Proceedings of the Learning Workshop on Livelihoods Analysis. Long An, Vietnam 19-20 November 2002

Sustainable Aquaculture for Poverty Alleviation (SAPA) is a strategy under the overall national program for hunger eradication and poverty reduction. This reflects high attention by the Ministry of Fisheries (MOFI) to the poor. Since the strategy was initiated, several actions have been taken. Recently, conferences and meetings were conducted in Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Quang Tri. Consequently we also have workshops on a regional basis, and today we are pleased to conduct a workshop in Long An on livelihoods analysis. Now at the Ministry, there are more than 340 projects in aquaculture to attack poverty. The launch of SAPA has been given a high priority among support agencies. Recently Mr Gill of the World Bank and the Ministry agreed that they would act to strengthen aquaculture for poverty reduction. So today with the support of the Long An People’s Committee, NACA and STREAM we have a workshop to strengthen learning about livelihoods analysis. (PDF has 61 pages.

A framework to elicit user requirements for information systems: a localised participatory approach from Southern Africa

The “What” and “Why” in information system development in resource restricted environments is already well covered in literature. However, the “How” to do it still has not been explored. This thesis reports on the development of a locally flavoured participatory user requirements elicitation framework for the development of information systems in resource restricted environments. It uses existing participatory design practices, user requirements elicitation literature and local participatory norms and traditions to achieve this. In doing so, it takes a step towards the way information systems could be developed in resource restricted environments. The topic of this thesis is mainly motivated by the recent calls in existing literature for developing countries to start developing their own information systems in order to address their own requirements. Accordingly, and to lay a foundation towards the realisation of this goal, this research is positioned within the user requirements elicitation region of information systems development. Current user requirements elicitation methods use traditional methods where experts/designers ask system users questions through interviews or learn about their environment through observations. This research proposes a shift from this approach to one that not only views users as equal partners in the elicitation process but in the whole information systems development process. This is in the spirit of participatory design, which was developed in Scandinavia more than four decades ago. Further, recent research in participatory design emphasises the importance of its contextual nature and concedes that there is no single best practice for participatory design in information systems that applies to all contexts. This research explores the information systems development discourse in resource restricted environments in Africa. Its purpose is to enhance understanding of the local contexts, thus providing new insights on how to develop a framework that speaks to local challenges using norms and traditions in order to develop information systems that address local requirements. Thus, the main contribution of this research lies in laying a foundation for a locally flavoured participatory approach for information systems development in resource restricted environments. It contributes to the existing information systems development, participatory design and user requirements elicitation body of knowledge by developing a framework for participatory user requirements elicitation. In addition, it contributes to the participatory design body of knowledge by introducing an age-old African participatory decisionmaking approach to the academic participatory design community. In doing so, it adopts the meaning of participation from an African value system point of view, which is something that has only been previously explored in the Nordic countries and North America. Finally, recommendations for the application, limitations and avenues for further research are incorporated into the findings of this research

e-ESAS: Evolution of a Participatory Design-based Solution for Breast Cancer (BC) Patients in Rural Bangladesh

Healthcare facility is scarce for rural women in the developing world. The situation is worse for patients who are suffering from diseases that require long-term feedback-oriented monitoring such as breast cancer. Lack of motivation to go to the health centers on patients’ side due to sociocultural barriers, financial restrictions and transportation hazards results in inadequate data for proper assessment. Fortunately, mobile phones have penetrated the masses even in rural communities of the developing countries. In this scenario, a mobile phone-based remote symptom monitoring system (RSMS) with inspirational videos can serve the purpose of both patients and doctors. Here, we present the findings of our field study conducted on 39 breast cancer patients in rural Bangladesh. Based on the results of extensive field studies, we have categorized the challenges faced by patients in different phases of the treatment process. As a solution, we have designed, developed and deployed e-ESAS—the first mobile-based RSMS in rural context. Along with the detail need assessment of such a system, we describe the evolution of e-ESAS and the deployment results. We have included the unique and useful design lessons that we learned as e-ESAS evolved through participatory design process. The findings show how e-ESAS addresses several challenges faced by patients and doctors and positively impact their lives

Mobility is the Message: Experiments with Mobile Media Sharing

This thesis explores new mobile media sharing applications by building, deploying, and studying their use. While we share media in many different ways both on the web and on mobile phones, there are few ways of sharing media with people physically near us. Studied were three designed and built systems: Push!Music, Columbus, and Portrait Catalog, as well as a fourth commercially available system – Foursquare. This thesis offers four contributions: First, it explores the design space of co-present media sharing of four test systems. Second, through user studies of these systems it reports on how these come to be used. Third, it explores new ways of conducting trials as the technical mobile landscape has changed. Last, we look at how the technical solutions demonstrate different lines of thinking from how similar solutions might look today. Through a Human-Computer Interaction methodology of design, build, and study, we look at systems through the eyes of embodied interaction and examine how the systems come to be in use. Using Goffman’s understanding of social order, we see how these mobile media sharing systems allow people to actively present themselves through these media. In turn, using McLuhan’s way of understanding media, we reflect on how these new systems enable a new type of medium distinct from the web centric media, and how this relates directly to mobility. While media sharing is something that takes place everywhere in western society, it is still tied to the way media is shared through computers. Although often mobile, they do not consider the mobile settings. The systems in this thesis treat mobility as an opportunity for design. It is still left to see how this mobile media sharing will come to present itself in people’s everyday life, and when it does, how we will come to understand it and how it will transform society as a medium distinct from those before. This thesis gives a glimpse at what this future will look like

