Showing posts with label empowerment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label empowerment. Show all posts

Saturday, March 18, 2017

How Participatory 3D Modelling has contributed to women’s personal development in Madagascar

Rural women in Ampefy and Analavory are emerging from years of years of subordination and passivity, taking charge of their own development and overcoming numerous obstacles to their emancipation. Their key role in regional development is increasingly recognised by the administrative and traditional authorities, development partners and the local community. This article shows how participatory 3-D modelling helps women fulfil their potential.



Rural development agents on a field visit to see how silting has damaged rice fields in Atalata Vaovao, a fokontany (neighbourhood) in Ampefy commune in the Itasy region of mid-western Madagascar, wondered what could have driven a pregnant woman to walk over 8 km to join them at the site. When asked what had prompted her to carry a heavy bag for several hours under the blazing sun, enduring the long journey without a word of complaint, she pointed to the badly eroded slope opposite. “Look at the damage it’s done! This hill has silted up all our rice fields. And I’m not going to stand by quietly while nothing is done to deal with this monster!” That was their introduction to Jeannette Raharimalala, a founding member of Tolotra local development committee (KF), a 10-member association created to raise awareness of the need for social and economic development in the neighbourhood. Although Tolotra is open to men, two-thirds of its members are women – individuals whose dynamism has astonished the regional director of FAFAFI, an NGO that supports development committees. Praising their “fearless and increasingly bold and enterprising approach”, she noted that “they’ve been active for several years but have made huge progress since 2015, when they first became involved in the P3DM process.”


Rural women overshadowed by men

Like their sisters in other regions of Madagascar, rural women in Atalata Vaovao are used to living in the shadow of their husbands and brothers. Men have jobs, go to the office and attend meetings, while women stay at home to look after the children, prepare meals, serve their menfolk and then retreat to the kitchen. Few women work in offices or lead organisations, and those who speak in public are frowned upon in rural Madagascar. The two main concerns for local people in this highly productive volcanic area are the land shortages and tenure issues left by the French colonial authorities, and the increasingly pressing problem of silting in their paddy fields. Recent efforts to grow out-of-season vegetables in these parcels have fizzled out and they now yield little more than weeds and stones. The community leader in Atalata, Félecitin Rakotoarimalalais, worries that “if nothing is done, my area alone stands to lose 30 hectares of rice fields in less than 10 years.” And if that wasn’t bad enough, Lake Itasy, which is the main source of income for many local people, is filling up with alluvium “so we have to travel further to catch increasingly small fish.” When the Liaison Office for Rural Training Institutions (BIMTT) introduced 3-D mapping exercises to help resolve potential conflicts in Itasy Region, the women of Atalata Vaovao were the first to turn their hand to the task despite the many constraints they face. Led by BIMTT technicians, supported by CTA and working alongside various representatives of the village, Ampefy town hall and development agencies, these women played an active role in a process that sharpened their already considerable appetite for development.

From personal development...

The 3-D model of Atalata Vaovao could not have been built without the local women, who played a key role in mobilizing community members of all ages behind the exercise. BIMTT technician Rajorosoana Razafimahatratra recalled how they acted as convenors and facilitators, “working in the corridors and leading with a quiet strength.” You’d hear them moving things along, galvanising everyone into action: “Come along now! Where’s so-and-so gone? See where they are! Can you remember what to do? You’re the only one who knows how to do it!”  Making 3-D models calls for the same kind of skills needed to organise the cooking, cleaning and laundry and get children off to school every day – and the women involved in this exercise proved much more enterprising, practical and pragmatic than the men in terms of their attention to detail, process, form, design, maintenance, getting the precise location of paths, springs and streams, updating information etc. Although the men were initially involved, it was the women who were really in charge and were best at making the model! The BIMTT technician also noted how “it improved their self-esteem and built mutual trust.” Women saw the invitation to join the model-making process as a form of recognition for their efforts. Aline Andriamampandry, secretary of the Mahiatrondro group, said that “being asked to participate means we can actually do something!” They were delighted to be able to express themselves, give an opinion, and above all be listened to. When the model was presented to the authorities and visitors (vazaha), they stood their ground like students defending their final thesis. Josephine Rasoanarilalaina, President of the Miavotra group admitted “I never thought I could do something like that!” Madagascan culture has always regarded making things as men’s work, but these women see things differently now and are determined to claim their rights. Some women from Ampefy have started land litigation procedures, while others are participating in regional elections in order to spread their ideas about development.

