Browsing by Subject "Agricultural extension services"

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    Strengthening accoutability in public agricultural extension services : a case study from Uganda
    (2019) Namyenya, Angella; Birner, Regina
    A well-managed and accountable agricultural extension service can play an essential role in realizing food security and improving rural livelihoods. However, for the majority of the developing countries, establishing an accountable agricultural extension system remains a challenge. Public agricultural extension services, in particular, have been highly criticized for weak accountability of field agents to both their supervisors and their clients. Public agricultural extension systems often deploy large numbers of field agents in geographically dispersed, remote areas, which makes supervision difficult. Typically, there is also a lack of resources and of robust mechanisms to enable both the supervisors and beneficiaries to adequately follow up the activities of the field agents and provide feedback, which contributes to problems of absenteeism of field staff. Due to resource constraints, central managers also face challenges to supervise the agricultural extension managers, who are the supervisors of the field agents. Taking Uganda as a case study, this thesis explores the use of new mechanisms for addressing these long-standing challenges of creating accountability in public agricultural extension services. The thesis had three objectives: (1) To design a diary for agricultural field agents, which should facilitate planning and supervision of agricultural extension service provision; (2) to assess the potential of different versions of this diary for strengthening accountability in public extension services; and (3) to analyze the performance of agricultural extension managers. To meet the first two objectives, three versions of a diary for agricultural field agents were designed. The first version was a diary in a paper format, which was specifically designed to match the system of planning and reporting applied in Uganda’s public extension service. This version was then transformed into an electronic version of the diary (“e-diary”), which resembled an electronic questionnaire. Based on the assessment of these two diary versions, an improved e-diary was developed, which comprises a smartphone application to be used by the field agents, and a web-based system that allows extension supervisors to review the data entered by the field agents and provide them with feedback. Moreover, the system was designed in such a way that it is possible for extension supervisors to collect information from the beneficiaries for verification. For the assessment of the three different versions of the diary, a qualitative participatory research approach was applied. Data on the experience with using the diary was collected through a combination of focus group discussions and individual face-to-face interviews. The content analysis method was applied to analyse the data. The results suggest that a diary for agricultural field agents has a unique potential to strengthen accountability in public agricultural extension services. This is achieved through improving planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation of extension activities and through reducing absenteeism as well as enabling of beneficiary feedback. The findings further indicate that, for the following reasons, an electronic version of the diary is more effective in strengthening accountability than a paper version: An e-diary can make use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which allows extension supervisors to verify whether field agents actually conducted the activities that they indicate in the diary. Thus, an e-diary enables remote supervision, which reduces the time and costs of supervision. An e-diary also facilitates real-time reporting, which enables near real-time supervision, thereby increasing the frequency of supervision. However, the first e-diary version that resembled an electronic questionnaire had drawbacks, since it focused on data collection and had limited opportunities for feedback and interaction between the extension agents and their supervisors. However, the final e-diary version, which combines a smartphone app with a web-based system, made it possible to address this limitation. Expectedly, the assessment also revealed some limitations regarding the e-diary. Some of the users were initially apprehensive about the e-diary due to their limited experience with the use of smartphones. Consequently, the implementation of the e-diary necessitates intensive training of the users, which should not be underestimated. The results also showed that the use of the e-diary was affected by inaccessibility to electricity. Therefore, promoting the use of solar chargers or power banks in areas with poor electrification is recommended. Moreover, limited network coverage implies that the e-diary needs to be programmed in such a way that data can be entered off-line. Furthermore, the findings suggest the need to combine the implementation of the e-diary with incentives, such as awards of recognition. In view of the essential role that extension managers, as the supervisors of the field agents, play for accountability, an analysis of their performance was included as the third objective of the thesis. To meet this research objective, a quantitative research approach was applied. The main data source was the extension management system that was set up by the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF). This system provides data on the timeliness of the submission of work plans and reports by the extension managers, which makes it possible to calculate measurable indicators of managers’ performance based on their expected roles and responsibilities. In addition to preparing descriptive statistics of such performance indicators, econometric models were estimated, using additional data from secondary sources on variables, which were hypothesized to influence the managers’ performance. The descriptive statistics of the performance indicators showed that the majority of the extension managers were not able to meet the performance requirements of MAAIF. The econometric analysis made it possible to identify factors that were associated with performance. The amount of the extension grant provided to the district and the ratio of extension workers to households were found to be key factors. The findings led to the recommendation to improve the performance of the extension managers through capacity building, especially in management, and through setting-up a strict performance monitoring system, to which the use of the e-diary could contribute. It was also recommended to increase funding to the districts and improve the ratio of extension workers to households so as to provide better working conditions and incentives to extension staff and their managers. Overall, the thesis indicates that diaries, especially electronic ones, in combination with monitoring systems for extension managers, offer a unique and largely underutilized potential to address entrenched problems of ensuring accountability in public agricultural extension services. It was also pointed out that additional accountability mechanisms will be useful to further strengthen accountability, in particular mechanisms that allow the beneficiaries of the extension service to provide direct feedback on the quality of service provision. The thesis also highlights the potential of using digital tools for strengthening both upward and downward accountability in public extension services. The findings of the thesis are likely to be relevant not only for agricultural extension services but also for other public services, such as rural health care and education, which face similar problems of managing large numbers of field agents in geographically dispersed, remote areas, where effective supervision is an inherent challenge.