LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT Copyright University of Reading COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT with a Gender Perspective on Family Farming 1 School of Agriculture, Policy & Development International Development Research Group
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Applying Communication for Development with a Gender Perspective to Family Farming.
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DEFINING COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENTComDev is a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. ComDev is about seeking change at different levels including listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating, and learning for sustained and meaningful change. It is not public relations or corporate communications.
World Congress on Communication for Development, Rome, 2006
DEFINING COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENTThe use of communication processes, techniques and media to
help people:•Create awareness of their situation •Create options for change•Resolve conflicts •Work towards consensus•Plan actions for change•Acquire knowledge and skills•Improve the effectiveness of institutions.
FAMILY FARMING• “Family farming includes all family-based agricultural activities,
and it is linked to several areas of rural development. Family farming is a means of organizing agricultural, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production which is managed and operated by a family and predominantly reliant on family labour, including both women’s and men’s”.
FAMILY FARMING AND COMMUNICATIONDomain Examples of communication rolesEnabling policy environment: Recognition of family farmers’ multiple contributions in national policies and dialogues; articulation of national definitions of family farming
Creating awareness and promoting advocacyStrengthening local institutionsCapacity buildingProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesCommunication and dialogue
Research and data: collect national data on the agricultural sector that systematically includes family farmers
Providing access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesAdvocacy with institutional partnersBuilding networks and local capacity
Agricultural environment: targeted agricultural, environmental and social policy interventions;
Providing access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesCreating awareness and promoting advocacyAdvocacy with farmer networksCommunication and dialogue
Enabling socio-economic environment: demographic, economic and sociocultural conditions; access to markets; access to finance; Access to land and natural resources
Adjusting socio-economic activitiesProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesCreating awareness and promoting advocacyStrengthening local institutionsCapacity buildingWorking with farmers to test technologies, livelihood options and coping strategiesIdentifying sound economic and marketing practicesDisseminate knowledge through a range of communication and extension strategies
Access to enabling information environment: access to technology and extension services; specialized education
Adjusting socio-economic activitiesProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesStrengthening local institutionsCapacity buildingAdvocacy with farmer networksBuilding networks and local capacityCommunication and dialogue
WHAT IS RESILIENCE?• Resilience is the ability to withstand threats or shocks, or the
ability to adapt to new livelihood options, in ways that preserve integrity and do not deepen vulnerability. This includes the ability to withstand threats and the ability to adapt to new options.
RESILIENCE AND COMMUNICATIONDomain Examples of role of communication
Enable the environment
Creating awareness and promoting advocacyProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesWorking with farmers to test technologies, livelihood options and coping strategiesDisseminate knowledge through a range of communication and extension strategiesBuilding networks and local capacity
Watch to safeguard
Strengthening local institutionsCreating awareness and promoting advocacyProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesCommunication and dialogueBuilding networks and local capacityAdvocacy with farmer networks
Apply risk and vulnerability reduction measures
Improving agricultural practicesStrengthening local institutionsCreating awareness and promoting advocacyProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesCommunication and dialogueWorking with farmers to test technologies, livelihood options and coping strategiesIdentifying sound economic and marketing practicesDisseminate knowledge through a range of communication and extension strategiesBuilding networks and local capacityAdvocacy with farmer networks
Prepare and respond
Creating awareness and promoting advocacyProviding access to adequate knowledge and communication servicesCommunication and dialogueWorking with farmers to test technologies, livelihood options and coping strategiesDisseminate knowledge through a range of communication and extension strategiesBuilding networks and local capacityAdvocacy with farmer networks
INNOVATION AND COMMUNICATIONDomain Examples of communication Network building Network brokering
Process facilitationExploration of opportunities and constraintsOrganizing interaction and participationSupport to institutional learning for technical change experimentsBuilding networks and local capacityDiagnosis and visioning support
Social learning Demand articulation and knowledge brokerageProcess facilitationInteractive design and experimentationLearning-oriented monitoringExploration of opportunities and constraintsOrganizing interaction and participationProfessional development supportBuilding networks and local capacityChange management supportReflective learning supportAdvocacy with farmer networksEstablish and support national agricultural innovation capacity support units
Conflict management
Process facilitationExploration of opportunities and constraintsConflict managementAdvocacy with farmer networksChange management support
OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH• Document existing landscape and trends in provision
(financing and delivery) of innovation support • Develop a detailed description and analysis of agricultural
innovation systems and processes for men and women in smallholder farming households, leading to hypotheses linking innovation support to innovation outcomes
• Test hypotheses through economic and gender analysis of the impact of innovation on productivity, incomes and livelihoods in the three countries, at household level and in the local rural economy
• Develop evidence-based conclusions on the potential and limitations for enhancing support for SHFs’ innovation
METHODOLOGY• Methodology is based on innovation system framework:
•The institutions, organisations, individuals that influence (support or constrain) innovation in smallholder agriculture
•Some elements may be planned (government policy, public sector research, extension, NGO project, outreach by agribusiness, ….)
•But much of it is unplanned, moulded by farmers in search of solution, and can only be identified and explained by farmers.
1. Literature review and key informant interviews2. Timelines, innovation histories, communication maps3. Survey and participatory farm management methods
Innovation systems, agricultural growth and rural livelihoods
WHY GENDER AND INNOVATION?• Men and women face different opportunities and constraints
within the agricultural sector • Gender is not just about women; it is about how ‘female’ and
‘male’ are defined, how those definitions are sustained and change over time, and how they affect men’s and women’s opportunities
• Gender inequalities mean constraints for men & women:•gender dynamics within the household may make it difficult
for men to take up a new agricultural enterprise or technology that increases the requirement for household labour unless gender roles can be renegotiated to give women a share in the benefit from the innovation.
• However, gender relations within households are complex and heterogeneous.
INTERESTING FINDINGS - ACTORS• Dynamic farming systems; external and endogenous innovation• Farmer – farmer learning (including migrants) is a major influence
•Observation•Discussion•Trial and error to optimise on-farm management•Sharing planting material
• Role of private sector in some enterprises (vanilla, cotton, …)• Markets (access; price changes) influence innovation behaviour• One change may preclude others (e.g. oxen [men] v. dairy cows
KEY THEMES (1)• Understanding the notion of ‘uptake’ is important to design
effective policies and interventions to support family farmers• ‘Uptake’ of technology and innovation from an institutional
(‘top-down’) perspective is very different from farmer’s experience
• Key informants and literature continually refer to ‘uptake’ as a linear transferal of technology; the experience of farmers is very different and more nuanced
• Farmers are actively looking to improve their livelihoods and their individual farm enterprises; they seek, adapt and improve technologies to fit their own individual context
KEY THEMES(2)• Men and women family farmers innovate through different
processes, using different technologies >some by choice and some due to the influence of
policies / intervention• Innovation is influenced by factors of social differentiation • Main constraints to innovation are input and output markets• Family farmers’ propensity to innovate leads to measurable
differences in income and expenditure at household level• Smallholder farmer innovations drive important improvements
in individual and household welfare and quality of life
IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNICATION• Dynamic communication needed to cover farmer-led change• Interpersonal farmer-farmer learning is key• Role of range of actors – not just extension• Relationships between changes needs to be understood & mediated• Different stakeholders have different – sometimes conflicting –
understandings of innovation•Multiple stakeholder engagement is key to best serve farmers
• Institutional capacity building is important•Linkages and networks between institutions•Ability for institutions to act collaboratively
• Internal/external information important to stimulate information• Information constraints continue to exist