URDT lessons 2009

Patricia Seybold Group / Case Study

Developing Change Agents to Spawn Grass
Roots Innovation and Transformation in Africa
Lessons Learned from Rural Africa Could Apply to Your Organization!

By Patricia B. Seybold, CEO and Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group April 9, 2009

NETTING IT OUT Take-Aways for Fostering Innovation and
Replicating the Innovation Process
The Uganda Rural Development and Training
Programme (URDT) has become a hotbed of
Here are the take-aways from URDT’s proven
innovative practices in integrated rural devel-
approach to grass roots innovation which has
opment. In this report, we focus on the innova-
been successful in rural Uganda for over 20
tions that URDT has created and the unique
years:
innovation transfer process that they are cur-
rently piloting through the training and deploy- Build a Culture of Customer-Led Innovation
ment of committed young women as change
agents in rural communities. • Promote a creative orientation (within and
outside your organization).
Many other development efforts have failed to
create long-lasting results because too often • Instill multi-disciplinary, holistic systems
any progress made by an individual is cut short thinking as a cultural norm
by the weakest link in that person’s life. For ex-
ample, a child might successfully enroll in • Engage community members and stake-
school, but then die of malaria. Or a woman holders in co-design
might learn how to start a small business, but
then be prevented by her husband from doing How to Replicate Your Innovation Engine
so.
• Attract and train visionary change agents.
URDT provides an integrated approach based
on the concept that to achieve lasting develop- • Ground them in creative orientation, vision-
ment, people must become empowered in all ary leadership, customer co-design, cross-
areas of their lives, including education, health, disciplinary systems thinking, and practical
economic self-reliance, human rights, and civic skills.
participation. Since its inception, URDT has
helped thousands of people improve their lives • Send them out to seed and nurture innova-
and has received accolades from international tion by working with customers in the field;
organizations for its innovative approaches. Let them learn by doing, failing, and learn-
ing from their mistakes. Provide coaching
URDT’s training of local people, especially and celebrate successes.
women, to become leaders and creators, is
changing the way rural communities work. • Network your change agents together and
Might similar practices work to spark customer- to the “mother ship” to share learnings and
led innovation among your stakeholders? innovations from the field.

Direct link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1571/cs04-09-09cc
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2 • Case Study

The Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) Programme Does Not Rescue People
It Empowers Them to Create Better Lives

From Poverty To Prosperity

Photo: Nick Korn
Photo: URDT

URDT’s innovations in rural development have improved the lives of thousands of rural Ugandans in nine coun-
ties. The house on the left is the typical rural house. On the right, African Rural University students are talking
with a villager whose diversified farming has enabled him to begin construction on a new, brick home. The
URDT approach ignites the creative drive within the people it touches.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP A SUCCESSFUL leaders would be interested in piloting a new form of
CUSTOMER-LED INNOVATION PRACTICE? grass roots community development. The founders
believed that getting aid from outside experts was
How do you build a successful, repeatable cus- the wrong way for villagers in rural Africa to do de-
tomer-led innovation practice and culture? We tend velopment work. Instead, they wanted the local peo-
to look for innovation best practices and examples ple to create their own home-grown path to
from corporate R&D labs, vibrant online customer prosperity.
communities, innovation consultancies, innovation The three founders began by facilitating a com-
exchanges and competitions. But there are many munity action planning session under a mango tree
other places where innovation thrives. Uganda Rural in the small village. The villagers created a list of
Development and Training Programme (URDT) in priorities (clean water, sanitation, more prosperous
Kagadi, Uganda is one. farms, education and jobs for their children, health-
care, better roads, electricity, etc.) Then they began
URDT: Celebrates Twenty-Two Years of mobilizing to develop the know-how and to build
Successful Grass Roots Innovation the capacity to change their circumstances.
Now, 22 years later, the town has 30 businesses,
Founded in 1987, URDT grew out of the evolv-
a 100-bed hospital, prosperous farms, and a positive
ing needs of the members of Kagadi, a small rural
“can do” energy. Electricity has now reached Kagadi
community in the Kibaale District in western
town. The roads are improving. (The journey from
Uganda. The three original founders—Mwalimu
Kampala used to take two days by car; now it takes
Musheshe, Ephrem Rutaboba, and Silvana Franco—
five hours.) The town and the surrounding region
came to the district looking for a community whose

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Developing Change Agents to Spawn Grass Roots Innovation and Transformation in Africa • 3

The Inception of URDT: How Do We Create Lasting Change?

In 1987, URDT founders looked at rural development and asked: “What is wrong with this picture? No change is
happening.”

have become more prosperous. Infant mortality has access to resources to help local people take the nec-
decreased dramatically, as has domestic violence essary actions to improve their lives. URDT has
and corruption. evolved its programs organically over the years, to
URDT’s original three-person team has grown to serve a region that now includes 6 million people in
a dedicated staff (now about 130 people) on an 80- 9 districts.
acre campus that was deeded to them by a grateful For 22 years, this grass roots organization has
local county. The campus is a beehive of activity been innovating in the field of integrated rural de-
with three schools, a demonstration farm, a commu- velopment. Although not as well known as the
nity radio station, a computer and Internet center, Barefoot College 1 in India or Grameen Bank 2 , the
social and land rights counseling, a solar technology birthplace of micro-credit in Sri Lanka, URDT is a
center, and many other trades being learned and ap- hotbed of innovative, yet pragmatic practices for
plied. There are typically about 500 people on cam- sustainable rural development.
pus at any time. The students and staff work with
community leaders, local farmers, businesspeople,
educators, churches, police, courts, and local non-
government organizations (NGOs) to develop and
deliver education, training, practical know-how, and

