Resources

These tools include manuals and practical guides for project managers and trainers working mainly in eastern and southern Africa.

Topics include:

• community-based environmental health promotion
• promoting health in rural communities
• school and community health clubs.

The Ogaden Needs Assessment Study was undertaken as a joint exercise between SCF(UK) and the Pastoral Surveillance Team of the RRC Early Warning and Planning Services. The trigger for the study was the influx into the Ogaden of thousands of returnees from Somalia and concern about capacity of the region to support the growing population. A rural sample survey was carried out using two helicopters. The objective was to establish the nutritional status of children and also to get data on grain production, consumption, sale and exchange, and the prospects of the food economy. The health data was obtained using standard anthropometric procedures, while socio-economic data was gathered by the use of questionnaires on key informants. The survey showed that the combined effects of the collapse of the livestock/grain trade and the continuing burden of the returnee population could result in a food crisis during the following dry season.

The paper discusses a project which aimed to acheive agricultural diversification by encouraging the production of cotton in the Gambia. An evaluation was carried out by the ODA's food strategy group in association with the Ministry of Agriculture. The object of the rapid appraisal was to identity constraints in its expansion, to examine the distribution of its benefits between and within households and to assess its potential as a cash crop alternative to groundnuts. The methodology of the appraisal is decribed, which involved investigating the organization of farm labour and technical aspects of cultivation.

Fish from Malawi's lakes provide approximately 70% of the country's animal protein, although as the population has increased per capita consumption has declined. Smallholder aquaculture is expanding rapidly in the southern part of the country and has the potential to alleviate some of these shortfalls in fish supply by providing a cheap protein source (01). The film looks at a collaborative research programme developed by the Fisheries Department, the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) funded by GTZ, and the University of Malawi. The programme aims to develop aquaculture technology which is appropriate to the needs of rural farmers (02). Constant evaluation and feedback from farmers to researchers means that the research can be refined according to farmer's needs (03). While there had been a rapid expansion in fish farming in Malawi, catches were variable and often poor. The problems were due to a lack of suitable fish species and feeds and poor water fertility (06), as well as farmers' inability to invest and the lack of integration of fish farming into the traditional farming system (07). An on-farm survey of resources and farming systems allowed researchers to prioritise research needs and develop aquaculture models relevant to the local agricultural situation (07). Methods of increasing overall productivity were investigated, including assessing the use of grass as an input (08), compost technologies for improving water fertility (10), and integrating agriculture and aquaculture systems (12). Methods of harvesting fish using locally available materials were also investigated (14). Open days at the aquaculture centre provide opportunities for farmers and researchers to interact. Farmers also participate in on-farm discussion and testing of technologies (19). The constant evaluation and feedback from farmers to researchers means that research agendas can be refined to meet farmers needs (21).

This paper argues in favour of moving beyond simple preference ranking in P/RRA as conventional methods produce limited data which is often misinterpreted. While ranking enables participants to define their own criteria for discriminating between items, it does not give an overall preference order because different items may have different weightings, so simple adding up would give misleading results. Asking participants to list items subjectively from best to worst overcomes this but still leaves the difficulty of interpreting the gap between ranks. Another alternative is to ask participants to give points to all the items being considered, so that simply adding up the scores allows different items to be compared. A number of ways to improve scoring are presented and illustrated using examples taken from an assessment of a food-for-work programme in Merti-Jeju district, Ethiopia. The study was carried out with women in villages to investigate food preferences, and help choose appropriate commodities for the programme. Techniques include qualified preference which compares one item to another and 'shopping' which simulates choices between many items with different market values. It is considered that these methods give better quantitative information and provide a useful way to explore real-world preferences in different circumstances.