Civic Action for All

Remote rural and tribal populations often experience poverty, resource deprivation, and tend to become victims of terrorists, narco-terrorists, and/or insurgents.  The volunteers, law enforcement personnel, and military units seeking to assist them lack rapport with targeted populations and seldom cooperate with any efforts to assist them solve problems and meet critical needs. The proven solution is to train and help the assistance providers to engage in activities, civic actions, that clearly is of benefit to such populations while gaining rapport/ cooperation with these populations.

The applicant wrote and published a "Civic Action Field Guide" to assist U. S. and ARVN (S. Vietnamese) Marines, in S. Vietnam, accomplish the above goals for local Vietnamese and tribal villages under armed attack by communist forces. These marines reported great success in using civic action means to greatly increase security in their operational areas during the 1960s and early 1970s.  

According to United Nation's and the World Bank's data there are not less than two billion of the world's current eight billion people having a need for civic action projects, due to extreme poverty or abuses/ attacks by terrorists, narco-terrorists, human-traffickers, and insurgents common in many developing nations. Factors causing poverty include a lack of access to farmlands and irrigation water to grow foods as well as minimal opportunities for employment or business operations. Host governments tend to be poor and tend to create social, economic, and political isolation for remote populations. Armed conflicts occur for religious, political, economic reasons as well as an array of profit-making or power-taking activities using force-of-arms or other illegal means. It is regrettable that some men seek to elevate themselves by using and harming others to satisfy greed and/or power-seeking.  

NPI seeks to use its civic action successes in developing nations to create effective civic action intraction and programs in developed nations.  

Civic action is a proven solution to the problems described above. As previously noted, A "Civic Action Field Guide" was used to meet critical needs of Vietnamese and tribal populations during the Vietnam War.  In the process of helping to meet those needs, American and Vietnamese Marines, worked with local villagers to help them solve problems and gained a solid rapport with these populations in the process. Such civic action practices were used to motivate local villager cooperation in a S. Vietnamese Village Defense Program (VDP) under the direction of the author of said Field Guide, David A. Nuttle. Details and documentation of the VDP effort are presented in a book entitled "Vietnam's High Ground," by J. P. Harris (a distinguished historian). Not less than 17 other developing nations have used this experience to start and direct their own very successful civic action programs.

Using the above experiences and extensive knowledge of agriculture & community development technologies, the same author & applicant (Nuttle) wrote and published the "Remote Areas Development Manual" as a civic action guide for NGO and Peace Corps volunteers working in developing nations. This manual is also used by many law enforcement and military units doing civic action projects in such countries. This manual is available in 13 languages and is available on ERIC (Educational Resources Info Center) ... see ERIC ED242881. A number of developing nations use this manual as their national development handbook; e. g. Ethiopia.  The product demos of such civic action are many and well proven and NPI has also used them in the U. S. to assist refugees populations coming to resettle (funded by HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement).

Using the above experience, NPI seeks to create effective civic action instruction and programs in developed nations to include the U. S.

NPI's civic action efforts, delivered directly or indirectly, have served the poor, disadvantaged, and often isolated, populations in developing nations who are periodically under threat from terrorist, narco-terrorist, human trafficking, and/or insurgent groups. These groups also have major food insecurity, drought, medical, unemployment, and other issues threatening their well-being. The governments of nations in which they reside are generally too poor and too ineffective to provide meaningful solutions. In numbers, these populations total over two billion of the world's eight billion people. NPI provides the civic action technologies and training for NGO, Pearce Corps, concerned government agencies, law enforcement, and military units to help meet these needs and provide long-term solutions.  Such solutions are a proven and documented fact from NPI's prior civic action projects.

With the above experience, NPI seeks to create civic action instruction programs to engage entire populations in use of civic action while undertaking civic action programs to benefit an array of populations in developed nations to include the U. S.

As previously noted, Nuttle has 62 years of very successful civic action operations/ projects in 42 developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the U.S. NPI has 27 years of like experience. For each project, NPI creates a team effort. In El Salvador, for example, the team leader is Marie Milla, Ph.D. in Ag and specialist in making & using biochar as a soil additive to greatly increase soil fertility and crop yields. A team member, Luis Albanes has similar training and skills. Under NPI's guidance, they are acting to assist many El Salvadoran smallholder farmers resolve soil infertility issues, using biochar, to help resolve a national food insecurity crisis. The local farmers being served are assisting with such project implementation. Ideas and inputs provided by these farmers have made the project a great success. They were initially engaged via contacts with El Salvadoran Farmers' Coops (Cooperatives). N.B. Civic action project, teams, participants, and priorities will vary country-by-country. Most team members are locals, and both Milla and Albanes are El Salvadoran. 

Solve has the potential to help NPI improve the awareness and use of effective civic action means in developed nations using NPI's very successful civic action experience in developing nations.

