ADDRESSING THE LAND And employment ISSUES

ECO-VILLAGES FOR ECONOMICALLY VIABLE AND ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE
RURAL DEVELOPMENT

ECO-VILLAGES FOR ECONOMICALLY VIABLE
AND ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE LIVING

The vital issues of housing, land resettlement, tenure, hunger, poverty, unemployment, crime, and emergent farmers cannot be resolved in isolation.

There is now general agreement that an economy cannot grow - indeed it will deteriorate when :

a house is given to someone without a job,
or if retrenched is unable to afford its upkeep

land is given without resources
and appropriate training in agriculture.

land, training and finance is made available for produce for which there is no market.

housing and agricultural subsidies are given without supporting structures.

If you are a patient in a hospital and every specialists who looks at your chart, shakes his head and says "You are dying" - what are you to believe ? But this has been the diagnosis which the specialised planners, economists and sociologists, have been handing down to the inhabitants of all small rural communities; telling them in effect that there is no future for them, and that they had better seek work in the cities.

The Realities and Dilemmas
of Urban and Rural Sprawl
Accepting that the process of urbanisation is inevitable, there is a vast difference between urbanization and metro-politanization, since .

Cities siphon off the manpower, finances and products for their own benefit

Small towns rely on them for their goods and services and charity – but rarely for investments.

Consequently, small towns and urban settlements are essentially 'colonies' of the metropolitan cities

In the current stage of world economics, it is now recognised that :
the formal industrial sector is no longer the primary source of employment

that cities have lost their original role as a source of social and cultural values.

The 'death wish' that arises from despair in a person is very strong. They first have to want to get well. The same is true of communities who need to rediscover that culture that existed before colonialisation, which was the concept of self-reliance – and which is today the real secret of an African Renaissance.

If city life and urban sprawl have been threatening social order and destroying the concept of community, then rural sprawl is becoming destructive of the natural environment, through the proliferation of isolated groups of settlements comprising a few families attempting to survive without adequate means of physical, social or economic support. These can only increase the demand for, and costs of providing future services, which will inevitably be demanded from the authorities. Ecologically, the dependence on local timber for heating and cooking can only lead to a decimation of the biodiversity of the region.

Land is not just an exploitable commodity. It is a cultural anchor, a place of living, the totem of indigenous customs around which displaced people can begin to rebuild their sense of belonging. It would be tragic if those who return to the land revert from landless poverty to landed poverty, and are forced by circumstances to overgraze and use crude methods to prepare and sow the land. Ultimately, it will be necessary to return land to those who can and want to live and work there productively, and give them the tools, the money and the confidence to reproduce the best elements of their society" [ Achmat Dangor ‘Back to The Land’ [1996]

THE ECO-VILLAGE ALTERNATIVE
The disparities that exist between the developed and developing societies and between urban and rural populations can be resolved by the micro-urbanisation of rural areas with the formation of Economically viable, and Ecologically and socially sustainable Eco-Villages.

Unfortunately, there is currently some confusion over terms. Some international examples of ‘eco-villages’ are little more than projects set up by a few up-market idealists attempting to establish a ‘going back to nature’ life style; while an ‘Agri-village’ that simply provides housing for farm workers as a ‘mini-Soweto’ which cannot qualify as an acceptable or viable social or economic settlement.

The Inter Afrika Eco-Village concept was a winning design in the 1995 UNIBOU ‘Concept to Construction’ competition, which are currently being planned in a number or South African Provinces.
An Eco-Village has the following principles and characteristics :

An Eco-Village is positioned and intended :
to act as a magnet to nearby scattered settlements to gain urban benefits.
for those working on local farms who are within walking distance of their work,
for attaining Food Security by family-managed small scale organic Eco-farms

An Eco-Village means to the residents
Sharing the process of planning
Choosing neighbours
Deciding on size of sites
Improved safety and security.

An Eco-Village generates small businesses and employment with :
the reintegration of work and residence.
the creation businesses and services that serve the community.

Every Eco-village has an Information Centre to assist in :
effective Community Management,
linking to national information sources and training institutions
for business and job creation,

Every Eco-Village has its own bank :
which is owned and managed by the community
that holds individual savings to build up local capital
that generates and leverages funds for investment

An Eco-Village is the basis for new socio-economic planning that attains :
incremental planning, housing design and financing.
cost reductions of services and construction.
the integration of agriculture and urban life.

An Eco-Village protects the environment through :
creating an effective ‘green belt’ around it for food production or recreation
all residents becoming equal owners and shareholders in their surroundings..
making any person leasing land accountable to the whole community.