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4 • Case Study

ESTABLISHING THE FRAMEWORK FOR Envision the Outcomes
INNOVATION You Want to Create
What’s the approach that URDT uses to inno- URDT promotes a
vate? It’s a customer co-design approach in which Creative Orientation. A
the multi-disciplinary staff work directly with their local woman is describ-
“customers”—the residents of the Kibaale district ing how she creates a
(and surrounding districts) and the students of all picture in her head of
ages who flock to the URDT campus. The goal for the vision she wants to
every encounter is to spark the creative spirit in each achieve.
person and to unleash their imagination. URDT’s
motto: “Awakening the Sleeping Genius in Each of From the beginning,
Us.” URDT has conversed
with people about their
Promote a Creative Orientation own capabilities to cre-
URDT’s repeatable innovation process is based ate what they truly want.
on the following proven approach which the three These are images from
founders adapted from Robert Fritz’s Creative Proc- the Village Course
ess3: scroll they carried
around 20 years ago
• Encourage people to develop a vision for the life and used under the
they want to have trees to discuss princi-
ples for using choice,
• Ask them to objectively describe the current re- imagination, and mental
ality of their present circumstances focus to make progress.
You can see the local language written under the
• Ask them to notice and to cherish the structural English. Most of the villagers they worked with in the
tension between their vision and their current re- beginning were illiterate, so the pictures were most
ality important. Conversations were always held in the local
language, since people who have not gone to school
• Encourage them to commit themselves to
do not speak English, which is the national language
achieve their visions.
and is taught in school.
• Help them brainstorm ways to achieve their vi-
sions This is another frame from
the original scroll of the Vil-
• Support them in taking the steps required to at- lage Course, that teaches
tain their visions principles of the creative
process. Images, local lan-
• Help them adjust, fail, and experiment but still guage, and English
maintain the vision and the structural tension (Uganda’s official language)
convey the point.



Kagadi Villagers: What Do Kagadi District, 1987 Current Reality
You Want to Create?

Kagadi Villagers’ Vision


6 • Case Study

Instill Multi-Disciplinary, Holistic Systems innovative approaches that URDT, its clients, and
Thinking as a Cultural Norm stakeholders have developed that are successful.
Each of these initiatives is innovative; together they
In addition to promoting a creative orientation, form a powerful integrated approach to rural com-
the second ingredient in URDT’s “secret sauce” is munity development:
systems thinking.4 This approach came naturally to
URDT’s three founders, but they also validated their COMMUNITY RADIO. The use of community radio
own experience and instincts by studying with Peter is the communications mechanism for outreach, edu-
Senge at MIT. cation, and citizen involvement. By the mid-90s, the
community members in Kagadi had accomplished
URDT’s method includes the following principles: many infrastructure projects (water, sanitation, nutri-
tion), but they were concerned about the violence
• Take a holistic view of every issue and corruption that plagued the region. They wanted
more of a voice in local affairs. But they said, “in
• Use systems thinking to spot interdependencies order to participate, we need information!” When
and unintended consequences asked, “what’s the best way to get information to
everyone?” they all agreed it would be via radio.
Engage Community Members and You don’t have to be literate to pick up important
Stakeholders in Co-Design information on the radio. Battery-powered radios are
URDT practices participatory, customer co- relatively inexpensive.
design, which includes two important dimensions: 1)
So, URDT launched its KKCR community radio
the customers/citizens/stakeholders design their own
station in 2000. It was the first FM Community Ra-
solutions and therefore embrace and adopt them. 2)
dio station in East Africa. KKCR broadcasts 18
By including people with very different expertise
hours per day in seven local languages and English.
and perspectives, you gain the advantage of cross-
The radio reaches 10 districts in Western Uganda. It
disciplinary, cross-gender, and cross-age points of
has an avid listenership of over two million people.
view in the design and implementation of any solu-
The radio programming is developed and produced
tion. URDT’s approach to innovation includes these
by the staff, students, and community members.
additional principles:
Community members co-design and present pro-
• Leverage local knowledge and expertise grams on the radio.
• Engage participants of all ages and genders
There’s an open door policy. You can walk in to talk
• Employ cross-disciplinary teams
on the radio or call in to talk on the radio. Many
What are the kinds of innovations that URDT’s people use the radio to let their friends and family
local staff, local residents and partners have created? members know where they are and what they’re do-
Let’s take a look. ing. Children have a voice on the radio—both the
girls from the URDT Girls’ School—who develop
and air dramas about domestic violence, local cor-
URDT’S INNOVATIONS ruption, children’s rights, to name a few topics—and
the children from the local community, who wait
Innovative Approaches to Integrated Rural patiently in line dressed in their best clothes on Sun-
Development days for their turn on the air.
Although many development organizations Outreach programming includes agricultural educa-
preach integrated development, there are few suc- tion for local farmers, HIV/AIDs education, pro-
cessful models in the practice of grass roots (bot- grams for and by local women, as well as visionary
toms up/citizen-led rather than top down/expert-led) leadership training.
integrated rural development. Here are some of the



Community Radio

In 2000, URDT launched the first community radio
station in East Africa. It provides information sharing,
training, and education in the local language to over 4
million listeners. It is enormously popular. Every mud
hut has its transistor radio. People travel on foot for
miles to come speak on the radio. And now with cell
phones, people call in on talk shows. Radio
announcements help organize people for group
projects like road and bridge building, for example.
Every Sunday the children are free to speak, and a
hundred line up to wait their turn to greet their
grannies or recite their own poem.

A group of local women are preparing a radio show for
broadcast.

On Children’s Day, the local kids take over the
radio programming for the whole day!