Understanding citizen science and environmental monitoring: final report on behalf of UK Environmental Observation Framework

Citizen science can broadly be defined as the involvement of volunteers in science. Over the past decade there has been a rapid increase in the number of citizen science initiatives. The breadth of environmental-based citizen science is immense. Citizen scientists have surveyed for and monitored a broad range of taxa, and also contributed data on weather and habitats reflecting an increase in engagement with a diverse range of observational science. Citizen science has taken many varied approaches from citizen-led (co-created) projects with local community groups to, more commonly, scientist-led mass participation initiatives that are open to all sectors of society. Citizen science provides an indispensable means of combining environmental research with environmental education and wildlife recording. Here we provide a synthesis of extant citizen science projects using a novel cross-cutting approach to objectively assess understanding of citizen science and environmental monitoring including: 1. Brief overview of knowledge on the motivations of volunteers. 2. Semi-systematic review of environmental citizen science projects in order to understand the variety of extant citizen science projects. 3. Collation of detailed case studies on a selection of projects to complement the semi-systematic review. 4. Structured interviews with users of citizen science and environmental monitoring data focussing on policy, in order to more fully understand how citizen science can fit into policy needs. 5. Review of technology in citizen science and an exploration of future opportunities

APFIC/FAO Regional Consultative Workshop: Securing sustainable small-scale fisheries: Bringing together responsible fisheries and social development, Windsor Suites Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand 68 October 2010

In the Global Overview, we attempt to view reefs in terms of the poor who are dependent on reefs for their livelihoods, how the reefs benefit the poor, how changes in the reef have impacted the lives of the poor and how the poor have responded and coped with these changes. It also considers wider responses to reef issues and how these interventions have impacted on the lives of the poor

The importance of participatory communication for the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) project in Alexander township in Gauteng, South Africa

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2016The research set out to investigate how the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) programme in South Africa facilitated stakeholder participation in its communication processes to improve the uptake of services in the context of national targets. Studies reviewed have highlighted challenges in the implementation of the participatory model to achieve communication goals. This qualitative study used document analysis, in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for data collection. The research has revealed other limiting factors including unequal opportunities to influence decisions as a result of varying levels of authority and access to mediated public spheres. While those with power end up being further empowered through participatory approaches in terms of voice and visibility, the representation of the inputs of the lower level stakeholder group is limited to head count. A five-day visit to a VMMC clinic in Alexandra Township attributes marginalisation by exclusion from decision-making processes as one of the reasons for people’s inability to translate knowledge into the positive public response. The study was inconclusive about the influence of the model on the actual service uptake because the purpose was to provide a textual description of the participants’ experiences and not the impact.XL201

Lærerutdanning som nøkkel til tilpasning til miljøforringelse i Tanzania: Utvikling av miljøopplæring gjennom deltakende aksjonsforskning

