John Rwibasira Mutamba

John is creating a grassroots, community-led and self-sustaining approach to rural development in Uganda, anchored around a spiraling network of volunteer community change agents

John is working to challenge rural dependence on ineffective development assistance and catalyze local solutions to poverty in Uganda. Through his organization- Agrostock- John fosters local leadership by supporting community-elected Change Agents who, in turn, support others in a virtuous cycle of community upliftment. Fundamental to John’s idea is the insight that empowering communities and shifting mindsets (from passivity to active social and economic citizenship) can unlock long-term and local solutions to poverty. In this manner, he is mobilizing previously untapped human capital and natural resources to create self-reliant and economically vibrant rural communities in Uganda.

Agrostock assists the community in electing an “outstanding citizen”- a change agent-who has overcome the same debilitating challenges faced by all in the village. Agrostock provides financial and professional support to the change agent to scale their income-generating activities and, in return, they train and mentor up to twenty community members to replicate their success. In addition to Agrostock’s support, the respect and honor bestowed upon change agents by other villagers motivates these outstanding citizens to honor their end of the “social contract”. Over a thousand change agents have been recruited across three large districts in Uganda and they are now transforming the lives of tens of thousands in return. In contrast with the past, the community’s attitude shifts from dependence to self-reliance, as they look inward for local solutions to local challenges.

Over 70% of Uganda’s population lives in rural areas and depends on subsistence farming for survival. It is also estimated that over 60% of Uganda’s population- the majority of who live in rural areas- still live on less than a dollar a day. The socio-economic challenges in rural communities remain intractable despite decades of targeted development aid and interventions in Uganda, and across Africa. Rural areas still account for the lowest level of infrastructure development, the highest level of illiteracy, the highest levels of child and maternal mortality, the highest rate of unemployment, highest rate of malnutrition and ultimately, the highest rate of poverty.

The above scenario has persisted for decades- a strong statement about the ineffectiveness of current NGO and government-driven development models. The traditional development model promotes the idea that rural communities are helpless and incapable of solving their own problems. For example, the Ugandan government has set up a rural development fund to give any group of twenty or more villagers - organized into a cooperative - funds for investment in agriculture. Without any further support, these groups almost always fail with their only hope being that the government will bail them out again. Development assistance has revolved around the external development of solutions and their importation to rural communities. It is a top down approach that removes these communities’ most valuable asset- their independence and capacity to create change. This fosters attitudes of self-defeat and resignation. For example, hundreds of young people escape the perceived shackles of rural poverty by selling off their inherited land to pursue economic opportunities in urban areas; and multitudes of women widowed by HIV/AIDS who (together with their children) accept a life of destitution. As in these examples, the attitude persistent among most people living in rural areas is one of passivity, dependence, and displays a lack of self-confidence in their ability to enact change their own lives.

The inefficient implementation of interventions has also contributed to the failure of current development models to create long-lasting and sustainable rural development. For example, the extension service (designed to give rural farmers technical support as they transition from subsistence to commercial farming) supplies only one extension worker for every 30,000 farmers. It would take this extension worker 100 years to spend just one day with each farmer. For years, the government has allocated three percent or less of its annual budget to agriculture and only recently has that figure jumped up to 4.9%, compared to almost 29 percent that is consistently allocated to public administration. Of the little allocated to agriculture and rural development, just a fraction is actually spent on intended activities. The majority is lost to exorbitant administrative costs, corruption and mismanagement. Without grooming leadership and creating the grassroots capacity to hold duty bearers accountable, such malpractice is bound to persist for generations to come. Therefore, the paradox of rural development in Uganda is that communities have been programmed to rely on government and development aid programs to address their problems, and yet these institutions lack the capacity, longevity and, in some cases, the genuine interest to provide appropriate and long-lasting solutions. To John, the diagnosis was clear and so was the solution: rural communities need to be empowered to take control of their own circumstances.

John firmly believes that there are local solutions to the myriad of socio-economic problems in rural areas; and that all community members have the capacity to create, or be a part of, these solutions. These two beliefs form the essence of John’s strategy.

Right from the onset, John’s mission was to create a paradigm shift that would ensure that rural communities gain the confidence and capacity needed to create and drive the change. He uses an evidence-based approach to demonstrate that it is possible to find and promote local solutions by local people using local resources. This self-contained formula succeeds where others have failed because it values and relies upon the initiative, creativity and leadership of grassroots communities. With the understanding that social change requires strong leadership, John facilitates a process in which each community elects its most outstanding citizens as volunteer community change agents.

An “outstanding citizen” refers to an individual that has creatively transcended challenges to providing food and income security for their families. Once elected as community change agents, these individuals enter into a “social contract” with Agrostock. This contract provides change agents with the financial and professional support to scale up or diversify their income-generating activities and, in return, they would have to commit to training and mentoring a group of between fifteen to twenty people from within the community. This model supports a change agent in achieving success in his or her life, and provides the community with a leader, and an example, of change.

Community Change Agents often organize the group(s) they are responsible for into a savings group that raises money to enable each individual access the financial resources they need to start their journey out of poverty. Those agents that perform exceptionally well on their end of the bargain get promoted to the rank of Chief Community Change Agent. In this role, they take on the additional responsibility of recruiting and working with new community change agents. Chief Community Change Agents enjoy an enormous amount of trust, respect and admiration in their communities; and some have gone on to run for political office winning landslide victories. Irrespective of whether they engage in politics, all Chief Community Change Agents have great influence in their communities, and they use this power to hold duty bearers accountable to the community. John is catalyzing a movement of sustainable, community-driven rural development through his growing network of change agents; and demonstrating the concept of servant leadership, which is grossly lacking in today’s leadership space.

John was brought up in a large, rural family of 16 children, with 9 siblings and 7 adopted orphans. He experienced the perils of rural life firsthand, including the challenges of limited food and water supplies, inadequate shelter and healthcare, and the struggle to acquire an education. However, his parents’ determination to provide for their children was obvious to him. Their kindness towards his adopted siblings was especially inspiring. Even though it was difficult, John’s parents did not surrender in defeat and resign to living a life of poverty. They struggled through extremely harsh conditions to put all sixteen children through school. John’s outlook on life was greatly influenced by watching his parents accomplish this feat.

John started taking part-time jobs in between school terms from the age of 13 to lend his parents a helping hand. He worked in nearby commercial tea plantations, as well as in the occasional factory. He even established and managed a vegetable business- growing and selling cabbages during the advanced level of high school. John knew from very early on that he would devote his life to development work. He co-founded the Kabarole Research and Resource Center immediately upon graduating in 1997, which improves the capacity of civil society organizations in the Rwenzori region. He felt that he could have the most impact at the time by helping civil society organizations that specifically targeted rural communities, which tailored their interventions to the realities on the ground. After working with many development organizations over a nine-year period, John became increasingly disillusioned by the deeply rooted philosophy that marginalized communities were helpless. The results he saw on the ground further reinforced his disillusionment. He knew that there was a better way to catalyze long-lasting rural development but no one was willing to brave unchartered waters. This was his cue to start Agrostock in 2006.