The MEP Masterclass
If someone had said that several people would understand the concept of the mind, habits, heal from their trauma, overcome addictions, find meaning in life, connect with their purpose, recognize their abilities, see the resources around them more clearly, develop a better understanding of financial literacy, build meaningful networks, set ambitious goals, and monetize their skills at the pace they are doing right now—with enhanced abilities in marketing, sales, and customer service— that would have sounded like an exaggeration.
In a time when finding and retaining a job is not guaranteed, and negotiating for a salary increase can almost be considered criminal, the urgency for alternative income sources is greater than ever. Many people are prioritizing personal development by enrolling in our Mindset Change, Entrepreneurship, and Personal Development (MEP) Masterclasses. These Masterclasses are either announced by our team for the general public or privately organized by institutions, families, and groups. Additionally, some individuals opt for one-on-one coaching with one of our team coaches, either in person or online.
It’s no wonder that over 60% of our graduates start a side hustle or expand their existing endeavors within the first two months, while others start later. Some individuals have even made a full transition into self-employment. For NGOs that want the communities they support to become self-reliant, this training has become a highly sought-after pathway. Text us at +0775495431 to discuss how you can enroll.
ERI (Enabling Rural Innovation) Approach
The ERI approach is a strategic participatory training methodology whose focus is to build the self-reliance of individuals by enhancing their mindset, self-esteem and entrepreneurial capacities positively. The approach believes that everyone can be independent and live a dignified life if we focus on learning how best to use the resources they have before focusing on what they don’t have. It is clear that lack of capital is not the main obstacle to business. Originally developed for empowering communities to farm as a business, increasing their incomes while safeguarding food security and natural resource base, ERI has proven to be far beyond farming.
Today, from implementation experience, monitoring visits, project reports, evaluation studies, and research done wherever ERI has been used, the approach has been confirmed as a limitless catalyst for self-reliance. Many individuals have gained clarity of their goals and started businesses. Even among smallholder farmers, most groups have grown into higher level farmer organizations that market collectively. Others have purchased land, constructed stores, made joint investments, embraced savings and credit schemes, improved their food and income security.
Notably, these groups have become more attractive to government and other institutions due to their positive mindset and ability to manage resources better. Improved gender relations, resilience to climate change and improvements in hygiene and sanitation have been noticed. The self-esteem and goal orientation of individuals is conspicuous. ERI has also been adapted for Mindset change and business development among others, even among rural communities.
ERI Approach has 5 main modules that guide the ERI training process as briefly described below;
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- Participatory Diagnosis (PD): individuals understand their current situation, develop a desire for progress, and assess which resources and opportunities they have available to achieve their goals, including business development
- Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation (PME) – people understand how they can keep track of their progress towards achieving set goals as they learn from successes and errors, creating personal accountability.
- Participatory Market Research (PMR) – individuals understand marketing basics, conduct market research to identify and analyses profitable markets and enterprises to improve their incomes and quality of life.
- Participatory Field Research (FPR)– individuals experiment, starting small, reducing risks and learning before scaling. They learn to farm better through; experimentation sustainable agriculture, agroecology, farmer field days, good agricultural practices, agronomy etc
- Enterprise Development (ED) – people learn to develop profitable enterprises and build sustainable business relations based on thorough business plans, market intelligence, contracts, record keeping etc. They expand their business band, learn collaborations and how to take their businesses to the next level of growth
- Cross-cutting issues – issues such as gender, resource mobilization, nutrition, networking, influencing people, savings and credit are mainstreamed in the five main modules of ERI so as to maximize their gains from farming and other forms of development at personal, family, business and career level.
GALS (Gender Action Learning System) Methodology
GALS is a community-led empowerment methodology that uses principles of inclusion to improve income, food and nutrition security of people in a gender-equitable way. It positions everyone, including women, men and even the youth as drivers of their own development rather than victims, identifying and dismantling obstacles in their environment, challenging service providers and private actors.
It aids goal setting with a detailed SWOT analysis and action plan. The methodology has also proven to be effective for changing gender inequalities that have existed for generations, strengthening negotiation power of marginalized stakeholders and promoting collaboration, equity and respect between value chain actors, with family and social relations as a core of focus. Rather than just as an alternative Value chain Development methodology, GALS can be used complementary to other VCD approaches. At Capacity Beyond, we use GALS to complement the ERI training sessions.