A large part of the aid Britain now gives to developing countries goes either in the form of contributions to international bodies such as the World Bank, the UN or the EU, or in ‘budget support’ to governments of beneficiary countries. The idea is to enable these governments to implement policies which are conducive to balanced development. Sounds good! Gone are the days of practical projects carried out by experienced and well-motivated officials, volunteers and contractors in the framework of ‘best value for money’ policies; gone also is the concept of ‘tied aid’, by which goods and services which the aid recipient needed to import would be sourced preferentially from the UK, thus returning to the UK economy a benefit from money provided by the British taxpayer. Broad is the smile of many a minister of an African, Asian and Central American country with which Britain ‘co-operates’ (i.e. provides money to) on learning that the opportunity exists for British aid money to be spent wherever they like. Four BMWs in the drive of the family home is not unusual according to one recent report.

In states where central leadership is weak and ‘presents’ to public servants are the norm, it hardly raises an eyebrow if ministers and officials pocket some of the money that passes through their hands. You are funded for a silk purse but buy a pig’s ear instead and use the difference for a new house, say, perhaps to maintain prestige alongside your colleagues. Meanwhile, filling the seats in the aircraft once occupied by project personnel, we now have accountants, economists and management consultants sent out to try to trace money which never quite got to where it was supposed to go.

A former Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, was quoted (perhaps in jest) as describing her task as ‘the easiest job in the world’, which handing out money might appear to be. But where is the legitimacy of a strategy that turns our overseas development programme into the fat boy in the playground with a pocket full of sweets?

What a sane development programme should be offering is not bounty at the disposal of ministers but livelihoods for the poor. It is all very well for experts here to tell us that we live in a post-industrial age (post-industrious, more like!); what the poor need (if they are not to up and seek their fortune in richer lands) is skills training and equipment. Take the Singer sewing machine: this simple piece of equipment, backed by the training schools set up by the company, has provided many times more livelihoods for the poor than Oxfam will ever do. This surely is the example of development productivity that all those in the business should be aiming at. But apparently not: for the gentle folk of Palace Street this is mere ‘trade’ and of no concern to them.

If it were recognised that some ‘trade’ is highly developmental in character, especially in helping the poor, then a case for using part of the aid budget to enhance the effectiveness of the trade could easily be made. For example, finance could be provided for technical support beyond what can strictly be borne by commercial transactions. This could free experienced visiting staff to embed technology more effectively and to promote further livelihood-creating activities, leading perhaps to the opening of new markets for the products of beneficiary communities in the donor countries. Reciprocal trade.

DfID, by seeing overseas development as primarily a government-to-government activity and not respecting the role of business ventures on the smaller scale, is not seeing the trees for the wood.

It will not be possible, finally, to avoid the question of legitimacy. Taxpayers have an image of officials, charities, volunteers and specialist firms such as ours working closely together to bring benefit where it is most needed. What if the reality were exposed: that the UK’s development ministry is uninterested in practical programmes but diffuses its funds through governments and international organisations, few of which can give any but the vaguest account of how the money has been spent?

Steps to improve governance are of course a good thing and no-one should challenge this aspect of overseas development policy, but why not at least in part go back to a role of intervening as directly as possible where it will be most useful?

And most admired.

Cradley Heath, November 2004

Return to top

GIANT STRIDES IN KENYA AS KAPUTIEI FOLLOWS KOMA ROCK ACHIEVEMENT

Norwegian Prime Minister praises self-help strategy.
Women workers produce blocks & tiles for 800 houses in 18 months.

The thriving Koma Rock residential suburb to the east of Nairobi has now become a congenial settlement with some of the earliest houses in occupation for over 15 years.

JPA technologies played an important part in the construction history with over a million roof tiles made using Parry vibrating tables and moulds to roof the majority of houses.

Over a decade later the story continues with many of the machines and workers now transferred to the site of a complete new town called ‘Kaputiei’, named after one of the branches of the Masai tribe which lives in the vicinity.

The project is being organised by Jamii Bora, a community-based organisation that provides micro-finance, mortgages and other support to small enterprises in Kenya.

During his recent visit to Kenya, Norway’s Prime Minister Mr Kjell Magne Bondevik praised the design of the Kaputiei project and the fact that ordinary people were so fully engaged in the construction process.

