Women in AgKnowledge

From agknowledgeafrica ilriwikis

A key focus on women in agriculture and their role in production and sharing of knowledge.


Organizers/ Focal Point(s)

  • Nadia Manning- Thomas- CGIAR
  • Janet C Achora - Women of Uganda Network - WOUGNET (Member of the Steering Committee - Knowledge Network of African Community Telecentres)


NEED TO ADD SOME GENERDIS ASPECT TO THIS? (PETERb)

Some outputs

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Aims of the session

Objectives

  • to understand the role that women play in producing and sharing knowledge
  • to understand the challenges the women face in producing and sharing knowledge
  • to learn and share best practices on challenges faced in relation to women producing and sharing knowledge

Outputs

  • Various Knowledge production and sharing techniques shared
  • Skills needed for knowledge production at the various levels and among different stakeholders discussed
  • Challenges faced among women in knowledge management
  • Proposed strategies to counter the challenges
  • Next steps

Process

1. Agenda for the session

The session duration is 90 min:

  • Brief introduction of the participants and how the session will be run
  • Focus group session/discussion
  • Proposed questions for discussion will include:

Roundtable/panel with up to 5 women from different parts of ARD (e.g research, extension, farming, etc)--to each talk for 2-3 minutes about their experience in sharing ag knowledge

2. Facilitators:

  • Content - All participants
  • Process - Janet Achora, Maureen Agena and others

3. Knowledge Sharing technique used (if any):

  • Digital media presentations
  • Discussions


Speakers/Talents

Session will be guided by the process facilitator using guiding questions

Session Panelists Roselinie Murota Southern Alliance For Indigenous Resources - SAFIRE Roselinie is the Information Officer and Documentalist for SAFIRE. Roselinie has been in the ICT4D field for the last five years and works with grassroot communities in documentation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge within communities in Zimbabwe

Mary Nakirya

Program Manager Busoga Rural Open Source and development Initiative- BROSDI, Project Coordinator, CELAC a project of BROSDI. Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative is a not for profit organization that works with government and the civil society in improving rural livelihoods. This is through the use of traditional and none traditional ICT and open development mediums that include effective knowledge sharing and information management in rural settings.


Maureen Agena

Information officer, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) Maureen is a trained Citizen Journalist, new media enthusiast and trainer. She currently moderates the dgroup for Citizen Journalists in Uganda and has been trained by CTA in the use and Application of Web 2.0 tools for development. Worked as a Remote intern for the ICT and Innovation programme at The Technical Centre of Agriculture and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), Netherlands. She is passionate about mobile Applications for Agriculture.

Damas Ogwe / Cleopa Otieno - Kenya Telecentre Network Content Facilitator Kenya Telecentres Link www.kenyatelecentres.org P. O. Box 330 UGUNJA 40606

Session process at the Women Agknowledge

The session was facilitated by Janet Cox Achora from Women of Uganda Network. It was an informal session that consisted of open discussions and viewing clips of video on women in Agriculture, a digital story and poster display on the effect of Climate change on land. Lead discussants for this session included Dama Ogwe from the Kenya telecentre network, this discussion focused on women and Land rights in Kenya and the legal framework and Maria Nakirya from BROSDI focused her discussion on the evolving role of women in Agriculture.

The session started with an African proverb

When a needle falls into a deep well, many people will look into the well, but few will be ready to go down after it” ….

Guided by the facilitator using these some of these guidelines

§ From your experience how have women contributed in producing and sharing agricultural knowledge? § In the Knowledge sector, do you see women playing a significant role? § What knowledge sharing techniques have been used? § Does the Education system in Africa equip women to adequately contribute significantly to this sector? § A high percentage of women in Africa have not gone to school, yet they posses enormous knowledge on production, how can this information get tapped and shared? § What strategies do you suggest can be employed at the community level to share and produce information § what about at the higher level and policy level § What has been the role of the telecentre movement in this sector? § How about the Civil society? § How has research analysed the roles of women and men in Agricultural information? § What has been the contribution of men and women in the extension service

Outcome of the discussions

§ Culture, perception and inclusion are important elements to be looked at when discussing women’s role in Agriculture. Women related initiatives should not be done in isolation from men and Youth in the communities.

§ Women and Land rights issues should continue to be advocated for since a very high percentage of women in Africa still form the highest number of the Agricultural labour force

§ The role of Information in agriculture is vital and should be linked to Research in Agriculture, however research findings are still scientific and cannot be understood by the farmers who needs to use information from such findings.

§ Libraries are needed to preserve the African Knowledge. Most African Libraries do not have traditional content. Moreover there is few African Librarians trained to address local needs. The western model is used to train African Libraries. “African languages used to walk on two legs”

§ “Knowledge” “ information” is a two way process, from Research to Farmer to extention and vice versa.

§ What is the Women’s role in all this ..? The example of the Local seed business project was given that “Empower farmers and encourages them to produce their own food (Women are at the upper hand in preserving seed variety and have a Upper hand in biodiversity in the community!!)

§ Open libraries in the villages are an option that should be initiated in the communities.

§ Outreach is an important in Knowledge sharing if information is to reach farming communities.

§ Farmers want to listen more than read#_GoBack, therefore innovative Information and Communication Technologies should be explored


Digital Story can be viewed at [http:blip.tv/file/4352574/]] File name is Women in Agriculture – Rural Busoga [Women and Development


Notes What is a Focus group session?

A focus group session is a group of 3 – 12 people guided by a facilitator during which group members talk freely and there is a flowing discussion on various perspectives. It normally has people from similar backgrounds or experiences and involves people with knowledge and interest on a particular topic. It also involves discussions around answers to questions. During this session on Gender and Agknowledge, we shall define Gender as "a process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action Social, Economic and agricultural sector including legislation, policies or programmes in all areas and at all levels”