The "Improving Client-oriented Extension Training" project came about partly due to findings that Ethiopian women, despite their significant involvement in agricultural production, have very limited access to relevant extension advice. Ethiopia's agricultural extension service is male dominated and predominately oriented towards advising and working with male heads of households. This is despite the fact that women (whether they are wives, female heads of households or labourers) contribute towards the country's agricultural production by as much as 48%1.
Despite the thorough analysis and ongoing change within the country's extension approaches, none have taken into serious consideration the need for farming women to have access to extension advice. In most regions, the Bureaus of Agriculture employ (mostly female) home agents who advise rural women in the areas of health, nutrition, sanitation, food processing, vegetable growing and the management of small livestock. However, these women do not receive advice on field crop production even when they are significantly involved in some stages of the cropping cycle. Their contribution in this area has on the whole been disregarded by extension staff, and even when recognised, it has commonly been assumed that any advice given to the male head of household would reach female household members.
Meanwhile, a primary concern of the Government of Ethiopia is to achieve food security. To meet this objective, the Government has realised that it is important that all those involved in agricultural production have access to relevant and useful advice. To this end, the Government of Ethiopia reached agreement with FAO for a pilot project which was funded by the Dutch Government and implemented by the Extension Division of the Ministry of Agriculture from December 1994 to December 1996 in three regions of Ethiopia.
The project document recognized that rationalizing the position of women in agriculture was crucial from environmental, economic, social and population perspectives. Thus a better understanding of men and women's roles was seen as essential not only for improving agricultural production but also with regard to resolving environmental problems and population growth. Women and men's respective contributions to, and participation in, planning and decision making activities were seen as important factors in improving their quality of life.
The policy environment in Ethiopia, meanwhile, was conducive to a project focusing on a client-oriented approach with an emphasis on gender, due to both the Government's emphasis on decentralisation and a move towards local-level planning, and the establishment of a National Policy on Ethiopian Women. There was recognition of the need to integrate gender issues into rural planning and, therefore, the need to train staff on gender-sensitive participatory approaches in agricultural extension.
The overall aim of the project was therefore to improve the quality of life of the rural population, through the introduction of participatory, client-oriented extension services. Within this overall aim the project had two objectives:
1. To improve the capability of the Agricultural Extension Department at central and regional levels to design and implement client-oriented extension training which focused on gender issues using participatory approaches.
2. To develop and integrate a gender-sensitive analytical framework in the planning and implementation of agricultural programmes to be undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture both at the central and regional levels.
Thus the project did not stop at capacity building (objective 1) but also covered application of the participatory, gender-sensitive approach in planning of extension programmes (objective 2).
Being a pilot project, training of staff and implementation of the approach took place in a limited area. Thus only 3 regions were involved (Amhara, Oromia and the Southern Regions) and within each of these regions just one zone was selected (North Wollo in Amhara region, West Harerghe in Oromia Region and North Wollo in the Southern Region). Again, within each of these zones project activities took place in just four woredas2.
The implementation strategy involved training of trainers - Ministry of Agriculture staff from regional and zonal levels - in client-oriented participatory extension methodology. This was then followed by implementation of the approach, review and analysis of implementation leading to improvement of the approach and related training program. Networking was an important component of the strategy, not only with agricultural research stations and the Rural Women's Affairs Department of the Ministry of Agriculture but also with other Line Departments (Health, Education, Natural Resources), donor agencies and woreda councils. A separate component of the project consisted of training of trainers in design and production of extension materials such as pamphlets, posters, flip charts, slide sets and videos.
The regionalisation process was taking place during the project lifetime, thus each Region had a choice as to how they could work with the project. Consequently, each region nominated two extension experts, one at regional level and one from the pilot zone, as project co-ordinators. Project planning was then done in a participatory manner involving a National Program Co-ordinator, an (international) Extension Education Adviser, and the six co-ordinators working as a team.
The project had the following expected outputs:
Outputs in relation to objective 1 |
Outputs in relation to objective 2 |
· Training curriculum and materials for training of trainers prepared · Initial training of trainers to increase the capacity for introducing client-oriented extension approaches within the national Extension system, completed. |
· Capacity for integration of gender issues into agricultural extension activities developed among subject matter specialists. · Client-oriented agricultural extension plans for local areas developed and implemented based on gender analytical information. · The application of client-oriented extension plans in three selected pilot regions assessed. Based on lessons learned, the training program at national and local level reviewed and adjusted. |
A project logframe was prepared early on in the project and used as a point of reference during implementation. In early 1996, it was revised as part of the normal monitoring and planning process of the project to ensure extension staff had sufficient time to complete duties aside from those related to the project.
Since the completion of the two year pilot project, a proposal for a second, three year phase, has been prepared for donor consideration. In this phase, the approach, to be linked with food security, is to be expanded to new woredas, zones and regions. It includes rural youth as a specific client group as well as women. The proposal was prepared by the Extension Division of the Ministry of Agriculture on the basis of the positive assessment of the project by the external evaluation team, and on interest expressed by staff within the Regions and Zones involved in the project for it to continue as well as by FAO and the donor.
1 This data comes from a case study carried out by the Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1992.
