Publications

This booklet presents the synthesis of the project “Local knowledge and local action in the Mandara mountains, North Cameroon”. The project encompassed the studies of one Dutch and two Cameroonian PhD researchers, which were carried out from 1994-1998. The project was co-funded by the Netherlands Israel Development Research Programme (NIRP), while fellowships from WOTRO (the Netherlands) and the French government were granted for the work of Zuiderwijk and Hiol Hiol, respectively. What is presented here as the project results refers to all the activities of the researchers, irrespective of their funding source. The emphasis is, however, on policy-relevant issues.

This strategy paper takes stock of “best practice” experiences in supporting communities in their response to HIV/AIDS in several countries in Africa. It draws lessons from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania and sheds light on methods that a growing number of organizations and individuals use to foster behavior change among people living in rural areas.

The contribution of ecoregional programmes to more effective organisation of agricultural research in sub-Saharan Africa is disappointing. They seem to compete with the National Agricultural Research Systems, rather than being complementary. They have created temporarily niches , well endowed with financially and technical support, not always respecting strategies and procedures of national and local research centres. Ecoregional programmes could make a more effective contribution to development oriented research by focussing more explicitly on the institutional support to national and local centres. The change from the current research focused approach to the facilitation and strengthening of
institutional processes is an enormous challenge, in which the experiences gained by KIT in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Benin, Mali and Mozambique could provide assistance.