The Netherlands: International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 151 Document Number: D10122
Notes:
124 pages., Via website., This is the final report for the IICD-led Connect4Change programme implemented during 2011-215 in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Peru, Uganda, and Zambia. The Connect4Change programme was implemented by an alliance of Dutch development organisations, incl. IICD, Edukans, Cordaid, ICCO, Akvo and TTC Mobile.
12 pages., Online via Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)., Findings showed that women smallholders' uptake was affected by limited access to credit, extension, restricted membership in cooperatives and water user associations, lack of access or user rights to land, skill training, information, and restricted mobility. Authors suggested that expanding off-farm diversification and rural employment opportunities through changing the land tenure system, which is currently state-owned, are essential to enhance women smallholders' access to land and other agricultural inputs.
20 pages., Given the multi-benefits, enset cultivation has been continuously underutilized in Ethiopia. We assess best practices, processing technologies, environmental maintenance, multi-benefits of enset and its potency in hunger reduction in Ethiopia by reviewing evidence on good farm practices, improved technologies, sustainability, hunger reduction, inputs cost, and yields advantage of enset. The review results identify those best practices that optimize enset yield, technologies that facilitate extension services, processing and food qualities of enset. Moreover, we find that enset is a first-rated climate-smart crop, superior hunger solution because of its apparent capability to endure long periods (more than 5 years) of drought, highest yield, energy food supply, and costs advantages. In contrast, its long-period maturity, cultural perceptions, and little development policy attention given to enset limit its expansion. Therefore, exploring and creating universal access mechanism of early maturing and high-yielding varieties, processing technologies and mobile-based advices, involving best practices of enset in regular agricultural extension services, changing social perceptions optimize enset yield and production thereby it contributes environmental sustainability and cuts hunger challenges.
Online from UI Library subscription., Reports a case study of efforts to control an infestation of water hyacinth in Lake Tana, largest lake in Ethiopia. Findings revealed that participatory communication was equated to a public relations activity of organizing campaigns with the local people urged to participate by providing labour contribution of harvesting and collecting the weed from the lake. The communication approach was found to be a one-way, top-down approach which does not facilitate a horizontal dialogue among stakeholders.
12 pages., via online journal., This study investigates the role of the different institutional actors involved in the development and implementation of land use policies in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. The work is based on interviews with key informants from different administrative levels and these results are compared to the relevant policy documents. While the constitution prescribes a participatory policy development process, our results show that in reality policies are made at the highest level and implemented in a top-down approach from the higher to the lower administrative levels. Moreover, the institutional network mainly consists of institutions that are hierarchically linked, while horizontal and diagonal relations are less common and less important. Consistently, higher level institutions are mostly involved in the development of land use policies, while the roles of lower level institutions are predominantly in the implementation thereof. This lack of participation by lower level institutions, in addition to a lack of capacity and absence of clear institutional mandates, hampers the effectiveness of land use policies. Our results also provide suggestions to improve the development, communication, and eventually the acceptability of land use policies towards sustainable land management.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08697
Notes:
Pages 34-44 in Gordon Wilson, Pamela Furniss and Richard Kimbowa (eds.), Environment, development and sustainability: perspectives and cases from around the world. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. 290 pages.
