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Bruce Mukwatu, who has guided and led national initiatives for community-based primary health care in Zambia for over twenty years, first learned of Future Generations Seed-Scale process of community change in 1995. In fact, Bruce has been implementing the ideas of Seed-Scale since they were first presented to the U.N. Summit on Social Development in a monograph titled, Community-based Sustainable Human Development: A Proposal for Going to Scale with Self-Reliant Social Development.  According to Bruce, this little green book made all the difference and provided a new way for building partnerships and empowering communities to rapidly improve health on a large scale.

The principles of Seed-Scale influenced the design of the community-health component of the Zambia Integrated Rural Health Program, led by Bruce Mukwatu under USAID sponsorship for the six-year duration of the program. The impacts included a sustainable, community-based approach to health in twelve districts. In these districts,  HIV/AIDS is now reduced from 25% to 16% infection rates; voluntarily counseling and testing has increased from 0% to 35%; the use of insecticide treated bednets has increased from 10% to 65%.

Bruce Mukwatu continues to study the ideas, lessons, and experience of Seed-Scale and to apply other leadership skills gained through Future Generations Master’s Degree in Applied Community Change and Conservation. His studies included a two-year practicum to apply lessons and new ideas in his day-to-day work with communities, which has now expanded nationwide from 12 to 73 districts. This rapid large-scale expansion of the success Bruce has generated in the original 12 districts is critical to the rural population of Zambia, which has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the highest mortality rates from malaria in the world.

Bruce Mukwatu’s enthusiasm for the Seed-Scale approach and its effectiveness in producing rapid and sustainable outcomes in health has led to a proposal for the Zambia Academy. The Zambia Academy will perform two functions. First it will train Zambian institutions who are already working with local people in order to increase levels of community ownership and participation and the effectiveness of programs already underway. Second the academy will link these now trained groups into an on-going partnership. Partnering institutions will likely include:  Agriculture Farm Training Centers; the College for Health Sciences; and Rural Health Centers which are working with over 1000 Neighborhood Health Committees in five districts; and church development institutions. 

The process of Seed-Scale is not only leading to significant change in Zambia, but is sparking interest in other African countries.  In 2005,  at a workshop sponsored by Save the Children in Johannesburg, 33 development practitioners learned about, discussed, and considered the relevance of Seed-Scale. A significant number expressed interest in applying the approach to meet their own identified health, agricultural, and education needs. What impressed them most was the step-by-step approach for energizing and sustaining community engagement, as well as the principles and steps for taking successful community-based programs to the regional and national level.