with the growing reality of food shortages throughout the world countries are implementing their best efforts to ensure that people in their countries have enough food.

several initiatives have been established to advocate for good food prices and strategies that will ensure that people world wide have access to enough food. of of such initiatives if the 1 billion Hungry initiative to which i am a huge supporter. i have also contributed to a lot of blogs and articles discussing at leangth at what needs to be done to ensure that people have enough food.

our country malawi, in one of our efforts to ensure food security introduced the fertilizer subsidy to smallholder farmers to ensure increased food production. however, altough the country registered bumper yields in maize production, malawi was still ranked lowest in food security country index. why? what went wrong?

to my understanding there are a few issues that need to be understood and considered seriously in our food security campaigns.

firstly we need to understand what food security entails. because producing more food alone does not ensure food security. for example the fertilizer subsidy only applied to maize. that is only one food crop. what ablout farmers who dont grow maize? what about areas where maize does not work well? what about the protein for the bumper carbohydrates produced.

secondly, food security is hugely influenced by other economic factors. it was noted that farmers who produced more maize, some more than enough food for their families... sold their food to access basic needs like medicines, school fees, relish and clothes. in the end they ended up not having enough food to last them the whole year. therefore increased food production alone where other economic conditions are not favourable dose not necessarilty ensure food security.

thirdly food security is also greatly dependent on farmers skills, access to knowledge, adaptability and access to support structures. sometimes farmers are not food secure because they continue to grow crops that are not conduncive for their environment. sometimes its because they dont have the skill to access good agro markets, negotiate good prices and produce crops that are marketable. and most farmers are also food insecure because they are very prone to natural disasters like climate change, droughts and floods.

therefore, i really believe that food security efforts should be implemented through strategies that are geographically specific, should consider other influencing factors apart from low food production, should be implemented as a holistic aproach and more importanlty should adress root causes of food insecurity which include lack of skills and basic need among food producers.

our country Malawi is currently going through political and government instability. as a background, our current president is in his second term of office. during his first term, he had a very small marjority in parliament and his government had very difficult challanges in implementing their policies. before his term of office, the major problem in malawi was food insecurity. so during his first term of office, he introduced subsidised farm inputs an managed to make our country food secure. he received many awards for this achievement. but because he had a small marjority in parliament, the members of parliament made the passing of the national budget and passing of many bills very difficult. therefore people were very sympathetic of him therefore when he was running for the next term in office people gave him the biggest marjority ever attined in any elections in malawi. soon after attaining this marjority, the problems started almost immediately. the government and its parliament started to abuse its marjority and passed bills that were very unpopular with malawians. a few of the bills passed were 1) they changed the malawian flag without any consutations 2)they passed a bill that controls media freedom 3) they deported the British ambassodor 4) they privatised the importation of fuel 5) they closed all the forex exchange bereus 6) they introduced a budget that had very heavy taxes on poor malawians and on basic food items like milk... 6) they closed all the universities and fired lectures who were believed to be teaching violence... the president lost donor confidence and najor foreign aid donors started to pull out of the country... different organisations, civil societies and religious entities started to condemn him about his poor governance but the president persisted in implementing policies that were very unpopular with malawians.. after almost two years fo this tenedncy the president grew even more arrogant and showed no possibility of hearing any advice. in his public adresses and speaches he repeatedly said... he is incharge and no one can tell him what to do.. he threated opposision leaders and anyone who dared oppose him and say anything contrary to his views. as the unsatisfaction grew various opposition parties tried to stage demonstrations but were not allowed by the police.. the government introduced a non-refundable fee of K2million for anyone wishing to demonstrate against the government.. they also approved a bill which banned all court injuctions against the government decesions.. however on the 20th of July, the civil society organisations managed to organise public demonstrations against the government.. they fullfilled all the requirements but on the morning of the actual demonstrations it was discovered that someone has taken a court injunction... the demonstrators stayed peacefully in the streets because the organisers assured them that the injunction will be lifted.. however by mid afternoon the people in the streets started to grow impatient and started walking regardless of the injuction... by late afternoon the peacefull demonstration crowd turned into a protesting crowd and started the riots. bussinesses linked to the government wre rooted and some basic groceries shops were rooted as well. a total of 9 people were killed by the police national wide during the two day demonstrations.

