A productive working week

This week has been very productive! 

On Monday I finished off the evaluation report for the Training of Trainers session that we ran the other week at Jenoi. By asking participants to assess and rate their knowledge before and after the training session we saw that overall the training had a positive impact on the knowledge levels of the participants.

For example, we asked the extension workers to rate their understanding of modern agricultural techniques in groundnut farming on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being poor and 5 being excellent) and found that on average they rated their knowledge at a higher level after the training compared to before - which is always a relief! 

1 being poor and 5 being excellent
(FFS = Farmer Field Schools)

As I expected, the extension workers' baseline knowledge of monitoring and evaluation was lower than their knowledge of farming, but thankfully when I looked at the percentage increase between pre-training knowledge and post-training knowledge of M&E techniques I saw a significant rise:

Generating data  for planning, Monitoring & Evaluation of improved agricultural techniques in ground nut farming;	% increase in knowledge
Qualitative & quantitative methods for monitoring and evaluation of agricultural practices	22.7%
Developing data collection tools	26.4%
Deciding data collection methods & tools	26.4%
Designing baseline indicators to collect data on	26.4%
Collecting monitoring data	30.9%

Because we want the extension workers to cascade what they have learned through further training I always ask them about their confidence to go on and train others. From the evaluation I can see that the participants now feel more confident to go on and train lead farmers in the key topics that we trained them on: 

1 being poor and 5 being excellent

Then on Tuesday I put together a framework for how we are going to measure the impact of the step down training and the results of our work at field level. It felt like Abdoulie and I had really firmed up what we were doing, and could start to see the logical flow of work, based on all the preparation that we have done so far. And as part of the framework I managed to produce some nice little diagrams to brighten up the document! 

On Wednesday I started updating our results framework for the groundnut project, and on Thursday I attended volcom - the volunteer committee meeting. We have a revolving chair and secretary for the meeting and this time it was my turn to be secretary. After the meeting I managed to get the minutes written up that afternoon. 

And so today, Friday, I feel rather satisfied - and very ready to start the weekend!