ADF    Agricultural Development Foundation   Press the browser Back button to return Briefs, Glossary & Notes PLEASE NOTE - THIS SECTION IS SUBJECT TO CONSTANT REVISION AFA AFA-Agrárfejlesztesi Alapitvány is the Hungarian Agricultural Development Foundation. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... the best What is deemed best depends upon the views of project participants. Best can be judged from the standpoint of minimisation of costs, the maximisation of profit, the most-ecologically sustainable, the least demanding on some resource, the easiest to manage, quickest to pay off, lowest financial risk, the latest technology, creator of most jobs and other criteria. Under normal circumstances project designers attempt to optimize a proposal in order to trade off such criteria to arrive at an acceptable compromise. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... extension services Extension work has an important role in helping spread innovation and contributing to the growth in the rural economy. Extension services are normally advisory and provide technical, economics and financial advice to farmers and rural communities of options for achieving an objective such as crop production, animal production, post harvest activities and rural pursuits. Extension service practitioners (extensionists) need to maintain a detached approach to their work by setting out, for their rural clients, options and alternatives for tackling any particular issue. The final decision on the pathway taken should always rest with the client. Extensionists, in preparing for and undertaking their work, need to be well informed so that they are capable of presenting to clients the full range of available options as opposed to those understood or favoured by the extensionist. One of the roles of an extensionist is that of a promoting an appreciation of the benefits and requirements for achieving improved practice. Extension work is often a one-on-one communications affair where the extensionist is in a better position to judge whether or not what is being said is being understood. Overall, in the past, extension services have tended to emphasize technical aspects of crop and animal husbandry at the expense of fundamental economic and financial issues. To some extent this is a natural consequence of different extensionists having specialised in different aspects of agricultural production. The best way to advance the appreciation of economics and financial dimensions is a systems approach where agricultural economists review technical advances with their 'technical' colleagues to assess the economic and financial implications of changes in any given technology and associated technique. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... governmental cycles Throughout most of the, so-called, democratic countries, governments are required to be re-elected every 4 to 5 years. Normally a new government will 'review policy' in the first year of office, it normally begins to implement policy during the subsequent two years. As the next election appears over the horizon, politician's invariably allow this to distract their attention towards election winning actions as opposed to managing on-going policy issues. In practical terms there is a 'governmental cycle' of 2 years of lack of definition and action and a frenzy of activity of 2 years in the middle. Almost 50% of the time is inaction. In such a roller-coaster environment politicians tend to pay attention to what is 'important' (to them) and it becomes very difficult for small rural communities, low income groups and farmer groups, with important concerns, to begin a useful dialogue, let alone maintain a sustained dialogue with government. Such a continuity is almost impossible because the people concerned are moving, most of the time. Indeed, this dynamics can be convenient to those who in fact are not interested in such issues. Such 'awkward' issues can be conveniently abandoned by governments with 'the coming election' being the excuse. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... project ownership The term project ownership combines several important factors all of which contribute to the likelihood of a project succeeding. Understanding If people do not understand fully what a project is trying to achieve, and why, it is unlikely that they will show any enthusiasm for the project at all, let alone become involved. The best way for people to understand what a project is about is for them to have been involved in the preparatory work which led to is conception and final design. This way people have a clearer understanding of why the project has been developed and know whether the project is important to them as individuals, as a family or community. Participation If the preparatory and development phases of projects involve an adequate level of participation of individuals from a community, then it is possible to achieve an adequate level of information flow and a broader understanding of a project within the community; people talk. Even better, if a participatory forum, made up of members of the local community, and with appropriate independent advice on specialised issues, then the conception of the 'need' for a project, or projects, becomes a community issue, the community gains ownership. Just as important, people will better understand why other approaches have been rejected. With ownership comes commitment and a broader desire within a community for selected projects to succeed, people will help out and pass on the word. Its their's not yours... Those providing advice to participatory forums need to maintain a detached position. They need to avoid taking up a leading role in any forum discussions. It is important not to 'slip in' a 'top down' approach when working at the grass roots (the source of bottom up initiatives). Project ownership needs to be genuine. The role of the extensionist or practitioner, assisting such forums is to act as a catalyst and provider of sound information. They need to put any professional pride aside and suppress ego to the extent of being able to become totally committed to ensuring that their project becomes the best feasible in the given circumstances. