Description:

Abstract

Since 2010 the USAID-funded Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS) Project at the University of Illinois and its associated awards has worked to strengthen and improve agricultural and nutrition extension systems and program in developing countries around the world in order to increase agricultural productivity, improve food security, and reduce rural poverty. An overview of the MEAS Project and its associated projects will be presented along with a synthesis of findings from country-level assessments of extension systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Results of two action-research projects demonstrating innovative approaches to strengthening extension system performance will follow: 1) District-level strengthening approach using public/private partnerships in Savelugu-Nanton District in northern Ghana; and, 2) Information and Communication Technology enabled extension worker training and performance improvement in Kenya at the district level. Results and impacts from these efforts will be discussed along with implications for broader efforts to improve agricultural and nutrition extension services targeted at small-holder farmers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bio
Paul E. McNamara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and he is a Visiting Member of the faculty of Njala University (Sierra Leone). McNamara serves as Director of the USAID-funded Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS) Project, which works with its consortium members and other partners to strengthen agricultural and nutrition extension services around the world with a goal of increasing small-holder economic and food security. He also serves as Principal Investigator for the USAID-funded FAST, SEAS, and INGENAES projects, as well as the USAID Feed the Future Strengthening Agriculture and Nutrition Extension Services Activity in Malawi. His research, outreach and teaching efforts are in the areas of extension, consumer economics, health economics, and agricultural economics and rural development. McNamara holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and he holds an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School. He received his B.A. in Economics from Wheaton College (Illinois). Since a seven-month field internship in 1982, McNamara has been involved in international development activities. He has worked in The Gambia, the Philippines, India, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nepal, Mexico, Honduras, Tajikistan, Republic of Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Malawi and other countries in the context of international development, research, extension, education, and business.