Return to top

PARRY ASSISTS SPLM TO PREPARE FOR SOUTH SUDAN PEACE

JPM Parry & Associates Ltd are actively seeking an involvement in the peace process following the North-South war in the Sudan (not to be confused with the situation in Darfur).

While the tribal conflict between Arab cattle herders and African farmers in the Darfur region of Western Sudan has been in the news due to extreme humanitarian concerns, a much bigger war which has been raging between North and South for a decade is now close to a settlement.

London-based representatives of the SPLM (Sudanese People's Liberation Movement - previously known as the SPLA ['army']) - have been in regular contact with JPA, mindful of the enormous task of reconstruction to be faced as refugees and former fighters return to where their homes used to be. JPA's past experience in mobilising the energies of ex-combatants into building materials production activities has been recognised by the SPLM leadership as potentially valuable in the post-conflict period.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office are being helpful in facilitating the peace settlement, which is due to be signed in Kenya following the meeting in Nairobi of the UN Security Council in November. However, JPA and other agencies working in Rumbek and elsewhere in the South believe that it is essential for the early preparation for peace to begin now.

Some basic accommodation (pictured left) has been established at Rumbek, built with traditional materials but the first consignment of equipment for permanent construction will soon be on its way.

Return to top

KOMA ROCK TO KAPUTIEI A continuing Kenyan success story

Two- and three- bedroom houses along a typical Koma Rock street.

Children can play in a "village" arrangement of cul-de-sac groups of houses

During his visit to Kenya in early November, JPA Chairman John Parry spent a sunny Sunday looking around the Koma Rock Estate, construction of which began in the 1980s and which has matured as a residential suburb on the east of Nairobi. Though occupied by people from all walks of life, Koma Rock is notable for its community spirit. Not the least of the factors is the knowledge that the roof tiles that can be seen on the houses in the pictures were made by the local ‘Humama’ group women who used to reside in a shanty town in the same location.

Local residents Madeleine and Claris, (pictured above left) asked for their views, said that Koma Rock is the ‘nicest place to live in Nairobi’. Not everyone is from Kenya: Joseph and John (pictured above centre) are from across the border in Sudan. They praised the security and community spirit of the Koma Rock neighbourhood. The fact that the streets are so clean with so little rubbish is a significant indication of the sense of pride of the people. With over 2,500 houses in freehold ownership, it is natural for some houses to be changing hands. The ‘estate agent’s’ board (pictured above right) shows typical prices for a two-bedroom house of 1.4 million Kenya shillings (about £10,000).

Koma Rock changed the lives of thousands of people for the better. Slum dwellers living on their wits became fully employed workers. Now, even though the main phases of construction are complete, the Humama women’s factory keeps going supplying smaller batches of tiles for repairs and extensions to buildings. Mrs Ingrid Munro, an architect from Sweden and long-term resident of Kenya, organised the original Humama enterprise. When she thought her work was done, a large group of people from Mathare Valley, Nairobi’s notorious shanty town, came to her house and asked her to continue to help them. From this the new Jamii Bora organisation was formed and went on to arrange a countrywide micro–credit scheme, taking deposits from small savers in order to buy sufficient land to build a whole new town. Two new factories have begun manufacturing blocks and tiles on site using Parry machines and moulds.

Left: Large stock of roofing tiles sufficient to roof 800 houses with factory in the background.

Left: Race against time before the rains: road builders cutting through the heavy clay soil to complete the 6km feeder road that will connect the new town of Kaputiei with the Athi River-Namanga road, south of Nairobi

Work is advanced building the first primary school at Kaputiei and plans for the residential housing, not dissimilar to Koma Rock, are being drawn up.

Return to top

FIGHTING IN NIGERIAN DELTA PUTS BUILDING MATERIALS PROGRAMME ON HOLD

Despite all efforts to make contact with the programme managers of the important livelihoods project in the Delta Region of Nigeria (see Parry News 39), there is nothing further to report.

Meanwhile, news from this part of the country is of strikes and civil violence affecting the petroleum industry, which may be the cause of the delay.

Return to top

ANGOLA Ann Bouckaert, Programme Manager for IBIS in Angola, has written to JPA with the news that Parry roofing techniques have been used to complete one school in Kwanza Sul province. Four more schools are at different stages of completion, each comprising three classrooms for 40 pupils, two offices, a veranda and a latrine block. Still to go is the rehabilitation of a larger school, and the construction of twelve more is planned. Further roofing tile equipment has now been ordered by IBIS to help increase the pace of reconstruction.

