We’ve moved from our follow-up meeting with the old groups, and moved into another large lunch with a new group of women, once again focused around goats.
It’s a curious methodology, these goat groups. According to KNZRT, a goat group costs about $3,800 to start. These costs are trainings, sainfoin seeds, and mostly, the goats: 5 per member. But after the first year, the group keeps the kids the goats produce, and pass the original goats on to a new group. In this way, the costs of continuing the project another year is only around $500.
During our last meeting, we identified that the women who had received the goats were not particularly poor. They already had animals before the program had begun. “It was risk management on the part of the people who organized the groups,” we concluded. Very poor people are less likely to show good results with their groups, so the organizers are more willing to put middle income families in the groups, to look successful in the eyes of the big bosses. Naturally, however, as the goal of the program is to help poor people, and not improve overall goat stocks, they would have preferred poorer, riskier families.
Another curious recurring conversation has been on weighing the animals. During the first year of the program, while it was closely monitored, everyone weighed their animals. Once the close scrutiny passed, the women stopped weighing them. “We are Kyrgyz!” They said, “we know how much the animals weigh just by looking, or from when our husbands pick them up!”
Now, if it was me conducting the meetings, I’d have just recommended they reconsider, and then fall back on their advice. But not our experienced developers. “No, you don’t know,” was the curt response. “Farmers all over the world, whether in New Zealand or in Africa say this. But you can’t be sure. Furthermore, from our calculations, animals that are over 40 kilos in December are much more likely to produce twins. It is in your interest to weigh your animals!”
That folks, is detailed, grass roots development at perfection.
