Purpose: This study aims to investigate how Living Labs of Van Hall Larenstein UAS perform as sustainability-oriented, transdisciplinary learning environments. It shows how the sustainable development goals (SDGs) can be used as a compass and debates the sustainability impact of applied research. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach…

Purpose: We studied innovation processes in agriculture and nutrition to discuss a scaling approach that encompasses the technical, institutional, and behavioral dimensions of change. Approach: To understand dynamics across these dimensions, we analyzed farmers' innovation processes through two analytical lenses: farmer-centered and structural.…

This article reports an empirical case study of a community self-help group (chama) in Western Kenya, utilising the study circle model promoted by a Swedish non-governmental organisation. Methodologically, it is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and participant observation for data collection. The results show that the study…

This dissertation explores two main questions of farmers in Western Kenya -- how they see farming as a creative process and their role in that - and how change is made possible in their community. I explore stories from farmers themselves, using photographs they have taken and stories they tell about those photographs, which answer these two…

Purpose: The important role of learning is noted in the literature on demand-driven approaches to supporting agricultural innovation. Most of this literature has focused on macrolevel structural perspectives on the organization of pluralistic innovation support systems. This has provided little insight at the micro-level on the dynamics of demand…

Purpose: Within the context of the European-funded JOLISAA project (JOint Learning in and about Innovation Systems in African Agriculture), an inventory of agricultural innovation experiences was made in Benin, Kenya and South Africa. The objective was to assess multi-stakeholder agricultural innovation processes involving smallholders. Approach:…

In this Exemplars case, the fifth and final under the direction of the current coeditors, the authors present a reflective account of an ongoing, complex, multiyear, multinational monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system conducted for African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), an international development program. The…

Given the fundamental objective of ESD--perspective change--it is increasingly being aligned with the theoretical foundation of Mezirow's Transformative Learning. In 2008, Sipos et al. built upon this connection by proposing a matrix of learning objectives to assess ESD in formal settings. These objectives, grouped under the title of…

The System-wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and Environment, or SCALE process, has become one of the Academy for Educational Development's (AED's) and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID's) most utilized and replicated models, with applications in education, health, natural resources management, tourism,…

The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (MGD Program) provides donations of U.S. agricultural products and financial and technical assistance for school feeding programs in the developing world. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with about $200 million in funding in fiscal year 2010, the…

Purpose: This article investigates the extent of multiple knowledges among smallholders and connected non-farm agents around Mount Elgon in Kenya and Uganda in order to build the communicative competence needed to scale up conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS). Design/methodology/approach: Our methodological approach examines local…

Private extension system has been at the centre of a debate triggered by inefficient public agricultural extension. The debate is anchored on the premise that the private sector is more efficient in extension service delivery. This study evaluates the private extension system in Kenya. It employs qualitative and quantitative methods. The results…

The author was an instructor in the pilot project described in this article and served as West Virginia University's Chief of Party and field administrator on the project. (DM)

Provides a history of farming practices in a densely populated area of Kenya where a recent study of the resource management practices showed positive, not negative, influences of increasing population density on both environmental conservation and productivity. (LZ)

Examining the rural self-help or "harambee" movement in Kenya, this article presents data indicating: education projects consistently account for nearly half of all self-help when measured by either project value or volume at the national level, while agriculture and health related activities, at 10 percent each, represent the second…