Zambia April 2016 Stylized Newsletter in PDF
INGENAES ZAMBIA UPDATES – APRIL 2016
INGENAES stands for Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services. We aim to assist partners in Feed the Future countries to build more gender-responsive and nutrition- sensitive extension approaches and tools to improve agricultural livelihoods for women and men and enhance household nutrition. ingenaes.Illinois.edu/about-us
In this issue
• Nutrition Harmonization Workshop
• ZAFAAS updates
• New partner: IAPRI
• Agency advising update
• Mentoring and learning group skills
• Upcoming Aflatoxin Workshop
• Notes on Zambia and the Global Learning and Evidence Exchange
• Co-location through social networks
• Sample nutrition messages
INGENAES CO-HOSTS HARMONIZATION OF NUTRITION MESSAGES WORKSHOP
The Ministry of Agriculture’s (MoA) Food and Nutrition Section partners with INGENAES to harmonize the nutrition-related materials and messages that public, private, and NGO extension officers disseminate to farmers*. At a Lusaka workshop in late January, 37 key stakeholders from 20 organizations discussed how nutrition can be integrated into materials and activities led by agriculture extension officers to reach men and women farmers with appropriate nutrition information. MoA is developing nutrition-sensitive materials relevant for extension officers with support from INGENAES.
*Sample nutrition messages and more materials from the event here: http://ingenaes.illinois.edu/zambia-nutrition-wksp. For more information, please contact Kristy Cook, kcook@culturalpractice.com or Edye Kuyper, at emkuyper@ucdavis.edu.
ZAMBIAN FORUM FOR AGRICULTURE EXTENSION ADVISORY SERVICES (ZAFAAS) REGISTERED AND FIRST BOARD MEETING HELD
Following the ZAFAAS launch on January 15th, INGENAES staff were invited to attend and help facilitate the first meeting of the ZAFAAS interim board. The members discussed the overview and vision for the ZAFAAS. ZAFAAS is now officially registered in Zambia! The Ministry of Agriculture currently serves as the Chairman of the Interim Board, which also has representatives from research, academia and non-profit organizations.
The mission of the Forum is to create harmonization, standardization and add value to initiatives in agricultural extension and advisory services through inclusive sharing of information and increase professional interaction. ZAFAAS has committed to gender-responsive and nutrition-sensitive approaches in its constitution and hopes to soon hold additional workshops geared at cross-institutional collaboration including harmonizing extension messages. In Zambia, the INGENAES local representative, Vincent Akamandisa, was elected Secretary for the Interim Board. If you or your organization are interested in being involved or would like more information regarding ZAFAAS, please contact Martin Muyunda, ZAFAAS chair, martin_muyunda@yahoo.co.uk.
AGENCY ADVISING ON NUTRITION MESSAGING AND AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION CONDUCTED
INGENAES works with extension organizations to advise them on how to improve gender and nutrition programming and outcomes. Nutrition messaging training materials are being developed for iDE to upgrade their extension agent skills in this area. Zasaka, based in Chipata, received direct extension assistance along with targeted business development discussions. A template for developing core objective statements was provided to ZAFAAS. INGENAES staff met with Ministry of Agriculture staff responsible for the NAESS and will work with gender and nutrition Ministry staff to bring their expertise into the document. Overall, agency advising services provide a hands-on opportunity to work directly with agencies in how to apply gender-sensitive and nutrition-informed approaches into their specific work. For further information, contact Nikki Grey-Rutamu (ngreyrutamu@ucdavis.edu)
IAPRI PARTNERING WITH INGENAES AROUND M&E FOR GENDER, NUTRITION
INGENAES is proud to have a formal partnership with the Indaba Agricultural Policy & Research Institute (IAPRI), Zambia’s foremost source for agricultural policy research. As a part of the INGENAES partnership, IAPRI will survey, test, and make recommendations regarding monitoring and evaluation measurement tools that are sensitive to the contribution that agricultural extension services can make to affecting nutrition and gender equity. This innovative project will focus on tools that are appropriate to the context of Zambia, but will have implications for global implementers of extension and advisory services working to integrate nutrition and gender within their work. What gets measured gets done!
DEVELOPING MENTORING AND LEARNING GROUP SKILLS IN NETWORKS
Training workshops were held with two mentoring groups, one in Lusaka and another in Chipata. The participants, all linked through agriculture extension roles or interests, are enthusiastic about sharing experiences and learning from each other about gender and nutrition. These mentoring groups have the potential to form part of a larger learning group in this area. Further, we identified clear opportunities to engage with the Agricultural Extension group at the University of Zambia for further student capacity building.
PLANNING FOR THE MAY AFLATOXIN POST-HARVEST WORKSHOP IN CHIPATA DISTRICT
Dr. Juliet Akello from IITA will work with Dr. Alyson Young (UF) to host a workshop on aflatoxins and post-harvest practices May 3 for extension workers and farmers in Chipata District. Dr. Akello is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Plant Pathology working on biocontrol methods for aflatoxin reduction in Lusaka The workshop will include sessions with information on aflatoxin reduction and participatory methods for extension officers and a session with farmers to provide information on post-harvest practices. For more information, please contact Alyson Young at alys.yng@ufl.edu.
ZAMBIA HIGHLIGHTED AT MULTI-SECTORAL NUTRITION GLOBAL LEARNING AND EVIDENCE EXCHANGE (GLEE)
Zambia’s progress on nutrition was highlighted at the recent GLEE for East and Southern Africa event held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from March 8-10. Karen Mukuka, Chief of the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Section spoke to the need to boldly take the next steps to act on the professional development that has occurred at multinational capacity building events, including filling data gaps and increasing the production of healthful foods. Ms. Agness Aongola, Nutrition Chief at the Ministry of Health, highlighted Zambia’s new degree program in nutrition and how it will develop stronger human capital for nutrition. Event materials can be found here: http://www.fantaproject.org/news-and-events/fanta-hosts-msn-glee-tanzania
CO-LOCATION ACTIVITY KICK-OFF IN ZAMBIA!
How are social network structures related to the geospatial network, and how might this strengthen extension? During the first week of March, University of Florida graduate students David Dillon and Audrey Smith traveled to Zambia with Dr. Alyson Young to work on what has been dubbed the “Co-location Activity”. Through this activity, they will model how information flows through networks, identify bottlenecks, and potential resource hubs (e.g., to access nutrition and other information).
The students met with Dr. Martin Muyunda, the Principle Officer of Agricultural Extension Services in Zambia’s MoA who briefed them on the structural organization of the country’s extension services, as well as the characteristics of Zambia’s five-tiered categories of farmers and their respective capacities and limitations. The team also visited the Chipata District Land Alliance (CDLA), which houses USAID’s Tenure and Global Climate Change (TGCC) program. TGCC works with CDLA to strengthen customary land tenure rights for smallholder farmers in Chipata with participatory rural appraisal approaches using open source, low cost technologies.
Disclaimer and Attribution
This newsletter is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Government Feed the Future project “Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Extension and Advisory Services” (INGENAES). Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-LA-14-00008. The contents of this newsletter are the sole responsibility of INGENAES and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
© INGENAES 2016
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Technical editing and production by Kathryn Heinz
