Participatory Evaluation of our 2008 - Action Against Hunger

they report that 97 percent of respondents receive information on practices through radio, a
medium not included in the FAO analysis of sources outlined in Figure 23 above. ILO similarly
reports that 46 percent receive information from NGOs, 26 percent from friends/neighbours, and
only 17 percent from agricultural officers (in addition to a range of other sources). In fact, ILO then
suggests that 87 percent of respondents say radio is their most credible source of information on
agriculture and husbandry, compared with only 2 percent accorded to agricultural officers.
(Conversely, ten percent of respondents identified NGOs as the least credible source of
information; six percent said the same about agricultural officers.) 16 In short, there are many valid
sources of information available to rural producers, and ACF should not necessarily try to be the
most significant. Rather, ACF should endeavour to provide the most appropriate and effective
support it can while facilitating access to other complementary information sources at the same
time. 17 The 2008 farmer field school programme appears to have achieved this.
More generally in the discussion of facilitator effectives, two of the three FFS facilitators
participated in the evaluation, consistently demonstrating familiarity with the 2008 programme
precepts to involve farmers in analysis of their own situations while facilitating improved practices
and production. The facilitators demonstrate excellent rapport with participant groups and know
everybody by name. Even while preparing for the evaluation fieldwork, over eight months after the
programme, facilitators still had participant phone numbers and were easily able to reach members
and agree on meeting times. Staff even report that some have maintained informal FFS group
contact since the programme, and that groups have periodically called with questions. It was
obvious during fieldwork that participants were genuinely engaged with the programme through the
mobilisation efforts of the facilitators – further evidenced by the time they were willing to engage
with the evaluation to improve the programme for other participants elsewhere in the future, without
any further benefit to themselves.
Despite these strengths there are opportunities for improved staff capacity to facilitate farmer
experimentation and analysis. The way participants are trained in particular practices also needs to
be revisited so that a ‘training of trainers’ can be conducted for better group facilitation and
communication skills. Facilitation and adult learning are in fact part of the FAO FFS facilitator
training in which the three ACF facilitators participated, but these are complex topics that require
ongoing development. Key skill areas for review include focus group facilitation, gender and power
analysis, more confident use of rapid appraisal tools, and greater qualitative probing. Further time
invested in facilitator skills could also be extended to a review of how participants are mobilised
and trained, and how they are supported in their own experimentation.
4.8 Programme design and implementation reflect gender analysis and decision making
We already saw in Figure 6 above how much more consuming female agricultural roles tend to be
than male. To extend this idea further the evaluation team confirmed the sex of all group
committee members, on the hypothesis that women’s disproportionate role in agriculture would not
be reflected in the group committee membership. The results are summarised below:
16 All statistics from ILO Small Enterprise Media in Africa Project, The Effectiveness of Radio in Delivering Food Security
and Agribusiness Information in Northern Uganda (unpublished draft 2, March 2009), pg 18.
17 This example also demonstrates that data collection tools can be biased toward the type of results sought: The FAO
data prove that FFS facilitators are the prevailing source of agricultural information, just as the ILO data prove that radio
is the primary source. Respondent bias could also be an issue.
Action Against Hunger Uganda - 39 - Farmer Field School Evaluation