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Re: research on pc projects needed



You wrote: 
We work with an aid agency on sustainable permaculture aid projects. One of
the issues that came up at our last meeting was the lack of documentation
and research into the effectiveness of permaculture techniques.

I think this attitude may be more common among aid agencies than we think.
Over years of work with an agency, I have come across a skepticism regarding
the effectiveness of permaculture as a tool in aid. I know that. a few years
back, an agricultural adviser with AusAID (the Australian government's aid
funding body) publicly ridiculed permaculture at an aid organisation
meeting. He said "Permaculture is not a suitable technolology for overseas
development" and likened it to Farming Systems Research of the 1970s.

Were there the documentation you mention, then answering critics would be
simplified. 

Rick and Noami write:

Many case studies are documented in the various global permaculture
publications and in the International Permaculture Conference Proceedings
papers. However we do agree that there is a broad lack of research and
quantitative data reports on such projects.

Articles in the permaculture press are valuable as descriptive journalistic
pieces. They are generally not, however, analytical articles which ask
questions about processes and outcomes. They therefore lack that hard,
enquiring edge which is needed to make a realistic assessment of things and
which is needed to effectively answer critics. In fact, a great deal of
permaculture writing is self-congratulatory, fails to address negatives (how
else can we learn?) and make comparisons. This feels good in the short term
but takes us nowhere over the longer term.

At the risk of being accused of negativity to permaculture development aid,
may I make a few observations based on experience in permaculture since 1984
and in overseas aid since 1995?

1) There is no funding that I know of to successfully carry out in-depth
monitoring and evaluation visits of permaculture development aid projects.
This is one of the reasons that hard data is difficult to find.

2) Much permaculture aid is short-term stuff rather than the long-term which
is so critical to training local people to take over the management of
projects and to ensuring their sustainability (as much as that is ever
possible). Little thought is given to making projects sustainable.

3) There exists a 'workshop' mentality with permaculture aid. That is, it is
believed that by conducting a workshop or two, what is taught will continue
to be implemented. Our experience in the South Pacific indicates that this
is untrue. 

There's an interesting story about an Australian permaculture team that went
to PNG for a project. As I received the story, they went to Port Moresby
markets and demonstrated a solar cooker. Locals, interested in the seemingly
useful contrivance, asked why they hadn't seen such a device before. Well,
maybe they hadn't, but the organisation seemed to be suggesting that small
scale appropriate technology such as the cooker was new to PNG. In fact, a
little research would have disclosed the existence of appropriate technology
in the country since the late 1970s.  Anyone who visits the UniTech campus
in Lae, on the PNG north coast, can visit the Appropraite Technology and
Community Development Institute, spend time in their excellent library, buy
there publications - including the excellent manual on appropriate
technology and small scale village agricultural development, the Lik Lik Buk
(a must for rural development workers) visit the technology workshop next
door and see the buildings they designed. And why have solar cookers not
taken off? Maybe it has something to do with the extent of wet season cloud
cover, the cost  and simply finding the materials to make a solar cooker
from.

4) Generally, a Permaculture design Course, without any follow-up study or
prior experience, is an inadequate qualification for working in overseas
aid.

While working for an aid agency in Sydney, I don't know how many  times
young hopefuls - really well intentioned people - walked into the office and
asked to be deployed to one of our aid projects in Melanesia. When asked
about experience and studies, all they had was a design certificate.
Usually, they had just completed one and, fired up and enthused,  were
consequently ready to put it into action (called by some the 'permaculture
eureka' effect).

The design course is all too often an information-shovelling effort where a
knowledgeable teacher downloads content into the heads of students. Actual
skills development is another matter. The students I saw had no skills in,
or even knowledge about, techniques commonly used by development field staff
and which we use in Melanesia - Participatory Rural Appraisal, Participatory
Technology Development, community food security assessment. Nor did they
commonly have any knowledge of project management.

5) In general, monitoring and evaluation of permaculture projects, even in
developed countries, is lacking. There seems to be little mention of it in
permaculture design courses and little application of it as part of the
overall permaculture project management cycle.  Yet, without a realistic
assessment of our work, how do we learn? How do we improve? One of the
notions we adopted for our work in the Pacific was that of 'continual
improvement' based on monitoring and adjustment - through formal analysis,
participant questioning and informal discussion - and, at suitable intervals
when funding allowed, through evaluation of the program to date.

