Finding my way back to my first love

I love jazz. It’s my first love. In the last year and half I've have had an inordinate amount of time to myself living and working in a farm in the little agrarian town of Kitale, quite a contrast from Nairobi, my home city of eclectic contradictions. During this time while digging for new music I have come to an intriguing realization. The future of jazz is in the past. This is true especially when you recognize how so many young jazz musicians by their own confession ride on the back of legends learning, getting inspiration and recreating what has already been created in search of their unique modes of expression. How everlasting jazz is.

 This past week was a somewhat difficult one as I found myself suffering a flu that was unusually severe and sudden leaving me groggy and fatigued. I’ve been around long enough to know what flu is and how to treat one but in the back of my mind something kept telling me not to take things for granted. These are not ordinary times. I ignored and I’m still ignoring. Because of how I was feeling, I was unable to attend the funeral of my friend’s mom, even if just to be there in their hour of grief and loss. This was a woman we had in our youth grown to love and cherish like our own mom. This friend is one with whom we share some memorable experiences, painting the town red, riding bikes and because we were not consumers of alcohol, we hopped from restaurant to restaurant connecting with friends and other bikers. The world was beckoning…..

 We played music in church with him and other members of his family, from our late teens and for some even after making our own families, at least 20 years, maybe more. I was sad to miss the occasion. In other news, Hamas and Israel were at it again only this time, the fiercest in our lifetime. I had been following developments closely knowing that soon enough just as with the war in Ukraine the effects will hit home. A dreadful week of mixed emotions.

 I got up this morning feeling a bit better and decided to ride out to Eldoret a city I once lived in for a couple of years, 6 years ago. Only an hour away, a slow easy ride would help distract me and perhaps prepare me for the evidently loaded week ahead. As I set off, I decided to find something to listen to from YouTube and as I browsed quickly through my usual list of artists I came across a new project by Dominik Schurmann, an artist whose work I have come to love with passion. The song is The Seagull's Serenade with beautiful orchestration and the soulful, melodious voice of Song Yi Jeon a singer and composer who hails from South Korea. This piece warmed my heart and stirred my soul and just like that after a week of mental and emotional torment, I reconnected with my first love. I discovered also  in that moment that despite the many crises home and abroad, this crew was in the studio making this recording less than 24 hours ago, on the 14th day of October 2023, while I was away. They were focused on their passion. Here’s the link https://youtu.be/XD-crFBvlVQ?si=2cXaH64XBC2XljE2. 

We have heard it said that what we focus our attention and energy on becomes our reality. We can choose to debacle our minds with fruitless information or to nourish it with utmost knowledge. What a reminder that as I chase my dreams, pursue my goals, battle my ghosts or confront my demons as we often do, I must not forget my first love. That which reminds me of life, to live intentionally without fear, with passion and purpose, in the moment. That life is short. AND I HAVEN’T COME THIS FAR TO LOSE MY TRACK. How beautiful it was

 

Is idealism superseding pragmatism in technology innovations for agriculture?

The world is currently organized on the basis of the minority class ownership of productive resources and the production of wealth with a view to profit and because we operate in a market system that is driven by the power of numbers, small holder farmers remain unable to  freely determining their own profit destinies. 

One way of countering this was to renew the push to promote cooperatives in the hope that aggregation and pooling of resources would offer some competitive strengths especially in the face of rent seeking middlemen who's primary strategy is to distort prices to exploit farmers. This is the reality in Kenya.

Technology on the other hand is constantly redefining how we conduct business in most sectors, opening up new opportunities and enabling unprecedented connectedness, transformation and growth.  However, although there are some success stories, by and large, this is still not happening in any significant way for agriculture.

It is emerging that most people behind technology innovations have failed to observe how the set of linked. We need to do more to understand how a value chains should work so we can better relate determine the interventions that will empower farmers.required

For instance, the idea that digital and mobile trading platforms are a cure for the problem of market access is false if the intervention fails to address the question of standards/quality. It may eliminate unnecessary actors but fail to address the challenge of post harvest losses. 

Just musing 

The answer lies in establishing strong strategic alliances that distribute responsibilities beginning at pre-production, to production and eventually post-production stages of the value chain. What we must avoid is over-obsession with technological ideas and instead focus more on how to unravel the increasingly dysfunctional market.

Twins; Food security and climate change.

There is consensus that food security is the most vital element in sustainable human development and therefore food crisis will always have a negative impact on human development usually with both short term consequence and some lasting effects. Some of the factors contributing to food insecurity are unsustainable land use, poor governance, lack of land rights and tenure, discrimination and social exclusion.

 However, the future of agriculture, particularly in Africa will depend on how we tackle two seemingly unrelated issues; exclusion from markets and climate change.