... to social development

Women’s personal development contributes to local social and economic development. Individual women and their groups are now recognised and consulted by their own and other communities. The communal authorities ask them about local development issues, and they act as an interface between development projects and beneficiaries. The manager of one drinking water project reported that “We use their groups whenever we need to do local awareness-raising exercises,” and said they have had a noticeable effect on community development. In the village of Mahiatrondro in the commune of Analavory, discussions sparked by the model have alerted people to the dangers of environmental degradation and are starting to have an impact on their way of thinking. Neighbourhood leader Justin Razafindrakoto reports that bushfires have halved and open defecation has been eradicated in the last two years. The 3-D model helped identify areas needing reforestation, and 1,000 saplings have been planted as part of an ongoing collaboration with the AgriSud project, which provides young plants. Having learned about the increasing scarcity of available land from the P3DM process, women have been quick to diversify their activities and started rearing livestock, fattening ducks, developing village granaries, producing and selling craftwork and acting as tourist guides. A local security service has also been set up and is now recognised by the regional court.

Aline R. Secretaire du Comité pour le Développement du Village de Mahiatrondro, Commune d'Ampefy

The knock-on effects of these experiences

The development committees in Ampefy and Analavory seem to be unstoppable! Their efforts are having knock-on effects in their own neighbourhood, and have spawned several sub-committees that are working on further community development initiatives. The neighbourhood chief was so impressed by the nine new groups (KF) that have been set up in the last two years that he incorporated them into the formal structure of his constituency, and their dynamism prompted the town hall to promulgate a communal order appointing KF members as Village Development Agents (VDAs). Their influence extends beyond their own commune to others in the district of Analavory, where their 3-D model was presented at the regional fair. Several other villages and communes in the district now intend to set up their own development committees, and these committees have become a focus for local development across the whole region of Itasy. The regional director of FAFAFI thinks the results speak for themselves. She believes that “personal development has a lasting impact on the individuals concerned and encourages sustainable community development,” and that “women are capable of doing incredible things with the right moral and technical support.”  At least one technician has been made available to work with women throughout the whole P3DM process, which is regarded as a very promising initiative by the Ministry for Population and Women’s Advancement. Its Director General, Kidja Marie Francine, has promised to support actions that help empower women.

Article written by Interview by Mamy Andriatiana for CTA



Gender inequality in Madagascar, where the law provides little protection for rural women

Women represent 50.6% of the population in Madagascar, where 62% of women and 68% of men are active on the labour market, especially in the informal sector. Rural women are always on the go, spending 16 to 18 hours a day on domestic chores such as housekeeping, preparing meals, husking rice, collecting water and wood, looking after children and working in the fields. Around 78% of women work in the agricultural sector, where they produce over half of all food crops.


But despite everything they do, women are under-valued, held in low regard and dominated by men, even in the household. The DG of the Ministry for Population laments the fact that "when a married couple come home after a hard day's work, the woman cannot rest as she's expected to do everything while her husband reads the paper." Women cannot access or inherit land, which is regarded as the men's domain, and are told "whether you're smart or stupid, you're still a wife." They run the risk of being left empty-handed if their marriage ends in divorce, and cannot get credit because they have no collateral (land or property) to offset possible loans. The current law states that all individuals (men and women) have equal rights to ownership, exploitation and inheritance and an equal share of matrimonial property, but social customs, taboos and a lack of implementing legislation mean that in reality, women in Madagascar have far fewer rights than men.

Friday, September 02, 2016

Powerful maps: how building 3D models is helping rural communities to make their voices heard

A process of building three-dimensional physical models in a village setting is helping to bring together traditional and modern scientific knowledge to tackle challenges ranging from soil degradation to land use planning, and from forest management to climate change. The technique, known as Participatory 3-dimensional modelling (P3DM) enables marginalised communities to present their territory – together with their own valuable knowledge – in a visual form, offering them the opportunity to protect precious natural resources from outside threats and preserve them for future generations. Some of the field experiences have been published in a new report. The Power of Maps: Bringing the third dimension to the negotiation table is published by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), which has been in the forefront of promoting the practice across African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Developed in the early 1990s in Southeast Asia, P3DM is rapidly gaining ground in other parts of the developing world. Participatory 3D models, made out of cardboard and illustrated with coloured paints, pushpins and yarn, portray land cover, such as farmland, rivers and forests, as well as other features, including coastal resources and sea depth. Uniquely, they also depict traditional knowledge, such as ancestral land rights and sacred places. These features are generally supplied by elders in the community, while younger members build the map itself. The result is a free standing relief model which provides tangible evidence of local knowledge, serving as an effective tool for analysis, decision-making, advocacy, action and monitoring.

