ANDREW LEES TRUST – TWENTY YEARS ON

 This year the Trust celebrates twenty years of charitable work and remembers Andrew Lees’s passing in Madagascar on December 31^st 1994 

Andrew Lees (1949-1994)

Andrew Lees Trust – The History

When news of Andrew’s disappearance in a remote forest of southern Madagascar hit the UK national press early in January 1995 the environmental movement was shocked. The community rallied and money was sent in to help the search for Andrew.

Andrew, then Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth UK, went to Madagascar to research a proposed mine by the multi national mining giant, Rio Tinto. He had gone to visit local communities, interview them, record their opinions and film the imperiled forests that would be decimated by the extraction of a mineral, ilmenite, from the fragile coastal landscape on the south eastern tip of the island.

After days of searching, Andrew was discovered to have died of possible heatstroke in the forest of Petriky. His family and friends were devastated. So too were the many people that Andrew had touched during his years as an environmental campaigner, working with local communities, volunteers, activists and journalists.

While Andrew was missing, many of these supporters sent in funds to assist the search. After his death it was these funds that were used to launch the Andrew Lees Memorial Fund, later renamed the Andrew Lees Trust.

For the first year, Friends of the Earth administered the Fund, but the charity was soon registered under its own sovereign identity and led by Andrew’s partner, Christine Orengo (UCL) and his close friends and colleagues, Marek Mayer (ENDS) and Mary Taylor (FOE), with family members also on the Board of Trustees.

The first action of the charity was to help launch an environmental training centre, The Centre Ecologique Libanona (CEL) in the Anosy region where Andrew had died. All agreed that this was an appropriate way to memorialise Andrew’s belief in local empowerment. In December 1995, on the first anniversary of his death, the Centre was opened  on the Libanona Promontory in Ft Dauphin.  The old Schoolroom was rehabilitated – originally constructed by the Lutheran missionaries who used Libanona as a retreat – and was dedicated to Andrew’s memory. Over the following four years the Trust sent funds to support student bursaries, rehabilitate more buildings for teachers and students and cover local salaries; the Trust also sent books and equipment for the CEL library.

Andrew’s partner, Christine, and her sister, Yvonne Orengo, were present for the CEL launch. Yvonne became increasingly involved with the Trust, producing an annual cultural and fundraising event , ‘Madagascar Spirits’, which brought together the Diaspora in London, environmental activists, supporters of Madagascar and many notable Malagasy musicians including Tarika, Justin Vali, D’Gary, and Njava.

Together Christine and Yvonne visited Madagascar each year to see the Centre evolve and liaise with its founders Mark Fenn (WWF) and Raoul Mulder (University of Melbourne) on the needs and development of the project.

It was during one of these visits that wider educational activities were discussed for the region and the possibility of using wind up radios to bring education to isolated villagers who had little or no access to schooling, and who were disadvantaged by low levels of literacy. The idea was welcomed and Mark Fenn brokered some initial discussions with local partners.

ALT On The Ground

With help from Sarah Pennington, a volunteer then studying at Birkbeck College, ALT’s educational radio project was piloted in 1998 in the Androy region, funded by the British Embassy. Yvonne undertook further fundraising for the project, secured a contract from the EU Food Security Division and, in 1999, arrived in Madagascar to implement and develop ALT’s ‘Project Radio’ .

Over the next six years, living in Anosy,  she worked with the local team and ALT’s international staff and consultants  to Direct and develop the Trust’s wider programme of social and environmental projects ranging from food security, environmental protection and natural resource management, energy efficiency, emergency relief communications for development, good governance and HIV AIDS awareness. See the ALT Review for 2010 and blog updates.

The Trust evolved from a hands off small grants provider to managing its own 4 million Euro portfolio of projects, running seven offices and managing a team of 60 + who delivered the projects in the field, developed partnerships and built relationships of trust with NGOs, service providers, media outlets, local authorities, and village communities across two ex provinces of Madagascar (Tulear and Fianaratsoa), reaching more than 800,000 beneficiaries across all of its activities.

Vision of Empowerment – Handing Over

In 2009 the Trust realised its long-term sustainability strategy to hand over the work to its local team.  The Trust assisted its Malagasy team to set up a Malagasy NGO called Andry Lalana Tohana (ALT Mg). It then transferred all its assets and know-how to the newly formed ALT Mg and accompanied the Malagasy team over their first year of independence in order to provide continuity, technical support and financial security.

By 2010 ALT MG was established in its own right with its own funded programme, based on the skills and experience gained with ALT UK. See www.andrylalanatohana.org

ALT MG has continued to deliver frontline food security, development communications, emergency relief, energy efficiency and environmental projects and is successfully led by its Director in Ft Dauphin Hanitra Raharimanana.

