R4D Rwanda

Africa Power & Politics. Annual Report 2 (2008-9)

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:44:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 38 pp.

Progress is being made in all 4 areas of the programme:

Research

the empirical scope of the programme has been refined and the work has been organised in six firmly led 'research streams';
initial thinking about research approaches (concepts, methods) has been carried into the streams, so that it frames the empirical work;
fieldwork has begun, in teams of various sizes, in 11 African countries;
the programme has started engaging actively with researchers working on cognate topics in other research programmes.

Research-training

research training of five fully-funded fieldwork-based PhD candidates has been overseen;
a number of additional doctoral students have been associated with the programme; and
tailor-made short practical training exercises and/or 'collective enquiries' (preliminary joint fieldwork exercises which serve training objectives) have been mounted.

Organisational capacity strengthening

staff and associates of all member organisations drawn into a relatively high-grade discussion about how to link empirical enquiry, theoretical innovation and policy implications;
this has been applied in specific research streams, with African researchers participating to some extent in training and research activities in countries other than their own;
relevant and accessible library and information resources have been provided to the Southern organisations; and
major investments have been made in the communications and policy engagement capacities of two Southern partner organisations.

Policy influence and policy development.
The APPP's approach to policy influence and policy development has been developed in a revised updated Communication and Policy Engagement Strategy, key elements of which were implemented in Year 2. They include:

a reinforced communications team with clearer roles and responsibilities;
training sessions, workshops and investment in technical equipment;
construction of an 'APPP friends' database;
engagement with key stakeholders to prepare the ground for adoption of policy lessons based on research findings; and
development of the APPP website to provide improved access to the programme's web-published papers, news and events.

Steven explains how a plant clinic operates

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:40:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 YouTube video clip, 2 min 5 s. Steven Nkurunziza, a student at NUR in Butare, Rwanda, explains how a plant clinic operates.

Save Plant Clinic, Rwanda

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:36:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 YouTube video clip, 53 sec. Save is a village close to Butare, in Huye department, southern Rwanda. Students from the National University of Rwanda held a plant clinic with local extension staff. Although we arrived after most farmers had left the market, the students got 24 queries in only two hours. One farmer said 'If I'd known beforehand, I would have brought samples with me'.

Gender sensitive programme design and planning in conflict affected situations. Research Report.

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:19:00 GMT

Miscellaneous J. El-Bushra, A. El-Karib and A. Hadjipateras 2002 8 pp. This report outlines a project intended to contribute to the reduction of poverty and suffering through enhancing gender-awareness in the design and management of development projects in contexts affected directly or indirectly by conflict. It aimed to achieve this by increasing understanding of the gender dimension of conflict, both for the humanitarian community and for development practitioners. The project sought to address two particular questions, namely how do gender relations change as a result of conflict? and how might conflict itself be fuelled by aspects of gender identity? It also examined the strategic and research implications of these findings for project design. The project ran from April 2000 to December 2001: field research was carried out in Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Mali and Angola, with complementary desk studies for Eritrea and Rwanda. These case studies, and reports on workshops conducted by the project, are published in separate Annexes [not available].

Maize Innovation Platform celebrates its first birthday in Rwanda's Eastern province

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Maize is an important staple crop in Rwanda with the potential for export if production can be significantly increased. The DFID-funded Research into Use Programme is working with a network of local partners to achieve that aim through a Maize Innovation Platform in Rwanda's Eastern Province.

DFID Supports World Malaria Day 2009

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:00:00 GMT

DFID is supporting a range of research projects alongside programmes to scale up interventions already known to be effective in the control of malaria

Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information - PERii - 2008 Annual Report and Country Coordinators Reports

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:43:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 INASP, Oxford, UK, 15 + 51 pp.

Following a brief description of the PERii goal, purpose and outputs, the work conducted in the following areas, listing the key achievements for 2008, is described: Country partnerships and coordination; ICT Training; Information delivery: access to international research; Publishing support; and Library development. The final parts of the report cover the INASP management and coordination, progress against Log Frame OVIs; and work plans for 2009.

