Syllabus for Govt. 692/IntAg 603

Spring Term, 2007 4 credits

Planning and Management of Agricultural and Rural Development

Instructors: Norman Uphoff and Terry Tucker

Course Assistant: MaryAnn Krisa

Dr. Norman Uphoff,
Director of Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development
31 Warren Hall
255-1902
ntu1@cornell.edu
and
Dr. Terry Tucker,
Associate Director, Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development
16 Warren Hall
255-1904
twt2@cornell.edu

TIME and PLACE: Mondays, 2:30-5:00 p.m, room 145 Warren Hall

This graduate course reviews experience and approaches in agricultural and rural development in a range of developing countries, with particular attention to contemporary issues of participation, decentralization, local institutions, capacity-building, civil society, social capital, and empowerment, subjects with which the instructors have been working for some years now. Case studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America where significant improvements have been achieved are included in the course to give concreteness to discussions and to underscore the need and possibilities for innovation. Analytical frameworks to guide decision-making and evaluation, juxtaposed with real-world experience, are considered throughout the course.

The texts for the course, supplemented by readings from a variety of other sources, are:

• Reasons for Hope: Instructive Experiences in Rural Development, edited by Anirudh Krishna, Norman Uphoff and Milton Esman, Kumarian Press (1997), and
• Reasons for Success: Learning from Instructive Experiences in Rural Development, by Norman Uphoff, Milton Esman and Anirudh Krishna, Kumarian Press (1998).

These books which will be used extensively can be purchased in paperback although they will also be available on reserve. There is also a supplementary reader (containing the asterisked readings) that can be purchased but which is also available on reserve.

Part I

Week 1 The Domain and Challenges of Agricultural and Rural Development

Jan. 22 Why Rural Development Remains Important, in Uphoff et al., Reasons for Success, 1-18.

Instructive Engagements in Rural Development, in Krishna et al., Reasons for Hope, 1-6.

* The Challenge to Change, and Normal Error, by Robert Chambers in Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last (1997), 1-32.

Week 2 Participatory Approaches to Agricultural and Rural Development

Jan. 29 Local Organization and Participation, in Uphoff et al., Reasons for Success, 64-87.

*Local Organization for Rural Development in Asia, by Uphoff and Esman in Development Digest (1975), pp. 31-46.

*Local Organizations as Intermediaries, in Esman and Uphoff, Local Organizations: Intermediaries in Rural Development (1984), 15-41.

*Grassroots Organizations and NGOs in Rural Development: Opportunities with Diminishing States and Expanding Markets, by Uphoff in World Development, 21:4 (1993).

Recommended: Comparative Analysis of Asian Experience with Local Organization and Rural Development, by Esman and Uphoff in Rural Development and Local Organization in Asia, Vol. 3, 263-399 (on reserve)

Week 3 Case Study of Participatory Approach in the Irrigation Sector

Feb. 5 Farmer Organization in Gal Oya: Improving Irrigation Management in Sri Lanka, by Wijayaratna and Uphoff in Krishna et al., Reasons for Hope, 166-183.

*Of Rocks and Rivers: Discovering Possibilities, in Uphoff, Learning from Gal Oya: Possibilities for Participatory Development and Post-Newtonian Social Science (1996), 3-25, and as much of Part I as possible (book is on reserve).

Week 4 Learning Process and Assisted-Self-Reliance: Processes of Initiation and Leadership
Feb. 12 Learning Process and Assisted Self-Reliance, and Initiation and Leadership, in Uphoff et al., Reasons for Success, 19-63.

*Community Organization and Rural Development: A Learning Process Approach, by David Korten in Public Administration Review (1980), 480-511.

Part II During Weeks 5-9, the course will draw lessons from 18 case studies representing a variety of successful approaches to the planning and management of agricultural and rural development in different parts of the world. As explained below, each week, a group of students will make an analytical/synthesizing presentation on the selected sets of 3-4 cases, based on reading beyond the assigned chapters below. Everyone should read the assigned chapters to be prepared for class discussion.

Week 5 CASE STUDIES: Set I

Feb. 19 The Grameen Bank Story: Rural Credit in Bangladesh, by Muhammad Yunus in Reasons for Hope, 9-24.

SANASA: The Savings and Credit Cooperative Movement in Sri Lanka, by P. A. Kiriwandeniya, in Reasons for Hope, 57-74.

