ILEIA Newsletter Vol. 11 No. 1 p. 11

Dare-to-Share Fair: a conference of coffee breaks

Uwe Kievelitz

Markets and fairs are extraordinarily good media for information exchange and transfer of innovations. With this idea, an international market of participatory learning approaches was held. Uwe Kievelitz of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) reports on a stimulating event and gives some ideas for others planning something similar.

Markets all over the world serve to overcome the limits of locality by attracting people from near and far as buyers or sellers of goods, be they fruits or technical implements, social relations (e.g. marriage arrangements) or knowledge. Trade fairs as a special form of market, focusing on one topic or one item only, became one of the prime vehicles for agricultural extension and innovation exchange in modernising countries (Pretty 1991). These experiences provided the stimulus for an informal meeting of European practitioners and promoters of Participatory Technology Development, to initiate a completely new kind of trade fair: The "Dare-to-Share Fair of Participatory Learning Approaches".

As participatory approaches have gained unrestrained popularity, even in conservative donor circles, there is no longer a need for general discussions. Many people and organisations have experimented with participatory appraisal, research and development (Recherche/Developpement; Participatory Technology Development) or Participatory Landuse Planning in practice.

Many of these valuable experiences are not yet intensively shared. Therefore, time seemed right to stimulate an exchange of "approaches that work". Why not organise a market? A meeting place for people to offer good "products", to barter knowledge, to meet each other and develop new ideas?

Lively exchange

With this fair on participatory learning experiences, we wanted to encourage the exchange of knowledge and experiences among practitioners; demonstrate the wide variety of methods and approaches regarding participation and make the hosting institution aware of the possibilities, potentials and paradigms of participatory learning.

A suitable learning atmosphere had to be created. The main objective was bringing together practitioners of widely diverging participatory approaches: from Participatory Rural Appraisal to SWAP (Successes – Weaknesses – Aims – Problems), from Development Theatre to Participatory Neighbourhood Planning with the "planning for real" toolbox, from "methode GRAAP" (Groupe de Recherche et d’Appui pour l’Autopromotion Paysanne) to farmers’ fairs (Mapatano 1994) and Rapid Organisational Appraisal.

In two days, over 40 different organisations and persons (NGOs, consultants, scientists, GTZ projects) put up market booths where they "bartered" their knowledge and organised over 20 different workshops, video shows and discussion fora. Theoretical discussions were held, e.g. on participation and poverty or on the problems of institutionalising participatory approaches (Samaranayake 1994), but clearly the main emphasis was on tried-and-tested approaches and methods.

Preparing for learning

A market in itself is a networking event. It is like a conference which only consists of coffee breaks. The actors are not a few internationally renowned academics, but rather everyone who comes to the market and "dares to share" his or her experiences.

A small steering group of five people came together for the conceptual preparation of the fair and to take the main decisions. Additionally, a "market manager" was hired by GTZ for a period of two months to carry out the main organisational tasks, like sending invitations, drawing the market lay-out, arranging all materials, dealing with the budget and all administrative matters. He was supported by a trainee from the university, a part-time secretary and, in the last two weeks before the fair, by an additional secretary and a second trainee.

An informal network of people from European organisations supporting overseas development helped prepare the fair, mainly through public relations in order to gain wide international participation (through the ILEIA network and informal channels) and by rallying for financial support. As a result, two participants from Africa were sponsored by CTA Wageningen and another four by the GTZ-supported "Resource Management through Self-Help" project.

Sharing tools

Various organisational structures enhanced learning during the fair:

• the market: an open area, in which every person or organisation who had previously announced their participation and topic could display experiences, methods and "approaches that work" – or raise provoking questions on issues which need further inquiry;
• workshops: topical events in which people could come together for experiential learning (e.g. a session to practise Development Theatre), for discussion or to organise future cooperation;
• "Open Space", as an alternative to previously fixed workshop themes (S. Rao n.d.): the visitors of the market were given the possibility to spontaneously raise issues or propose topics for which they sought discussion partners. Rooms (the open spaces) were provided for self-selected groups to meet and interact. The proposing persons were given time slots, had the possibility to publicly announce their topic and rally for interested participants. Then the interaction began;
• video and slide shows: visualisation is a very important principle in participatory work. Likewise, it is an important didactic principle. A lot of qualitatively good material has been produced in the last few years and some of this was shown during the fair.