Private house in Malami built with semisheet roof

MALAWI Twelve people (including three women tile makers) are now employed at a workshop in Mzuzu supplying tiles to the national school building programme using locally-sourced materials. The workshop is now diversifying into other market sectors and developing new products. Kevin Davies of the Centre for Appropriate Technology Malawi reports that "we have now been producing excellent quality tiles for over a year, have numerous buildings completed and, best of all, some very satisfied customers".

TURKEY

The project to use Parry building technology at the Kerkenes Eco Centre in Turkey has reported its success with construction using blocks produced by soil block presses manufactured in Cradley Heath.

SOUTH AFRICA

We are pleased to announce a new relationship with a UK/South Africa-based company, Southern Marketing Services, which specialises in promoting public- and private-sector business marketing opportunities in southern Africa. Preliminary discussions have covered the potential of both building materials and transport products for South African cities.

Return to top

The Resource-Based Materials Production Programme in Sierra Leone was funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat with JPA as co-partners and helped rehabilitate ex-combatants and provide essential construction materials following the country's brutal civil war.

Included within the programme was the town of Bo, in central Sierra Leone. Very active in Bo is a long-term customer of JPA, Mr Senesi Fawundu, who managed to survive the recent rebellion and restart production after peace was restored.

Senesi became interested in obtaining another vibrating table and moulds for paving bricks, and a UK charity generously agreed to fund the purchase of his equipment. The machine and moulds are now en route to West Africa.

Senesi is now interested in installing solar powered street lighting in Bo, with concrete lamp posts produced on Parry vibrating tables. A project is under preparation.

Return to top

INSULATING WALL BLOCK CONCEPT TO BE FURTHER DEVELOPED

AIMS Ltd, a design/inventing company working with John Gray Structural Engineering in the Isle of Man, has produced a new type of walling block that provides exceptional levels of thermal insulation and easy insertion of reinforcement in order to withstand earthquakes. Such building methods are of particular interest to countries such as Romania and Afghanistan.

The partnership has already brought the development to quite an advanced stage, confirming the advantages of ease of construction and low cost.

JPA has been asked to assist in refining the manufacturing technology for the blocks and to sound out the prospective market interest.

Return to top

PARRY WEBSITES CARRY THE MESSAGE

Parry technology does not generally enter into the field of electronics and the internet, but the Parry websites have become an essential medium for communicating with the world.

Two separate, comprehensive internet sites are now running, one each for JPA and PPM, linked from a common gateway. Both have been heavily updated in recent months, with the JPA site radically renewed and relaunched in September.

Gateway: www.parrytech.com

Information now available from

www.parryassociates.com includes full coverage of the company's activities in development, transport and energy with detailed coverage of issues solved by Parry technology and success stories around the world. The ease of obtaining information about JPA has been proved by new enquiries from around the world.

On www.parrypeoplemovers.com visitors can view video footage of Car 12 in operation and use an interactive specification and design tool to visualise PPM vehicles for a range of applications, as well as getting full technical details of railcars and trams on the Products page. A further set of information shows how PPM technology can help provide improved transport to meet local needs.

Updates for e-mail subscribers

Both websites are frequently updated and so the companies now have services to keep people abreast of the latest changes and news. Subscribers receive regular e-mail news giving a summary of recent developments.

If you would like to be on either - or both - of the JPA or PPM e-mail update lists, just let us know your e-mail address and which company interests you.

Return to top

PI-PC: FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION OF PAVIORS, FLOOR TILES & TEXTURED SLABS NOW POSSIBLE

A simple adaptation to JPA roofing equipment adds on a multi-product facility, doubling the output and providing a wide variety of hard surface products.

The activity of ‘pattern-imprinting’ (PI) is already well established in the creation of driveways with textured surfaces (pictured above right) simulating the effect of block paving. JPA has made an innovative step by introducing surface texturing and profile shaping into the precast (PC) process. Instead of having to hold a stock of special moulds to form each product in the range, the customer now just buys one each of different forming skirts and pattern-imprinting tools. The basic equipment (pictured above left) comprises a series of metal stands which transmit the vibration into the wet concrete during moulding and then build up into a stack for setting without any need for shelves or racking.

Return to top