ALT UK‘s strategy has been focused on supporting and mentoring ALT Mg  – in particular throughout the delivery of a joint emergency relief programme and for the launch and the development of a new and innovative radio project – Village Voices for Development.

ALT Mg has secured new contracts for 2015 and it is the hope of ALT UK that they will continue to lead and deliver innovative and vital projects in southern Madagascar and act as a model for sustainable local development and leadership

THANK YOU !

Reflecting over the years, the Trust gives thanks for the extraordinarily dedicated and passionate team of skilled workers – both Malagasy and international – who worked for the Trust, many for ten years or more. Also the wonderfully generous volunteers who either assisted the projects on the ground or helped the administration and communications of the Trust from the UK – some of whom are still give their time voluntarily today.

ALT has also benefitted from the skills and expertise of a wide range of professional consultants, trainers and advisers all of whom who have contributed to the growth and success of the work and the skills of the team.

The Trust is grateful too for all the Trustees who have served on the Board and especially for those who have ensured continuity: two founding members who have served   for twenty years: Christine Orengo and Mary Taylor; and two others for over ten years :Tony Long and Vola Parker,  with the recent addition of ALT’s ex Head of Finance, Rosalba Leonelli, also with ALT for over ten years. The Director Yvonne Orengo has been involved with the Trust for twenty years.

The Trust recognises it could not have achieved its work without the funding of the international and national donor community, many of whom ensured repeat funding to the Trust’s programme for ten years; also to those who have given generously on a personal basis annually. Thank you so much for your belief in and support of our work.

Over the years the Trust has also experienced sadness and loss and we take a moment to remember Marek Mayer (1952-2005), Andrew’s close friend and one of ALT’s Founders, Trustees and a generous benefactor of the charity’s work. The ALT tree nursery was dedicated to Marek in 2007.

We extend our gratitude to you all for your generous support of our endeavour in Madagascar, which has helped ensure the success of the Trust and its Malagasy partner, Andry Lalana Tohana.

Please continue to support our work

Note The Trust in the UK is virtual with minimal running costs and only volunteer staff so the majority of our resource goes to Madagascar and to supporting our Malagasy partner Andry Lalalana Tohana  on the ground.

It has been some time since our last news update  – apologies and thank you for your understanding. We hope this latest post will catch up our supporters about what we have been doing to assist the development of our local partner Andry Lalana Tohana and its projects in Madagascar…..

From the UK , The Trust continues to provide Mentoring and Technical Advice to  Andry Lalana Tohana (ALT Mg),  and to its radio for good governance project, Village Voices for Development (VVD) including proposal writing to raise funds and assisting with strategic negotiations with international partners and donors.

visiting listening groups in Bekily

ALT Mg – Activity in Southern Madagascar. 

Village Voices for Development (VVD). Since January,  ALT MG has been able to finalise the formal training of local radio journalists in VVD methodology, and in conflict resolution techniques using media (with additional training from SFCG) under its UNESCO grant. (see December 2013 post)

6 local radio journalists (from Amboasary, Ambovombe, Fort Dauphin, and Bekily) and 3 ALT team were trained in the role of journalism in conflicts , using the Common Ground approach; the journalists also learnt ALT’s VVD methodology  to improve citizen engagement in governance via the media , and how to conduct phone in programmes for citizens.  Additionally 20 radio listening groups from across the two regions of Anosy and Androy were identified and 263 villagers received face to face education and  training about human rights –  in particular rights to freedom of expression and access to information. Trano Aro Zo worked in partnership with ALT to deliver the hands on rights education to villagers. These listening groups then discuss and provide thematic content for the radio programmes in the form of questions to local decision makers.

The ALT team have spent the last nine months accompanying the journalists in the field,

journalists in training

helping them to work with the listening groups and learn and improve skills to produce Q & A citizen engagement programming on a monthly basis using VVD methodology and phone ins. Broadcasting through 6 radio stations across two regions – Anosy and Androy, the project is creating 4 regular broadcasts  per month, two in each region, and additional phone-in programmes. This work has been undertaken with support from The Adsum Foundation (UK). The programmes reach over 150,000 listeners.

The work is still in progress and capacity building of local journalists will end in October. The radio stations have already provided some very positive feedback about the work to date:

” … seems that having direct dialogue between villagers and decision makers attracts many listeners … “ host of the radio station Kaleta ,Amboasary

“… the socio-cultural barriers about public speaking can be overcome by using this VVD methodology … ” journalist Mandroso radio Bekily

Transparency and Accountability – the Role of Radio 

distributing phones to listening groups to participate in phone in VVD programmes

In Anosy region, the VVD work was further strengthened by VVD programming for the World Bank PGDI Accountability and Transparency programme. A small seed grant has allowed ALT Mg to trial 4 question and answer radio programmes, 4 phone in programmes and 2 additional broadcasts ( on rights and governance) under this funding.

