Extension, poverty and vulnerability: the scope for policy reform. Final Report of a study for the Neuchatel Initiative

This paper reviews pro-poor agricultural extension policies, building on an earlier inception report of the same study. Based on a livelihoods approach, the authors argue that policies towards agriculture, rural development and extension have focused exclusively on increased productivity of land, as opposed to enhancing labour productivity, employment creation and vulnerability reduction. In light of this, empowerment towards poor people's capability in order to deal with the context of their vulnerability and take advantage of a variety of potential opportunities is being advocated as the future of pro-poor extension. The major issue being put across by this report is that extension has a role to play in poverty which should be built on three main pillars: extension has to address poverty from a livelihoods perspective, within a wider, poverty focused environment it should contribute to the enhanced 'voice' among the poor, and third it should seize opportunisitically on possibilities for enhancing incomes or reducing vulnerability, based on a sharper alertness of new opportunities.The report also offers future options for pro-poor extenstion emphasising that agricultural and rural development policy cannot be viewed in isolation from economic, social and cultural settings. A distinction is drawn between generic policy options and context specific policy options, with the former including: promotion of the privatisation of extension in well-integrated areas, switching public resources to more remote areas; testing a range of pluralistic approaches in difficult areas which would involve a combination of public/ privae funding and delivery de-emphasising the land productivity enhancement objectives which have dominated agricultural and extension policy and focussing more on enhanced labour productivity, employment generation and vulnerability reduction. supporting the development of district, or provincial towns as nodal points at the interface between governments, markets and rural people. Strengthen people's demands on the facilities newly created in district or provincial towns, and in areas threatened by HIV/AIDS promote strategies sensitive to the changing composition of the labour force and to increasing levels of vulnerability - within a realistic assessment of shrinking human resource capacitiesThe paper is available in two parts:<A HREF="http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/wp155_a.pdf">Part 1</A><A HREF="http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/wp155_b.pdf">Part 2</A>