therefore to my understanding the demonstrations are basically peoples dissatisfaction of our leadership and governance style. i think that we do not have strong governance structures that can influence our governance issues. as long as the president has a marjority in parliament, he has absolute powers to do whatever he wants for 5 years. our parliamenterians do not do what their constituents want

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The TPA process in Sokelele Village, T.A. Chadza in Lilongwe District began with a community briefing. The community was briefed on the project goals, objectives, activities and expected outcomes. During the briefing, it was emphasized how relevant the project is to the community. With more than 70% of the community’s households being Female Headed, the project would be developmentally beneficial to the community and them as individuals.

Firstly the TPA facilitators selected interested individuals to be participants of the TPA drama group. The selection ensured that people from all sections of the community (i.e. the youth, the elderly, men and women) were included in the group. A total of 23 people actively participated in the training and performance of the TPA for a total of Five days.

After the selection the group conducted a series of Focus Group Discussions. In these discussions real issues on root causes of the problems, case studies and impact of the issues on the community development were explored. In Sokelele village it was discovered that the main challenges being faced by subsistence women farmers include: lack and therefore expensive agricultural inputs, lack of land ownership and lack of effective agricultural extension services. The group was also challenged to critically discover, analyze and debate on conflicting ideas, view points and behavior motivators.

Following these discussions, the group was therefore equipped and tasked to conduct interviews (i.e. research) in the community on the real issues affecting women small holder farmers. This exercise ensured that the group is well conversant with issues affecting the whole community. The research enabled the TPA group to source ideas from people which might not be available or won’t participate during the TPA performance.

During this exercise the group discovers real issues, real people being targeted by the issues to be addressed. They also meet real life characters being affected and or proliferating the root causes of the issues being explored. The outstanding case study/ story in Sokelele village was about a divorced woman with three grown up children whom after coming back from her ex-husband’s village, has been living for the past three years without a piece of land since back in the village no one is willing to give her a piece of field.

In her story Ida Pofera said “I seem like a person without a home. Because at my husbands’ village they said I belong here & I have no land there… back here they say I don’t have land either because I am supposed to be at my husbands village… so where do I really belong?” she lamented.

Equipped with this information, the group then created a story that best portrayed the issues the community is facing in terms of women small holder farmers. It is from this story a play is developed. The play forms the basis of the TPA performance. The play was based on two prominent issues faced by women subsistence farmers: lack of land ownership and lack of access to input markets.

The first scene portrayed a widowed woman who is having problems to support her family of five after her late husband’s relatives had seized her best farmlands.

In the second scene, a married woman is arguing with her husband about his lack of support in food farming, his habit of personally using all their money from produce sales and disregarding family needs but most importantly because he has sold the coupon for obtaining government subsidized inputs and using the money for beer.

In a turn of events the women coincidently meet at a water borehole and discuss issues affecting their progress in farming. They discuss that the issues they are facing in their families contribute to women retardation in farming business. Other women also explain that even with an access to farm inputs: low literacy levels, poor exposure to good produce markets and lack of effective agricultural women oriented policies also contribute to poor progress in women subsistent farmers.

Concluding the discussion one woman asks “but where can we report all these issues? Who can listen?” the community audience informs the woman that to the best of their knowledge; there are no structures/authorities or laws who can address those issues.

In the final scene, things have gone from bad to worse in the married couples’ home. A debt collector has come to collect some money from the wife who got the credit on the basis that the husband will pay after receiving money from their tobacco sales. The husband became so furious because he has used all the money. He beats the wife so much that the community and intervened and took them to the chiefs court to resolve their issues.