The AMUL Dairy Cooperatives: Putting the Means of Development into the Hands of Small Producers in India, by V. Kurien, in Reasons for Hope, 105-119.

Week 6 CASE STUDIES: Set II

Feb. 26 The Orangi Pilot Project: Uplifting a Periurban Settlement near Karachi, Pakistan, by Akhter Hameed Khan, in Reasons for Hope, 25-40.

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee: How BRAC Learned to Meet Rural People’s Needs Through Local Action, by F. H. Abed and A. M. R. Chowdhury, in Reasons for Hope, 41-56.

*SEWA: Women in Movement, by Kalima Rose, in Where Women Are Leaders: The SEWA Movement in India (1992), 15-35.

Week 7 CASE STUDIES: Set III

March 5 DESEC: Thirty Years of Community Organizations in Bolivia, by Juan Demeure and Edgar Guardia, in Reasons for Hope, 91-101.

Six-S: Building upon Traditional Social Organizations in Francophone West Africa, by Bernard J. LeComte and Anirudh Krishna, in Reasons for Hope, 75-90.

The Population and Community Development Association in Thailand, by Mechai Viravaidya, in Reasons for Hope, 203-215.

The Iringa Nutrition Project: Child Survival and Development in Tanzania, by Anirudh Krishna with Urban Jonsson and Wilbald Lorri, in Reasons for Hope, 216-227.

Week 8 CASE STUDIES: Set IV

March 12 Farmer-to-Farmer Experimentation and Extension: Integrated Rural Development for Smallholders in Guatemala, by Anirudh Krishna with Roland Bunch, Reasons for Hope, 137-152.

Plan Puebla: An Agricultural Development Program for Low-Income Farmers in Mexico, by Heliodoro Díaz Cisneros, Leobardo Jiménez Sánchez, Reggie J. Laird and Antonio Turrent Fernández, in Reasons for Hope, 120-136.

The National Irrigation Administration’s Participatory Irrigation Management Program in the Philippines, by Benjamin U. Bagadio, in Reasons for Hope, 153-165.

Integrated Crop Pest Management with Farmer Participation in Indonesia, by Ida Nyoman Oka, in Reasons for Hope, 184-199.

Week 9 CASE STUDIES: Set V

March 26 The Self-Help Rural Water Supply Program in Malawi, by Anirudh Krishna with Lindesay H. Robertson, in Reasons for Hope, 228-238.

Participatory Watershed Development and Soil Conservation in Rajasthan, India, by Anirudh Krishna, in Reasons for Hope, 255-272. A Haitian Peasant Tree Chronicle: Adaptive Evolution and Institutional Intrusion, by Gerald F. Murray, in Reasons for Hope, 241-254.

The CAMPFIRE Program: Community-Based Wildlife Resource Management In Zimbabwe, by Simon Metcalfe, in Reasons for Hope, 273-288.

Part III

Week 10 Management, Planning and Implementation

April 2 Management, Planning and Implementation; Technology and Training; and Information as a Management Tool, in Reasons for Success, 88-156.

Week 11 Dealing with Politics and the Uses of External Resources

April 9 Utilization of External; and Dealing with Government and Politics, in Reasons for Success, 157-195

Week 12 Social Capital

April 16 * Understanding social capital: Learning from analysis and experience of Participation, by Uphoff in Social Capital: AMultifaceted Perspective, eds. Partha Dasgupta and Ismail Serageldin (1999), 215-249.

*Mapping and measuring social capital through assessment of collective action to conserve and develop watersheds in Rajasthan, India, by Krishna and Uphoff in Social Capital: Empirical Explorations, eds. Christian Grootaert and Thierry van Bastelaer (2002), 85-124.

*Demonstrated benefits from social capital: The productivity of farmer organizations in Gal Oya, Sri Lanka , by Uphoff and Wijayaratna in World Development (2000), 1875-1890.

Recommended: The Rehabilitation of Altruism and Cooperation, in Uphoff, Learning from Gal Oya: Possibilities for Participatory Development and Post-Newtonian Social Science (1996), 326-356 (on reserve)

Week 13 Civil Society and Issues of Empowerment

April 23 *Understanding civil society as a continuum rather than as a buffer: Constructing a non-zero-sum relationship, by Uphoff and Krishna in Public Administration and Development (2004). *Analytical issues of measuring empowerment at the community and local levels, by Uphoff in Measuring Empowerment: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, ed. Deepa Narayan (2005), 219-246.

