The purpose of this piece of work is to investigate, through a literature review, the role of intermediaries in agricultural extension and rural development. In the first place, a general view of the roles of intermediaries, as depicted in literature, is presented. Then, one of the main types of intermediaries, facilitators is outlined based on a comprehensive review of the literature, particularly in the healthcare sector. Following, the emergence of facilitators in agricultural literature is explored pointing to a new understanding of facilitation which implies its transformation from exploitation to exploration, i.e. from information dissemination to co-learning facilitation. A number of examples from agriculture-related literature illustrate such an argument. This review points to the fact that, at least as far as agriculture-related theory and practice are concerned, intermediaries as co-learning facilitators signify rather new roles requiring specific and, to a large degree, unexplored skills. Given that that there is still a number of issues threatening the efficacy of facilitators it is argued that there is an urgent need for facilitation to be better described, operationally defined and well-evaluated so as to allow for both a better interpretation and guidance of practice.
This paper investigates the role of knowledge management in African agricultural and rural development policies, and how information and communications technologies (ICTs) can contribute to enhance it. African Policymakers are aware of the importance of knowledge management; however, its actual...
The question of how agricultural research can best be used for developmental purposes is a topic of some debate in developmental circles. The idea that this is simply a question of better transfer of ideas from research to farmers has...
This paper sets out an analytical framework for doing research on the question of how to use agricultural research for innovation and impact. Its focus is the Research Into Use (RIU) Programme sponsored by the UK’s Department for International Development...
What can we learn from ongoing initiatives? There has been a lot of interest during the last two decades in employing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for achieving development. While many of these initiatives have benefited rural women by way...
This paper, part of the Social Sciences Working Paper Series, presents studies undertaken by nine community-based, natural resource management (CBNRM)-oriented organizations in China, Viet Nam, the Philippines and Mongolia. The partner organizations, representing three broad types: academic, regional network, and...