Stories from the Field

Nkouondja, Cameroon: A committed village leader

Nkouondja, a village in the West Province of the Republic of Cameroon, is known in the Foumbot District for its improvement in the management of its water supply system. The secret behind this improved management is the proper organization of the village with prominent figures like the chief, Mr. Isiaka - president of the Village Development Committee (VDC) and Mr. Moussah - president of the Water Management Committee (WMC).

Nkouondja village is well-organized and you will find farming groups, youth groups and marketing associations. The members of these groups are indigenous people of the village who freely come together for other purposes like farming and selling of farm produce, and are ready to assist the village collectively. When there is a development project all villagers are levied an amount to contribute. Members of these groups make their individual contribution and some will, on top of this, make group contributions.

As government policy, the Department of Community Development (CD) gives support to community initiatives. The people of Nkouondja are beneficiaries of such policies. They have Mr. Njikam and Mrs. Awousa Jacqueline as their support staff.

The problems of the system

The scenario that the PAR team met in Nkouondja in 1995 was a situation where the water management committee was not functional and both the conditions of the system structures and the mentality of the people had degenerated.

The president of the committee never called meetings to discuss and take decisions concerning the water supply. He took unilateral decisions and carried out irregular spending. The caretaker used to deliberately disrupt the water supply to certain parts of the village because he received no motivation from the population and there were many leaky spots in the pipeline and frequent breakdowns of the taps, resulting in shortage of water especially during the dry season. These conditions resulted in a serious conflict amongst members of the water management committee and between Nkouondja and Fosset, the two communities sharing the water. As such, there was an acute shortage of funds to carry out maintenance on the system as the population refused top pay, especially because there was no system of transparency and accountability.

The women, who were not even members of the committee and therefore more alienated from the decision making, were more adamant in refusing to pay. I remember during one of our visits that a woman came to us after we had finished one meeting with the men and said, “Look the reason why people refuse to pay the monthly contribution is because those who are charged with collecting the money are not honest; they ask us to pay while they and their wives do not pay and they expect those whose husbands have no position to pay.” She insisted that until they have a system that is transparent the conditions would not change.

The people of Nkouondja were living with these conditions and had become complacent. They were taking it for granted and were not critical. Of all the PAR activities, the most important one that changed the attitude of the population drastically, was the process of analyzing the causes and consequences of problems in an open and frank manner with a cross section of the population represented. They were equally enthralled by the process of prioritization of the problems and the subsequent approach of identifying solutions by searching from within.

To illustrate how the people of Nkouondja have changed, it is necessary to quote some of the community members. Issiaka said, “This has armed us with the most powerful tool for solving our problems because with this approach, we can see directly the causes and the effects on us, and this way it immediately puts the pressure on us to solve the problems.”

Still on this, one elder stood up and said, “Now you have opened our eyes and we can see how those we have entrusted with our water treat us. Now they have lost this trust and we are surely going to do something to change the situation.” He turned to the caretaker and said, “And you Mama, you have abused our confidence and be informed today that we are going to train another caretaker so that you will never again block water from us,” and it is interesting to note that today in Nkouondja there are two caretakers.

The chief who is always present at our sessions also stood up as usual to close the session and he said, “I want to thank you people again for the useful work you do with us, but I also want to plead with you that in this work we do, please do not only look at the bad side of the community but the good things about us as well. So please, you people should know that to us you are like our doctor because you have helped diagnose the disease we are suffering from, but please do not behave like the doctors who treat their patients not to cure their disease but in such a way that they keep coming back so that they also stay in business. We are pleading with you to give us the medication that will cure our disease permanently.” Such is the character of the chief of Nkouondja: quiet, perceptive, very analytical and always providing the right ending.

The chief: a symbol of respect

The chief of Nkouondja is generally seen by all the villagers as a symbol of respect and order. His presence during any occasion in the village gives an atmosphere of peace. During the process of participatory action research (PAR), he was always present, mainly at meetings. These meetings took place only at the chief's palace, where he sits at a corner listening to all discussions. Next to him are mainly the notables and quarter heads. No other person will sit near him in the absence of these people. The PAR team members have the honour of sitting at such positions as a result of the rapport with him and the respect the team has in the village.

Very peculiar in his personality is his attitude of sitting silently but taking note of everything that takes place. His ideas are only told at the end of the meeting or exercise in the village. I remember, after a session on the evaluation of the standpipes which revealed that almost 80% of them were dirty, he asked, “We like the work you are doing here. The result you have about our sanitary situation and the cleanness of the village are shameful. It is, however, good that you let us know about this, but what are you going to do with this type of information? We hope that you are not going to portray this type of picture of the village to outsiders.”