8 • Case Study

ANTI-CORRUPTION CITIZEN ACTIVISM. URDT the families are quickly rubber-stamped by the local
fosters open dialogue and debate on the radio among authorities, because they are fair and they stick. This
local politicians, tribal leaders, and citizens about saves time in the local court system and yields more
corruption, violence, and infrastructure priorities. consistent settlements, than those that are typically
Citizens call in to the radio to report corruption and arrived at in the local justice system.
crime. Politicians defend themselves on the radio.
Due to citizen engagement on the radio around local The radio is used to educate people about their rights
government and policy issues, voter turnout in the and to adjudicate issues on the air. One of the most
districts served by the radio has increased from 40 to popular radio shows is Odembos Maloba’s call-in
85 percent! show. Odembos is the human rights officer at URDT.
He uses the radio to give voice to people who have
GENDER EDUCATION. “Having a strong woman at suffered from domestic or institutional abuse.
your side,” “making decisions as a family,” “educat- Odembos uses his weekly radio program to expose a
ing girls to increase the value of their contributions particularly egregious example of child neglect, do-
to the community,” are all val- mestic violence, or human rights
ues that are integrated into all of abuses. He asks the aggrieved
URDT’s programs, from voca- party to tell their story on the air.
tional skills training, to farm Due to citizen engagement They describe how they were
extension services, to manage- on the radio around local treated by local police or officials,
ment training, to radio pro- government and policy issues, how many different avenues they
gramming. had to use to get redress, and who
voter turnout in the districts stood in their way. He gives these
For example, when my husband, served by the radio victims a voice and they educate
Tom Hagan, interviewed local has increased from 40 to others so that they will know
entrepreneurs about what they what to do in a similar situation
learned at the URDT vocational
85 percent!
and won’t suffer the same obsta-
institute that helped them start cles. He takes calls and sugges-
their businesses and become tions from avid listeners, and he
successful, he was expecting them to talk about the arbitrates publicly, illustrating the principles of jus-
trade skills they learned, the tools they were pro- tice, fairness, and explaining the Ugandan penal
vided, or the management training they received, but code and the constitution. This way people know
they all cited something else: Gender Studies! what their rights are, so the local officials can’t
abuse their power.
All of URDT’s courses include a grounding in the
understanding of the ways that men and women HIV/AIDS EDUCATION. URDT developed an inno-
communicate differently, what they value, and how vative outreach program for HIV/AIDS education.
they can work together productively, both in the They noticed that frank and free discussion of the
household and in business. In fact, the Institute’s issues related to HIV/AIDS and risky sexual behav-
vocational courses pair up young men and women to ior is often blocked by deeply held views that men
learn and practice welding, carpentry, food process- have about women and sex and that women have
ing, and other trades. about men and sex. Dialogue and shared learning
stop when men are blaming women and women
SOCIAL RIGHTS AND LAND RIGHTS blaming men about such issues as who is or is not
ADJUDICATION. The URDT campus has become a using condoms and whose behavior is causing the
magnet for family members seeking redress from spread of HIV. So URDT worked with village lead-
grievances and for dealing with land disputes. The ers to develop a program for “Village Reflection and
on-campus counseling services provide arbitration Dialogue on Gender and HIV/AIDS.”
and issues resolution. The settlements agreed to by



Men and Women Learn Vocational Trades
Together

The URDT Institute for Vocational Studies trains
young men and women in carpentry, metal work,
brick making, food processing and entrepreneurship.
In a recent survey of graduates of this Institute who
are now running their own businesses and employing
others, the one thing every man said they especially
remembered learning at the Institute was to treat
women more equally. In all URDT’s programs there is
a component on gender equality and human rights.

Human Rights and Land Rights Counseling

People come to the URDT campus from miles around to
get counseling, arbitration and adjudication when they
feel their rights have been violated. Women come to
complain about domestic violence. Families come to
seek redress when land rights are disputed. People
come seeking help in dealing with officials and to
understand the laws. Children also come to complain if
they are not being treated well at home.

Statistics show that poverty indicators, like disease,
infant mortality, and maternal morbidity, drop
dramatically as girls are educated. HIV/AIDS
education needs to start with children.


10 • Case Study

The HIV/AIDS Dialogue program is delivered in The farm operations include a wide variety of grains
local languages. It includes drama, dialog, education, and vegetables, including coffee and tea, cows, pigs,
facilitation, and is supported by radio programming. and chickens, bee-keeping, agro forestry, woodlots
Over 2,000 field guides were used and 19 commu- management, and a maize mill. URDT’s agricultural
nity-based organizations in 19 sub-counties have innovations include:
taken part in the program with dramatic results. The
local hospitals have had to increase their HIV testing INTRODUCED FISH FARMING. In visiting a re-
programs because the number of people who have gion to the south in the 1990s, the villagers in Ka-
asked to be tested for HIV/AIDS increases dramati- hunge listed “swamps” as part of their current reality.
cally, each time these awareness courses are run In discussions, they decided that those swamps
both in villages and on the radio. could become a resource. Why not turn the swamps
into ponds and raise fish? URDT developed fish
HELPING FARMERS WITH HIV. Working together food using a combination of chicken manure and
with local farmers who have contracted HIV, URDT leaves from Russian cornflake plants. The fish ponds
developed a support program for farmers to success- are surrounded with mint to keep the snakes away.
fully live and work with HIV and remain productive. Women fish farmers now have over six fish ponds
This program is promulgated via Community Radio. using the URDT model. These women have also
One of the infected farmers who was close to death organized their own preschool for their small chil-
10 years ago, now hosts a regular radio program dren to allow themselves to do a more productive
about living productively with HIV. He has destig- job as fish farmers.
matized the disease for farmers and their families.
RECYCLING WASTE INTO ENERGY. Animal ma-
PREVENTING HIV/AIDS IN CHILDREN. The most nure is converted to bio-gas and used to power cook-
recent innovative program in HIV/AIDS education ing stoves.
and outreach is currently being developed to reach
sexually active children and teens. Many children INTENSIVE CASH CROP PRODUCTION. URDT
who live with their parents in one-room huts begin and local farmers realized that for many families, the
mimicking their parents’ love-making at a very early plots of land become smaller and smaller as lease-
age. Many children are born HIV-positive. That holdings are subdivided among the children in the
means that the virus can be spreading even before a family. So they have created a number of small-
child reaches puberty. footprint farming methods, in which you can grow a
cash crop on a very small plot of land. One such in-
In talking with young girls who are helping in the vention is a small footprint greenhouse that is made
design of the new training and education materials, from sticks and plastic sheeting with tomatoes
Jacquelyn Akello, programme director at URDT re- grown vertically on strings. It produces abundant
ported, “these girls have no idea that they are risking harvests and pays off the investment quickly.
their lives. They believe that if they don’t have a
baby in their teens, they will never be able to have NEW ORGANIC CROPS FOR THE REGION. Local
children, and they believe that if they stay in school, farmers were seeking new crops that that can be
they will never attract a husband.” transported long distances over bad roads in order to
be exported from this land-locked rural country.
Agricultural Innovations URDT’s agronomists worked with exporters of or-
ganic produce to develop new crops and certified
The URDT campus includes a demonstration organic agricultural practices and to test them on
farm that is used to educate local farmers, the stu- local farms. Now sesame seed and chili beans are
dents at the Girls School, Institute students, and the now being grown by 4,000 local farmers and sold
University students. The URDT Farm practices sus- for export through an organic export fair trade farm-
tainable agriculture, making use of the principles of ers' cooperative.
organic farming, perma culture, including compost-
ing, mulching, crop rotation, and organic fertilizers.