 They may appear unrelated but are contextually analogous in the sense that both require interventions that redefine how we conduct our affairs with the burden being on changing culture as a way to adapting new techniques, systems and technologies.

 Exclusion from markets renders farmers helpless and susceptible to exploitation which consigns them to the vicious cycle of poverty. Unless this state of affairs is checked, it could impede and reverse all efforts at attaining food security. Likewise, if the effects of climate change on agriculture are ignored, they could effectively suppress production, trigger dramatic increases in food price and for some, dire food scarcities.

 Whereas neither represents a greater risk than the other, sustainable livelihoods and economic wellbeing fosters a suitable environment for promoting those actions that transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively and sustainably support development and food security under a changing climate. The priority will be to craft strategies, actions and thinking that combine these elements.

Lack of access to markets is equal to exclusion which implies deprivation.

There is consensus that food security is the most vital element in sustainable human development and therefore food crisis will always have a negative impact on human development usually with both short term consequence and some lasting effects. Some of the factors contributing to food insecurity are unsustainable land use, poor governance, lack of land rights and tenure, discrimination and social exclusion.

However, the future of agriculture, particularly in Africa will depend on how we tackle two seemingly unrelated issues; exclusion from markets and climate change.

They may appear unrelated but are contextually analogous in the sense that both require interventions that redefine how we conduct our affairs with the burden being on changing culture as a way to adapting new techniques, systems and technologies.

Exclusion from markets renders farmers helpless and susceptible to exploitation which consigns them to the vicious cycle of poverty. Unless this state of affairs is checked, it could impede and reverse all efforts at attaining food security. Likewise, if the effects of climate change on agriculture are ignored, they could effectively suppress production, trigger dramatic increases in food price and for some, dire food scarcities.

Whereas neither represents a greater risk than the other, sustainable livelihoods and economic wellbeing fosters a suitable environment for promoting those actions that transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively and sustainably support development and food security under a changing climate. The priority will be to craft strategies, actions and thinking that combine these elements.

Angel Conspirators Waiting in the Wings

The West’s best prognosticators are telling their leaders to get off the cosmological planes and betting parlors and prepare for full cooperation with President Uhuru Kenyatta. There is no guessing what the consequences of imposing sanctions or creating barriers for trade with Kenya will be. The simple truth is that economic relations with Kenya by whatever means is vital not for the love of our country but for the fear of China, India a number of countries that have perfected the practice of Illegal, unethical and unsustainable trade which is conducted overtly and covertly depending on what is at stake which not only intensified competition but also distorted markets and created confusion globally; “conducive conditions”.

The emergence of a new axis of trade made up of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sub Continent of India and China is a threat that the West cannot contend with and if Africa is really the next frontier for global economics, telling how pivotal Kenya will be is a no-brainer.

Kenya is set for takeoff not because of a peaceful election but rather because fate has conspired in her favor. She is in the way. You are either WITH US OR NOT. There is no in-between.

The critical message for Kenyans is INVEST.

Vision 2030 cannot be realized without the Informal Sector

The informal sector holds the key to achieving vision 2030 and realizing the much coveted dream of a peaceful, prosperous and more equitable society. In contrast to a growing perception that the sector is a marginal activity at the peripheral of the formal sector, it accounts for 20 percent of GDP and employs 80 percent of the working population in Kenya and it has achieved this with little support. But by continuing to ignore or circumvent the informal sector in resource allocation and strategic development planning, we expose the country to what some analysts have predicted will be a new wave and scale of conflicts emanating from the sector’s inability to continue employing, and the increased competition for seemingly diminishing resources, infrastructure, services and marketplace opportunities.

To forestall this eventuality, there needs to be a large scale government intervention and a massive investment of private capital in development of social and physical infrastructure with the aim of increasing the quality and quantity of engagement with the sector and ensuring that the evolution of the sector happens around grassroots institutions.

Some key areas of focus should be:
i. The development a framework for promoting strong grassroots business organizations as the channels for delivering resource for both service and production oriented activities.
ii. The development of appropriate youth oriented vocational and skills development to unlock idle human and social capital resident in the sector
iii. Identification of the appropriate technology, tools and instruments that can be introduced to increase efficiency and productivity of the sector to enhance competitiveness in the marketplace
iv. The design of appropriate incubation models to address the multiple causes of business failure and consequently reduce the high early stage failure rate of small businesses

PERSPECTIVES OF THE SECTOR
The informal sector is an oxymoron - on one hand it is an unregulated and unorganized sector whose numbers, for example, are not known and whose activities are unaccounted for. On the other, it provides jobs and offers incomes for some of the most vulnerable groups in our country.

The people who make up the informal sector are innovators, skilled at surviving, and in some cases prospering in a highly disorganized environment. Unfortunately, informality is responsible for loss of their full rights as citizens by operating outside the regulated economy.