The slow and gentle nature of this chief can be very misleading to an outsider. The PAR team doubted about his authority over the people in one incident. The villagers were no longer fully participating in the supply of local materials for the construction of a new catchment. The new catchment was meant to meet with the increasing demand of water by the community by increasing the flow in the system. In his calm, gentle style, the chief requested papers to convocate all his quarter heads to discuss the issue. This was done, and all these people assembled the following day. He met with them to find out what was happening, and why the work wasn't progressing. Various reasons came out but he probably did not want to be authoritative and then he called us to handle the matter. Collectively, with women who had a different plan for that day in the palace, the causes and consequences were identified. The main causes were discouragement by recalcitrant members, lack of sanctions on these members and weakness in monitoring by the quarter head. The major consequences were damages of cement in stock, Helvetas not completing its contribution and the partially constructed wall in the catchment collapsing. The core solution was identified as a commitment from the quarter heads and immediate resumption of work the following day.

Everybody was happy and determined to resume work but the problem was how to inform the entire community that night. The quarter heads immediately accepted the responsibility of doing this and a monitoring system was set up to know who was not going to participate. The president of the women's group volunteered to supervise all the women and promised to remind them very early in the morning.

Feeling satisfied with the job and the result, the chief made these closing remarks: “Since you have been coming here, you have talked to us about the importance of involving women but we never could imagine the difference we now see. We wish that you continue to train them as much as possible. I would like to see them drive a car like the woman I saw in Foumbot town. You are now our light and we are ready to follow. It will be our pleasure to provide you with land and a wife from Nkouondja so that you become one of us.”

Learning by doing

Besides attitudinal changes, there are some physical changes that have been carried out as well. As concerns the frequent shortages of water they used to experience, new pipes were bought and all the old leaky ones replaced. The technique of rationing water during periods of shortage has been reversed in such a way that each quarter receives water two days a week instead of the weekly arrangement that existed before. In respect of carrying out punctual repairs of taps that get broken, they have decentralized management to the quarter level and even by standpipe. Along with this they have also elected some people in the quarters to be responsible for collecting monthly contributions and any other funds, for example, in the recent case of the new catchment project.

Presently, there is a definite awareness about keeping the surrounding of the standpipes clean. During a workshop the participants were walking through the village accompanied by their hosts when they came to a standpipe that was extremely dirty with weedy surroundings. One of the outside participants, Mr. Tassi from Nyen village, very calmly called on one of the people from this quarter and asked in a very non-threatening manner, “Do you carry water from here?” and when this person said, “Yes,” he asked further, “Do you drink it?” and the person said, “Yes,” and he asked again: “How do you feel about these surroundings?” When this person answered that it was dirty, he then asked him whether he knew the consequences of drinking dirty water and with this, he simply stooped over and starting weeding the surroundings. Without any further utterance, every one present including the people from the neighbourhood came and joined him in cleaning around the standpipe. This lesson certainly pushed the people to start a system of maintaining cleanliness around the standpipes pipes. This is a system whereby all the women living around a standpipe organize to clean in turns.

A village that was met in a situation of a collapsed management system with an almost non-functional water supply system, which is now transformed into a system that wins the confidence of donors and stands as an example, is what anybody would like to know about. The changes in management method and good impressions from outsiders were a result of experiences developed in fund raising in the village, good record keeping, accountability and transparency, which lead to the gradual improvement of the physical system.

It seems impossible to write about Nkouondja water supply system without mentioning Mr. Moussah, the president of the Water Management Committee. Though he was elected without the participation of women, they all are very pleased with him. This man would sacrifice his personal time for the management of the system.

At this moment the village is constructing a new catchment to increase the flow in the system. The success of such projects depends highly on the management. Although this is not Mr. Moussah's duty, he will walk the whole village from door to door just to make sure everybody is aware of work that has to be done the following day. Some times we would propose him a lift but he would not accept because there were still places he wanted to go that a vehicle would not reach.

During a diagnosis session with the women, we made attempts to bring up management issues involving this president but all the women collectively said that the present president is very good. As one lady puts it, “This project has come at the time we are very busy in the farm but the way the president takes time to talk to us is such that you would not hesitate to participate.”

It is true that some of the project committee members are not reliable but he makes very little effort to make them participate. During our recent visit to the village Mr. Isiaka asked him why he is doing so much work alone and he said that when he feels things are not going well he does not sleep. Mr. Isiaka then said to him, “You are killing yourself very much. Hold as many meetings as possible so that others can help you.” Mr. Moussah clapped his hands and said, “It is true. I walk too much and the village is too large. In fact if it wasn't for the help of the women president it would have been even more difficult. I think I should be holding more meetings and distributing the tasks.”