These pogrammes offer communities a vital mechanism via the media for holding their leaders to account and raising issues that affect their lives but which might otherwise remain hidden or beyond their control.

For example, some measures have been put in place by the local authorities in the south to provide increased security for villages  – in particular to address the ongoing threat of Dahalo raids ( cattle rustling). These measures include a type of visa that must be issued for villagers travelling outside their community on business and staying in other regions overnight.

Focus group to discuss transparency issues in Ambaniala

The visa is issued by their local Chef du Fokontany. However, in at least one commune, this procedure was being exploited by the local chief who was insisting that villagers pay him for visas just to go to market a short half hour walk away. VVD programming enabled the villagers to voice their concerns and questions about this practice in public, via the radio .

ALT team assisting at a phone in programme, July

The questions were aired together with explanations and corrections by the Head of District and local Police service, clarifying the requirements and parameters of the new visa system publicly. The progamme has created greater transparency about the  security measures, improved awareness of the practical procedures and, in so doing, helps prevent the exploitation of villagers.

ALT  is currently seeking further funding  to scale up VVD and increase activity in the two regions with this vital good governance work.

Food Security. Alongside this vital communications initiative, ALT Mg have been delivering emergency food assistance with the FAO. Providing the most vulnerable with access to seeds – including potatoes and beans, as well as equipment, in order to improve their resilience against climate shocks, poor harvest and food shortages that regularly affect the south. They have focused this work in Bekily and Beloha districts.

technical training of local food producers

Additional funding is being sought to continue work on the reintroduction of drought resistant sorghum, which ALT has already successfully delivered across many communes in the south.

ALT Mg Website. ALT UK agreed with ALT MG that a single, important way to assist their fundraising and improve their presence in the national and international domain would be a dedicated website for ALT MG. The local team were struggling to provide the resources to launch the site so in December the UK ALT  Trustees and Director prioritised this work and agreed to contract ALT’s webmaster, Peter Smart, to  set up the new site. Working with the ALT UK Director, The ALT Mg Director agreed  the design and content which was jointly developed over  a number of weeks earlier this year. The site was launched in April 2014: See www.andrylalanatohana.org

Supporting Higher Education for Malagasy Students at CEL, Anosy . In July, ALT UK agreed to support two Centre Ecologique Libanona (CEL) students and has sent ‘The Andrew Lees’ and ‘Marek Mayer’ Bursaries for the coming academic year.

ALT Director presents the Trust’s communications work to students at Surrey University

ALT Outward Bound. In February the ALT Director presented the communications work of the Trust to students at University of Surrey (Sustainability week); in July she also created a small Madagascar event for the village community where she lives, during which she raised just over £80 towards the Trust from a raffle and donations.

Sharing Our Work and Lessons. In June 2014, The Trust was delighted to learn that The Communications Initiative had published ALT’s VVD evaluation online, which shares this report with 85,000 networked professional and actors in the sector.

http://www.comminit.com/global/content/village-voices-development-study-use-radio-promote-human-rights-and-enable-citizens-act-

Remembering Andrew – The Lees Room. In July we learnt that Friends of the Earth had moved into new offices in south London and have remembered Andrew’s environmental campaigning legacy by naming one of their new meeting rooms after him. Its called ‘The Lees Room’ and FoE have generously extended an invitation to ALT to hold its meetings in this space.

We note that Wikipedia now has a formal entry for Andrew Lees  at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lees_(environmentalist)

IT Support. During the year a number of works had to be undertaken to tackle IT issues (virus attack/memory upgrades) and website updates. Thanks are due to our volunteers, Peter Smart (Webmaster), Andrew Petrie and Tom Melly (IT support) for their valuable time in making everything work, and better.

Thanks too go out to our regular supporters, the donors and our wider volunteer network for ongoing inputs and advice to ALT and ALT Mg’s programme in Madagascar.

ALT Mg has been continuing to develop its VVD radio project for good governance with technical and fundraising support from the Andrew Lees Trust… 

ALT Mg’s training of radio journalists 2013

VVD Training for Journalists in the South  In the last few months ALT Mg has been finalizing its plans and preparing to launch a training of radio journalists in the ALT VVD approach led by ALT Mg in the south.

ALT UK has helped ALT MG to secure funds from UNESCO IPDC for a main training and also co-finance from the Adsum Foundation to support further training through experiential learning for the journalists.