Market atmosphere

For a market fair to be attractive, it is necessary to prepare an environment that visitors find stimulating and lively. This does not need high investments. For example, individual market booths for the participating organisations are important, because these create the atmosphere of a typical market and lead the participants to display their experiences in the form of posters, materials, photos etc.

Some additional common space is helpful to integrate restaurant booths, cafes or the like so that people can meet, rest and discuss. A number of rooms are necessary for workshops, video shows etc. The whole area of the market should be compact, so that people can stroll from one event to another and no participating organisation will end up in a hidden corner where they feel left out.

For how long should such a fair continue? Many trade markets around the world are one-off affairs over the course of a week; others are permanent institutions. Trade fairs usually take three days to one week every year. A regional or national market fair on participatory learning is a big event, mobilising people from distant places. Therefore, a minimum of two to three days seems necessary to justify the efforts of coming to the market. The fair should also not be too long, or else its attraction will "fade away". It must be something truly special and extraordinary.

Eager for more

This "Dare-to-Share Fair" was the first event of its kind. The public appeal was overwhelmingly positive. Many organisations from 20 different countries of all continents participated, busloads of people came from all over Germany and official representatives from different organisations came from as far as Rome (FAO).

Also, the final evaluation – organised as a participatory event with small "buzzing groups" exchanging their views and then bringing issues forward in the plenary – was very positive. Its most important suggestions were to organise similar events in other regions as well, to increase Southern participation and to increase the duration of the market to at least three days.

The market fair proved to be a very appropriate medium of communication, interaction and learning. Based on the principles of experiential learning, decentralisation, equality between participants, learning to unlearn and share and visualisation, it is in line with the main principles on which participatory approaches themselves are based (Chambers 1994). Being a rather unusual topic and event, it should not be repeated in the same organisation too often, in order to retain its freshness and specialty. We definitely hope that other people and organisations in other countries try out their own versions of this "Dare-to-Share Fair". GTZ is open to advise on the organisation of such trade fairs on participatory learning and give logistic support. A document on the fair will be published soon.

Well worth it

The economists and administrators among the readers will probably ask: what were the costs and what were the benefits? Like in many cases, benefits are more difficult to measure than costs, as they are largely intangible. As was explained above, the main benefits for the organisers are positive public relations and recognition, intensive networking among institutions and people and, potentially improved quality of their conceptual and methodological work by drawing on new insights gained at the fair.

Also, in the GTZ case, more openness and support to participatory work in the organisation’s upper echelons can be observed, as is shown by the willingness to finance a two-year Research & Development "learning project" to self-evaluate impacts of participatory project concepts. The full costs for the organising institute are somewhat difficult to establish, but the total budget in our case was close to US$ 66,000 of which one third were personnel costs. On the whole, it was clearly worth it. Let’s do it again, sometime, somewhere in the world!

Uwe Kievelitz, GTZ, Postfach 5180, D-65726 Eschborn, Germany.

References
– Chambers, R. 1994. The origins and practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal. In: World Development, Vol. 22, No. 7, pp. 953-969.
– GTZ. 1994. Markt der Moeglichkeiten: eine Dokumentation. Eschborn.
– Mapatano, M. 1994. Fair to share farmers’ findings. In: ILEIA Newsletter, Vol 10 No 1, p. 15.
– Pretty, J. 1991. Farmers’ extension practice and technology adaptation: agricultural revolution in 17th-19th century Britain. In: Agriculture and Human Values VIII (1/2): 132-148.
– Samaranayake, M. 1994. Institutionalizing participatory approaches. Paper presented at the "Dare-to-Share Fair"; Participatory Learning Approaches in Development Cooperation, 20-21 September. Eschborn.

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