My Grant Proposal - Social Learning and Technology Transfer

Here is a copy of my grant proposal for funding to do 12 weeks worth of research in East Africa this summer.

Introduction

I have spent the last year studying Sub Saharan African economic development with an emphasis on rural agriculture. I want to continue my independent study and conduct BA thesis research in rural Kenya. My project is aimed at better understanding social learning and technology transfer at the confluence of two social networks: that of rural agricultural producers, and that of agricultural development NGOs. I want to set up a case study in order to get qualitative and quantitative information about the organization of these two networks, the various barriers between them, and the social – rather than economic –incentives that influence how information is shared and between whom. My paper will explain how local NGOs attempt to integrate themselves with those they are trying to assist; and then survey data I plan to collect will track information flow among agricultural producer social networks. A final questions as to why rural farmers listen to one source of information (or advice) rather than another will help me understand what extra-economic social factors impact information flow. I plan to chronicle the mechanisms of this transfer. I have corresponded with several professors around the country and two Kenyan NGOs have agreed to incorporate me into their project. I will either be in the Kajiado or Mwingi districts of Kenya working with sorghum or maize farmers respectively. Continued correspondence with these two local NGOs will help me decide which of these sites will be the best fit for my research. I will act as an unpaid member of their organization with room to conduct my research on the side. My research will be some of the first looking at both African agricultural communities and private developmental work at the same time. It will be an important contribution towards the understanding of contemporary Sub Saharan African developmental work; and towards the expansion of the University of Chicago’s undergraduate involvement with African Studies. Given the contemporary relevance of this study, and the impossibility of it being constructed solely from library-based research, I must conduct this do this research in the field. I chose Anglophonic East Africa because of my linguistic restrictions – I do not speak french. The $4000 African Studies Summer Research Grant has been, and is, a central part of my plans since October of 2008. I enthusiastically submit this proposal – a summary of my background and my plan – for your consideration.

Background and Qualifications

My interest in Sub Saharan Africa has been long-standing. I wanted to understand how a continent could be portrayed as being entirely populated by passive victims to disease, conflict, and famine. My rigorous study of Sub Saharan African development started last winter when I read ‘A Coming Revolution,’ a Wilson Quarterly article about grass roots agricultural reform in Uganda. The article contextualized agriculture as the numerical and cultural frontline to Sub Saharan economic development. It provided World Bank statistics and first hand accounts to demonstrate the link between increasing profitability in Africa’s largest economic sector (by population) and increasing standards of living across the continent. The article’s positivist outlook had great purchase with me, and I used the final research project in my Contemporary Global Issues class to prove the author’s conclusions about the possibility of a ‘green revolution’ in Uganda. Due to time constraints, we were asked to create a ‘working outline’ of our research to support our conclusions rather than write a paper. I conducted all the necessary research, and I brought all of my conclusions to fruition. I completed this project last march.

The merits of this project, which could be turned into a working paper, garnered response from the head of the International Studies Program, Dr. James Hevia. Dr. Hevia arranged a meeting between myself and a senior analyst at UNESCO while I was studying European civilization in Paris last spring quarter. Our discussion of African empowerment through agricultural development, development organizations, and philanthrocapitalism led to new connections and insight. My want to present the set of ideas that we discussed inspired me to start a webpage. I update it often with new ideas and concerns that I have about the current state of Sub Saharan agricultural development and market access. A copy of what we discussed about supply-side coordination of development practitioners and beneficiaries can be found in my blog .

Upon my return to the States in the summer of 2008, I started work at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. I was the sole intern on the Global Agricultural Development Project. The project was co-chaired by former executive director of the World Food Program Catherine Bertini, and former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman; and our report was written in consultation with Professor Robert Paarlberg (Author of Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept out of Africa). The project was funded by a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Our aim was to come up with a comprehensive policy recommendation for increased Agricultural Development in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. My six-month tenure at the council ended in December. The final results of the project’s inquiries will be presented to the Obama administration in late February 2009. The internship was an intense experience that provided a practical contrast to my theoretical pursuits at the University of Chicago.