6) Permaculture has to move beyond the herb spirals and banana circles
mentality to create a niche in the aid industry where it works from its
strong points. To do this, permaculture has to shed its aversion to
self-reflection, its dislike of the consideration of negatives and the
defensiveness of some of its adherents. It needs to become self-critical. It
must also shed the damaging
'permaculture missionary' attitude of some of its more enthusiastic
proponents which can be e real turn-off to development professionals.

7) Permaculture needs to leave emergency and humanitarian intervention to
the agencies streamlined to provide this - the Australian Defence Force and
the emergency agencies such as Medicine Without Frontiers, Red Cross/
Crescent, World Vision and so on. Permaculture is at home in the development
phase following an emergency when infrastructure is being rebuilt, not in
the emergency response phase for which it has little experience, no
Australia-based or in-country back-up (including an administrative and
communications component), little knowledge about field security in conflict
situations, little financial back-up and little experience working with
those whose melieu in this area.

This is not to say that permaculturists should not participate in a broader
team in emergency/ humanitarian aid.

Rick +Noami write:

Does anyone on this list know of any formal research into the effectiveness
of permaculture strategies, or documentation of projects that could add to
our current knowledge?

We applied for and received funding from an agency research body to produce
an evaluation - a documentation - of our program in the South Pacific and to
produce some training manuals suitable for use by Melanesian field staff.
These latter include a manual about basic introductory agricultural
techniques for people using slash and burn farming (includes mulching, soils
etc).

Rather than produce the research (carried out through the 'action research'
methodology) in conventional data-heavy format, we wanted it in a form
understandable by Melanesian aid workers as well as by people in developed
countries. Consequently, we are producing it as a narrative, in everyday
English... more as a journalistic document but heavy laden with factual
stuff. All these products are nearing final draft and will most likely be
made available free as PDF format printable documents from a website planned
for the program.

Rick + Noami write:

We believe (with a passion) that permaculture systems work if well designed
and considered, it would be great to have more documented evidence of this.

Absoloutely! Permaculture provides that broad appreciation of a situation.

May I recommend that permaculture people interested in overseas aid:

- volunteer in Australia or wherever they live with a suitable
non-government aid organisation to gain understanding of how aid and its
agencies operate and to build up some experience in project management

- enroll in one of the permaculture advanced courses for aid workers -
Permaculture Education at Nimbin and the Seed Savers Network at Byron Bay
offer courses - maybe Rick + Naomi do too?

- learn participatory techniques for working with communities

- if your interest is agriculture, then learn about human nutrition and
health. water supply and irrigation and sanitation as well as developing
practical food gardening skills in your garden or in a community garden

- read books such as:

a) STRIKING A BLANCE - a guide to enhancing the effectiveness of
non-government organisations in international development (Fowler A, 1997;
Earthscan; London)

b) A BASIC GUIDE FOR DEVELOPMENT WORKERS (1995, Rubin F; Oxfam; UK)

c) CHOOSING RESEARCH METHODS (1992, Pratt B, Loizos P: Oxfam; UK)

d) BASIC ACCOUNTING FOR SMALL GROUPS (1992, Cammack J; Oxfam; UK)

e) GARDENING FOR BETTER NUTRITION (1978, Pacey A; Internediate Technology
Publications; London)

f) GETTING READY - a guide for international NGO, permaculture and community
development workers (1998: Permaculture and Development Team; Sydney,
Australia) - from Action for World Development: awdev@ozemail.com.au

g) BRIDGING THE GAP -  a guide to monitoring and evaluating development
projects (Broughton B, Hampshire J; Australian Council for Overseas Aid;
Canberra, ACT)

h) TWO EARS OF CORN - a guide to people-centred agricultural development
(Bunch R, 1982; World Neighbours; Oklahoma, USA)

i) PARTICIPATORY LEARNING AND ACTION - a trainer's guide (Pretty N et al,
1995; International Institute for Environment and Development; London)

j) DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY WITH FARMERS - a trainer's guide for participatory
learning (1997, van Veldhuizen et al; Zed Books; London)

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