MEAS Support for WLI Work

Sandra L. RussoUniversity of Florida

WLI Annual Planning Meeting11-13 November 2014

What is MEAS?

• MEAS = Managing Extension and Advisory Services >>>> focus on extension

• USAID funded cooperative agreement (until 2017)

• University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) is the leader.

• University of Florida and University of California-Davis are partners

MEAS and WLI

• UF has three awards in MENA:– With Samia Akroush and NCARE• MEAS and MEPI, working with women’s groups in the

badia

– With Samia Akroush and NCARE• Fertigation adoption studies in the Jordan Valley,

working with researchers, extension and farmers

– With Beza Dessalegn, WLI and ICARDA• WLI adoption studies in WLI countries, working with

researchers, extension and farmers

Focus initially on extension training and peer-to-peer training with women’s coops in the badia of Jordan

• Low levels of education and literacy among rural women

• Inability to participate in training with men

• Inability to work with male extension agents

• May need different types of information and skills training

NCARE-UF-MEAS training with women’s coops

Focus now on linking research and extension along impact pathways

Assessing Researchers’ and Extension Agents’ Perceptions, and Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt WLI

Proven Technologies

ObjectiveImprove technology dissemination strategies

and approaches that promote adoption of proven water and land management

technologies by identifying researcher, extension, and farmer-based perceptions and

constraints.

Timeline

• Surveys and interviews through December• Data analysis – Jan-March 2015• Mid-term report – March 2015• Workshop – May or June 2015• Final report – August 2015

New MEAS award!

• Over $7 million from 2014-2018• UIUC, UF, UC-D and Cultural Practice (private

company)• Focus on gender, nutrition and extension• Initial focus on FtF countries but….

InGeNAES – Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services

INGENAES Theory of change

Synergies

• MEAS + WLI• INGENAES + MEAS + WLI • CCAFS + MEAS • CCAFS + WLI + MEAS + INGENAES

CCAFS CRPSenegal, Kenya, India, Nepal

Gender & climate/weather information services• Identifying the end users• Farmers can understand

probabilities, forecasts & technical information

• Researchers need to know who grows what crops & manages what livestock?

• Factor in country & cultural differences

• Don’t reinvent, use communication technologies that work for specific end users

Models, ICTs, apps….????

Participatory decision-making approaches

• Work with NARES, NMET, extension agents and farmers “How can we improve equitable delivery of climate and other technical services?”

• Outcomes:– Encourage multi-

directional sharing of information

– Better understand gendered constraints to accessing information

– Identify entry points in communities and institutions for improved equity in use of technical information

Linkages and Synergies

• WLI and MEAS projects can achieve synergies by linking previous work with upcoming activities.

• Good practices from CCAFS activities can inform approaches for WLI.

• Other development partners can be brought in. • The results of the WLI adoption studies could be

fed into INGENAES to support additional work, if the country teams are interested…..