Research at SCC-Vi Agroforestry

Hooray! After a week and a bit of talking to everyone in sight about fuel efficient ‘stoves’, different beliefs surrounding traditional stoves, sorting out which areas were affected by post-election violence and scouring old data from past surveys, I have finally figured out my research plan!… sort of… :) Okay… Before I left Canada I had a very nice proposal figured out, and a thorough literature review (for ‘factors affecting the usage of fuel efficient stoves in xxx district, Kenya), and I had a ‘plan’, of sorts, which I knew I would revise and solidify once I met with my partner organization. Now that I have met them, I have gotten all sorts of information that I didn’t know before, especially in terms of different people groups having more of a tendency to adopt technology in general, and more efficient stoves in particular.

As it turns out, the Kalenjin community (where most super fast runners come from) has developed a pretty amazing combination stove/ oven/ chicken brooder and even, in the latest models, a chicken hatchery component. The Kikuyu community (that of the current president) is, in general, more likely to adopt technology that will make or save them money. Other communities here are only likely to adopt a technology if it solves some particular need. In one case, there are very strong cultural traditions attached to the three-stone fire.

So, my plan… do some interviews of elders who can fill me in on traditions about three-stone stoves, interview a few stove building groups to get more detailed info on the stoves themselves, then do a big set of household interviews, almost 50 by the time I’ll be done.

This week I will be helping out and taking part in a climate change workshop because SCC-Vi is doing something to do with carbon sequestration… they are planning a survey measuring diameters trees that have been planted as a result of this project, somehow related to carbon credits. The people in my unit (the M&E, or Monitoring and Evaluation unit) have been busy teaching themselves about it in order to teach others. Funny, because it is a subject talked about all the time in Canada, but almost never here. I have been enlisted to do a section on ‘the relationship between climate change and development’, which is an uneasy relationship, and one difficult to talk about in a country like Kenya, which desperately wants to be more ‘developed’. I find it ironic to talk about how to arrest climate change here, since people in this place deal with the impacts much more than we do at home, and at the same time contribute exponentially less to the causes of the problems.

The rest of the week will be taken up with visits to stove making groups, conducting interviews to find research assistants, and starting household visits.

Oh, and let me just say that I have really enjoyed working with my partners so far. I have been really blessed to be linked with them. They are very happy to have me here, think the research subject is very important, and are helping me out in all sorts of ways, including sorting through applications and getting me set up with some interviews for research assistants.

I have been connected to the Monitoring and Evaluation unit, and have access to all of their wisdom in composing and carrying out research surveys, dealing with research assistants, and getting access to past survey data as well as the field coordinators. The field coordinators are all very happy to help me out and introduce me to the appropriate people and the staff of M&E have taken me as one of their own.