“Knowledge built up over time and passed from generation to generation represents a unique asset for rural communities when it comes to their land, forest and aquatic resources,” said CTA Director Michael Hailu. “The ability to collate and geo-reference local knowledge and represent it in the form of 3-dimensional maps offers a unique opportunity for local communities to have a voice in decisions on how to sustainably manage their resources.

Often, the process of participatory 3-dimensional modelling is in itself empowering, bringing communities and generations together and helping them to visualise the extent of their resources, and how climate change and other threats, such as mining and deforestation, may be affecting them. Once completed, the physical model remains with the community.

Case studies presented from Ethiopia, Fiji and Madagascar show how P3DM has led to the development of community-driven natural resource management plans. Other examples of P3DM initiatives described in the book demonstrate how the technique can give marginalised rural people a voice to make their case heard. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Bambuti-Batwa pygmy community used a P3DM exercise to drive talks on what they claim is the injustice of being evicted from the territory they had inhabited for generations.

Three-dimensional mapping has helped the Kenyan hunter-gatherer Ogiek tribe to document its ancestral land rights and knowledge systems. Meanwhile, In Tobago, a Caribbean island that has suffered a series of extreme climate events in recent years, P3DM has been used to guide community-driven disaster risk reduction strategies.

South-South cooperation is helping to make the practice of participatory 3-dimensional modelling become better known and CTA has been closely involved in efforts to share training and facilitation between Caribbean and Pacific Islands and a range of African countries.

Experiences of P3DM can generate other benefits, such as offering new skills and self-confidence to individuals engaged in the process and funding for communities to implement activities. A case in point is Grenada, where a participatory 3D model had a direct impact on the community that created it, by mobilising donor funding for climate change adaptation on a stretch of the coastline badly affected by hurricane damage.

Participatory 3D modelling, the process documented in this book, has proved to be successful in eliciting substantial amounts of what is termed as tacit knowledge from individuals, to collate individual world views into a shared, visible and tangible representation of collegial knowledge,” said Senior Programme Coordinator Giacomo Rambaldi, who has led CTA’s involvement in P3DM. Adding ‘location’ to any piece of information or datum makes it even more relevant. Hence P3DM enables knowledge holders to visualise and geo-reference their traditional knowledge and to engage outsiders in a peer-to-peer dialogue.”

You can order a hard copy and download the book.


Monday, August 22, 2016

#12614 – Book Launch and Reception for ‘The power of maps: Bringing the third dimension to the negotiation table’, a CTA Success Stories publication on participatory GIS practice


IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016, Hawai’i, USA, 
Friday, 2 September 2016, 19:30-21:00
Room 314-UNDP Kauhale

Abstract of the session (including reception, drinks and snacks)


This session will see the launch of a collection of 12 impact stories about participatory 3-dimensional modelling (P3DM) – an innovative process that maps traditional knowledge as physical three-dimensional models. P3DM enables marginalised communities to present their territory – together with their own valuable knowledge – in a physical and visual form, offering an opportunity to monitor precious resources against outside threats and preserve them for future generations. It helps to foster sustainable natural resource management, gives a voice to grassroots communities and helps them to influence policy-making and make informed decisions on climate change adaptation. The Power of Maps: Bringing the third dimension to the negotiation table is published by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), which has been in the forefront of activities to promote the practice across African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Speakers include those who narrated stories captured in the book and others who have been practicing P3DM across several continents and for diverse purposes.

Objectives of the event

  1. To launch a new CTA publication which is part of the ‘Success stories’ series
  2. To demonstrate the value of participatory mapping in three dimensions and its impact on identity building, informed spatial planning and community engagement
  3. To discuss how best to further upscale the deployment of the process in community-based initiatives

Format and Programme 

The general format of the workshop will be as follows (total time: 90 min):
  • Opening, introduction of speakers and key questions to be addressed (5 minutes)
  • Video address by CTA (3 min)
  • First set of two presentations (7-10 minutes each) (20 minutes)
  • Questions and answers, followed by discussion related to the first set of presentations (15 minutes)
  • Second set of two presentations (7-10 minutes each) (20 minutes)
  • Questions and answers, followed by discussion related to the second set of presentations and for general discussion as well.  (20 minutes)
  • Closing comments (5 min) 

Detailed programme:

19:30-onwards: Reception, serving of snacks and drinks

19:35-19:40 Opening, introduction of speakers and key questions to be addressed Dialogue moderator: Hindou Ibrahim, IPACC West Africa Coordinator

19:40-19:45 Address and introduction of the publication (video link); Giacomo Rambaldi, CTA Senior programme coordinator

19:45-20:05 First set of two presentations:
Senoveva Mauli, Solomon Islands Community Conservation Partnership (SICCP), Solomon Islands
Ana Fekau, Min of Environment in Tonga

20:05-20:20 Q&A and discussion (on first set of presentations)

20:20-20:40 Second set of two presentations
Nigel Crawhall, IPACC, South Africa
M’Lis Flynn, Wet Tropics Management Authority (on private capacity), Australia

20:40-20:55 Q&A and discussion (on second set of questions) Time allowed for general discussion as well.