Appendix 1 consists of the Country Coordinators Reports for Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. After a brief introduction, each report covers management and funding in 2008, activities in 2008, achievements and challenges, sustainability, and an overview of plans for 2009.

Quality Matters - the EdQual Newsletter. Issue 4

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:18:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 Bristol, UK: EdQual. January 2009, 12 pp. The feature article in this issue presents the views of four circuit supervisors in Ghana on quality education, on their responsibilities, and on the challenges associated with their supervisory roles. Topics covered in other articles include evaluation of quality, and inspection of educators' work in South Africa.

Crisis States Research Centre. Annual Report Oct 2007 Sept 2008

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 38 pp. Progress on outputs and impact is reported.

id21 natural resources highlights 3. Land.

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Miscellaneous id21 2006 IDS, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 4 pp. This issue includes the following short articles: Legal titles to land are not enough in Nicaragua; Stronger land rights improve forest management in Indonesia; Rwandan orphans denied land rights; Bringing the earth back to life in Western Kenya; Challenges with property rights for improving access to water; Alternatives to slash and burn agriculture in Bangladesh.

EdQual Workshop Report No. 8. Research methods training and planning workshop.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:25:00 GMT

Miscellaneous E. Sibomana 2008 Workshop of the ICC and ICT projects, 24-27 June 2007, Kigali, Rwanda. 19 pp. This workshop was organized by EdQual KIE under the auspices of the Research Programme Consortium on Implementing Education Quality in Low Income countries. The objectives of the workshop were:

1. To improve the capacity of KIE Researchers in Collaborative Action Research.
2. To streamline working modalities between the ICC and ICT projects in Rwanda and South Africa.

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions.

Implementing Curriculum Change Project. Workshop Report No. 2. Research methods & planning workshop.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:53:00 GMT

Miscellaneous M. Mholo 2008 Workshop held 24-28 July 2006, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. 22 pp. The presentations and discussions at this workshop held to plan research methods and activities are summarized.

Impact Evaluation of Performance-based Contracting for General Health and HIV/AIDS Services in Rwanda

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:39:00 GMT

Current The global shortage of human resources for health care delivery is reaching crisis conditions in the poorest countries, adversely affecting the lives of millions and preventing achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (Chen 2004, World Bank 2005). The deficit of well trained and highly motivated health care workers in developing countries is a reflection of the high levels of absenteeism (Chaudhury et al forthcoming) and worker emigration to richer countries (Stilwell et al 2004). This research will provide some of the first rigorous empirical evidence on whether Performance Based Contracting (PBC) for health services is a feasible method for improving quality of care, increasing access to quality health care services, and significantly increasing health outcomes. It will also be the first study of PBC in the African context. This work is especially timely since the human resources crisis, lack of progress towards the MDGs, and health needs of the poor (esp. HIV/AIDS and malaria) are the greatest in Africa. The knowledge generated by this research will not only fundamentally serve the Rwandan government, World Bank and other donor agencies as they prepare for expansion of PBC for health services within Rwanda, but also the international community as it searches for more effective means for addressing the human resource crisis in health care. We propose to evaluate the impact of a new performance-based contracting (PBC) scheme for health care services being implemented by the government of Rwanda for basic preventive and curative health care services and HIV/AIDS treatment. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to identify the impact of performance based contracting on provider behavior, patient utilization and health outcomes. We will observe how incentive-based payment affects behavior, while also studying health care utilization for both preventative and curative care among poor, rural populations. The obstacles facing the Ministry of Health in Rwanda are those which face the majority of poor, developing countries. The objective of this research is to determine the viability of performance-based contracting in health services as a means for overcoming these obstacles in health care. Through extensive data collection and analysis at the facility and household level, our research will provide invaluable evidence on how PBC impacts provider behavior, patient utilization and, ultimately, health outcomes.