After working with people in their own villages for 10
years, URDT acquired 80 acres of land for a campus.
The first priority was to establish a demonstration
organic farm so that people could learn more quickly
and see good agricultural practices in operation. The
farm is still used for training, as well as for income
generation and for feeding the staff and students on
the campus.

URDT trained subsistence farmers to produce cash
crops using the demonstration farm on the URDT
campus and extension programs. They taught farmers
to move from mono-culture to planting complementary
plants.

This Tomato Greenhouse can be built and
stocked for a few hundred dollars. Plants
grow vertically, and produce dramatic
yields. These plants are being tended by
the Girls’ School students.


12 • Case Study

AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE VIA AIDS treatment and prevention, land rights, and
COMMUNITY RADIO. A local woman farmer re- human rights. They present these plays in villages
ported, “from the ‘Wake up and Work’ radio pro- and on the radio.
gram, we learned that people even with very small
capital could start selling greens in the market. How The Ugandan Ministry of Education is now inter-
has this improved our life? Well, for one, we never ested in this curriculum for broader adoption in other
lack salt, sugar, and paraffin for cooking, and we rural districts. They have asked URDT to train 1,000
always have soap. This was not the case before! teachers this year, to turn them from teachers into
‘And all of this simply because of the new informa- facilitators of integrated learning.
tion!’”
GIRLS’ SCHOOL’S TWO-GENERATION
EDUCATION. The URDT Girls’ school uses a
Education Innovations
unique two-generation approach to education. It re-
There are three formal educational institutions on quires girls' families to participate in their daughters'
the campus—the Girls’ School, the Vocational and education through functional adult literacy training
Business Institute, and the African Rural University and encourages them to study the same curriculum
for Women. They all share the same campus re- their daughters are learning.
sources and work together on projects. For example,
the girls learn to make chairs which they take home GIRLS’ SCHOOL’S BACK HOME PROJECTS. As
at the end of the term. The car- part of the two-Generation Edu-
pentry students make beds for cation and the girls’ visionary
the Girls boarding school. All of Girls' families' incomes leadership training, the girls and
the courses share the same foun- their families are graded on
dation in the creative process, typically increase by "Back Home" projects—after
visionary leadership, and gender 20 percent during the 4 years being guided in visioning by
equality. In addition, all of the that they send their daughters their daughters, each family
staff and adult students on the away to school. picks a project to accomplish
campus meet for a one-hour during the school term (while
seminar on systems thinking their daughter is away at school):
each morning—honing their build a new house, build a latrine,
analysis skills by examining local issues that are raise a new crop or livestock, improve home or vil-
arising in the region. lage sanitation, make their farm more productive
(drying racks, crop rotation, complimentary multi-
GIRLS’ SCHOOL’S CO-CURRICULUM. This crop planting ). Their daughters provide the exper-
unique approach links education to rural develop- tise and guidance to their families and communities
ment. The URDT Girls' School educates girls 12 to during their vacation breaks. In fact, Monica, a 14-
18 in both Ugandan national curriculum AND prac- year old reported proudly that there was usually a
tical “how to’s” for rural life. The school provides line of local people turning up at her door during
formal education (Uganda’s National Education each school vacation—people who were looking for
Board curriculum) as well as informal training advice about how to improve their homes and farms.
through co-curricular activities that enhance their
skills in leadership, commercial-oriented sustainable As a result, of the two-generation education and
agricultural, entrepreneurship, appropriate technolo- their back home projects, girls' families' incomes
gies (solar, computer, internet), media outreach, as typically increase by 20 percent during the 4 years
well as crafts (furniture, baskets, clothing) for sales that they send their daughters away to school. It’s a
and home use. Girls' write, produce and present good trade-off since these girls are usually the
plays and musicals to train villagers on issues such “workers” in the family, hauling water, tending
as political corruption, domestic violence, HIV crops, gathering food, cooking food, babysitting.



The URDT Girls’
School
The Girls’ School is a
boarding school for
240 girls from poor
rural families (12 to 18
years old). They learn
the Uganda curriculum
+ visionary leadership,
gender equality, health
& nutrition, organic
farming, journalism,
solar energy,
computers &
appropriate
technology.

Two-Generation
Education
A student teaches
parents and relatives
how to decide what
outcome they want to
achieve and how to
make it happen!

Girls’ School
Students Learn to
Make Furniture for
Their Homes
Parents admire the
furniture their
daughters have made
for their homes.


14 • Case Study

Back Home Projects: Monica’s New House!

At the age of 14, Monica helped her family grow more
crops to produce enough income so that they could
design and build a new home (left). The older home
is still used as the kitchen.

Back Home Projects: Family’s New
Piggery

Another girl’s family began a piggery, and
extended their gardens greatly.

Back Home Projects: Under Construction
The URDT staff and guests visits this family’s
Back Home Project to take stock. Improvements
include a drying rack for dishes, and a new
garden crop, and an extension to the house.



