Recent Developments

Over the past 20+ years, the TIST Programme has spread by word of mouth across Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and India because the TIST Farmers believe in the power of working together planting trees, improving their farms, and sharing the big results they create. 

Carbon credits are intangible, but TIST Farmers create visible solutions, helping make the world a better place for their communities and future generations.  Results include more food for the family, improved stoves, money for school fees, and of course, lots of trees for shade, firewood, and fodder.   

TIST Farmers encourage us to be agents of change to protect our planet for future generations. 

Expanding TIST in Tanzania

The history of the TIST Program begins in 1999 with 77 subsistence farmers in Tanzania organizing themselves to tackle the challenges they faced every day: poverty, deforestation, and food scarcity.  TIST Leadership undertook three pilot projects in 2020 to reintroduce TIST in western, central, and eastern Tanzania and have reconnected with existing Small Groups in western and central Tanzania that have continued to follow the TIST Values and improve their farms and communities.  They are also doing a virtual expansion in eastern Tanzania using only digital tools such as Zoom, TIST Learning Center, videos, and WhatsApp.  You can follow along in the TIST Learning Center

TIST Cluster Servant Spotlight: Alice Kambura

Over the past 15 years as a TIST Farmer, Alice Kambura has developed valuable leadership skills that she shares with her community.  Alice joined TIST in Kenya after receiving training and hearing about the many program benefits, particularly how tree planting, Conservation Farming, and improved cookstoves can help families, communities, and the environment. Today, Alice is a Cluster Servant responsible for training and serving other farmers.  One of the most important Best Practices for Alice has been Rotating Leadership, where many men and women have the opportunity to take turns leading and educating new farmers. She often trains TIST Farmers on Conservation Farming; a method Alice uses on her farm to grow maize.  Tree planting is Alice's favorite thing about the TIST Program.  She would like for more people to know about the benefits of planting more trees, maintaining the trees, and producing carbon credits.  Alice considers her training and quantification skills to be her biggest achievements.  “TIST changed the standard of living,” both her own and that of the community she shares her successes with.

Measuring TIST Farmers' Impact on UN SDGs

TIST are implementing a survey tool to measure the impacts TIST Farmers have on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Thus far, over 840 surveys have been completed!

TIST Farmers generate substantial benefits by participating in the TIST Program.  These benefits have already been recognized by the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS) when the TIST Program was awarded Triple Gold certification for exceptional climate, community, and biodiversity benefits. 

This new survey will collect even more information about the Program's benefits through interviews with the TIST Farmers.  It will also help us learn about areas where we can better serve the farmers.    

TIST Uganda held their Cluster Servants Seminar with all 76 Cluster Servants and 5 administrative staff attending to discuss:

1. Technical challenges
2. Learning Centre:  Members completed many courses and won Certificates of Achievements to celebrate their learning.  This is ongoing and they continue to win certificates for themselves.
3. Importance of filling weekly surveys to learn how the Cluster Servants are serving the TIST Farmers
4. Solutions for challenges faced due to the pandemic
5. Best Practices developed
6. Profit share payments
7. Achievements since each member joined the program and areas for improvement

With Ugandan schools being closed for 2 years, the longest school shutdown in the world, TIST Uganda have launched their Education Fund and sponsored 13  of their farmers children who through injury and changes in family circumstances were no longer able to afford school fees, and otherwise would not be able to receive an education.

Full details can be found here.  And here

This year started with a milestone for Jacaranda who enrolled 1 million mothers and empowered them with information through PROMPTS. Their two-way helpdesk service now responds to thousands of messages from mothers every day, and innovations to the AI-powered technology supporting PROMPTS means they are able to identify and refer urgent cases to care in minutes.

Jacaranda apply a data-driven approach to identifying danger signs and referring mothers at risk of adverse outcomes to care at the right time and place. Through PROMPTS data, they've identified a number of key insights to more quickly and intuitively put mothers in need on the appropriate care pathway.  Increasing a woman’s ability to make and act on decisions related to her health is pivotal for improved health outcomes. The data and feedback Jacaranda collect from women on the platform is also giving them agency within the health system.   Jacaranda share feedback via ‘scorecards’ with their network of 1,000+ partner facilities and 20 local county governments, ensuring mums receive better quality of care from providers and are served by systems responsive to their needs.  

As Jacaranda secure greater buy-in from local governments, expand their technology infrastructure, and grow their team in Kenya, they're working with national and private sector partners to make PROMPTS a national digital health solution that equitably supports mothers across different contexts and circumstances. 

PROMPTS is featured as part of a wider commission report produced by The Lancet and Financial Times exploring the interface of digital and health transformations, and the use of artificial intelligence to accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). 

Please click here if you would like to know more ....

All year, TIST have witnessed dedication, patience, and generosity throughout their community.  As the pandemic extended into its second year, the TIST Farmers looked beyond individual needs and focused on the wider community - and the truth of the old adage "It takes a village" has never been more apparent.  

TIST Farmer Modi Joseph of Uganda shares this collaborative mindset, observing that the TIST Program “has really improved our lives here within our village.”  As a community, they now have energy saving stoves, access to firewood, and a more reliable food supply.  As an individual, he now has access to medicine and his own food supply because of the variety of species he has planted.  Since 2019, Mr. Modi's Small Group, Nekoyedde Tukole D, has planted 990 trees. 

By participating in TIST Cluster Meetings, he has not only learned about energy saving stove construction, but also transplanting, pruning, and grove management.  These meetings facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning and benefit the wide network of TIST participants.  Modi Joseph sums it up well: “This project has changed our lives.”  Learn more about Joseph's story here.