Lack of financial control

Before the arrival of the PAR project in this village the people had their rules and regulations for the management of the water supply system. The document specifies that each person pays 100 CFA francs each month, which is equivalent to 17 cents of a US dollar. This contribution was made without keeping any record. No one will of course expect this type of system to exist for long. It collapsed and a new system was tried by the people themselves.

In this system the collector wrote the names of the contributors on a list which was never signed by anybody. This went on for some time and other problems popped up. The major complaints were that some people contributed but their names were never written down, the collectors embezzled some of the money, no information was given on the management of the money, and the management team could not even estimate what was expected. With all these problems and many others including the behaviour of the water committee president, which was not appreciated by the population, the management system was bound to fail.

When we arrived at this village it was like a Godsend, as an old woman whispered to us when we came out for a break since she could not be in the discussion hall where the men were: “My children you people should really help us out. These men are not serious. We contribute money but they do not write it down and afterwards they said we never contributed.”

The people of this village went through the PAR process and are now reaping some benefits. This time, full of knowledge and ideas, they are modifying almost everything from the way to organize themselves to the ability to improve their fund collection and recording. At this stage the method of fund collection was set up in a way so as to eliminate most of the problems faced earlier.

This time the committee buys receipt booklets and a stamp in the custody of the chief. He stamps and signs receipt booklets which are distributed to quarter heads. The quarter heads collect the funds from their respective quarters against a receipt given to the contributor. The money and the stubs of the receipts are submitted to the chief, who counts and hands the money to the treasurer. The secretary records the sum and update his records. This process is on-going in the village now and is expected to be a solution to their funds collection system.

No matter how good the fund collection method is, without proper accountability and transparency the system is doomed to failure. The people of Nkouondja know this and practice in their own way as we shall be seeing next.

The secretary of the WMC, Mr. Mama, keeps all the records relating to finance. He has developed a system which seems quite convenient to the community. He started by establishing a list of all people eligible for contribution from each quarter. Knowing the levy per person, it was easy for him to estimate what is expected from each quarter. At the same time he keeps the list of contributors and defaulters. During prayer sessions in the mosque where almost the entire village converges on Fridays he reads out the financial report which shows the income, expenditures and balance left. The names of those who have not contributed are equally read.

The chief, who is the overall authority in the village, uses this method to monitor the participation of the various quarters. He counts the stubs of receipts from different quarters and compares them to know the level of participation from the various quarters.

The women use these receipts to control those who collect water. One person is chosen to monitor each tap. Those whose names were read for having not paid have to show their receipt before collecting water. In this way the funds collection is improved. However, their major obstacle to this control method is the fact that some private connection users give water to these people.

The water committee also uses this system to know their limitation and set up strategies. Here, they estimated the contributions using the levy and number of potential contributors. Since the levy had been made before the list was established, they realized a shortage. The strategy to fill this gap was to apply to donors. This was going to take them time and there was no guarantee. They reflected and sent somebody to Gabon where some of their elite are working. This person returned with 500,000 CFA francs, which is equivalent to US $833, more than the amount expected. Their project, which was partially financed by Helvetas, a support organization, was quickly accomplished.

The woman's voice

Today, the women no longer peek from the window when we come to the village but actually come to joint sessions with the men and have become active participants in taking decisions on water management issues as well. In a recent meeting in April of this year when Peter Bury from IRC was visiting, the women came out in numbers to welcome him and talk about what they had learnt. At this occasion the chief said, “You have been having only bones when you come here, but today you are going to have the bone and the meat on it.” He continued and said, “Yes you have been hearing and seeing only what the men are doing, but today you are going to hear and see what the women are doing.” And amidst clapping and cheering they welcomed Aminato, the dynamic president of the women's group to the stage. She came out boldly and stood in front of the crowd and read a speech they had prepared. In her speech, Aminato told what they did in PAR and how it is changing their lives, using that particular occasion as an example to show how both men and women are slowly accepting the idea of meeting together in one forum in public. In a later meeting where the women were presenting the outputs and problems identified from the PAR exercises, and the men insinuated that they would not cooperate with some of the decisions the women had taken in respect to raising their own contributions, the women openly and boldly said that they had ways to sanction them if they refused to give them support. They said they would refuse give them food as a means to bring them to cooperate. This type of boldness and assertiveness is certainly a very big change.