*Strategies for strengthening organizations at the local level, in Esman and Uphoff, Local Organizations: Intermediaries in Rural Development (1984), 239-265.

Week 14 Success and Sustainability: Strategic Goals for Planning and Management of Agricultural and Rural Development

April 30 Success and Sustainability, in Reasons for Success, 196-217. Reasons for Hope, in Reasons for Hope, 289-298.

* Putting the Last First, by Robert Chambers in Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last (1997), 210-237.

ASSIGNMENTS: Several different kinds of analysis and reporting are assigned to help students synthesize their own thinking about the planning and managing of agricultural and/or rural development.

(A) Case Study Group Reports. The class will form five groups for Part II (weeks 5 to 9) to make presentations on the 3-4 case studies that were selected for consideration that week in class. The purpose of the presentations will be to stimulate discussion of and learning from the cases. These groups, to be constituted during Week 2, will each be collectively responsible for planning and conducting their own presentations, to be no longer than 60 minutes, so as to leave plenty of time for discussion by the whole class.

• Week 5 (Feb. 19): Grameen Bank ( Bangladesh), SANASA Savings and Credit Cooperative Movement ( Sri Lanka), AMUL Dairy Cooperatives ( India)
• Week 6 (Feb. 26): Orangi Pilot Project ( Pakistan), Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA, India)
• Week 7 (March 5): DESEC ( Bolivia), Six-S ( West Africa), Population and Community Development Association ( Thailand), Iringa Nutrition Project ( Tanzania)
• Week 8 (March 12): Farmer-to-Farmer Extension ( Guatemala), Plan Puebla ( Mexico), National Irrigation Administration ( Philippines), Integrated Crop Pest Management ( Indonesia)
• Week 9 (March 26): Self-Help Rural Water Supply ( Malawi), Watershed Development and Soil Conservation ( India), Agroforestry Outreach ( Haiti), CAMPFIRE ( Zimbabwe)

(B) Theme Team Discussions/Papers. The class will divide into groups for discussions that they will hold throughout the semester, the first meeting in January to get organized and then once a month or possibly more often in April, once issues are better understood. The instructors will be available as resource persons for the theme teams, but responsibility for organizing meetings and conducting discussions will rest with each group. The output of the theme teams will be for each member to write an analytical paper (maximum 8 pages, double-spaced), on the most interesting issues that you think have emerged in that theme area from the team discussions and from relevant readings and lectures for the course. The sets of subjects to be addressed by theme teams, respectively, are:

Decision-making / Use of authority / Organizational structure / Top-down vs. bottom-up strategies

Financial resource mobilization and management / Accountability / Utilizing external aid/ Involving ‘civil society’

Communication / Coordination / Inter-organizational linkage / Social capital/ Motivation

Conflict resolution / Equity / Participation / Empowerment

(C) Consultancy Report. This can take either of two forms, intended to create an individualized opportunity for learning and applying what has been learned to some real-world situation. The length should be about 10 pages, double-spaced (±2 pages), i.e., concise, analytical and evaluative, not discursive and descriptive, on some format appropriate as a consultancy report. References and footnotes should be used as appropriate, but this is not a research paper. It should be in a format that would be taken seriously by a development organization that expects to get professional quality advice.

(1) One option is to choose any one of the cases in Reasons for Hope or one or the additional 12 case included in Reasons for Success and to get whatever additional information can be gleaned from various sources (using particularly the web) to write an evaluation of what can be learned (as of 2007 – which involves some learning beyond the case study) for a similar program/project in some other country. The client for the report is some specific (possibly hypothetical) project or organization, government or NGO, that wants to improve its efforts to promote agricultural/rural development on the basis of having a better understanding of this particular case experience.

(2) Alternatively, you can write a concept paper for a project or program -- for a specific context and to address specific problems in agricultural and rural development. The format is to be that of a concept paper, not a full proposal, but there should be some consideration of the total (and distribution) of costs and benefits to justify the proposed initiative. This can be a new activity or an expansion or revision of some current activity. The report should begin with a clear and persuasive statement of the problem that is being addressed, followed by a strategy for dealing with this problem, proposing appropriate technical and organizational innovations.

Either form of consultancy report should elicit thinking about the transferability of experience, what can be extrapolated or extended and what cannot, or on what terms and in what ways, with what qualifications and constraints. Appreciation of context as well as purpose, addressing both opportunities and constraints, is expected from this paper. In either form, there is no assigned format, as individual creativity for substance as well as form is encouraged.