Applicant, David A. Nuttle, started developing new self-help technologies to support civic action projects in 1961 in S. Vietnam.  This work was expanded and improved via his charity, NPI, starting in 1995.  An example of one civic action project is teaching & coaching smallholder farmers, worldwide, in the technique of making biochar, from assorted biomass, for use as a soil additive to greatly improve soil fertility and crop yields, long-term, with a single addition of biochar to soils.  U. N. Food & Ag Organization (FAO) estimates that not less than 440,000 smallholder farmers, worldwide, urgently need such technology since they can no longer afford commercial fertilizers due to the greatly increased costs (over 300 % price increase for some fertilizers). Others are needed to help promote biochar technology, and the market for fertilizers will change with biochar being safe, efficient, environmentally friendly, and economical with increased crop yield benefits.  N. B. The U. S. has millions of acres of insect-killed timber that may economically made into biochar.  Fire fires will thereby be reduced in numbers, and our environment shall be thus improved.

Each of NPI's new civic action technologies will have dramatic positive impact benefiting thousands of people.  In addition to the above biochar example, NPI has advanced counterdesertification technologies for efficient production of crops on desert lands.  These technologies are improvements and additions to the GOI's (Govt. of India's) counterdesertification technologies for the Thar desert of NW India.  The U. N., World Bank, and USAID estimate that not less than 820 million people are living on the brink-of-starvation on or near desert lands (one-third of all land).  NPI will teach these new technologies by means of distance education to smallholder farmers coop in subject desert areas. The ministries of Agriculture in respective desert nations are expected to assist in such efforts. A few other NGOs may also assist with crop production and related job creation for desert areas.  NPI's added goal is to use civic action techniques perfected in developing nations to create innovative civic action means for developed nations and their populations. N. B. NPI's tubal-algalculture system, for rearing algal crops on desert lands, accomplishes carbon sequestration on a massive scale to provide climate benefits.

Dissemination, replication, and expensive use of Nuttle's/ NPI's civic action publications and technologies is solid evidence of stated goal achievements. As an example, hundreds of NGO and Peace Corps volunteers use this unique information. As noted above, not less than 17 developing nations are using our civic action information and related technologies.  The U. S. Marine Commander, in S. Vietnam, Lt. Gen. Brute Krulak estimated more than 120 American Marine lives were saved because they used civic action during the Vietnam War.  NPI's project teams, overseas such as in El Salvador, all say that NPI's civic action techniques are of very great benefit to poor as well as many disadvantaged populations.  NPI is thus saving lives, and that is our measure of progress.

NPI's theory of change is based on needs identification followed by rapid and effective means of meeting those needs.  A number of studies, research papers, and books have documented NPI's outstanding ability to do so!

Each of Nuttle's/ NPI's civic action means has been based on a proven new technology they have developed.  For counterdesertification, one of such technologies was, and is, tubal-algalculture.  This method uses innovative development of desert water resources to grow algal crops on desert lands. The tubes prevent evaporation of production water and allow this water to be recycled after each algal harvest. Algal lipids produced make biofuels and high protein algal solids make food/ feed supplements also high in vitamins & minerals. As noted before, algal crops accomplish carbon sequestration on a massive scale.  NPI's counterdesertification technologies alone represent only part of Nuttle's/ NPI's many new civic action technologies.  N. B. A review of NPI's stated civic action publications will describe some of NPI's core civic action technologies.

Nuttle and NPI have worked, and will continue to work, with people from all ethnic, national, political, religious, sexual, regional, special, or any other identity in a sustained effort to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion. This effort is well documented in studies and books about Nuttle's/ NPI's work.

NPI's business model is based on development of new, innovative civic action technologies providing a basis for helping to meet critical needs of poor and disadvantaged populations, some under armed attack. Such product is then packaged. promoted, and sold to potential users such as those in urgent need of civic action solutions for problems identified herein. Some delivery of such product is via distance education means. N. B. Since NPI is a charity and may not engage in profit seeking, these products are managed and sold by NPI's for-profit subsidiary, PSI (Preparedness Systems Intl., Inc.)  N. B. The need for such civic action products, and the usual users, heve been previously detailed in this presentation.

NPI has a steady flow of donations and grants from individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies. In addition, NPI licenses patents owned to others for a royalty income. Nuttle's first civic action model. as detailed in the book "Vietnam's High Ground," by J. P. Harris, was funded by a $12 million grant from Asia Foundation. A $5.5 million grant is anticipated from the Yield Giving Foundation for a model using civic action means to assist and provide critical services to homeless military veterans in SW Colorado.

NPI has received substantial grant funding from USDA, USDOE, Natl. Science Foundation, NC Biotechnology Center, Cortez Mill, Guard-All, Swartz, Caylor Ranch, Gary Tanner, and others.  Not less than $3 million in patent royalty income was received from NextPath Technologies. Nuttle also receives some income from book sales. In project areas with armed conflict, NPI provides safety & survival training for volunteers and threatened populations. NPI's training manual for this effort is the "Universal Survival Handbook," written by Nuttle.  This handbook, our "Civic Action Field Guide," and our "healthy Foods Handbook," for instructing farmers and others, in innovative ways to increase crop yields by several means, are all posted on NPI's unique website (www.needfulprovision.org)