This presentation resulted in a strong debate between women and men. A young man of about 30 years old was expressing fear of women knowing too much, which could lead to divorces in the village. A woman stood up, challenged him saying that there had been divorces before. At the end this young man said he was just making the women understand that it will not be easy for them to come and discuss with men. Such a debate is like a training for them.

No “angry” food

Through the assistance of the CD the village had financial support from Helvetas worth five million CFA francs which is about US $ 8330. The village was expected to contribute with amounts up to 1,200,000 CFA francs, approximately US $2000, which is 30% of the project cost. This was discussed with the people and agreed upon.

According to the Helvetas approach, a team goes and evaluates a project before a contract is signed with the executing agency, which could be any reliable NGO. This team came to Nkouondja and did not show interest in the people, giving the impression that the people will have to accept just anything since they are looking for help.

During a subsequent visit to Nkouondja the Helvetas team had a shock. Coincidentally the team came while we were in the village. Our arrival was friendly and exciting with everybody rushing to greet and shake hands as usual. When the Helvetas team arrived we could sense an atmosphere of tension. In a combined meeting session the chief took the floor and rejected the behaviour of the team from Helvetas during their last visit and questioned the amount Helvetas finally accepted to assist them. He spoke bitterly though in a gentle low voice, but anyone who knows him will understand how disappointed he was. As he put it, “We know that we are requesting help but that does not mean that we will die if you do not help us. When somebody gives you food with anger you will never feel like having eaten something. These people from Buea do not bring anything but when they arrived everybody is happy, even children and women. It is not because they bring us money but for the love, interest and respect they have for us.”

He went further to express his discontent with the amount finally decided, changing from five million to three million CFA francs. At this junction one of the Helvetas team members explained that they had problems locating the catchment that day and with all the tiredness they might have behaved nastily to them and begged for excuse. This man went ahead to explain the reasons behind the change in the amount from Helvetas. He said the amount was reduced because Helvetas buys pipes at duty free prices and that the increase was not going to affect the community contribution.

The key issue here is not who is right and who is wrong but the extent to which the villagers know now that they have a right to decide on their destiny. “Things seems to have changed in this village,” a Helvetas team member said. “The people are talking with so much confidence in themselves....”

Disseminating knowledge

The chief is just one of the key persons in this village that has been very involved in the PAR project in Nkouondja. It would really be unfair to leave out others.

Mr. Isiaka, the president of the Village Development Committee, is a man you will not miss when working at Nkouondja. He oversees all development initiatives of Nkouondja. Such a person needs to be receptive and dynamic and he possesses these qualities.

A student from the University of Buea reading Women's Studies consulted the PAR team for a community to research on gender in water supply management and was advised to choose Nkouondja. Mr. Isiaka gave her a very warm welcome and guided her through the whole research. As she puts it, “Mr. Isiaka seems to know so many things. I was surprised to find a man in a village with so much knowledge. He was telling me many things I did not even know, like the seasonal calendar, village map and others I cannot remember. I was really embarrassed.”

At the moment this man is requesting our organization, PAID-WA, to sponsor him to disseminate his experiences to other villages. It was due to his effort that the women eventually came fully into the management stream of the Nkouondja water supply system. During the visit of an IRC coordinator, Mr. Peter Bury, Mr. Isiaka reported to have applied the PAR approach in resolving problems between parents and the headmaster of a primary school in the village. The problems had rendered the school almost not functional but today everything is back to normal.

A young man, Kpoumie Issan, who is also a member of an association called “Asociation de Jeune de Nkouondja” said, “Participatory development is one that encourages the participation of everyone no matter what his/her social status. This participation also depends on both human and financial resources of the community. We now realize how group work is very important. We have also realized the importance of managing our water supply rationally. Now we are conscious about the fact that at certain periods of the year the water level drops, and that we have to keep the surroundings of our standpipes clean and use water rationally and contribute towards the maintenance of the system if the need arises. Presently there are no major conflicts but let me underline here that we still need people to ensure the financial management of our committee. The knowledge acquired from PAR does not only help us in the management of our water supply but also for other development projects. This knowledge has given the youth association more solidarity and allowed them to participate actively in the construction of the village. We have learnt that one hand cannot tie a bundle. We have the intention to create a youth committee and members will work closely with the PAR team. Yes, we think that the participatory method has enhanced our capacity and has led us on the road to solving our water management problems.”

Contact

In Cameroon, the Participatory Action Research was undertaken by PAID-WA (Pan African Institute for Development – West Africa) in Buea, Cameroon. The project is now being managed by Water and Sanitation Management Consultants (WSMC). For questions and remarks, please contact Andrew Tayong of WSMC.