TESTING THE GIRLS’ SCHOOL MODEL IN DAY ral development from its own experience. The stu-
SCHOOLS. The results from the Girls’ School have dents learn by doing, both on campus and in the field.
been dramatic, but now parents are asking whether This is a three-year degree program, which is now
they couldn’t have the same kind of education for concluding its pilot phase. The curriculum has been
girls (and boys) who are not in a boarding school co-designed and debugged by the first cohort of 30
setting. URDT has launched two day schools—one students, who are now completing their third-year in
for primary education and one for secondary educa- the program.
tion, to see whether the co-curriculum, the two-
generation education and the Back Home projects APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES'
will work as well for students who go home every INNOVATIONS
night.
URDT considers “appropriate technologies” to
INSTITUTE’S RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP be those that are appropriate for rural use and adop-
CURRICULUM. The Institute is designed to provide tion. Some of these are older techniques that Afri-
young men and women the vocational and manage- cans used to use but which had been forgotten. Once
ment training required to run their own non-farm the need is identified, URDT looks first to village
businesses. The innovative approach that URDT elders for local knowledge which might be com-
takes is that no matter what career the student is pre- bined with modern techniques and available materi-
paring for, or supplementing with new skills, they als. Among the technologies that URDT has
also receive training in visionary leadership, gender invented, applied and adapted for rural use are:
studies, in the use and maintenance of rural tech-
nologies, business management, and other aspects of COMMUNITY-LED BORE HOLE AND WATER
entrepreneurship. In fact, one of the hallmarks of the SOURCE PROTECTION. In Uganda, as in many
vocational training programs at the Institute is the other parts of Africa, the drilling of wells and the
fact that young men and women are put together in installation of pumps to pump sanitary drinking wa-
teams to learn their trades, so that men and women ter is typically performed by water treatment experts,
are learning by doing side by side—this is unique in who are paid by the county government or by an
this part of Africa. NGO. The problem with this approach is that the
The Institute provides training in accounting, mar- villagers do not consider the resulting spring to be
keting, and business administration, as well as car- “theirs,” so they do not maintain it; nor do they nec-
pentry, metal working, auto mechanics, solar energy, essarily have the know-how to do so. URDT’s first
welding, tailoring, food processing, and journalism. innovation was to show local men and women how
They also provide business training support for local to protect their bore holes and to keep them in sani-
artisans, water technicians, health workers, and tra- tary condition. Over 20 years later, the community-
ditional birth attendants. They provide and refurbish maintained water sources are still in operation, while
tools, and provide loans for small businesses. the county-provided bore holes typically last only
four to five years.
THE AFRICAN RURAL UNIVERSITY FOR
WOMEN (ARU) TRAINS COMMUNITY CHANGE HUMAN-POWERED IRRIGATION SYSTEMS.
AGENTS. This is the only university program that Farmers, working together with URDT, have devel-
prepares women to be community transformation oped a set of irrigation methods to bring water from
leaders and entrepreneurs in rural African communi- a fish pond, stream, or other reliable source of water
ties. The curriculum is derived from URDT’s 22- for crops, using gravity, pulleys, and local materials.
years of learning about what works in integrated ru- By cranking a wheel, and activating a series of pul-
leys, the farmer can irrigate his fields.


16 • Case Study

The URDT Institute for Vocational, Business and
Media Studies

The URDT Institute for Business, Vocational and Media
Studies, trains 175 local young men and women per year to
be entrepreneurs with a combination of skills and
management education.

Institute Grads Are Job-Creators;
Not Job-Seekers

Mukuru Moses, URDT Institute graduate and proud
owner of Kagadi Metal Works, where he has trained
8 apprentices.

The Institute Has Spawned Local Entrepreneurship

• 56 community-based • 30 New Businesses in Kagadi
technicians creating and town, including:
maintaining various o Brick-making
technologies in commu- o Furniture company
nities o Clothing company
• 460 households access o Bakery
solar electricity and its o Restaurant
various benefits o Hotels
• 1 graduate launched a • 10 New Training Cooperatives
string of nursery schools in craft, carpentry, metal work
• 6 Women grads and mechanics around Kagadi
launched a Micro- sub-county
Another Institute graduate makes high quality Finance institution • New Farmers’ Cooperative
furniture for a living. has built a road to Kagadi,
warehouse and office



Appropriate Technologies

One of the first things people identified Village Built and Maintained Bore Holes for Clean Water
that they wanted in their lives was
clean water. Groups of people
protected their own springs, which they
have continued to maintain over 2
decades. Now over 34,000 people in
the district have access to clean water
through their own efforts.

A simple but ingenious system is used A Rope and Washer Pump for Micro-Irrigation
to pump water from the fish pond to the
top of a platform. Simple gravity takes
the water from there through a hose
out to the fields that are at a higher
level than the pond.


18 • Case Study

This is a biogas plant on campus, BioGas Production on the URDT Campus
using manure to run the kitchen stoves.
Enoch Kyambadde, who is the head
agronomist, demonstrates its
operation.

URDT trains solar technicians, and URDT’s Solar Technology Center
many homes in the district now use
solar power to provide lights at night.
The district had no electrical power
until last year, and still most people
have no access to it. This solar center
is also used to charge batteries that
villagers can use to power their homes
and bring them back to be recharged
from solar energy. In front of the
building are charcoal coolers, and solar
drying racks. Solar dryers preserve
fruits and vegetables with no bacteria.

URDT has a computer lab, Internet The Computer Lab
access via Satellite dish and WIFI on
campus.



BIOGAS PRODUCTION AND DEPLOYMENT. WOMENS’ MICRO-FINANCE COOP. URDT
URDT pioneered the recycling of methane from ma- spawned a locally-developed micro-finance banking
nure for homes and farms. They have developed a system founded by three women graduates of
simple set up that any family can create out of lo- URDT's Institute. The first women’s’ lending group
cally available materials to transform methane from quickly grew to 11 such groups totaling 365 women.
compost into enough cooking gas to cook their They then formed a micro-lending co-op.
meals.
LOANS FOR GIRLS’ FAMILIES’ FARMS. URDT
CHARCOAL COOLERS. The use of charcoal to line provides loans for parents of the girls attending the
wooden boxes to "refrigerate" perishable foods Girls' School. These loans help families' with their
farms and are paid back from the productivity im-
DRYING RACKS. An easy and sanitary way to pre- provements brought home by their 12- to 18-year
serve foods and dry dishes; this is a practice that has old daughters!
been re-born and re-introduced into homes and vil-
lages through URDT outreach. CAMPUS ENTERPRISES. URDT has spawned a
number of businesses on campus that produce reve-
SOLAR TECHNOLOGIES. A single solar panel will nue. These include: battery charging, automotive
provide light for a household after dark. Many repair, brick-making, furniture, timber, crops from
households can’t afford to install a solar panel, but the farm, milling of maize, computer and internet
they can afford to buy a battery and have it charged access, an on-campus store, catering services, trans-
by a shared solar panel. But these panels need to be portation, and radio advertising. These on campus
maintained and batteries charged and swapped out. businesses provide about 40% of the revenues for
URDT trains men and women to be solar technicians the organization, jobs and hands on business experi-
to install and maintain solar systems and to establish ence for students.
local battery charging facilities in the bush. Hun-
dreds of households are now equipped with solar LOCAL BUSINESSES PROVIDE SKILLS
energy. TRAINING. Graduates of the Vocational Institute
have spawned dozens of local businesses, from bicy-
INTERNET CAFÉ, COMPUTER TRAINING, WIFI cle repair to furniture manufacture, clothing and res-
ACCESS. I was amazed to discover URDT’s appe- taurants—what's unique about these businesses is
tite for computer technology years before electric that they are 1) successful, 2) they train new workers,
power lines reached the campus. URDT was one of and 3) they are gender-conscious—women are
the first rural campuses to realize how empowering viewed as equal participants by the graduates of the
it is for people to be able to use the Internet in an Institute. Each Institute graduate who starts a busi-
untethered way. The campus installed a satellite dish ness typically trains four interns at a time and em-
to gain access to the Internet in 2000. At the time, ploys three to four people. These graduates consider
electricity was provided by a combination of diesel it their duty to provide others with training in the
generators and solar panels and batteries. WIFI was skills they have mastered.
installed on campus in 2007, but its use had to be
curtailed because the more people jumped on, the NEED FOR EQUIPMENT LEASING OR BUSINESS
higher the monthly bills for Internet access. (Access LOANS. A need that has been identified, but not yet
to broadband costs at least $1,000/month in rural satisfied, is a way to provide capital loans or leases
Uganda—in a region in which the typical income is for rural businesses needing $5,000 to $50,000 to
$1/day). procure capital equipment (e.g., machine tools,
manufacturing equipment). Local banks now provide
MICROFINANCE & BUSINESS farm loans and micro-loans, but there are no leasing
programs or commercial loans available to small
There were no banks in the region and no source capital-intensive businesses in rural areas.
of financing for farmers.


