Learning log 4 – reflection on systemic approach to a field trip to Mozambique – Millennium Villages case

This is the second reflection on System Thinking concerning the field trip to Mozambique (from 4.3.2012 to 16.3.2012), now focusing on the local level of the UN Millennium Village in Lionde (country side of Mozambique, about 300km from the capital Maputo).

I must say that the more I make reflections and researches in a Systemic approach, the more I get convinced that all the problems we have today (environmental, social and economic) exists due to a lack of this method of inquiry. They are results of “punctual solutions”, solutions that aims upon one specific factor without considering any other related system and their interactions.

The reason behind our field trip was to research more about the UN Millennium Village (MV) in Lionde, so to cope with the briefing presented by the local Ministry of Science and Technology which was: to develop a business model, packaging and advertisement for the products and activities held by the Village.

We spend 8 days living with local families and visiting the Village’s activities. These activities are divided on 5 pillars: Agriculture (Farming, Agro-processing and Fish farming), Education, Health, Water and Sanitation. From which we chose to focus on Agriculture, more specifically on the issues of Farming and Agro-processing.

I’ll try to explain here the systemic problem which damages the success of these initiatives, it may look a little bit confusing to explain an interconnected and related set of reasons in a linear text, but let’s try...

I’ll use as example the agro-processing group.

From the research we found three levels of problems where changes have to be made.

The first level is “motivation”: 92% of the people involved in the MV initiatives are women, this happens because the majority of mans migrated to South Africa to find jobs and short term financial results; so, if the MV initiatives can’t provide a daily income, they have to find other means to feed their families. And even for the women involved, they can’t get a daily income, for that reason, if they are involved in an initiative, is for passion. That is the main reason why many women drop out from the initiatives; for example, the agro-processing group started with 30 people, then reduced to 12 and when we were following their activities, there was only 3 or 5 people working.

But then, how to produce so to have a reliable income? Produce more?

It could be a solution, but then we get to the second level: infrastructure

When they produce, for example, cassava biscuits: They get Cassava from local farms, peal the cassava, cut it, use a machine to grain it and then, after that, all the other processes are hand-made: drying, crushing and sieving. In this method, they can produce only 3kg of cassava flour per day; what is way too little to compete even in the local market. End even further, almost all the flour they produce they use to make biscuits; therefore there is no flour left to be sold.

Now, about biscuits: They can produce around 70 biscuits per day (if everybody is doing the biscuits). However, they have only one mug to pour the ingredients, only one pan to mix them, only one oven with only one baking tray to use.

Small details would make a big change, such as one more mug, for example; they would not need to wash the mug every time they have to deal with a different ingredient. But even further, their behavior while cooking is just like a group of friends in a home kitchen: while one is mixing the ingredients with a mixer, another is holding the pan and other is seating and talking.

Therefore this second level has many different sub-levels, where one is “behavior”. There must be a behavioral change, if they want to compete in the local markets (and grow to even bigger ones) they have to have a “step-by-step” process, just like a production line. I don’t think they have to stop acting as friends and taking, they just need to have specific tasks for each one to complete.

If those two levels work and all the changes are made and adopted to their reality, then they can reach the third, the higher level, which is the demanded “business model”. This document will describe the nature of all activities in Farming and Agro-processing; its procedures, products, production capacity, and so on. And then, when they are established as a “company” they can start working on branding, packaging and advertisement.

In a nutshell, this is the result of our research there: we identified that just a business model would not work there because it has related systems that must be working accordingly to support it and to make it sustainable. And now we will work on the detailed description of each change in all the levels; hopeful to have a good impact of those people lives!