Below is our email newsletter, with highlights from our recent blog posts and links to other news and opportunities. You can see our newsletters here, or subscribe to get your own copy next time.
Leaders from each of our projects gathered in Zambia last month for an annual meeting, joined by local partners, entrepreneurs, and others interested in horticulture for development. Highlights from this meeting are below, along with some additional program news and opportunities in the world.
WHAT WE LEARNED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING The first day of the three-day meeting was focused on learning about the program’s new portfolio of projects and finding possible synergies between them.
Program leaders, gender experts and the IPM Innovation Lab shared presentations with the group. Each project also presented a poster for small group discussions, followed by a networking session focused on crossover activities.
On the second day of the meeting, the group swelled to 90 participants with local leaders joining for a conference focused on innovations and the future of horticulture in Zambia. The afternoon included a panel and an expo featuring regional organizations that focus on horticulture, extension and nutrition.
Participants on the third day of the meeting visited three agricultural sites around the capital city that focus on innovation and horticulture, including the Mitengo Women’s group, the Agribusiness Incubation Trust (AgBIT) and the Lilayi Cooperative.
Presentations from the event are available at http://horticulture.ucdavis.edu/2015/.
Photos from the event are online at http://bit.ly/1MrHrLJ.
Read the whole article about this year’s annual meeting, including speakers and other highlights: http://bit.ly/1V7PXFx.
*** LIST FROM AN EXPERT ***
9 TIPS FOR INCORPORATING GENDER INTO AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS
Highlights from a workshop led by our gender project team from Penn State and Zamorano universities.
1. Incorporate and mainstream gender considerations from the inception of the project. Avoid “add and stir” approaches to gender, that is, simply adding gender as a factor without thinking through the range of ways it might infuse your work. A full incorporation might have impacts on decisions about staffing, scheduling time in the field, timing of outreach efforts, connecting with “gatekeepers,” and designing gender-specific activities.
2. Be aware of the cultural context. Constraints that women (and others) face vary between and within societies, regions, localities and households.
3. Be attentive to interactions between gender and other categories such as race and ethnicity, social class, and life-stage.
4. When evaluating a specific intervention or issue, give careful thought to sampling design to ensure meaningful participation of women.
5. Tie data collection to individuals, e.g., who performs various activities on the farm or who receives technical assistance. When a project involves analysis of secondary data, consider data sets that allow for sex disaggregation. If at all possible, analyze data to take into account different roles of men and women.
Read the rest of the 9 tips here: http://bit.ly/1MwDMMH.
*** PROGRAM UPDATES ***
CRUMP HONORED FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE Amanda Crump, associate director, received the Award for Distinguished Service from the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development in Washington, D.C.: http://bit.ly/1CJJY3K
NEW CENTER AT UC DAVIS The Horticulture Innovation Lab is building a demonstration site at UC Davis to show visitors some of the tools and crops our team works with in developing countries: http://bit.ly/1I6c9fK
*** IN THE NEWS ***
VIDEOS ON FARMERS GROWING INDIGENOUS VEGETABLES IN ZAMBIA A team from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, created videos about the work of Jim Simon and Stephen Weller with African indigenous vegetables and the women farmers who grow them. Read and watch: http://bit.ly/1gE0NDj
*** OPPORTUNITIES ***
JOB: MULTIMEDIA LEARNING SPECIALIST Virginia Tech is hiring a multimedia learning and communication specialist to support the InnovATE program. Apply by July 20: http://bit.ly/1Ddn8wk
FELLOWSHIPS: 2015 GENDER ACADEMY Aug. 14 is the deadline to apply for 30 fellowships to attend the Gender Academy in November in Italy, with priority given to change-makers and citizens of developing countries. Details: http://bit.ly/1RvpOkR
VOLUNTEER: TUBER SPECIALIST OPPORTUNITY IN GUINEA Winrock International is seeking a volunteer specialist to provide three weeks of technical assistance to the Federation of Union and Coops of Yam and Sesame Producers. Details: http://bit.ly/1eY24nM
JOB: SPRING DIRECTOR Helen Keller International is seeking a Director of Global Initiatives for its Strengthening Partnerships, Results and Innovations in Nutrition (SPRING) project. More: http://bit.ly/1HZwSzU
JOBS: RESEARCH ASSISTANT AND DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL AG The Chicago Council is recruiting two new professionals for its global agriculture and food team: http://bit.ly/1CB2o6U
SEEKING MENTORS AND AUTHORS “Development Engineering” is a new open-access journal focused on scalable technologies, with an interest in publishing authors from developing countries and mentorship from expert faculty members: http://bit.ly/1Cqfx2G
*** THANKS FOR READING! Please feel free to share this with your colleagues. Let us know if you have a news item we should include in the next edition of our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you. In between newsletters, you can connect with us on Twitter @HortInnovLab, by email at horticulture@ucdavis.edu or by commenting on our blog: https://blog.horticulture.ucdavis.edu/.