Focus on community empowerment

As dusk falls on the tiny hamlet of Lazur, the local middle school is abuzz with activity with the monthly meeting of the Hableh river project being convened. Following an opening prayer from members of the clergy, the 76 members of its coordinating body - young and old, men and women - give a status report on the project’s endeavours, followed by additional proposals for community enrichment. In a country widely known for centralised government planning and strong religious convictions, this unique grass-roots community empowerment programme could prove a model for replication in rural Iran. "Our main objective is the general benefit of the people of Lazur," a local clergyman, Ramazan Musavi, told IRIN. "Everybody knows if this is achieved, individual profit will soon follow, and that’s why everyone is mobilised," he said. In a country like Iran, having religious approval is important, and residents are quick to take note. "Islam encourages prosperity and earning legitimate wealth," Musavi told the packed hall. It emphasised the development of earthly and spiritual life, but leaving earthly resources untapped was wrong, he explained. "Water is what we have and something we should use." After this introduction, community representatives began discussing a proposed project to establish a mineral-water factory in the village – a potentially profitable venture for the 2,700 residents of the village. In Iran, a country suffering from extreme drought, water is precious and Lazur has plenty of it. Most of the water flows away untapped; the idea of using it for profit is a novel one. Prior to the initiation of the community empowerment programme by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Iranian government in 1998, such a discussion would have been unheard of. Now it is being encouraged. In this largely agricultural community, 150 km east of the Iranian capital, Tehran, life is not easy. The average household income is a mere US $50 per month. But this project isn't just about money, but the future of the village as well. "Our aim in the Hableh river project is to improve the rural people’s skills and persuade them to participate in items directly affecting them," the programme's facilitator, 33 year-old Hushang Djazi, told IRIN. It had been generally proven that when the government planned a project, it could not be sustained due to lack of participation by the people involved he explained. "This project addresses just that," he said. After the 1979 revolution, the government found that rural areas had been neglected, lacking access roads, infrastructure, and the like. The authorities therefore began to focus attention on rural areas, but as the economy was so dependent on oil, the government failed to make a major contribution to the agricultural sector, which accordingly suffered. As a result, thousands of people left rural communities for urban centres in search of jobs. Since 1979, for example, Tehran’s population has increased dramatically, unofficially now standing at well over 10 million - and this in a country with a population of 71.4 million. "The government was willing to do something for the villages, but since it made its own decisions without paying attention to the people they affected, the projects failed," Djazi asserted. In short, there was a gap between the government's perception of what was needed and what the needs of rural communities actually were, he said. Iran's planning mechanism is centralised from top to bottom, thereby deterring people from participating in social and community planning. This in turn has the effect of stunting local skills and knowledge, to the extent of leading to their demise. In the mid-1990s, the government launched a decentralisation drive, but it was not until two years after the landslide election of the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, that, in February 1997, the country held its first local elections. In the 730 cities and 40,000 villages where elections were held, about 200,000 local council members were voted in, including more than 500 women. Decentralisation, however, is a dream yet to be realised. Djazi, who liaises between the government and the project participants, explains that Lazur is one of eight pilot villages participating in the Hableh river project in the Firuzkuh township of Tehran Province, currently home to 10,000 inhabitants. Lazur is the largest of the group, and currently the most successful. Using a participatory rural appraisal method, the residents of Lazur are being taught to identify, prioritise, investigate and analyse their problems. Once a problem is prioritised, the participants are asked to outline a plan defining methods of solving it, in terms of bringing to bear on it all their social, cultural and traditional attitudes and practices. In parallel with this, the problem is subjected to an analysis by experts. The results of these two approaches are then brought together and coordinated into what then becomes a project. "They are planning something they really want, and that's why it works," Djazi says. That their projects really do work is a fact. In just two and a half years, this once sleepy hamlet, plagued by routine flooding and communal apathy, has mobilised its own residents to construct 42 dams, a reservoir, and extensive stretches of anti-erosion embankments, irrigation canals and access roads. About 5,700 fruit trees, including apple, pear, cherry, almond, walnut and plum, were planted by residents, both men and women, on a hillside overlooking the village, with another 3,000 planned for this year. Why such ambition? "This project is as important as life," the project council head, Zakariya Shoja, told IRIN. "The people in Lazur never had a good income, and the idea of exploiting natural resources for the future is unique." As people were directly participating in the project, they recognised that they were working to build a better life for themselves and their children, he added. Two objectives were being met in this way, the 43 year-old guidance counsellor explained: "To enhance the income of the individual, as well as [that of] the community at large." But equally impressive are the minimal costs of implementing such a project. According to Djazi, since the project was first initiated in Lazur, the cost has been a minimal $38,000, including $7,000 in cash and kind from the villagers themselves. Other benefits are less obvious, but equally important. Since the project’s initiation, there has been a dramatic change in the attitudes of men towards women. As active participants of the project, not to mention the coordinating body and council, the village women have for the first time been participating alongside men. Showkat Esfandyari, a 25 year-old woman who was instrumental in bringing the project to the villagers in 1998 told IRIN it had transformed their lives. "Although in the past women took part in the practical affairs of the village, like farming and cattle raising, they didn’t participate in decision making as they do now," she said. Asked if initially there had been any resentment, she said: "Of course in the beginning there were some men who opposed it, but as time went by there were more men supporting us." In fact, women initially proposed many of the schemes being implemented in the village, she pointed out. "This project has proven that women can make proper decisions and can be decisive," she added. Currently the women are awaiting a grant for a herbal medicine project, and have proposed a beautification project for the village’s main street. Asked if the project could be replicated elsewhere in Iran, Esfandyari replied: "This is a brilliant example of what rural communities can do if given the opportunity." Today Lazur is definitely receiving a lot of attention. To date, community representatives from other provinces such as Arak, Shiraz and Tabriz have visited it with a view to replicating the concept in their home provinces. Moreover, two graduate students have used the village as the subject of their respective theses. Although the first phase of the orchard project is now in place, it will be two years before the thousands of trees overlooking Lazur bear fruit. When that stage is reached, the coordinating council, as the representative body of the villagers, will decide on how to invest the profits for the community at large. Looking to the future with a new sense of optimism, Zakariya Shoja says the project has rejuvenated the community and that he hopes for further support from UNDP and the government. "This project is like a baby, and now we are crawling," he said. "We hope our mother will continue to support us so that one day we can stand on our own."