ECO-VILLAGE PLANNING AND DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The general practice of town and regional planning has been unchanged over many decades, having been based on :
The separation and ‘zoning’ of housing, industrial areas and agriculture.
The provision of underground services, rather than on human social and economic considerations
Unlimited piecemeal expansion, leading to urban sprawl.

The Eco-Village concept evolved from the expressed needs and perceptions of urban communities utilising such African cultural and community values such as street and block committees, Stockvels and Kombi taxis.

It combines all former zoned community and business services that into one central space, leading to a greater economy in space usage.

Planning starts from the smallest unit comprising

A cluster of 6 to 12 sites

6 clusters make up a block committee

8 -10 blocks constituting a village.
[Approx population 3000-4000 ]

12 villages constitute a town.
[ 36 000 - 50 000 ]

This housing cluster principle means that the residents constitute a financial structure that
can assist in the Village management
handle waste management
take care of their less fortunate members, including HIV/AIDS orphans that can be managed by a supervising "house parent’ or a ‘house church’.

Transportation.
The town has a clear hierarchy of transport distribution path for all forms of traffic which results in

A reduction in the specification and cost of tacmacadam roads.
The pedestrian distance from house to transport route does not exceed 200 metres.
Learners only have to cross one road from their home to school.
Bicycle paths alongside this major traffic routes
Improved safety of all travelers, cyclists and pedestrians

Services.
Conventionally, services have mostly been installed mid-block that have to be provided from the outset, which in turn increases establishment costs and interest payments.
In the Eco-Village all services are located in the road servitudes, which permits :
easy access for incremental installation and for future maintenance.

Initial establishment costs are substantially reduced to both developer and municipality

Re-integrating Residence and Work.
Vast sums are available from both government and private sector sources for small and medium businesses and employment, yet expectations have not been realised. Indeed, according to reliable research 80-90% of all small businesses fail. A major reason has to be that the majority have been urban survival ‘traders’ who are not able to compete with the formal sector.

Every society from the least to the most developed has needs. The greatest need however, is for job creation particularly in the rural areas. But whenever the subject of needs is raised, invariably these are associated with such basic services as water, electricity, roads, housing etc. However, where there is a local need, there is a potential job, a potential business, a potential profit and a potential for supporting growth and providing the multiplier effect of wealth creation that can benefit the whole community.


Eco-Villages In the rural areas offer the most needed employment opportunities by :

Reinstating the principle of combining of residence with occupation by each housing cluster being an economic unit with a potential for developing its own special business interest or activity.

Building their own shop to display their products or service, the profits from which can in turn finance further housing extensions, services and other facilities.

[See ADDENDUM Chart ]

An opening is also provided for the international trend away from centralized macro-factories to a decentralization of sub-assembly units. So instead of a worker having to travel to a factory, a national product assembler would deliver parts on a regular basis to a housing cluster that would assemble them, to be passed on the next cluster for the next sequence of assembly.

Designing for human dignity
Aesthetics and human dignity have received little or no consideration in township and housing design. The people in the infamous `toilet towns’ are seemingly condemned to an atmosphere of lowered self-respect and the despair of ever reaching their aspirations of a attaining a quality of life in a socially, financially and environment-ally sound community.

Unfortunately, many developers have an inadvertent tendency to insult their potential clients by relating their financial ability to the size and type of house offered. A classic example is that of the ubiquitous NE/51/9 that is incapable of extension.

The Eco-Village housing design offers nothing less than a full component of lounge, five bedroom, 2 bathrooms, kitchen / family room, but which can start from a single unit of 22 m2 and expand incrementally through to 80m2

The greatest opposition to ‘low-cost housing’ invariably comes from the ‘NIMBY attitude of neighbouring suburbs who fear the reduction of their property values. However, most top-of-the range housing projects are characterised by having connecting walls that give little indication of the size of the houses.

These road frontage facades also offer safety and security, a factor that is as much a consideration of people in informal settlements as those of the more affluent developments. The Eco-Village housing cluster units are planned on the same principle, which offers collective safety for children, pets, motor vehicles, fruit trees and vegetables, and particularly important to the building process - of construction materials.

Eco-Village Community Management
Frankly all our towns are socially unmanageable by virtue of their size and the condition of urban sprawl. Historically, every social and town planner from Plato and Da Vinci to Doxiades have agreed that no town should be more than 50 000 people. Indeed none of the great cathedral towns of Europe were more than 35 000.

It is accepted world-wide that any project or service, however needy, will fail unless it is ‘owned’ by the people or community it is intended to help. Indeed, a 1995 World Bank Report ‘Africa’s Management in the 1990’s and Beyond’ stated :

"The most lamented crisis of capacity building in Africa is more a crisis of institutional capacity than a crisis of technological capacity in terms of skills, methods and technology."