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... participatory development Participatory development is more a concept than a reality in many rural regions of the world, including high income countries and democracies. Participatory development is a process whereby a group of people collaborate to work out a solution to a common problem. The idea behind participatory development is to have each individual with an interest in what is being discussed, the opportunity, not only to have his or her views known, but to also work with the others, as a team, to bring about changes identified and desired by the group. There is a common confusion made between participatory development and democratic process. It is often assumed that democracies are in fact a participatory developmental structure. They are not. All democracies have a long way to go before they achieve the levels of participation necessary for participatory development. In order to appreciate the difference, those who form a forum for participatory development, remain in control of the whole process from conception through to implementation if they want. The group can control the speed of progress because the group genuinely remains responsible for this progress. This level of participation stands in stark contrast to the normal levels of 'participation' in democracies. Voters have a fleeting sense of 'control' when they cast their vote in an election. But by the time government is formed, it has reviewed issues related to a group's interests and has fashioned policy, one soon sees how far removed central goverment 'one-size-fits-all projects' are from the specific and varied needs of different communities. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... RAGs - rural action groups RAGs are organisations, normally non-governmental and non-profit, which provide a focus for participatory development for local communities. RAGs allow anyone within a community to raise a development issue and request the organization of a forum to review needs and possibilities of developing solutions. In the case of low income communities RAGs are an important positive catalyst for the most excluded members because they are there to serve everyone. RAGS are based upon informal contacts and there is normally no institutional formalism which acts as a 'social incentive' for many not be even approach some development agencies. RAGs are people talking to people and an empowerment of people born of an absense of institutional hierarchy. RAGs tend to have none of the protocols and etiquettes which characterize the public interfaces of larger development agencies which help stifle the willingness of those, most in need, to approach them. RAGs are often regarded with suspicion by local politicians since they see any group action as political action and if they are not involved, then as a potential rival action to their party activities. A strength of RAGs is their apolitical nature. By not representing political factions they remain approachable by everyone and therefore have an important catalytic role in encouraging local initiative.Because RAGs work towards the identification of rational projects, and even policies, for local communities, any local politicians who want to help their local communities would be better served by their encouraging the operation of RAGs. This way they can ensure that better project and policy proposals are produced than would be possible without the participatory development process used by RAGs. To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... project resources Project resources are the things required to implement a project and include some or all of the following: people machines & equipment fuel and energy land buildings consumable inputs time to undertake each stage of development sound information funding to purchase or lease the above resources an adequate appreciation (information and analysis) of the effect of the community location with respect to the market To return to the original text - press your browser's Back button... Romungro The Romungro are Roma who have been established in Hungary for well over 500 years. As a result of decrees of the Austrian ruler (Maria Teresa) they were declared the 'new Hungarians' and banned from speaking their native language, Romani. As a result the majority of Romungro do not speak Romani and only speak Hungarian. The Romungro make up some 75%-80% of the Romani population in Hungary and constitute the poorest segment of urban and rural communities. There are at least 800,000 Romungro in Hungary with large segments not being identified as Romungro or even Roma. As a result of the Trianon 'settlement' after the first world war, Hungary was split into different territories leaving a significant number of Romungro in Slovakia, Romania and other countries. The numbers of Romungro living outside Hungary are estimated at around 600,000. They have faced extensive racial discrimination with most rural Romungro children attending 'special schools'. This is a result of a distorted financial incentive provided by central government. This provides local authorities generous grants, from the central budget, according to the number of children classified as requiring 'special education'. This has led to local authorities exaggerating special school populations by channeling Roma children into such schools so as to gain more funds from central budget. European Union, and other, educational experts have evaluated Romani children in special schools and have found them to have equivalent intelligence and educational potential to normal Hungarian children attending 'normal schools'. Unfortunately the funds received are not spent on the special schools, nor the Romani children, but go either to the 'normal school' or 'elsewhere'. The special schools are ineffective and Romani children are not encouraged, they lose interest, languish and 'drop out'. So the commodity used, by local authorites, to bolster their financial reseves is the future of Romani children. This practice has been in effect for over 50 years. Because of this, the majority of all generations of Romungro lack effective schooling and training as a direct result of institutional racial discrimination on the part of the past Communist and current 'democractic' and 'market orientated' governments alike.