Rhythms of Learning in NGO-supported Village Associations in Western Uganda

• In Event: Sustainability, volunteers and NGOS

Abstract

Grassroots development espoused by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) aims at promoting learning as a pivot for sustainable livelihoods and change. Often, NGOs create, strengthen and/or work through existing grassroots groups as vehicles for community learning and change among the poor and marginalised. In this paper, we analyse the patterns of learning that emerge and manifest in a rural community when NGOs embed their interventions in extant practices and socio-material conditions of the people. We define learning as a rhythm embedded in and influenced by everyday social encounters, disentanglements and continuities with knowledge, practices and skills to purposefully enhance citizens’ livelihoods. Building on and combining notions of grassroots innovations (Seyfang & Smith, 2007) and growth into citizenship (Holma et al., 2018) we conceptualise NGO-supported village associations as sites for interconnected learning that capacitates the poor to adapt to and deal with crises of poverty and neglect. Data for this paper were collected from community members who were participating in a local NGO’s interventions to promote the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in western Uganda. Findings reveal that village associations can contribute to livelihoods change by fostering rhythms of a) learning as the acquisition of new ideas and practices; b) unlearning as abandonment of previous and current habits and practices that are inconsistent with extant livelihood needs; and c) relearning as continued adjustment to the recently acquired knowledge to be relevant and contribute to societal progress. Analysis of these entwined patterns of learning contributes a novel way of understanding the social and collective dynamics of adult learning within contexts where self-help efforts, rather than citizenship rights, is the most reliable source of livelihoods. In conclusion, we suggest that the elaborated rhythms of learning give development actors new insights on how to position their interventions as drivers of learning for incremental change in constrained contexts of the Global South.
Keywords
Village associations, livelihoods, NGOs, western Uganda, learning

References

Holma, K., Kontinen, T., & Blanken-Webb, J. (2018). Growth into citizenship: Framework for conceptualizing learning in NGO interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. Adult Education Quarterly, 68(3), 215–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713618768561
Seyfang, G., & Smith, A. (2007). Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards a new research and policy agenda. Environmental Politics, 16(4), 584–603. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644010701419121

Authors

• Karembe Ahimbisibwe, University of Jyväskylä

• Kellen Aganyira, Makerere University, Uganda

• Constance Mudondo, Makerere University, Uganda

• Dianah Nampijja, Makerere University, Uganda

• Stella Achen, Makerere University, Uganda