Improved treatment for sleeping sickness

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A new combination of drugs has been successfully trailed by the DFID-funded Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative as a treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Supporting science journalism in Africa and the Middle East

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A dozen new teams of science journalists from different countries across Africa and the Middle East trained through the DFID-funded SjCOOP Programme are collaborating on science related stories

Latest edition of the New Agriculturist focuses on potato as alternative staple, and global use of water.

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:00:00 GMT

The New Agriculturist edition 2008-05 reports on interesting initiatives to promote potato as an alternative staple in an economic climate where food prices continue to affect the poor, and highlights concerns over global use of water.

The contribution of post-basic education and training to poverty reduction: evidence from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:28:00 GMT

Current

For 25 years within the World Bank, and increasingly within other multilateral and bilateral agencies, education and particularly primary education have been held to have a powerful relationship with many other development outcomes, and, through these, with the reduction of poverty more generally. This primacy of primary education is symbolised in its position as a Millennium Development Goal (MDG), and hence within DFID as an element in their Public Service Agreement (PSA).

The present research builds directly on this foundation role for basic education, but extends it to examine in what ways and under what conditions post basic education and training (PBET) can also be expected to contribute to poverty reduction. It considers the extent to which PBET can provide skills and knowledge necessary for countries to develop capacity to reduce poverty and to ensure that the full benefits of basic education can be harnessed.

To synthesize state-of-the-art research on the potential contribution of post-basic education (secondary, tertiary and skills development) to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and poverty reduction.

Dissemination of project outputs will be promoted throughout the project's lifecycle, and beyond.
Outline the project ideas to an international meeting on capacity development in JICA, Tokyo.
Present the findings of the first data collection phase to the annual meeting of the Working Group on International Co-operation of Skills Development.
Use the Centre of African Studies Occasional Paper series to publicise findings from all the teams.
A special project meeting will be organised end-on to the major Oxford Conference to review a preliminary result from both phases and to feed selected papers into the main conference. Project dissemination will occur.
A special issue of Norrag News will be published (and aid policy bulletin) on the theme of learning capacity and poverty reduction.
Encourage submission of articles by junior team members to some of the following journals with which they are closely associated: Compare, IJED, Journal of Modern African Studies, BOLESWANA Educational Research Journal, African Affairs and NIEPA Journal.
At the end of the project, the main DFID report will be submitted and it is expected that the project would also feature as part of the DFID Education Papers.

Organisation of a special panel in the 2004 Conference of the Development Studies Association. This first paper was published, in 2005, in a special issue of the Journal of International Development supported by DFID, appropriately entitled 'Bridging Research and Policy'. Our DFID research chapter will also appear in the book of the same title to be published in the summer of 2006.
Six country studies were all completed in near to final draft by March 2005. It was possible for them all to be available as background papers, by the time of the Centre of African Studies' (CAS) International Conference in Edinburgh in April 2005. This CAS Conference was itself deliberately oriented around the key themes of the DFID project, and hence the published volume from the CAS conference, Revisiting Education, Training and Work in Africa (CAS October 2005) set the DFID research on five African countries within a larger African context.
Workshop (April 2005) with high level policy makers from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and India in order to get early feedback on the research from these senior members of the policy community.
The individual country studies were versioned into academic papers for the UKFIET's Oxford International Conference on Education and Development, September 2005. This panel was entitled 'Educating and Training out of Poverty', and thus was organised in large part around our DFID research theme. All the DFID country studies that were presented in Oxford were also accepted by the International Journal of Educational Development.
Country studies translated into short, sharp Policy Briefs. These are on the website (http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/research_and_publications/projects/projects-2006.htm) along with the country studies and the academic versions of the papers. But packages containing the Policy Briefs, the Executive Summaries of our country studies and the country studies themselves have been sent to carefully selected policy makers in each of our research countries. The same package was also sent to the DFID advisors' meeting in Nairobi in early 2006.
It also proved possible for our DFID research to be fed into the main donor agencies concerned with the relationship of skills and poverty reduction. Both in the Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development and in the European Training Foundation in November and December of 2005 respectively, major presentations on Skills and Poverty Reduction were made at these agency meetings in Italy. While a little earlier in the year, the results of our DFID work were also presented to a meeting of all of USAID's education advisors in Washington.
The summaries of our six country studies along with many other articles on the Education-Poverty Reduction relationship have been a key element in the Aid Policy Bulletin, NORRAG NEWS NO. 37, which was published in May 2006.
A further opportunity to present the results of the research was in the biennial conference of the African Studies Association of the UK in SOAS in September 2006.
Final synthesis report