20 • Case Study

It began with a group Women Institute Grads Created Their Own MicroFinance Arm in 1995
of 6 women in 1995
and quickly grew to 11
groups of women—
365; This prosperous
women’s cooperative
micro-finance
institution now serves
several thousand
customers.

URDT’s Institute Students Build Furniture for the School

The URDT Farm Feeds the 650 People on Campus and Still Has Produce to Sell



HOW DO YOU REPLICATE SUCCESSFUL systems thinking, that it has become second nature
INNOVATION PRACTICES? to them. They are trained in all aspects of rural de-
velopment, from sanitation and nutrition, to agricul-
For over 20 years, the Uganda Rural Develop- ture, to local trades and the use of appropriate
ment and Training Programme (URDT) has been technologies. They are well versed in the complex
catalyzing and practicing customer-led, participatory interplay of disease, family planning, cultural beliefs,
grass roots innovation. URDT creates social and gender issues, human rights, land rights, and conflict
business entrepreneurs by 1) instilling in people the resolution. They know how to mobilize a commu-
capacity to create and commit to a personal vision nity to develop its own community plan of action
and 2) providing them with the know-how and the and to tackle big projects, without waiting for hand-
tools to mobilize themselves and others. URDT has outs or experts. They know how to inspire individu-
been successful in engaging people in the local als to dream beyond the day to day and they can
community to co-create new programs and practices. show them how to tap the structural tension between
URDT catalyzes action in its radio listeners, spurring their current reality and their vision to create mo-
entrepreneurship. Innovation spreads in the villages mentum.
in which the families of the girls’ in the Girls’
School live. Innovation and entrepreneurship are Four Steps to Replicating an Engine of
spread in the areas in which its graduates reside and
Innovation
work and/or where outreach or extension programs
take place. The approach that URDT is taking to grow its in-
How else can the URDT model of grass roots innovative capacity may be appropriate for other busi-
novation be more broadly replicated? nesses and not-for-profits. In many ways, it’s an
approach that has been practiced by missionaries for
Replicate Visionary Change Agents centuries. The difference however, is that its purpose
is not to promulgate religion, but to spawn innova-
Mwalimu Musheshe is convinced that the best tion and entrepreneurship, and to co-create innova-
way to replicate URDT’s systemic approach to grass tive solutions to local problems and issues by
roots innovation is not to clone more campuses in inspiring and energizing local people.
other parts of Uganda or Africa, as the Barefoot Col-
lege has done, but to clone himself! He wants to 1. Attract and train visionary change agents.
educate “Musheshas,” as the ARU students call
themselves. 2. Ground them in creative orientation, visionary
Here’s the URDT replication model: Create vi- leadership, customer co-design, cross-
sionary leaders who are steeped in the experience disciplinary systems thinking, and practical
gained from 20+ years of trial and error in customer- skills.
led grass roots rural development, and who are
themselves successful visionary leaders and social 3. Send them out to seed and nurture innovation by
and business entrepreneurs. Send them into the rural working with customers in the field; Let them
countryside from which they came to “awaken the learn by doing, failing, and learning from their
sleeping geniuses” in their own villages. mistakes. Provide coaching and celebrate suc-
The purpose of the African Rural University is to cesses.
attract and educate women to be rural innovators,
entrepreneurs and change agents in their own rural 4. Network them together and to the “mother ship.”
communities, for them to be embraced as commu-
nity transformation leaders. The graduates of ARU
are so well versed in the creative orientation and in


22 • Case Study

The first class of ARU The African Rural University for Women
students.

These women work ARU Students on Campus
hard academically and
also in the surrounding
communities, learning
how to be leaders in
transformative change.



