Visit to the DBSA Project in Kieskammahoek
(Posted 23 July 2009)
Thembi Mabhula and Thabile Sokupa went to Kieskammahoek on Monday, 6 July 2009 for a briefing on the DBSA project. The briefing provided an opportunity to introduce Afesis-corplan, their individual involvement and the concept of social facilitation. They were also fortunate enough to attend the farmers’ meeting where some of the operational challenges where discussed and got a good overview of what was happening in this project. Their findings helped draft Afesis-corplan’s process map for the first workshop with the farmers. This was held on Monday, 13 July 2009.
The workshop looked at the “swat analysis” of the project in its totality. The farmers are highly appreciative of DBSA’s involvement and funding of the project as well as their dedication in securing Uniliver as a buyer of their paprika. One of the major challenges faced by the farmers is the issue of human capacity. Farmers feel very threatened by the project supervisors, namely the service provider that manages the project. Also, there has been a lack of buy-in from the members of the community who are involved in the project.
As a result, some of the key outcomes expected from the work done by Afesis-corplan would be to make sure that there is buy-in from members of the communities, and build trust with the farmers as well as the project management team in order to make it successful.
The workshop looked at the “swat analysis” of the project in its totality. The farmers are highly appreciative of DBSA’s involvement and funding of the project as well as their dedication in securing Uniliver as a buyer of their paprika. One of the major challenges faced by the farmers is the issue of human capacity. Farmers feel very threatened by the project supervisors, namely the service provider that manages the project. Also, there has been a lack of buy-in from the members of the community who are involved in the project.
As a result, some of the key outcomes expected from the work done by Afesis-corplan would be to make sure that there is buy-in from members of the communities, and build trust with the farmers as well as the project management team in order to make it successful.