The Farmer Life School: experience from an innovative approach to HIV education

The Farmer Life School (FLS) is an innovative approach to integrating HIV education into life skills and technical training for farmers. This study aims to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of this relatively new approach, through the implementation of an adapted version in South Africa. The results are presented of a pilot with three groups of community gardeners, predominantly women, attending weekly sessions. Impact was assessed in terms of three key elements: participation, learning, and empowerment. Data were collected through extensive session reports, follow-up interviews, and reflection exercises with facilitators and participating groups and individuals. The results suggest that a group-based discovery learning approach such as the FLS has great potential to improve food security and wellbeing, while allowing participants to explore issues around HIV/AIDS. However, the analysis also shows that HIV/AIDS-related illness and death, and the factors that drive the epidemic and its impact, undermine farmers\' ability to participate, the safety and trust required for learning, and the empowerment process. Participatory approaches such as the FLS require a thorough understanding of and adaptation to the context. Keywords: Farmer Life School, HIV/AIDS, participation, learning, empowerment.SAHARA J Vol. 5 (2) 2008: pp. 56-6

Performance of innovation platforms in crop-livestock agro-ecosystems of the Volta basin in Burkina Faso

Linear approach to research has had limited success in sub-Saharan Africa and there is need for participatory approach. The CPWF Volta Basin Development Challenge project on integrated management of rainwater in crop-livestock systems (V2) took an overarching innovation platform approach that supports learning and exchange for action research and for scaling up and out of promising best fit rainwater management strategies. Innovation platforms (IP) comprising of multi- stakeholders were established by the project in the project sites in Burkina Faso and Ghana in mid-2011; regular quarterly meetings were organized to identify and prioritize constraints and opportunities to rainwater management in crop-livestock systems and the implementation of strategies to address them. To ensure adequate documentation of IP processes and activities, and for evaluation of the performance of the IPs, monitoring and evaluation tools were developed comprising of register of actors, IP meeting and activity report, and members’ assessment of the IP. The data collected during the IP meetings in the project sites in Ghana was of relatively low quality. Hence, the results reported in this paper were from data collected from IP meetings in Burkina Faso. This paper focused on the assessment of the IP functioning in terms of consistency of participation across meetings and stakeholder groups, relevance/interest of IP issues, participation in decision making, information exchange, facilitation and perceived benefits of IP activities. Results from the assessment of the IPs showed that attendance at the meetings ranged from 24 to 42 participants, of which at least 60% were men. In terms of the groups of the participants, the producers accounted for between 30 and 65% of the total participants at the IP meetings in both locations. Other actors in the IPs included trader, processor, credit agency, technical services, researcher and development agency. All the key stakeholders were consistent in participation at the IP meetings except for credit agency in Koubri. Major activities carried out by the IP in Koubri and Ouahigouya as reported by the members included training, soil and water conservation initiatives, linkage to financial and technical services, supply of agricultural inputs, group marketing particularly of onion, animal management and post-harvest management. From the members’ assessment of IP 1 activities, processes and outputs, gender only had significant effect in the score for participation in decision making where women gave lower score than men. For all the indicators for the IP meetings, the lowest score (2.53±0.16; score was from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)) was observed for the quality of facilitation in Ouahigouya for the meeting of March 2012 while the highest score (4.90±0.06) was for conflict resolution in the IP in Ouahigouya for the meeting in June 2013. Also, for all the indicators the mean scores tended to increase with the lifespan of the IP, that is the longer the lifespan the higher the scores given by the members for its performance. These results suggest that IP approach is not a ”quick- win” approach. This raises the challenge of maintaining the interest and participation of relevant actors

Dealing with critical challenges in African innovation platforms: lessons for facilitation

Innovation platforms are increasingly used by research and development initiatives to actively engage the poor in agricultural innovation processes. These platforms are forums for action and learning, where different types of actors come together to address issues of mutual concern. However, the dynamic nature of the innovation process, and the differences in interest, capacity and power among the actors involved, pose a challenge in the facilitation of these platforms. We believe that the key to success is very much linked to the attitude, skills and capacities of the innovation broker. This paper highlights seven key issues which in our view are critical to effective platform facilitation and have not received the attention they deserve: the dynamic and evolving nature of platforms; power dynamics; gender equity; external versus internal facilitation; sustainability of the process; issues of scale; and monitoring and evaluation. These issues and implications for facilitation of innovation platforms will be discussed based on examples from the field and in relation to current theories

Dealing with critical challenges in African innovation platforms: Lessons for facilitation

There is growing scientific recognition of innovation platforms (IPs) and the role of facilitation in catalyzing agricultural innovation (see Klerkx and Gildemacher 2011; Hounkonnou et al. 2012; Klerkx, Mierlo, and Leeuwis 2012), with increasing documentation of experiences from practitioners (see Hawkins et al. 2009; Nederlof, Wongtschowski, and Van der Lee 2011; Nederlof and Pyburn 2012; Mbabu and Hall 2012). IPs have become increasingly popular, and run the risk of becoming a void concept or misunderstood—for example, because they are taken as merely mechanisms to regulate value chains or to extend new technologies to large numbers of farmers (PAEPARD 2013; Darbas and Sumberg 2013); still, the discussion whether or not IPs are useful and effective is a relevant one. In this chapter, we argue that the success of an IP depends on the attitude and skills of the facilitator. Indeed, one of the most frequent questions from practitioners is: How do we best facilitate IPs?..

Patient selection for LIVE therapy: from clinical indications to multimodality imaging individual case planning

Background Less Invasive Ventricular Enhancement (LIVE) with Revivent TC is an innovative therapy for symptomatic ischemic heart failure (HF). It is designed to reconstruct a negatively remodeled left ventricle (LV) after an anterior myocardial infarction (MI) by plication of the scar tissue. Its indications are specific, and as with any other structural heart intervention, the success of the procedure starts with appropriate patient selection. We aim to present the indications of the technique, crucial aspects in patient selection, and individual case planning approach. Methods and results After clinical evaluation, transthoracic echocardiography is the first imaging modality to be performed in a potential candidate for the therapy. However, definitive indication and detailed case planning rely on late gadolinium-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging or multiphasic contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography. These imaging modalities also assist with relative or absolute contra-indications for the procedure. Individual assessment is done to tailor the procedure to the specifics of the LV anatomy and location of the myocardial scar. Conclusion LIVE procedure is a unique intervention to treat symptomatic HF and ischemic cardiomyopathy after anterior MI. It is a highly customizable intervention that allows a patient-tailored approach, based on multimodality imaging assessment and planification

Digital Platforms in the Global South: Foundations and Research Agenda

Digital platforms have become integral to many of the everyday activities that people across the globe encounter in areas like transportation, commerce and social interactions. Research on the topic has largely concentrated on the general functioning of these platforms in terms of platform governance, business strategies and consumer behaviour. Despite their significant presence in the global South, the developmental implications of digital platforms remain largely understudied. In part, this is because digital platforms are a challenging research object due to their lack of conceptual definition, their spread across different regions and industries, and their intertwined nature with institutions, actors and digital technologies. The aim of this paper is therefore twofold: to provide a conceptual definition of digital platforms, and to identify research strands in international development contexts. To do so, we draw from digital platforms literature, differentiate between transaction and innovation platforms and expose their main characteristics. We the present four strands in the form of research questions, illustrated with concrete examples, that can assist to pursue relevant studies on digital platforms and international development in the future

Playing the role of a ‘boundary organisation’: getting smarter with networking

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