Field Trip / To Gamogofa and Sidama zones for E-reader assessment and visiting AKCs. E.Shoa AKCs were visited on the way back too.
Date / October 12-20,2014
Objectives / Objectives of the visit were:
  1. To carry out the first round of e-book use assessment in SNNPR
  2. To provide technical support on the use and management of the e-reader (e.g uploading publications)
  3. To visit the AKCs at districts and zone and follow up on their use, record keeping and other issues
  4. To explore ways of supporting the SARI library at Hawassa

Participants / Fanos, LIVES SNNP team, E-reader recipients and AKC managers
Main points of interest and follow-up / -Visited the status of 10 AKCs, and discussed with 14 e-reader recipients. Six of the e-reader recipients were elsewhere in a mission.
-The potential of e-readers is appreciated by all. The degree of their use varies. Two recipients from the zones (One in Gamgofa and One in Sidama) admitted that they are not using the e-reader at all due to time pressure and offered others to use. Zonal coordinators are supporting the e-reader recipients to upload documents and guide them how to make use of them. In place of the ones who are not using the e-readers, another people will be identified, trained and given (one in Gamogofa, two in Sidama)
-Targets in Arbaminch and Sidama zone- (irrigation experts) were not provided with the e-reader as they were not identified then. On this trip the recipients fromArbaminchzuria were trained and given the e-readers. Tesfaye Shewage will train the Sidama recipients (zonal irrigation expert and zonal gender woman) and give the e-readers. Tesfaye Dubale will train the replacement for Gamgofa zone- irrigation expert and give the e-reader.
-One of the e-reader recipients- Arbegona irrigation expert claims that the e-reader was stolen from him while he was in the bus in May. We need to follow up on this and decide on what to do.
-Knowledge centers in SNNPRare well set up; spaciousrooms, arranged in a comfortable and inviting way to go to and use. The AKC in Gamogofa zonal office is still in the new unoccupied building. Unless the zonal office staff move into the new building in the next two or three months, there might be a need to explore other alternatives.
-Printed reading resources in the AKCs are only from the package we sent (IPMS and ILRI publications with few manuals from EIAR) in most cases. Other sources of resources need to be explored by AKC managers [MAINLY], zonal coordinators, regional experts and KM expert initiatives to collect other from other souces such as FAO, Kalehiwot… need to be encouraged
-The LCD projectors are used for various meetings and workshops in the knowledge centers and other places. Mirab Abaya and Gamgofa zone has not used the LCD, TV and Camera yet.
-AKC managers are doing this work on top of other responsibilities. Until their offices assign a full time employee, a formalized opening hours need to be set in which the office head agrees and approves formally. Otherwise the AKC will be open only with the good will of the AKC manager and this causes difficulty for users. Zonal coordinators have to insist on this. In addition, Some Office heads [e.gLume district, east shoa] are resistant about the use of the AKCs as they are not clear about the purpose. Discussion needs to be made with the head of the office and how to make use of the AKCs in optimum.
-The staff of the districts, especially in those places where internet is availed, use facebook and other irrelevant resources on the internetmostly rather than resources that add to their area of work in the district. This bits the purpose of AKCs and also worsens the attitude of office heads towards AKCs. This is a common experience in other regions as well. There needs to be a continuous discussion and awareness creation to the district/zone staff and an option of blocking facebook can be considered too.
-Power cut and fluctuation is the MAJOR challenge in both zones. A week may pass without electricity at times. This is a challenge beyond LIVES or the offices. Precaution needs to be taken to minimize the damage from power fluctuation by making sure the UPSs are in use and find ways to use stabilizer for the TV.
-The format to record users of the AKC and the type of service used is filled in to a varying degree among the AKCs. Closer follow up by zonal coordinators and Fanos is required
-AKC manager in Arbegona plays the videos in the center and invite farmers coming to the district to come and watch while they are waiting for other services. This is a good strategy to adopt in other AKCs too. More videos can be downloaded from access agriculture and kept on the computers. Message on use of access agriculture was sent to the AKC managers, but a follow-up is required by zonal coordinators and KM expert too.
- IPMS provided SARI with computers and three of them are working. However they are not fully utilized and the library is not functioning at its fullest capacity. There is also the possibility of moving the computers to the library as there is enough space. If SARI is really committed on strengthening the library then it should not be difficult for LIVES. There also couple of IPMS publications in SARI. Further discussion with the management on how to go about this is required. Fanos will send a package of IPMS publications for SARI once again.
-EAP DVD seems not to play on the computers of the AKC. Fanos to find out why it is not working
Pictures taken at the visits