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First hand testimonies

Collaboration in a fracturing world

2022-03-11T13:45:01+00:00June 24th, 2016|

A great organisation development practitioner, Davine Thaw, often summarises what organisations are in three words: people, purpose and process. Today, a bleak day for all of us who believe in collective action, as more than half my fellow citizens have chosen to take the UK out of the European Union, I have been thinking a great deal about the “people” part of that. One of the issues Well Grounded and a lot of other organisations have been thinking and talking about is how organisations work together between countries. And in a recent conversation, a friend working for another UK-based NGO pointed [...]

“Bee farmers are in tears”

2022-03-11T13:45:01+00:00April 22nd, 2016|

By CAMGEW (Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch) Just over a month ago, on February 21st, CAMGEW director Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy was alerted that a bushfire, allegedly started by a farmer in Bihkov, a small community in Jakiri sub-division in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, had gone out of control and was threatening to extend to the whole Kilum-Ijim forest, which covers over 20,000 hectares. The Kilum-Ijim Forest is an area of mountain rainforest, found on Mount Oku and the nearby Ijim Ridge in the Cameroon mountains. In spite of heavy community mobilization, it took people over seven days of hard work [...]

Organisation development: a cornerstone for the sustainable management of natural resources

2022-03-11T13:45:00+00:00January 15th, 2016|

By Alphonse Muhindo Valivambene From 27th to 30th July 2015, Well Grounded and Maliasili Initiatives organised a day of exchange between Kenyan, Tanzanian and Congolese (DRC) civil society organisations in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The aim of this event was to share the diverse experiences and points of view regarding the development of a strategy, a business plan and more sustainable, innovative funding models. This event was linked to a wider conference that brought together roughly 100 people and aimed to strengthen the capacities of numerous stakeholders with a view to better conserve ecosystems. In view of the above, I was struck [...]

Why do local people often end up losing their community lands and forests, and see little of the profit that companies make from exploiting natural resources?

2022-03-11T13:45:00+00:00December 11th, 2015|

Many conflicts around community rights in natural resource management are caused by competition between companies and communities over access to and control of natural resources. Commercial exploitation of natural resources deprives communities of access to the spaces and resources on which they depend for their livelihoods and well-being, and local people usually see little if any of the revenues generated by these resources. In April this year I participated in an international conference on Natural Resource Management and Community Rights in Cameroon in Yaoundé organised by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED). This was the first time I’d attended a [...]

Eureka moment for an organisation development practitioner

2022-03-11T13:44:58+00:00June 8th, 2015|

Have you ever had a Eureka moment when a song describes exactly how you feel?  Yep, that OMG moment! I know the feeling. Now imagine what is being described in the song is not only how you feel, but also your perception of the world, your ideas of how to make a difference, your personal vision, your values. I know, what are the odds? Small, you'd say? Wait until you read my story. I come from Africa, specifically the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). From a continent and a country that have and continue to struggle with poverty, disease, conflict and [...]

Values and ‘deep culture:’ the roots of change

2022-03-11T13:44:58+00:00May 12th, 2015|

I was recently facilitating a session with civil society representatives in the Republic of Congo, and I asked them to reflect on their personal values, and how these values relate to their professional life. It was inspiring and enriching to hear their responses, and it made me think about how I would answer the question if someone were to ask me. For me, values are an intricate part of who we are as individuals: they shape the way that we see ourselves, and the way that we relate to others and the world around us. In this way, when thinking about [...]

What if we stopped telling other people what’s good for them and thinking and acting on their behalf?

2022-03-11T13:44:57+00:00April 9th, 2015|

A recent conversation brought to mind Gandhi’s observation “Whatever you do for me without me, you do against me…” I’d been facilitating a strategic process with an organisation whose executive director told me about an earlier experience with strategic planning in 2008: “… [it] didn’t really help us move forward, it wasn’t the right time and we never asked for it. Our partner was concerned about our organisational development; they wanted to use this process to identify our strengths and weaknesses and generate a capacity building plan, but it was their idea, their project, not ours. It was supposed to be [...]

Welcome to the Well Grounded blog!

2022-03-11T13:44:57+00:00March 16th, 2015|

Welcome to the Well Grounded blog! This will be a space for reflection about the challenges facing African civil society organisations today – particularly the challenges they face in their own organisations, in developing collective action with others and in identifying how to open and occupy space for real and positive change. As time goes on, we hope that many different people and organisations get involved in the conversation, challenge ideas, provoke discussion and debate and share solutions. When Iola Leal and I set Well Grounded up in 2010, both of us, from a forest campaigning background, had worked for a [...]

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