Summary of the Thesis Environmental education (EE) is a key component of socio-economic transformation. Thus, teacher colleges and schools emphasize environmental topics in their curricula. Yet, environmental degradation continues in spite of the increasing number of people educated in line with EE curricula. Therefore, EE has not increased the community’s capacity to adapt to the changing environmental conditions, including the environment and humans’ individual and societal use of place-based resources. Policy makers emphasize participatory teaching as the way to transition out of unsustainability. Still, a lack of a wide range of resources is normally the major constraint, especially in rural primary schools, where communities remain as the major victims of the degradation and the changing socio-ecological systems. Through participatory action research (PAR) implemented in collaboration with student-teachers, tutors at Ilonga Teachers’ College, teachers in practice in primary schools, and surrounding local community members, we1 attempted to create an example of an active teaching strategy for environmental topics using locally available resources. We formulated the following research question to guide our study: In which ways can participatory teaching of environmental topics in schools and teacher colleges facilitate local community members’ adaptation to and management of harsh environmental conditions? We addressed the main research question through three underlying research questions that addressed different dimensions of the main question: 1. How can we engage local actors in the participatory planning of environmental activities? 2. How do the student teachers learn environmental education and how does that influence their practice of environmental education in primary schools and in the local community? 3. To what extent do democratic teaching processes in the Teachers’ College enhance the stakeholders’ ability to manage environmental challenges? We chose tree planting as the main, concrete approach for EE and linked the research process with experiential learning theories. Tree planting was a meaningful, comprehensible, and manageable environmental activity in the participating rural community, and a solution to the persistent environmental degradation. The PAR strategy involved two cycles of plan–act–reflect. After implementing the PAR cycles, we conducted a follow-up study to ascertain the sustainability of the intervention. The result of the PAR, as linked to the three underlying research questions, constitutes the three published articles that form part of this thesis. 1 Throughout the summary section I have used “we” to reference the researchers. iv Paper 1 summarizes and discusses the dynamics of engaging poor rural communities in EE and some critical empowerment issues. The paper relies on the mapping of the environmental conditions and resources, and on the engagement of the local communities in a critical reflection of their environmental realities. Therefore, the findings refers to the initial interaction between researchers and community leaders and EE committees. We followed the interaction up with interviews, focusgroup discussions (FGDs) including local community members, and participant observations of environmental realities accompanied by learning workshops. The mapping gave important insights for elaborating and improving the theoretical perspectives and for contextualizing experiential learning theories in accordance with the realities of the local communities, aiming at improvements in future environmental practices. The critical reflection promoted a common understanding of the main environmental challenges and built local trust and confidence between the researchers and local leaders, which later became important social capital and an alternative to the lack of physical resources for the management of environmental stressors. Paper 2 discusses the challenges involved in the transfer of experiential teaching strategies from the initially selected primary schools to a wider population of primary schools (i.e. the student teachers’ practice schools all over Tanzania). In addition, we discuss the learning outcomes among the student teachers involved in the transfer of teaching strategies. In the paper, we analyze student teachers’ teaching logs, interviews with practice teachers and student teachers, and FGDs involving student teachers who received experiential education and then participated in the second teaching practice to understand the realization of experiential teaching strategies in the primary schools. We found that educating the student teachers in experiential learning strategies enhanced their confidence and autonomy in planning and implementing EE programs in accordance with local realities in the teaching practice schools. The student teachers capitalized on democratic relationships to realize the teaching of environmental topics in order to secure social capital and physical resources in the schools they were teaching. The building of social capital increased their ability to handle contextual challenges when applying ideas in a new context. Paper 3 focuses on the power dimension. We experienced the development of democratic power relations through student teachers’ interactions with local stakeholders in the implementation of environmental management activities in the practice schools and the surrounding local communities. Still, we wanted to explore the sustenance of these relations and to understand the nature of power relations in the local community after the closure of the project. We interviewed primary school headmasters, the Dean of the Teachers’ College, and tutors and teachers in the participating schools and at the Teachers’ College. The result revealed an opposition between the participants’ exercise of democratic power relations in schools and the top-down decisions in the educational system, for example, the distribution and allocation of teachers decided by the district authorities. The local community members countered the challenges made by hierarchical top-down decisions by recruiting new members, by expanding their network and support systems, and by attracting new v sources of funding. We realized that the implementation of EE to a large degree relied on political and economic aspects. In spite of the challenges that were encountered, the three papers demonstrate that experiential learning strategies can contribute to the transformation of EE in Tanzania. The reason for this is that the teaching strategies both comprehended the transfer of knowledge and skills related to the selfsustaining management of environmentally-friendly activities and to the building of capacity to manage the lack of resources as well as the top-down-organized educational system. This means that the combination of experiential learning strategies and PAR is crucial. Although I will not underplay the significance of the challenges related to a lack of resources and power, the findings show examples of how to overcome these severe barriers. Thus, we recommend experiential learning strategies combined with the development of democratic relations as an approach for teaching EE in Tanzanian teacher colleges. Another finding is that mobile phones seem to be important vehicles for enriching the partnership between schools, the local community, and teacher colleges, and for relating the community to their physical environment. The use of the phones seemed to enhance participants’ environmental care due to the possibility of experiencing local environmental challenges, creating social, cultural, and symbolic capital, and building a community of learners, which could grow beyond the geographical boundaries of the projects

Review of New Technologies and Methodologies for EORE in Challenging Contexts

This review examines promising new technologies and methodologies used for the delivery and monitoring of risk education interventions in response to three key challenges: risk education for improvised explosive devices, in urban complex environments, and in areas with limited to no accessibility. It highlights examples, good practices and emerging solutions in facing these challenges, both from within and outside the EORE sector, and builds on recent initiatives developed to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government of Switzerland

Designing Familiar Open Surfaces

While participatory design makes end-users part of the design process, we might also want the resulting system to be open for interpretation, appropriation and change over time to reflect its usage. But how can we design for appropriation? We need to strike a good balance between making the user an active co-constructor of system functionality versus making a too strong, interpretative design that does it all for the user thereby inhibiting their own creative use of the system. Through revisiting five systems in which appropriation has happened both within and outside the intended use, we are going to show how it can be possible to design with open surfaces. These open surfaces have to be such that users can fill them with their own interpretation and content, they should be familiar to the user, resonating with their real world practice and understanding, thereby shaping its use