inventory of farmer study group initiatives in africa - Share4Dev.info

Inventory of Farmer Study Group Initiatives in Africa – A Synthesis Report
Arnoud R. Braun
Sweden imported the idea of study circles from the USA at the end of the 19th
century, when the approach was put forward as an answer to poverty and
illiteracy in rural Sweden and to engage the society in democracy. In Sweden
today the study circle is the most typical form of liberal adult education. Every
year one-third of the Swedish adult population is engaged in some form of
adult education through study circles. The government has subsidized this
form of education since 1947. The study circle concept has developed into a
broader education movement called “Education for the people” designed for
personal growth and social responsibility. In Sweden this process has been
shown to strongly contribute to democratic development in society and to be
one of the main contributing factors to the village movement, which has lead
to thousand of active local community groups organised as networks and
associations, and to the development of one of the world’s strongest farmer
cooperative movements.
African Study Circle experiences
After the successful introduction of the Study Circle concept in Sweden, since
1997 the Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) has progressively promoted the
concept and methodology as a tool for training and education among its
partner organisations in Southern, and more recently also in Eastern Africa
(see Table 1). By then the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU), the oldest SCC
local partner in the region had already been using study circles for seven
years. Currently six SCC local partner organisations and two SCC directly
implemented projects are using the methodology. Three new partner
organisations in South Africa and one in Malawi are in the process of
developing and incorporating the methodology in their training and education
programmes.
In the SCC Southern Africa programme the study circle concept has
developed into a main vehicle for agricultural development. In the African
context the study circle is a small learning group of people (5-15) that come
together to learn about a particular subject in which they are all interested and
want to learn more about. The group identifies someone amongst them, the
study circle leader, who is responsible for facilitating the discussion and
learning in the group. The study circle leader is not a teacher but only a
facilitator. The Study Circle leader is trained by the Study Group
facilitator/Organiser on how to manage the learning process. This type of
farmer-to-farmer training is an important element for the cost-effective and
broad outreach seen in especially Zimbabwe. In essence study circles are
community or member driven. Groups use study materials to guide and
enhance the learning process. The material could be in written form such as
handbooks adapted for study circles (e.g. the Small Holder Drought Mitigation
self-study materials), pamphlets, magazines or an audiotape. Study material
is meant to provide the necessary additional factual/technical information to
the group. The emphasis for learning in the group is focussed on discussion,
analysing the factual information, experimenting and relating it to own
practical experience. A study group meets regularly for 2-3 hours to discuss
and learn about their topic of interest. Topics covered by study circles are not
only agricultural topics but also issues that are of concern to them as a group
or as a community such as health, HIV/AIDS, savings and credit and human
6