But the sector does not exist in a vacuum as there is clear interconnectedness, partnerships and continuity with the formal sector, maintaining a two way flow of labor, goods, finances, etc, between the two sectors.

PARADIGMS OF DEVELOPMENT
The development decades of the 60s and 70s first threw up this strategy of 'growth.' Aiming for an economic growth, it was assumed that the benefits of this growth would reach all the sectors of the economy. This did not actually take place. In fact, inter-personal and inter regional disparities began to emerge. The urban informal sector emerged then as an answer or solution to the failure of the 'trickle down' growth strategies.

Since the growth strategies brought about disparities, later, in the 80s, economic and developmental strategies stressed on growth with distribution, or equity. It was assumed that strategies which stressed on equitable distribution of growth would be more appropriate. For various reasons, this distribution again did not take place. In fact, only in the informal sector was there more equitable distribution of income. This was very evident in the way workers in the sector, though thinly spread and inefficient, could distribute work that could be done by one person to several people.

As a result of the failure of the 'growth with equity' strategy to actually generate opportunities for the poor, the focus of development shifted to 'employment generation’ and more recently, in the new millennium, they added wealth creation. Even though this did work to an extent, the formal sector, which these developmental strategies were aimed at, was not able to absorb the multitudes of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled people coming out of our institutions of learning seeking for a piece of the action, The urban informal sector on the other hand, did, mainly for the reason that there are generally no restrictive barriers to entry and that the sector typically uses inefficient and labor intensive processes and technologies.

REGULATION
Regulation is critical in reducing the level of informality, but to achieve any success, it will be prudent to rationalize the role of the regulator in creating conducive conditions for doing business while ensuring that this does not involve subsidies that often distort markets which are typically conditioned by a completely different flavor of intercession.

The informal sector in Kenya is unique in many respects key of which is that as opposed to many most developing countries, entrepreneurs do have some interaction with authorities. Permits are issued by local authorities across the country, albeit, a daily permit. This however does not in any way suggest regulation. Regulation presupposes that a percentage of the proceeds of permits are ploughed back in the form of services, which is hardly the case in Kenya.

With the emergence of Counties, there will be need to establish mechanisms for collecting important data for policy formulation which should focus on supporting the already vibrant sector to thrive while at the same time defining a path to proper regulation

The Informal Sector offers opportunities for employment of youth

Without renewing the debates about whether entrepreneurial talent is ‘born’ or can be ‘taught and acquired, it is understood that a very low percentage of the general population is actually inclined towards becoming an entrepreneur. So how can we accurately identify and target scarce resources to cost effectively reach, say the most promising.

Although evaluative study of youth entrepreneur development and start-up support programs in Kenya is rare, what little has been done follows international norms; less than 5% of youth who complete these programs actually end up becoming entrepreneurs. Not least, this experience indicates that few youth entrepreneur development and start-up support programs can effectively screen for best candidate potential entrepreneurs. This poses serious strategic and methodological questions that will take some time to answer.

All the same, we must find ways to address the crisis of unemployment among youth. There hasn’t been a shortage of ideas on how to invest in youth focussed enterprise development in Kenya but rather, the problem has been too much emphasis on design and risk control at the expense of trials and applied research. So we end up with programs that are overinnovated and overcomplicated like the Kazi Kwa Vijana (KKV) while all along the Informal Sector has displayed real innovation and creativity.

We are all aware that the sector faces serious challenges such as increased competition, inadequate physical infrastructure and lack of access to credit, etc, but there are more fundamental challenges that have not been fully appreciated and we haven’t even began to address; the main one being the problem of multiple competencies which has resulted in a situation where most operators in the sector are unable to effectively make the connection between what the market needs and what they produce which in effects limits the prospects for value addition. In contrast, this is readily available in the private sector.

As we strive to come to terms with the implications of the new constitution, particularly devolution, we must be assertive and ensure that we do not transpose the weaknesses of the present to the new institutions keeping in mind the key reasons the youth gave the constitution overwhelming approval. We must make every effort to address the following critical issues for which answers have been elusive. The need for:
a)effective screening for best potential young entrepreneurial talent
b)effective entrepreneur grooming strategies, these based on principles of risk reduction and leveraging first hand entrepreneur thinking and behaviour
c)re-conceptualizing the vision of the ‘young entrepreneur’ in ways that reduce risk and offset short run competence limitations
d)identification of strategies that lead to higher value addition and prepare young people to contend with tomorrow’s market conditions; and,
e)balancing the ‘young entrepreneur’ approaches with stronger emphasis on job creation and employment skills preparation.

Zungua Kenya is a youth entrepreneurship and employment program, initiated in 2010 to support young entrepreneurs through mentoring and incubation. Details available at http://outreachkenya.com/zungua/index.html