20:55-21:00 Closing comments and distribution of copies of the publication to participants: Nigel Crawhall, IPACC, South Africa

Download programme






Friday, March 16, 2012

Participatory 3D Modelling of Manus Island, PNG



Participatory 3D modelling (P3DM) activity supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and partners in 2011 in PNG to help residents of Manus Island map out the terrestrial, coastal and marine resources and to  plan for adapting to potential impacts due to climate change.

Source: TNC

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Mapping for Change: The experience of farmers in rural Oromiya, Ethiopia

This 16 min film documents a participatory mapping experience of Ethiopian farmers in the Oromiya Region. Over a period of 12 days close to 140 people contributed to the construction of a 3-dimensional map covering – at a 1:10,000-scale - a total area of 672 sq km.



In a relatively degraded environment where soil fertility plummeted after the clearance of the natural forest and food security is at stake, residents of four woredas (Welmera, Ejere, Adea berga and Mulo) convene in the village of Telecho to map their own land.
Challenged by an unchartered process they successfully complete it, and while populating the map, they compare their past and present ecosystems and identify the root causes of their problems. They finally propose with their own solutions.

The experience marked their life …

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Whose Map? | ¿De Quién Son Los Mapas? | à qui appartiennent les cartes ? English / français/ español

In recent years, changes in participatory methodologies (PMs) may have been even more rapid than those in spatial technologies. Local people's abilities to make maps only became widely known and facilitated in the early 1990s. In this article Dr. Robert Chambers argues that participatory mapping has spread like a pandemic with many variants and applications not only in natural resource management but also in many other domains. With mapping as one element, there are now signs of a new pluralist eclecticism and creativity in PMs. The medium and means of mapping, whether ground, paper or GIS and the style and mode of facilitation, influence who takes part, the nature of outcomes and power relationships. Much depends on the behaviour and attitudes of facilitators and who controls the process. Many ethical issues present troubling dilemmas, and lead to overarching questions about empowerment and ownership. Questions to be asked, again and again, are: Who is empowered and who disempowered? And, who gains and who loses?

Below is the original article published on  EJISDC, an open access journal, and translations in French and Spanish done in the context of the development of the "Training Kit on Participatory Spatial Information Managamant and Communication" soon to be published by CTA and IFAD.
Here is a related interview with Robert Chambers subtitled in 10 languages (you can embed this video on your blog or web site!)

Monday, February 08, 2010

Knowledge and cultural transmission in Kenyan participatory mapping



In this 5 minute interview Dr. Nigel Crawhall, Director of Secretariat at IPACC, elaborates on intergenerational ecological knowledge transmission in Participatory 3-dimensional modelling (P3DM). Crawhall discusses his observations on intergenerational interaction when the Ogiek community of Nessuit, Kenya built a geo-referenced model of their mountain forest landscape in 2006.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Dave De Vera elaborates on Participatory GIS practice in the Philippines


Dave De Vera is the Executive Director of the Philippine Association For Intercultural Development (PAFID). In his interview Dave elaborates on the use of Participatory GIS practice in the Philippines to support indigenous communities in filing ancestral land claims. He elaborates on the mapping methods used, explains why P3DM is the most effective, and arguments on the need for local ownership of the process, competency of the technology intermediary, quality work, and constructive relationships with Government. Dave further lists cases of PAFID / Government partnerships and analyses the pillars of process legitimization.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity makes reference to P3DM done by Ogiek Peoples

The 420-page UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity has been launched by the Director-General, to the attention of the Permanent Delegates to the 35th session of the General Conference, on Tuesday 20 October 2009.

The use of participatory three-dimensional modelling (P3DM) by the Ogiek Peoples in Kenya is cited in section 2.4 as an example of local Empowerment (see page 52 of the report).

Specifically the report makes reference to the article published by Rambaldi et al. on Information Development in 2007: Through the eyes of hunters-gatherers: Participatory 3D modelling among the Ogiek indigenous peoples in Kenya.

It is worth noting that the power of participatory mapping coupled with Web 2.0 commnunication tools (ppgis list, blog, YouTube, etc) coupled with actions undertaken by concerned stakeholders, have raised the concerns faced by a minority group like the Ogiek at the forefront of public opinion.