ATTRACT AND TRAIN VISIONARY CHANGE from a reactive, problem-solving orientation to a
AGENTS. How do you attract the right kinds of peo- creative, visionary orientation. This takes time. As
ple who will thrive and be successful as change with any skill, from becoming good at tennis to fly-
agents and transformation leaders? What qualities ing a plane, you don’t master it overnight. But over a
are you seeking? How can you screen for them? period of three years, it is possible to become mas-
What URDT did was to promote the ARU pro- terful in approaching the world from a creative ori-
gram over its community radio, as well as to circu- entation. It becomes second nature to develop a
late information through local newspapers and via vision of the end results you want to achieve and to
other NGOs. This publicity attracted women from all objectively observe all the details of the current
regions who were interested in attaining a University situation and context. You commit to achieving your
degree but who might not be well-suited to become desired results even though you have no idea exactly
change agents. Applicants were carefully screened. how to proceed. Then you let the natural creative
The program was carefully explained. Its goal was process flood you with ideas and possibilities, you
not that of degree-granting, or of preparing students try out different options, get feedback, adjust, and
for work in a large business. continue to improvise your way to your goal.
Candidates had to be able to raise enough funds
Visionary Leadership. You become a leader by
to pay their school fees ($150 per year), which dem-
leading. You become a visionary leader by empow-
onstrated their ability to mobilize resources. They
ering others to create and articulate their own visions
had to be able to leave their families (many had hus-
and to help them form a shared collective vision of
bands and children) for three years, which demon-
the results they want to achieve. Each member of
strated their ability to generate support from their
your team wants to reach their vision for themselves
families to pursue their own visions. Candidates had
as well as for the group. When multiple stakeholders
to be clear that they would be working in their own
have overlapping goals with conflicting priorities,
home communities upon graduation and that they
you create alignment by agreeing on a larger shared
would be creating their own jobs and livelihoods,
vision and outcome with clear parameters for suc-
which demonstrated their entrepreneurial bent.
cess and conditions of satisfaction for all. Then, you
The result of the screening was largely successful.
learn to mobilize the group by keeping the structural
The candidates who actually enrolled in the three-
tension between where they are and what they all
year program were committed to returning home to
want to achieve and by keeping them inspired and
their villages and to working in their own villages to
committed to their shared and individual visions. In
improve their own economic situation and that of
the ARU program, the students take turns leading
their community members. The first cohort of ARU
their own teams, leading teams of Girls’ School stu-
students consisted of 32 students. Three years later,
dents and Institute students, as well as mobilizing
29 of them had completed the arduous three-year
stakeholders on campus to undertake innovative pro-
program (one death, and two pregnancies accounted
jects. Then they are ready to begin working in the
for the attrition).
local community.
GROUND THEM IN CREATIVE ORIENTATION, Customer Co-Design. ARU change agents want to
VISIONARY LEADERSHIP, CUSTOMER CO- empower and inspire others to create new ap-
DESIGN, CROSS-DISCIPLINARY SYSTEMS proaches, not to be the experts who tell people what
THINKING, AND PRACTICAL SKILLS. What kind to do. Therefore, every project begins with a cus-
of training do visionary change agents need? What tomer co-design session. URDT calls this a Com-
URDT has found is that you can’t learn to be an in- munity Action Planning Session—in which each
novator or a leader by taking classes. You learn by group of stakeholders is led through a process of
doing. articulating their visions, describing the current real-
ity, and brainstorming the ideas they have for taking
Creative Orientation. The most important skill that
action to achieve their visions.
these innovators need to internalize and to master is
how to shift their own orientation or world view


24 • Case Study

Resty Namubiru, 2nd ARU Students in the Field
year ARU student,
leading a community
workshop in 2007. The
villagers are beginning
to talk about their
visions and current
realities together.

Villagers participating
in their Community
Action Planning
Workshop in 2008.

Grace Nyangoma
takes notes during her
practicum in the field in
the Spring of 2009.



Each group of stakeholders (e.g., men heads of public policy, government, land rights, social work,
households, women heads of households, teenagers, etc.
village elders, kids) presents their vision, their cur- After three years of interactive participation in
rent reality, and their prioritized actions to the group these daily seminars, ARU students become profi-
as a whole. The group then prioritizes across all of cient in looking at most issues in a holistic cross-
the stakeholders’ plans to create a comprehensive set disciplinary manner.
of quick wins and strategic projects they can all be-
Practical Skills. Each ARU student acquires a range
gin to work on. The facilitators’ role is to help the
of practical skills during her three-year tenure. Stu-
customers articulate their visions clearly and to help
dents study the indigenous crafts and know-how
them think creatively, rather than reactively.
from different tribes and regions. They explore the
The ARU students discovered that one of the
physics of locally-designed irrigation systems. They
tools they used on campus—women’s circles—
study the chemical properties of herbal remedies.
provided an innovative approach to sustaining de-
They discover the biology of different plants and
velopment progress in their communities. They
their reactions to different types of fertilizers. They
formed women’s circles to create a safe space for
learn how to build latrines, make bricks, raise chick-
women to come together and share their hopes and
ens and pigs, make furniture, and grow a business.
fears. These women’s circles, while started by the
students, persisted after they left the village. They SEND THEM OUT TO SEED AND NURTURE
are becoming part of the fabric of village life and INNOVATION BY WORKING WITH CUSTOMERS
decision-making. In a women's circle in one com- IN THE FIELD. The kind of entrepreneurship and
munity that the ARU students helped form and lead, innovation that ARU change agents learn to foster
one woman said, “There is no peace in my life. But requires engagement with customers as co-designers
in this circle, I find hope for peace.” and co-creators.
Cross-Disciplinary Systems Thinking. Mastering Starting in their first year of study, the students
holistic systems thinking also takes time and practice. begin their field work doing community action plan-
How do all of these different issues (beliefs, cultural ning, co-designing new radio programs, creating
norms, current practices, health, nutrition, gender, new NGO programs by and with local community
local resources) interact with one another? What are members, and working with local entrepreneurs to
the causes and effects, what unintended conse- help them grow their businesses.
quences did we foresee or miss? In the second year, they begin their own “back
URDT provides daily training in systems think- home” projects in their local communities, working
ing through interactive one-hour seminars held at the with their families and their community members to
beginning of each day in what is called the “Founda- create a new business venture or infrastructure pro-
tion Course.” Each morning, all of the adults on ject that will contribute to increasing the prosperity
campus (200 or so) meet for an hour. Each morning of their own families and communities. (The idea is
someone raises a different issue, and the group con- to have built momentum and even a business that
siders the historical background and local context, will become their livelihood by the time they gradu-
identifies the forces at play and analyzes their sys- ate.)
temic interplay. The participants in this daily semi- By the third year, ARU students engage in a one-
nar change over time as new people arrive on month practicum, moving into a local community
campus. They represent a range of specialties and and working with the residents to plan and start a
disciplines as diverse as agriculture, engineering, life project for social or economic development. The
sciences, computers and communications technology, first group of third-year students completed their
primary education, secondary education, social sci- Practicum projects in March, 2009. They worked in
ences, business, finance, marketing, gender studies, teams of two in each village.


26 • Case Study

ARU Change Agents
in Training

Two third-year ARU
students taking a
break with their
hostess during their
1-month practicum.

A group of villagers
being led in a
Community Action
Planning workshop by
two ARU students.



