By Timoty Ralaitsirofo Big Red Earth - Tana Representative for Sustainable Development in Madagascar
“No one is born a good citizen;no nation is born a democracy.
Rather,both are processes that continue to evolve over a life time”
-Former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan.
Big Red Earth is a non-profit-organisation created in 2015 in Berlin, Germany by Dr. Susan Hanisch and her husband and colleague, Dustin Eirdosh. They arrived in Madagascar in 2011, as part of Susan’s PhD work with a German research project. In 2012, Dustin began to work with University of Toliara, faculty of Teacher Training (ENS) on a project called The Positive Education Action-Research (PEAR) Laboratory, in cooperation with the US-based Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET). The PEAR Lab and IEET worked to teach students at University of Toliara about how technology and innovations can impact development in Madagascar.
In 2014, Susan and Dustin were shown Betanimena Station, by the University of Toliara institute of agriculture (IST). Betanimena Station was an agricultural research station built by the French during the colonization period, but today has been degraded because of a lack of governance. The Chef de Region for Atsimo-Andrefana wanted to make Betanimena Station a classroom for the University, so Susan and Dustin began to help him. They chose to work with University of Toliara and Betanimena Station to work on this project for sustainable development mainly because this region is classified in the red zone due to high food insecurity, poverty, low quality of education and lack of capacity to manage its natural resource base, while preserving this biodiversity hotspot. To help make Betanimena Station a resource for the University and community of the southwest, Susan and Dustin created an NGO called
Big Red Earth (it is the approximate translation in english of the malagasy “betanimena”). This is a new kind of NGO that works differently than most others in Madagascar.
The mission of Big Red Earth grow capacity for sustainable development in the southwest, by strengthening the needed competencies (knowledge and skills) in the University of Toliara. That means that Big Red Earth do not work directly with Malagasy communities, but only to help University of Toliara to be a leader in development.
This work entails two practical strategies:CBCD (Competency-Based Curriculum Development)
UACS (University-Assisted Community School)
CBCD is a process to engage faculty and students in understanding the competencies needed for 21st century in their field of study,and then designing the curriculum to cultivate those competencies(the knowledge,skills, and attitudes needed for success in a specific job or career)
UACS is when university students are trained to work project based on the needs for sustainable development of a local community and school. UACS offers diverse benefits from strengthening educational outcomes and pedagogical competencies,to cultivating democratic institutions and enhancing community perception of academia (universities)
It is important to mention that Big Red Earth is unique in working behind the scenes, helping the University of Toliara to work on sustainable development projects, but the NGO Big Red Earth does not actually manage projects themselves.
Using the tools of CBCD and UACS are the first priorities of Big Red Earth, these tools will help the University of Toliara become a leader in sustainable development for the southwest region. Other universities in Madagascar are also welcome to use these approaches.
The percentage of the Atsimo-Andrefana regional population living below the poverty line is 82%, this is higher than the national average of 74%.; our people are in deep poverty, but why?