Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

A vital principle of Excellent's work is that communities decide on their own goals, and contribute to their project’s implementation and sustainability.

Every project starts with people organising themselves into self-help community groups, focussing on their own needs and priorities.

Excellent Development neither imposes solutions nor takes a specific solution-based approach to its work. It is Excellent who adapt and re-prioritise according to what they hear - rather than the other way around.

Excellent Development builds dams only where communities want them - demonstrated by their willingness to collect all the water, sand and stones required for construction. This amounts to 50% of the total building costs. Because community groups build the dams themselves, they not only make sure they are built right but they also have ownership and are committed to the benefits they bring. By terracing land around the dam, they improve its effectiveness; by owning them they ensure the low maintenance required is carried out when needed.

Joshua Mukusya, our Kenya Programme Manager says: “Since we started working together in 1985, we do what the people want rather than what we feel is necessary. We don't go to groups with set goals; we hear what they want and understand their thinking so that we can help them move towards their goals."

Communities doing the work together

Another essential principle of our approach is to mobilise communities to work together, to achieve more than they could on their own. This principle is rooted in local traditions:

“Joshua’s whole philosophy is based on the traditional Kikamba work ethic, whereby people work together and then move on as a group to help other groups to work in the same way. I don’t know of any other group in Kenya that works this way” Harold F Miller, Mennonite Central Committee, Nairobi.

Giving for Free

Our way of working focuses on giving people the support they need to solve their own problems, so they retain ownership of their lives and create self-respect and dignity rather than diminishing it. That is why we do not give people things for free.

As Rhoda Silu of the Utooni project told us: "If you give someone something for free then all you are doing is showing him that he is already dead."

Sometimes it is hard to say 'no', especially to the little things, but no one said this was going to be easy!

How our Development Works

Simon Maddrell, our Executive Officer says: "If we look at what Excellent Development does and how the development works, 70% is helping people do what they already know. 25% is encouraging people to remember what they have forgotten - or sadly had beaten out of them by government extension workers - traditional techniques like intercropping - 5% is stuff from outside. New ideas brought by myself and Joshua. Little seeds planted on the ground, some of which grow, some of which don't. We don't care which one grows and which one doesn't - the ones that grow are the ones that people want to grow."

Women's Empowerment

Around 80% of the project participants are women, and women also form about half the committee members. As the project progresses, their focus shifts from survival to determining their own future, and taking part in local decision-making.

Rhoda Mutio Silu of the Utooni Project says ”When we join 2-3 of us we share ideas, we grow our minds and gain experience from one another”.

The projects strengthen the communities in other ways too. Maybe the most important is that children now have a much better chance of going to school regularly. They often used to spend hours a day fetching water, or looking after younger children while their mothers went for water.

Once their lives have stabilised, communities branch out in different directions. Some have set up group savings plans. One well-established group has built accommodation to rent to teachers or traders, and a centre to teach clothes-making.

Building on the principle of encouraging communities to help each other, we also encourage groups to learn from each other and share ideas, by organising workshops and exchange trips. Such meetings provide motivation and encouragement, as well as a focus for involving different members of the community and increasing the chance that the groups and their work will be sustained in the long-term.

Simon Maddrell comments: "One of the strengths of Excellent Development is that we don't work with communities in isolation. We listen and act upon that, so actually the people themselves are the biggest power and enabler of development. Communities will all come together and discuss their problems. They see that one group is further ahead than the other and that gives them motivation. They see an idea or solution working, like intercropping, Napier grass and the planting of trees and it's their own people telling them how they've done it and how they've moved forward. The power isn't coming from the outside and giving solutions, the power is in helping people to help each other."

Sustainability & Future

One key challenge for Excellent's work is helping groups to become sustainable by reducing youth migration. In order to address this, the younger generation need to be shown that people can still have a successful life, even in the rural areas.

Excellent is encouraging football and netball teams for the young people connected to the project, as an extension of the community exchange programme. In exchange for shirts they help their parents to build dams and terracing. They also visit other projects to play and work.

Excellent's Development is a different kind of development. Its success is based on people working together and sharing knowledge. Giving the power back to the people and allowing them to take control of their own destiny.

To watch the philosophy of Excellent Development click here.