Although each team of girls had a host family sighted to cooperative and visionary. Each community
who had agreed to put them up and to introduce created tangible results within that one-month practi-
them to the community, most of the rest of the cum. The ARU faculty came to coach the students and
community residents were skeptical and standoffish. to hear progress reports from the members in each
Instead of plunging directly into their Community village:
Action Planning, the students instinctively realized
that they should simply live with the people and con- My colleague, Martha Dolben reported:
tribute in small ways. They began by cleaning up the
inside and outside of the hut in which they were liv- “During our recent visit to Uganda, the third year
ing. They hauled water, cleared brush, told stories to students were in their last week of their village prac-
the children, and cooked meals. Then they began ticum and we were privileged to visit them. Susan
asking questions: Who maintains the local spring? Warshauer, Nick Korn, faculty from African Rural
Why do you think your children are sick? What University and I spent several afternoons being
driven far down narrow dirt tracks to be greeted by a
could you feed them that would make them health-
gathering of men, women and children and two ARU
ier? They worked hard, asked questions, and planted students. They were ready to explain their accom-
ideas without giving advice. Within a couple of plishments of the past month: visions and current
weeks, the villagers were ready to begin thinking realities articulated, groups formed, goals set, roads
and planning together. So they invited interested repaired, wash rooms and drying racks built, gar-
parties to participate in action planning sessions. dens dug and planted, and springs cleaned. Most
Soon everyone arrived. Nobody wanted to be left important—interest and energy ignited.
out!
These visits gave me a much clearer picture of the
conditions in which over 80% of Ugandans live.
The projects the community members designed
Sleeping on dirt floors; suffering insect and water-
and worked on included: born diseases; walking long distances for water and
firewood; illiterate, superstitious, and ignorant of ba-
• Getting a local brick maker to train local youth sics in hygiene and health; working all day in the hot
(young men and women) in brick-making. sun to grow cassava and stave off hunger. It is an
existence few Americans I know could handle. Yet
• Mobilizing a community to build a new road in the ARU students joined right in, living with the peo-
order to make it easier and faster to get to mar- ple, and showing them how to improve their lot.
ket and to the nearest health facility.
We heard many interesting testimonies from villag-
• Showing families how to build their own wash- ers. Here are a few:
rooms—these are separate outdoor rooms used
for sponge baths that are far enough away from The host mother where two students lived for a
the house that the run off doesn’t make the yard month said this. "I learned two things being with
and house muddy. these ARU students. First, a person with good mor-
als gains respect in the community. Second, I used
• Inspiring villagers to build and use drying racks to think a good picture was like this one (she points
to a poster of Uganda's President Museveni on the
for their cassava plants, to preserve them longer wall). Now I know that a good picture is a vision I
and to keep them fresh and clean. have in my mind, a picture of the health and happi-
ness I can create in this family."
• Mobilizing villagers to design and build a new
schoolhouse, using both proven and new con- Another woman said, "We are so grateful to these
struction techniques. ARU students for being role models for our daugh-
ters. Girls here have had no idea of being educated.
This one month practicum didn’t lead to breakthrough But now they see these ARU girls who have reached
innovations, but it did prepare fertile ground. The university and are bringing good things to the vil-
villagers went from being argumentative and short- lage."


28 • Case Study

The Villagers dance to
welcome the ARU
Staff and visitors who
have come to hear
about their
accomplishments
during the 1-month
ARU practicum.

Photo: Nick Korn

The ARU students join
the villagers in
enjoying the dancing
and celebration.

Photo: Nick Korn



These projects were all successful, not only in HOW TO LAUNCH AND TO REPLICATE
contributing to the development of each village, but YOUR OWN ENGINE OF INNOVATION
in cementing the ARU students’ learning and build- USING THE URDT BEST PRACTICES
ing their confidence that they can be visionary lead-
ers and rural community transformation specialists Steep the Organization, Stakeholders and
and change agents. Each team of young women suc-
Customers in a Creative Orientation
ceeded in following Mwalimu Musheshe’s advice:
Many organizations and businesses espouse a
“Go to the people. “can do” attitude. They hold cultural values of ex-
Live with the people. perimentation and innovation. Yet they haven’t in-
vested in the education and communication to instill
Love the people. creativity and a creative orientation into the organi-
Work with the people. zation. There’s a big difference between having a
values statement that says we value creativity, inno-
Catalyze the development process vation and mistakes and actually training your per-
knowing at the end of the day sonnel to both practice and promote a creative
orientation.
the people will say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” The approach that URDT practices is so simple
that illiterate villagers can easily master it. You cre-
4. Network them together and to the “mother ate a vision of the outcome you want. You notice the
ship.” The first group of change agents is just now current reality of where you are today. You cherish
ready to leave the womb of URDT with their provi- the tension between the desired vision and your cur-
sional degrees: Bachelor of Science in Technologies rent reality. You commit to achieving your vision.
for Rural Transformation. The degrees will become You experiment until you succeed.
final once they have proven themselves in the field
back in their own communities. The fourth year of Instill Systems Thinking as a Cultural Norm
the program is designed as a coaching year, in which
each change agent will be supported by ARU faculty Everyone who has studied innovation practices
to answer questions and provide guidance as they knows that cross-disciplinary teams are often the key
learn by doing. The graduates will also be networked to successful innovations. People who look at gaps
through the strong bonds they have formed over the or problems from very different perspectives will
three years and in their women’s circles. They’ll be have breakthroughs that elude those who are steeped
consulting with one another via mobile phone and in one discipline. So by all means, embrace a multi-
Internet (as they gain Internet access in their respec- disciplinary approach to innovation.
tive villages). ARU plans a series of conferences in But you need to go one more step to steep your
which the graduates will be bringing back their tri- team members in holistic, systems thinking. Most
umphs, challenges, and learnings to share with the engineers are trained in systems thinking. They
URDT community and staff. This informal net- know about feedback loops and oscillation. They
worked sharing will also become the mechanism for understand that getting the structure right is critical.
transferring innovations from one community to They learn to spot environmental issues and exter-
other communities. By convening regular meetings nalities that impact the structure of the system they
to share learnings and to show off the results and are designing.
inventions that each of their communities has cre- We encourage you to adopt an approach similar
ated, the ARU graduates will be seeding and spread- to the one that URDT practices. Make systems
ing rural development and innovation across Uganda. thinking part of your organization’s way of ap-
proaching problems and understanding the world.
Instill systems thinking into your daily dialog and
practice.


30 • Case Study

Community members
were mobilized by the
ARU students to build
a new school building
for the village.

Photo by Nick Korn

For more exponential
progress, URDT is
now training women
leaders in community
development and rural
transformation, to
multiply the supply of
people who do the
kind of work they have
done, enabling people
to be in touch with
their aspirations and
moral capacities for
peace, justice, and a
corruption-free society.


URDT lessons 2009

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