News

Spirited Discussions on Modern Teaching Techniques in Nigeria

| Winrock

In May of this year, I traveled to Nigeria for the first time. Dr. Scott Haskell accompanied me as a Winrock volunteer. Our task for this travel was to offer pedagogical training and workshops on curriculum development training to the faculty of Enugu State Polytechnic College. I was a little apprehensive; I wasn’t sure if I would have a positive impact on the participants since many of them were highly educated and experienced members of the faculty. That apprehension vanished within the first hour of meeting the participants!

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Program Snapshot: Ghana

The FY08-13 Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) in Ghana focused on horticulture and staple food crops. The program had a network of contacts throughout the agriculture sector that led USAID/Ghana to choose to implement its flagship FTF activity through an F2F associate award, drawing on the successful model of volunteer technical assistance ACDI/VOCA had demonstrated in F2F. The resulting Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement Feed the Future Activity (ADVANCE) invested $32 million to spur inclusive agricultural sector growth and improve Ghana’s nutrition status. ADVANCE supported rice, maize and soy value chains through technical assistance, grants and loan facilitation for nucleus farmers, who in turn support networks of out-growers. The commercial linkages between nucleus farmers and out-growers maintained sustainability throughout and beyond the life of the project.

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Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer of the Year Returns for Third Assignment in Zambia

| NCBA CLUSA

When Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Randy Shackelford traveled to Zambia in 2015 for his first USAID Farmer-to-Farmer assignment—and his first trip to Africa—he didn’t imagine the deep personal and professional connection he would end up making with the community in Chipata. He recently returned from his third Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer assignment in the region—part of a larger three-month trip funded by the Full Belly Project (FBP) to scale-up production of the nonprofit's universal nut sheller, a simple hand-cranked device that curtails aflatoxin cross-contamination and significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to shell peanuts.

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Trees for Madian

When women in Mali, West Africa lose their husbands, they lose more than just the person they love. These women lose the head of the family and their financial security. Madian Diarra, from Mafèya village in Koulikoro region, was one of these women.

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