The foremost complaint which is leveled at the government, the private sector and the banking industry is the lack of access to finance, information, education and training, which constrains development in general and rural areas in particular.

These requirements are provided in the formation of an Eco-Village and its method of self-management, which is assisted by the establishment of the following inter-related Co-operative structures of civil society which are facilitated through the Integrated Community Building Programme designed by TECHNIKON SA in consultation with a number or urban and rural communities.

THE PEOPLE’S PROSPERITY CYCLE OF GROWTH AND PROSPERITY
FOR SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT

[A]
COMMUNITY
development
CO-OPERATIVE



[B] [C]
COMMUNITY COMMUNITY
INFORMATION FINANCIAL
CO-OPERATIVE CO-OPERATIVE

Community Management of an Eco-Village
Central to all development starts with the building up of a community’s Human, Social and Financial Capital. through the formation of :

[a] A Community DEVELOPMENT Co-operative - for building Social Capital
[b] A Community Information Co-operative - for building Human Capital
[c] A Financial Co-operative [Village Bank] -for building Financial Capital

Community Financial Co-operative
Paradoxically, in the current conditions of poverty, it is ‘poor people who save’, due to the lack of banking and credit facilities. Therefore a vital economic aspect of creating an Eco-village is the establishment of a Financial Services Co-operative, commonly called a ‘Village Bank’. This facility is wholly owned and managed by the residents as shareholder / members who deposit their savings safely in a single account with a major commercial bank as their ‘Link Bank’.

Also by purchasing shares to include the value of their site, [i.e. R600 @ R10 000 / ha] they effectively purchase a share in all commercial and agricultural sites in their Eco-Village, from which they will obtain a ‘citizen’s income’, individually and collectively from rents obtained through the year.

What it means for a community to have its own ‘Village Bank’
Having a Village Bank means not only bringing banking services to an area; but of building up a solid capital base for development. For although individual savings may not constitute much in the way of collateral, collectively the amount can be considerable.

An example of this reality is the village of Motswedi in the N.W. Province where 680 families succeeded in amassing a capital sum of R1 200 000 in only 15 months. Such savings have been identified by economists as ‘Dead Capital’, which could be used to leverage both investment and grants for development and loans for business purposes. This proposal was approved and given an Award at the World Bank Development Market Place 2000,

Therefore, by setting up its own Village Bank, a community :
builds up a culture of saving, in keeping with the new National Savings Scheme.
keeps their capital in the area for its re-circulating for wealth creation.
takes greater responsibility for their own development.
directs funds where they are most needed.
becomes more financially self-reliant.

A Village Bank also solves the problems of :
financing essential local small businesses
creating employment closer to home.
In so doing a key principle of Community Economics is demonstrated that one should :
"Invest first where your best interests are – not where the best interest is "

Loans for Development
At all levels of financial management, the character of a person is the ultimate consideration to the granting of loans or grants. The advantage to the formal financial institutions is that an applicant for funds is first vouched for by the community through the Co-operative structures, thereby improving both security and repayment of loans. Moreover, the whole village economy benefits. For by granting local loans for local businesses, residents will know that by producing and purchasing local produce and local services, they will be demonstrating another important principle of Community Economics that to generate development :
"More important than distributing wealth is its re-circulation "

Managing Housing Subsidies.
A Village Bank provides a valid option for the management of both housing and agricultural subsidies and loans. At the start of the planning process, the total subsidy amount, when placed with a Commercial Link Bank in the name of the Village and its Bank, interest is earned that can further benefit the community.

Then as each shareholder / member of the Village Bank builds up their credit record during the time of planning and construction, they establish a basis for obtaining an add-on loan facility to be able to build a better house. The interest earned from the Link Bank, that was not earned previously, then pays for the establishment of the community infrastructure.

An important aspect of co-operative community ownership of the housing and all its facilities, means that should an individual wish to sell their house, the Eco-Village is to be offered the first option to purchase.

Community Information Co-operative
Finally, the change in society that has made all difference internationally, and which can make Eco-villages economically viable, is the phenomenon of Information Technology. A Community Information Co-operative Centre is therefore a vital component for collecting all information on the town and the employment potential and opportunities of its residents. For in any community there exists a vast unknown, untapped fund of information on the skills and knowledge available for local development.
With such knowledge, a community can bring all the social, educational and training advantages into their village, that were previously sought in cities, and in the process attain greater confidence in itself and its own capacities for development.

The remote rural community of Kgautswane earned an award its Community Information Center from the Stockholm Challenge Award 2000, acknowledged as the Nobel Prize equivalent for technological innovation in ‘Bridging the Digital Divide.