Teams in West Africa Work with Children in Two Ways

Published on:

November 17, 2020

Community of Practice:

West Africa

The Child Nutrition project held a seminar to co-create data collection protocols. Researchers, farmer and processing animators, students, and a member of a local NGO spent the first two days co-constructing a data collection protocol for gathering information with farmers right after harvest. On the last day, the protocol was pretested and questions transferred to ODK.

The active presence, experience, and role of the farmer animators proved central: They brought tremendous added value to the document. More importantly, interactions during the document finalization process allowed for refining the initial content, providing true meaning to the term “co-creation.” One farmer, for example, requested that, prior to sending students into the field, the project should consider training them in the realities of rural life. “Some students in the field are always sad,” he relayed. “This will never allow them to receive quality data.” Madame Ba informed participants about the COVID-response support the project received for internet support and smartphones. They expressed gratitude to the Foundation for easing animators’ work conditions and making their tasks more efficient.

Meanwhile, the Networking4Seed project discussed their experience with new sorghum varieties at a rural school compound in Burkina Faso. The schoolchildren learned that there is more than just “sorghum:” Different varieties make for crop diversity.