above align with key pillars of the Movement for Community-Led Development, a group of 64 global organizations, including WEEMA, that participated at last month’s conference. Co-founder John Coonrod expressed optimism that community-led development - and inclusion - are getting far more attention compared to a decade ago.

“Until 2012, this work didn’t even have a name,” Coonrod said, referring to community-led development.

First-ever public library and computer center in Adilo

Students engrossed in their homework last month at the new Adilo Public Library .

The Adilo District’s first-ever public library and computer center, which opened last month, is getting rave reviews. It’s attracting lots of students and other community members, who come to take advantage of the library’s extensive reading materials, study areas, computers and Internet access.

“This library is like a light for the students at Adilo and the community at large,” said Tessema Arficho, a local government representative, during a tour of the library in mid-November. During his visit, dozens of students could be seen studying while trained librarians were helping other users.

The new library – accessible to 22,000 community members – is the latest step in WEEMA’s goal of building and equipping a public library network for the entire Kembata-Tembaro Zone, which has nearly one million people, roughly half of them children.

Public libraries are relatively rare in Ethiopia, especially in isolated rural areas where schools are poorly equipped and students have little or no access to updated textbooks, quiet study space and the Internet. These barriers can limit students’ ability to study and their overall academic performance.

The new library has hundreds of new books, 20 computers, latrines and a generator to keep everything running. It also has a study area for secondary students preparing for national exams and a reading area for younger children. 

With the government operating the library and using WEEMA-trained local staff, the community’s long-term commitment to the library is clear.

The library shelves are stocked with textbooks and other reading materials for students of all ages.

Tribute to Bogaletch Gebre

Bogaletch Gebre was a global champion of women’s and girls’ rights fighting to end female genital mutilation.

On this week of Thanksgiving, we give thanks and pay tribute to a fearless defender of women’s rights whose ideas will forever inspire the WEEMA team.  Bogaletch “Boge” Gebre, an activist and scientist who led the global fight to end female genital mutilation (FGM), died this month at the age of 66. She was born and raised in a small village in the Kembata-Tembaro Zone, where WEEMA does much of its work.

Like many young Ethiopian girls growing up in Zato village, Boge fetched water and helped her mother with cooking and chores. When she was about 12 years old, she was “cut” (FGM) like most of the girls as it was the traditional custom in the area.  However, against tradition, she attended school in secret and proved to be an eager student. She later went on to study in Israel and the United States, earning her master’s degree at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She also became a marathon runner, even after a car accident that doctors feared would prevent her from walking again.

In 1997, Boge returned to Ethiopia and together with her sister founded a Zato-based nonprofit group, KMG Ethiopia. KMG stands for Kembatti Mentti-Gezzimma-Tope, a phrase in the oral language of Kembatta that reflects the power women create when they work together.

Boge won the trust of communities by first providing practical services, such as the construction of bridges and wells that reduce the amount of time girls would have to spend fetching water. Slowly, she began encouraging dialogue on more complex and sometimes taboo topics such as education for girls, HIV/AIDS, and the kidnapping of young women into marriage.

Relying less on confrontation and more on what she described as ‘community conversations,’ she also fought successfully to reduce female genital mutilation. In areas where her group worked, FGM rates dropped to 3 percent in 2008, compared to 97 percent just eight years earlier.

“In the long run, stronger women create stronger communities,” Boge noted. “Stronger women create a stronger nation, and stronger women create a stronger Africa.” 

Boge’s extraordinary life was filled with challenges, fierce determination, and monumental accomplishments.  We are inspired by Boge’s work and stand proud alongside the women of Ethiopia. 

Boosting digital health in Ethiopia

Health extension worker using digital health tool with a mother and son in Tembaro.

Boosting Digital Healthcare in Ethiopia

 WEEMA is joining forces with the Ethiopian government to expand digital healthcare services across the country.

 Over the past 2½ years, WEEMA and D-tree International have developed and distributed a mobile healthcare tool that is helping 100 local health extension workers (HEWs) in the Tembaro and Hadero districts diagnose childhood illnesses like diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. This month, WEEMA received a $100,000 grant from the IZUMI Foundation to help the government scale up a similar effort in four more districts in the Kembata-Tembaro Zone. Judging from the performance of our initiative with D-tree, the expanded digital program will mean better healthcare services and healthier children and families across most of the region, which has nearly one million people.

 Despite big improvements in recent decades, child and maternal mortality rates are still high in Ethiopia, with an estimated 15,000 children and 830 women dying every day from preventable or treatable causes.

 The new project is focused on a digital healthcare tool – known as the Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS) – developed by the Federal Ministry of Health. The mobile tool, which the government hopes to train 38,000 HEWs to use in the next five years, provides easy-to-access information on a broad array of medical issues that Ethiopian children and their families face. 

Over the next two years, WEEMA, in partnership with D-tree, will train the existing 100 HEWs in Tembaro and Hadero on the new government tool, along with 150 additional HEWs in other districts of Kembata-Tembaro. The project will be critical in helping the government refine and fine-tune the rollout of the eCHIS system across the country.

Launch meeting this month for the expansion of digital health programs in Kembata-Tembaro.

Saluting Ethiopia's 'other' famous native plant

The wispy green stalks of the teff plant are a distinct landmark in many parts of Ethiopia.

Saluting Ethiopia’s ‘other’ famous native plant

Ethiopia may be best known as the birthplace of coffee, but there’s another plant that originated there that may be even more important in Africa’s second most populous country – teff.

Teff is an ancient Ethiopian grain that is the backbone of farming and the national diet. Grown by millions of farmers, it is used primarily for making injera, a spongy tart-like flatbread that is, literally, the base of most meals. The bread is laid on a platter and is also perfect for scooping up meat and vegetable stews. Most Ethiopians eat it at least once a day.

Teff is hard to miss driving southwest from Addis Ababa to  Kembata-Tembaro and Hadiya where WEEMA works. Highland breezes send shimmying ripples across vast fields of its wispy green stalks. Smallholder farmers can often be seen shaking the plants and then drying the tiny brownish-colored grains on large roadside mats. Outside their thatched huts, women hunch over outdoor fires pouring injera batter onto large round griddles – a daily routine that underpins their diet.

Teff and injera have been fixtures in Ethiopian life for thousands of years, well before coffee was discovered there around the 9th century. High in protein, iron, and fibre, as well as being gluten-free, teff has been cultivated in Ethiopia and Eritrea for at least 2,000 years and possibly much longer.

Like Ethiopian coffee, its notoriety has garnered international intrigue, some of it unwanted. Just over a decade ago, a Dutch company that aspired to transform the cereal grain into the world’s next superfood got a European patent for processing teff flour and its related products. The plans eventually fizzled when the company went bankrupt and the patent was voided in the Netherlands – a victory hailed by many Ethiopians.

Today, Ethiopia still produces the vast majority of the world’s teff. While some injera is being exported, it is mostly being consumed at home as it has been for thousands of years.

“Teff has been discovered by the world, and this isn’t a bad thing,” says Zewdie Gebretsadik, a senior technical expert at the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor. “Let the world love it like we love it, but they must also recognize where it came from.”

With your help, we can continue to support Ethiopian farming communities and the growth of this nutritious grain.

*** Feeling ambitious? Here’s a recipe for making injera. Another culinary option is goTeff Instant Superfood Cereals, available here.

Ethiopian woman offers injera cooked on her outdoor fire to visitors