The performance was staged before an audience of all stakeholders identified as policy holders, traditional local authorities and the community. In Sokelere we had the areas T.A, District Commissioners’ representative, The Director of Planning & Development, the District Agricultural Director, The Member of Parliament and representatives from NASFARM, Bunda Collage and ADMARK. Through out the performance the audience was engaged in a dialogue by the actors. Through the dialogue, the actors verified with the audience whether issues portrayed in the play occur in real life. The audience provides guidance to the actors on how to act or react in particular circumstances. The community leaders presented the cultural justification on some behaviors by the characters in the play.


Immediately after the play, the audience was engaged in a discussion based on the issues highlighted in the TPA performance.

The Policy makers were motivated to advocate for Policy reforms to address the issues highlighted by the community. Local leaders were sensitized on the issues affecting women farmers and encouraged to make decisions guided by these concerns. The community was also motivated to take a leading role in resolving their own problems and initiating dialogue with relevant influential stakeholders.

In response to questions presented by community women in regards to land issues, the MP of the area, Mr. Kamanga informed the audience that the parliament will in the November 2010 house discuss an inheritance Bill that will resolve some of the issues concerning land and property grabbing faced by widows. He therefore promised to support that bill. This earned high jubilations from the women.

The officials from the district agricultural office also informed the people on the proper selection, distribution and use of Government subsidized input coupons.
In response to the challenges face by women in their utilization, community leaders were encouraged to address those issues as criminal.


By the end of the performance the community had utilized a forum where all policy stakeholders were available to address all their preponderant issues.

Most importantly, women were empowered to voice out their views to relevant authorities in a culturally acceptable and effective way. In her concluding remarks a woman advocate trained by NASFARM based in the village commended all the stakeholders present in the discussion and informed them that it is from these kind of discussions that good agricultural policies should be developed because they will truly reflect and be beneficial to the needs of women subsistence farmers who form more then 80% of subsistence farmers in Malawi.

Based on these discussions, action plans were developed and all stakeholders were tasked to ensure that they are fulfilled. The community was given reference points and relevant officials to refer to, when faced which challenges discussed in this forum.

THEATRE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Chidzinja village, T.A. Mkanda. Thyolo district.

A Report compiled by TAKONDWA KALIWO

INTRODUCTION
Theatre still remains one of the most common medium of communication among the rural communities in Malawi. In Thyolo, a group of young people from Chidzinja village have been using drama performances to sensitize their community on various cultural and social-economic issues. During the Food Security festival implemented in the village, these young people were trained in Theatre for Development and how they can use it to sensitize their community and other surrounding villages on food security related issues. This report, gives a detailed account on how the training sessions were implemented and how this group of young men and women were motivated to form a drama club that will conduct developmental theatre performances. This activity was part of the food security festival in the village under the Mwana alirenji project.
OUTLINE OF ACTIVITIES
I. THEATRE FOR DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
From the village briefing session about the project goals, objectives and activity descriptions: people who were interested in theatre training were selected and briefed about the role of theatre in the Mwana Alirenji project. The first three days of the training were concentrated on training the participants on various issues about the project and its implementation including but not exclusive to topics like: Project duration, donors, goals, objectives and outcomes. They were also trained on the role of theatre for development within the project and its relation to all other project activities. Finally the topic of other cross cutting issues that need to be addressed in the quest for food security was also emphasized.
From this training, the group was split into micro working groups where using the research skills and project information they have acquired were tasked to create theatre for development play which would be very relevant in their community.
Through focus group discussions the group came up with the following play:
II. STORY LINE CREATION AND PLAY DEVELOPMENT
The synopsis of the play at Chidzinja village was the following:
A family of six in Chidzinja village had a small plot of land which they inherited from their parents. All their needs, food, basic necessities, relied on the produce of this land. Although the piece of land was infertile and produced a little harvest, the family had no other source of income so they resolved into selling the little that they harvested. Every year the family experienced food shortages. One day, when the family was going through extreme food shortage and other food insecurity related effects, the father of the house went to steal trees from a nearby estate to sell and support his family. Unfortunately, the estate guard caught him and his case was resolved in a forum where it was discovered that, the man’s main reason for stealing was due to the food insecurity in his household. Hence the forum with technical advice from the agricultural assistant and food security experts advised him on how make manure for his field, crop and diet diversification as some of the strategies toward food security. The family implemented all the experts trained them and a few years later they become one of Mwana alirenji model families in Chidzinja village.
From this story, the group created a theatre for development play that portrayed the root cause of food insecurity in their community and how it can be resolved. The first scene showed the root cause of food insecurity in their community which was soil infertility, small farm land and lack of food budgeting. In the second scene the play showed the effects of these root causes which can be sickness, theft and poverty. The following scene concentrated on how to resolve these challenges which is by community and stakeholder involvement in food security issues. The last scene of the performance which was a mime showed how an ideal food secure family can be achieved to motivate the viewers to implement the ideals proposed in the play.