I have expanded my understanding of all aspects of economic growth, the international food system, and the practice of development on campus as well. I took Professor Alberto Simpser’s Introduction to the Political Economy of Development class in autumn of 2008. I performed well, and I wrote a policy recommendation for the digitization and streamlining of rural agricultural credit cooperatives in Uganda . This class channeled my curiosity down a variety of paths, and led to a series of wants. First, I wanted to have greater cultural understanding of different African societies, so I may not continue to talk about the limitations of “poor” or “uneducated” people without knowing what those terms feel like on the ground. Second, Paul Collier’s analysis of conflict cycles as a retarding factor to African economic development made me want to understand conflict on the continent. To these ends I enrolled in two classes that would teach me about contemporary East African identity and culture. The first is a seminar Dr. Stansell on social norms, challenges, and modes present during the reconstruction of post catastrophic societies; we will be spending the rest of the quarter on post-genocide Rwanda. The second is a class on states and mercenary use after 1990. I’m working on a research paper for this class that will attempt to answer whether the capital accumulating effects of current philanthrocapitalist initiatives on the continent have caused an increase in the use of private organized violence/private security, and to look at the possible effects.

In-Field Study

This background in Sub Saharan African development, with additional personal reading and research, has contributed to my plans for BA thesis research. My topic is rooted in a want for African economic growth without the neocolonialist strings of technological and informational dependence on Western development practitioners. My study of East African social networks, on both the receiving and giving sides of technology transfer, will help me understand the social mechanisms involved in this type of small scale agricultural reform. Few studies have examined both sides of this coin in tandem, and my research will be an academic study of new, and ever growing, transnational trend.

In the field empiricism and library research will help me chronicle the organizational structures of these information networks, and field surveys will hopefully help me track the flow of information among members of these groups. Possible questions will include, “Where did you get the information [e.g. about input/fertilizer use]?” “From whom?” “How often?” “Do you get your information from an individual or a group?” “Do you always mirror their choices?” “When do you follow their advice?” And finally, “Why?” My final presentation and methodology will borrow heavily from Conley’s (2002) economic research on social learning within the context of pineapple farmers in Ghana. The main difference in approach will come from my temporal constraints: my twelve weeks in country will not let me conduct research over multiple growing seasons. Conley’s research marked social learning when individuals noticed the ‘surprising’ success of one of the members of their informational/economic networks. My three months in field cannot track similar patterns over extended periods, so rather I will be looking at instantaneous social incentives for individual rural farmers to listen to others with information. This includes other rural farmers with more experience with fertilizer use, or with more market information, and NGO workers. My study will be multidisciplinary and have information on economics, sociology, culture studies, decision-making, and political science.

Professor Thomas Smucker at Ohio University has helped me with my plans to work in concert with one of two local East African NGOs that help rural farmers with farm input consultations and market information. He has put me in contact with NGOs in both the Kajiado and Mwingi districts in Kenya. I have to pick between the two. Each of the districts is five hours outside of Nairobi in different directions; and each has different physical and social variables to incorporate into my study. Mwingi is home to the Kamba people who are mostly agropastoralists - though do intensive cultivation in the wetter/higher zones and are more livestock dependent in the lower zones. Kaijado on the other hand is home to the Maasai ethnic group, though it has seen a lot of in-migration of farmers who get title to and are farming the wetter parts of the district.

My contact ensures me that that both NGOs in question are great repositories of practical experience in participatory kinds of development. I am going to pick one of the two NGOs to work with, and I would be acting as an unpaid member of/ intern with that NGO with room to conduct independent research. I have not yet decided which of the two sites would be more conducive to my research; my decision is contingent on a number of variables. I would be staying with the NGO I decide to work with, and Professor Smucker has also put me in contact with a few of his friends who can help me find appropriate housing for the few days I might be in Nairobi. He has also recommended a possible research assistant who he has worked with before who can help me with basic etiquette and housing as needed.

I would also like to mention that due to my level of previous academic experience and comfort with Ugandan agriculture, I am also pursuing connections with NGOs in that country. I am in contact with organizations western and central districts, but no arrangements have yet been solidified.

Thank you for your time and consideration.