Jeffrey Swindle and Dr. Tim Heaton, Sociology and International Development

Introduction

CHOICE Humanitarian and Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) partnered to support a local project proposal by villagers in Tamaula and Huaricho, Mexico to create small goat cheese factories in each of the villages. The goal of the project was to create jobs for villagers so that their communities develop despite their structural poverty and reliance on remittances.

As a member of the Brigham Young University Project Evaluation & Assessment Team (PEAT), I received training in evaluating international development projects. I lead a team of evaluators, including myself and two other student evaluators, to evaluate CHOICE’s goat cheese project. The focus of the evaluation was to determine whether or not the project would be selfsustainable after CHOICE discontinues involvement, and provided the organization with recommendations on ways to decrease villager dependency.

Methods

We began our research with semi-structured interviews administered to one representative of each home in each community.(M 2008)` The purpose of the preliminary interviews was to observe the social impact of the goat cheese project in the community, to learn about leadership and search for viral effects, understand the history of the project, as well to build good rapport with the villagers and the specific key players involved.

The next stage in research was the development of predictors: leadership, business practices and villager mentality. For this stage we dissected the CHOICE toolkit indicators, the Inter- American Foundation’s Grassroots Development Framework (GDF) indicators, and created our own combination given the specific situation for this project. From each indicator we developed several open-ended questions for key informants. Their answers afforded us with descriptive information, and a deep understanding of the group’s knowledge (Mulwa 2008).

After analyzing our findings, we applied our findings and facilitated a Community Action Plan (CAP) in each village through group meetings (Mulwa 2008). The meetings “stimulate dialogue and community learning on a group level” (Curtis 2010). The discussions and activities we planned lead the goat cheese project group members to make their own plans for the future.

Analysis and Results

For the leadership predictor, we found that project participants do not meet consistently, decreasing their ability to communicate efficiently and resolve conflicts. Their lack of communication also reflected their effective division of labor and understanding of work responsibilities. The most prevalent issues that decrease leadership can all be tied to a lack of consistent group meetings and planning.

Similar themes were found in the business strategies predictor. They need a significant increase in record keeping and planning so that they can understand their market and business needs. Yet, once again the foundation for effective business practices is to hold effective and consistent meetings and make plans.

As for the villager mentality predictor, the participants show definite potential for keeping the factories profitable without further assistance from CHOICE or HIP. The villagers have changed former gender and age roles in order to accommodate the new opportunity of making profit from the goat cheese factory. Most notably, the group members were required to attend training classes in the city, pulling them away from their families and normal responsibilities and often keeping them away from home until midnight. Interestingly, the effort the villagers put in to attend the trainings gave them a sense of ownership of the factories and greatly increased their self-confidence. Therefore, the project has increased leadership development in the communities, demonstrating the project’s public value irrespective of the sustainability of the factories.

Conclusion

In summary, the project will be sustainable only if the participants hold consistent, quality meetings where they make definitive plans and keep records. To achieve said success, CHOICE should facilitate meetings with the group members using ProLiteracy’s FAMA method of creating community action plans. FAMA methods are based on facilitating discussion, but letting the discussion then flow organically according to the dictates of the participants. For example, in the village of Huaricho, we lead a FAMA-based meeting, utilizing a photo of women gathering in a circle in meeting. We asked the villagers what they saw in the photo, and then how they could relate. Eventually, the women began to discuss the need to meet as a group (without our telling them to do so) and decided to raise an official village act about coming on time to group meetings. The written act read that group members must arrive within fifteen minutes of the meeting start time or they will receive a fault. Six faults in a year would exclude one from the business. Productive meetings such as this one, where plans are made and leadership is demonstrated, will increase self-reliance. By facilitating such meetings for the next few months, CHOICE will help the villagers to hold quality meetings, make plans, and most importantly, become independent and self-reliant. In turn, the goat cheese factories will be sustainable and improve the standard of living for villagers in Huaricho and Tamaula, Mexico.