III. REHERSALS AND PERFOMANCE
Having developed the play the group rehearsed the play using the theatre for development skills like miming, interaction with the audience and clarification of facts and ideas presented in the play. Traditional songs and typical community characters were used the performance to enhance the meaning of the play and imitate the real life scenarios of the community.
The performance was staged before an audience estimated to be over 2000 people. Authorities present during the performance included: one representative from the District commissioners office, the District Development director, the district agricultural officers, the district information officer, representative of the traditional authority, the group village headman and not less than ten village headmen.
The play was very interactive and the audience participated very well throughout the performance. Most people from the audience verified that the play truly depicted their real life situation and that the characters in the play were common characters in the village. Because of the plays relevance to the communities’ situation the audience listened attentively as the various agriculture and Story Workshop experts informed the audience on how they can strategize to improve their households into food secure ones.
By the end of the performance the audience was sensitized on how to make organic manure to improve soil fertility in their infertile farms, the importance of crop and diet diversification in the pursuit for food security, food budgeting and the importance of collective community action in food security issues.
The audience was also motivated through the various committees formed to develop and implement action plans towards the achievement of their food security goal. Various speeches by the government officials delivered as part of the performance also motivated the community to view the achievement of the project goals as a social-economic development requirement.
IV. DEVELOPMENT OF ACTION PLANS
After the training and the performance, this group of young women and men resolved to make an action plan to guide their performances for the next 6 months. Since most of the people in the group had an experience already in drama it was easier for them to form a village drama club. The group selected a main committee and developed a work plan. They agreed to meet every fortnight on Sunday afternoons at 14 hours. They also planned to have at least one theater for development performance once a month.
Their following meeting was planned for the following Sunday. The agenda for that meeting included setting a constitution for their club and strategizing on how they will source materials needed for their upcoming performances.
CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES
There were no notable challenges in Chidzinja village in the Theatre for Development training and performance implementation. The participants had some drama performance knowledge prior to the training; as such the concept of using theatre for development was not alien to them. The fact that most of the members of the club already performed drama for other purposes, it was ideal to use the same concept and motivate them to use the same skills for the achievement of the project outcomes in their community.
CONCLUNSION
From this analysis, it can be clearly said that the Theatre for Development component of the Mwana alirenji village festival in Chidzinja village was very successful. The activity trained a total of 20 young me and women in theatre for development and the group performed a brilliant performance during the food security festival in the village. The performance ably sensitized and motivated the people from the village and other surrounding villages and how best they can solve the problems that cause them to be food insecure. With the drama club formed in the village at the end of the activity, which has been motivated to perform food security related performances in the village; it is palpable that Chidzinja village has taken the first step towards food security.