19 2001. the Report Here Is Not an Edited ‘Workshop Proceedings’, but Tries to Capture the Crude Output of the Workshop
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Documentation of the Workshop of the SNRD Extension Group, South Africa, December 11-19, 2001 I This report documents the workshop which took place in December 11 – 19 2001. The report here is not an edited ‘workshop proceedings’, but tries to capture the crude output of the workshop. THIS DOCUMENTATION IS MEANT TO BE A REFERENCE DOCUMENT for all participants. Almost all results of the working groups and plenary sessions are documented here. In addition, it includes the summary reports of the rapporteurs. Documentation of the Workshop of the SNRD Extension Group, South Africa, December 11-19, 2001 II FOREWORD Since Its inception in 1995, the GTZ Sector Network for Rural Development (SNRD) has sought to improve the quality of exchange between projects in sub-Saharan Africa with professional links to GTZ Head Office, counterparts and institutions involved at local, national and international levels in rural development. February 2002Agricultural extension has always been a key focus area within SNRD through a dedicated Workgroup which, since 2000, has worked under the title - Innovation and Extension Services Systems. The Workgroup aims to improve the quality of exchange between members and counterparts and also develop their mutual competencies. The latter provides a key challenge at a time when institutions in agricultural extension services are experiencing tumultuous changes arising from dwindling public sector budgets for agriculture across the region. This has increased pressures for market liberalisation, pluralism, commercialisation and decentralisation in services delivery. Nowhere are those challenges more severely felt than in the districts of African countries. Yet, up to now, those charged with managing these complex agendas for change had little focused competency development, especially for the central task of managing and facilitating the change processes involved. To take up this challenge, the Workgroup decided early last year to pilot a learning workshop for those involved in district management or co-ordination of agricultural extension services. This workshop took place from Dec 11thh – 19th, 2001 in Pietersburg, Republic of South Africa with 26 participants from five countries (Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe) The approach adopted in the workshop centered on problem-based facilitation grounded in the challenges encountered by participants followed by exploration of the changing roles, approaches and competencies needed by managers to cope with and respond more effectively in their local environments. This learning approach involved a departure from normative extension training programmes which usually rely heavily on pre-programmed inputs and topic areas, often with limited scope for interactive, problem-based learning grounded in the needs and realities of participants. The following proceedings provide a detailed documentation of all the sessions and inputs conducted and provided during the workshop. The response and evaluation by participants to this approach was positive and encouraging and the facilitation team took on board feedback seeking a longer time-frame for such a workshop and perhaps more strategic inputs to complement the sessions on participant-based problem exploration and solving. The Workgroup will organise another such workshop in September 2002 at the same venue in RSA. The Workgroup will continue to seek to improve competency development and resulting know-how among members and counterparts. We strongly believe in ownership and self-starting initiatives among our peers and counterparts. So I urge all those who participated in the workshop to interact and network with each other and with the Workgroup. We will maintain a database including profiles of all our participants in these workshops to inform further learning in competency development. On behalf of our Workgroup, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the BASED Project in RSA and to the following colleagues who made unstinting contributions to the success of the workshop: Jürgen Hagmann, Kwame Amezah, Paolo Ficarelli, Steve Mohlabi, Khathu Nedavhe, Joe Ramuru, Francis Mahlakoane, Hlami Ngwenya and Carola Hartmann. Mike Connolly Speaker SNRD Workgroup on Innovation and Extension Services Systems February 2002 Documentation of the Workshop of the SNRD Extension Group, South Africa, December 11-19, 2001 III Table of Contents Foreword II Table of Contents III 1 WORKSHOP OPENING AND INTRODUCTION........................................................................ 1 1.1 DAILY OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 PARTICIPANTS’ INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3 EXPECTATIONS AND FEARS ............................................................................................................... 6 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP ....................................................................................................... 9 1.5 ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES ............................................................................................................... 10 2 SHARING THROUGH COUNTRY PRESENTATIONS ........................................................... 14 2.1 PRESENTATION FROM ZIMBABWE ................................................................................................... 15 2.2 PRESENTATION FROM NORTHERN PROVINCE IN SOUTH AFRICA.................................................... 18 2.3 PRESENTATION FROM GHANA......................................................................................................... 20 2.4 PRESENTATION FROM MALAWI....................................................................................................... 26 2.5 PRESENTATION FROM MOZAMBIQUE .............................................................................................. 30 2.6 PRESENTATION FROM MPUMALANGA PROVINCE/ SOUTH AFRICA................................................. 33 2.7 CONCLUSION ON THE CASE PRESENTATIONS: KEY CHALLENGES.................................................. 36 3 EXPLORING PLURALISM IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DELIVERY..................... 37 3.1 WHAT IS PLURALISM? ..................................................................................................................... 37 3.2 WHY HAS PLURALISM BECOME IMPORTANT?.................................................................................. 38 3.3 WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR EXTENSION?............................................................................ 38 3.4 ARE THERE ANY EXAMPLES FOR LESSONS?..................................................................................... 38 3.5 WHAT SHOULD WE DO AS EXTENSION MANAGERS TO PROMOTE PLURALISM?............................... 38 3.6 WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?........................................................................................................ 38 3.7 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................... 39 4 EXPLORING CLIENT DIFFERENTIATION – WHICH EXTENSION APPROACH FOR WHAT CLIENTS? A POSSIBLE FRAME................................................................................... 40 4.1 COMMODITY- BASED INNOVATION SYSTEMS ................................................................................. 40 4.2 PROBLEM-SOLVING –BASED INNOVATION SYSTEMS....................................................................... 42 4.3 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................... 43 5 SYNTHESIS: THE MOST CRITICAL CHALLENGES FOR EXTENSION MANAGERS .. 44 5.1 FIVE MOST CRITICAL CHALLENGES FOR YOU EXTENSION MANAGERS............................................ 44 6 TOWARDS THE FIELD VISIT: BASED PRESENTATION OF PARTICIPATORY EXTENSION .................................................................................................................................... 46 6.1 SCOPE, VALUES AND PILLARS OF PEA ........................................................................................... 46 6.2 LOCAL ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................................... 49 7 FIELD VISIT TO COMMUNITIES.............................................................................................. 53 7.1 PREPARATION OF THE FIELD VISIT .................................................................................................. 53 7.2 SUMMARY OF FIELD VISIT TO SPITZKOP.......................................................................................... 54 8 ANALYSIS OF ISSUES EMERGING FROM FIELD VISIT .................................................... 56 8.1 OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FIELD VISIT........................................................................................... 56 8.2 FURTHER ANALYSIS OF ISSUES EMERGING FROM FIELD VISIT......................................................... 60 Documentation of the Workshop of the SNRD Extension Group, South Africa, December 11-19, 2001 IV 9 SYNTHESIS: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR SERVICE DELIVERY .................... 64 9.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGING / FACILITATING SERVICE DELIVERY ......................... 64 9.2 LINKING THE CRITICAL CHALLENGES IN EXTENSION TO THE FRAMEWORK.................................... 65 10 IMPLICATIONS