Training and Transference of Knowledge
Training and the transference of knowledge underpin all aspects of the RAE programme.

Long term training, extension and follow-up are essential to the success of the RAE programme: both listening, with the flexibility to change as lessons are learnt; and continual training, to build local capacity for maintaining increased wealth through new opportunities created. A wide variety of extension and training activities ensure that RAE’s knowledge is successfully transferred, with information disseminated locally, nationally and internationally. Extension activities take various forms, but traditional meetings or barazas remain the most accepted local forum for training and interactive discussion. Key to RAE's  constructive training and transference of knowledge are tangible results and successful field owners who actively promote the expansion of RAE initiatives by practical example to numerous visitors and exchange groups.

Participatory exchange tours have proven to be an important means of training and transferring knowledge to agro-pastoralist groups from Baringo and other dryland areas. Men, women and youth groups visit successful fields holding interactive discussions and exchanging ideas with private field owners and shareholder groups from different areas. Exchange tour participants are often particularly struck by the untapped potential of their arid lands, witnessing firsthand that proper dryland management can yield productive and profitable grasslands under a variety of different conditions. Many participants request RAE's assistance in establishing their own fields after a tour.

Exchange tour with Maasai

The overall direction, planning and implementation of the RAE programme is based on a regular review of extensive monitoring data from the community and fields. The evaluation of data, defining community response, uptake and need, is particularly important in identifying implementation priorities and strategies, which often change in relation to local response and conditions. An important example of this is the data collected and reviewed to plan the reclamation programme, identifying the individuals and communities ready to plant, replant and extend their fields. Visits are made by RAE field staff to both monitor and mobilise field owners: visits to monitor and advise owners on sustainable management and utilisation practices, visits to mobilise individuals and groups to reclaim their degraded land. 

Equally significant is the increased monitoring and mobilisation carried out by successful field owners. In a survey conducted in Salabani Sub-location, where most land is now demarcated, people explained that they had decided to plant their own grass fields because of the advice and success of their neighbors. Accurate record keeping underpins all research, monitoring and mobilisation activities. RAE is placing more and more emphasis on training local people to monitor their own fields, using their records and records from RAE as a management tool. Shareholder groups, for example, are trained to keep accurate accounts of meetings and decision making, income-generating activities, members’ participation, and their field condition and potential.  

Maasai admiring a field reclaimed by RAE in Baringo