Participatory approaches to development to facilitate ownership and sustainability of the development initiatives within target groups
Emmy, this is an interesting topic but I don’t fully understand your question but maybe it’s a suggestion. I’d appreciate if you would say more about your question or suggestion. Thanks, Glen
Thanks Glen for reaching out, I wanted to hear experiences from practitioners on some of the participatory development approaches they use with target farmers to enhance ownership and sustainability of development initiatives/techniques on sustainable agriculture
What we generally find is the folks we work with are always polite and attentive and say they appreciate our ideas and techniques and they plan to use them BUT they don’t. In other words, talking and telling seems to have limited value. We are in Honduras and I am told that Honduras is extremely conservative…very reluctant to change…especially the rural poor which is our target demographic. It may be different where you are.
What we find that works best is modeling without talking or telling UNTIL they begin to inquire. So for example, all the locals passing by our site notice that we don’t burn the ground nor plow the ground nor kill the weeds with herbicides nor use commercial fertilizers and they find that totally strange. After seeing our success, they begin to inquire. Then we explain the cost savings of not plowing, etc.
Not sure if this is what you had in mind Emmy. If not, I could try again.
Great answer, Glen. Context matters in how we engage.
Participatory learning is applied well in many places. Here are some resources to consider that may be helpful to the discussion. Others?