Learning together for change

his book describes and analyses a long-term action learning process in natural resource management in Zimbabwe. Through a process of joint learning of local people and facilitating outsiders, people managed to build their own individual and institutional capacity to innovate and solve their problems in a creative way. This long-term practice and theoretical understanding in learning process approaches was conceptualised in a theoretical framework for interdisciplinary, participatory research and extension in natural resource management applicable in many situations. The most important insight in this book is the lively demonstration that smallholder farms in Zimbabwe follow a value-driven logic, based on social and cultural values and norms which in most cases outweighs the economic rationale in decision making. Thus, innovation processes proved to depend more on the social and organisational capacity to innovate than on economic profitability considerations. Facilitating effective innovation processes thus needs to focus on negotiation of socio-political interests and on organisational development of people’s institutions and organisations. An effective vehicle for such capacity building development has proven to be the joint development of technical and social innovations by local people with the external agents, based on a synthesis of indigenous and scientific knowledge. Experiential and discovery learning have demonstrated their potential in supporting this process and strengthening rural people’s confidence in their own solutions - the key to self-development. The lessons learnt and the approach for participatory research and extension demonstrated in this book are relevant to most rural development interventions aiming at better natural resource management. This work is a living example of interdisciplinary participatory action research guided by the synthesis of theory and practice.