The objective of the training  is to imbed the VVD civic engagement approach into local media practice in the south – enabling it to promote human rights and democratic discourse . The project will train and build the capacity of six local journalists from FM radio stations  in Anosy and Androy regions who have partnered with ALT in the  south over many years. 

 This project builds on the success of ALT’s Village Voices for Development (VVD) Feb- Dec 2012 and from further lessons learn through the scaling up process for the EU funded electoral communications campaign, civic engagement component (Dec 2012- August 2013) . See previous blogs and below.

 The first training was launched in November and benefitted from collaboration with Search For Common Ground (SFCG). The SFCG session was led by Lalatiana Farasoa RAKOTONDRANAIVO and focused on skills in reporting and understanding the role of media/radio in conflict prevention; a session on the production of phone in programmes  was guided by the ALT Mg Director Hanitra Raharimanana.

Follow on training in the field will be delivered by ALT MG in 2014 after the current election rounds have been completed. ALT Mg’s specialised VVD team will work with the radio journalists and build their capacity to produce interactive programmes with 12 village radio listening groups and local decision makers using the VVD approach and formats including phone in programmes. The programmes will be broadcast each month and impacts will be monitored to feed into follow up programmes and phone in debates (see also VVD approach at http://www.andrewleestrust.org/voices.htm)

 This approach recognises that a one off training will not yield sustainable results and that experiential, hands on learning with accompanied mentoring will enable the radio station journalists to gain the necessary experience and skills to maintain the programme format in the longer term.

It is anticipated that the regular broadcast  of VVD style programmes will create growing acceptance and willingness of civil society, and decision makers to engage in democratic discourse through the media as a matter of daily life, -thereby contributing to democratic political reform.

Elections Foucs Group with ALT Mg in Antsirabe

Mada Mission March 2013

In March the ALT UK Director was independently contracted to visit Madagascar to provide Technical Advice for the adaptation of the citizen engagement component of the EU funded national elections communications campaign,  delivered by ALT Mg in partnership with Search for Common Ground (SFCG). This aspect of the campaign is an adaptation of ALT’s Village Voices for Development (VVD) radio for good governance model and affords live debate through phone in programmes and interactive question and answer dialogue between citizens and local representatives of the National Independent Committee for the Elections in Madagascar (CENIT) and other relevant parties.

The mission  afforded an opportunity to see the project in action on the ground, specifically focus groups, partner meetings and a phone in programme with CENIT regional representatives and local Authorities in a local FM radio station in Antsirabe.

Reps for the CENIT and District answer questions from citizens about the elections, phoned in to the local radio station in Antsirabe

The project was proving very popular with local people, especially the phone in programmes. This media work is very new to many officials and in particular  the challenge of spontaneously responding to questions from any member of the public live on radio. Nevertheless, the local journalists did an excellent job of facilitating the process and the radio phone in programme in Antsirabe took 15 questions from the local community. Both listeners and regional elections representatives in the regions where the phone ins have been taking place welcomed the initiative and found it very helpful for communicating about the electoral process.

Since June  the project has been redesigned again due to the changing landscape of the electoral process. ALT Mg has been recording ‘vox pops’ – short comments and ideas – from local populations about what they hope to see from the elections and their visions and hopes about what the elections might bring for the future of Madagascar. These have also been the subject of phone in programmes.  The launch of these new programmes took place in Tana with SFCG on the 22^nd July 2013 and a short film about the work has been aired on national television (MTV) – see at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2-76MJ4bvc

The Director was working in her freelance capacity for the March mission but benefitted from time with the ALT Management team to address internal challenges and strategic questions for the future of ALT Mg. This included working closely with Mme Hanitra Raharimanana, Director of ALT Mg, to develop a presentation for a meeting with donors and decision makers in Antananarivo about Project VVD and its findings. The presentation was well attended by approximately 20 people including representatives from the EU, World Bank, and UN agencies.

After her return , the UK Director worked extensively in her voluntary capacity to  finalise the VVD evaluation (see also below)   http://www.andrewleestrust.org/PDFs/Project%20VVD%20Evaluation%202013.pdf

 VVD Evaluation Following the March visit in country, the ALT UK Director worked over a number of weeks to complete the VVD evaluation report. Support was identified and provided by an MA student from Bath University, Andrew Johnstone, and ongoing technical oversight was provided by Nicola Harford, Monitoring and Evaluation specialist with Media Support Partnership (one of the strategic partners in VVD) who co-authored the final report published in June 2013.  The evaluation report was disseminated to funders, decision makers in Tana and via international networks such as Comminit ( The Communications Initiative) as well as with local stakeholders. Funding is being sought to translate the document into French.