Crisis States Research Centre - Phase 2

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:59:00 GMT

Current Continuation of Phase 1 To examine and provide an understanding of processes of war, state collapse and reconstruction in fragile states, and to assess the long-term impact of international interventions in these processes. Ultimately, to advance understanding of the processes of state collapse that are at the heart of problems of insecurity and poverty. To examine and provide an understanding of processes of war, state collapse and reconstruction in fragile states and to assess the long-term impact of international interventions in these processes. Through rigorous comparative analysis of a carefully selected set of states and of cities, and sustained analysis of 'global and regional axes of conflict', to identify the symptoms of state collapse, why some fragile states collapse while others do not, and the ways that war affects future possibilities of state building. It is planned to distil the lessons learned from past experiences of state reconstruction to inform current policy thinking and planning.

Implementing Quality Education in Low Income Countries (EdQual)

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:40:00 GMT

Current

EdQual seeks to open up the black box of schools and classrooms to identify educational processes that constitute quality teaching and learning and create quality schools. The RPC uses comparative cross-national qualitative methods of action research and case study to identify effective teaching and leadership practices and strategies that can be implemented in existing conditions. These are complemented with secondary data analysis of a large dataset on school quality, which will identify indicators of quality relevant to the African context. Most of EdQual's research is conducted in sub-Saharan research, the world region with the lowest enrolment ratios and achievement rates. EdQual involves policy makers and practitioners in determining research priorities and in designing practical solutions.

EdQual's five large scale projects focus on:

Teaching and learning of science and mathematics with new curricula in South Africa, Rwanda and Pakistan
Use of ICTs to enhance teaching and learning of science and mathematics in Rwanda and South Africa
Transition in language of instruction and use of bilingual language strategies in Tanzania
Leadership and management of primary schools for quality improvement in Ghana and Tanzania
Identifying indicators of education quality relevant to the sub-Saharan African context through secondary analysis of the SACMEQ (Southern and East African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality) II dataset.

Themes that cut across all projects are:

Raising gender awareness
Meeting the needs of disadvantaged learners
Developing strategies for remote and overcrowded learning contexts
Empowering teachers as reflective practitioners
Developing the capacity of partner institutions in Africa to become centres of excellence in one of the five project areas.

To generate new knowledge to assist governments in low income countries and international aid agencies to implement basic education initiatives that will improve the quality of education in ways that will benefit the poorest people in the world and will promote gender equality. 1. Have developed new knowledge and a set of indicators for assessing the quality of education in sub-Saharan African countries. With the move towards greater access in education, quality is increasingly an issue. Fed into discussion for DfID white paper. To be targeted at African governments once work is complete.

2. Have developed resources to assist policy makers and practitioners in designing and implementing new curricula in science and mathematics in South Africa, Rwanda and Pakistan. These have targeted the need to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills and have ben taken up by Gauteng department of Education in South Africa.

3. Have developed resources to assist policy makers and practitioners to make best use of available ICTs to improve learning outcomes in science and mathematics in Rwanda and South Africa. Teachers are unprepared to make optimum use of ICTs that already exist. Take up by teacher trainers in Rwanda.

4. Have developed resources to assist policy makers and practitioners improve levels of language and literacy in the mother tongue and language of wider communication in Tanzania and Ghana. This is to address limited capacity in teaching in mother tongue and in language of wider communication. Take up by teacher trainers in Tanzania and Ghana.

5. Have developed resources to improve the effectiveness of school leadership in Ghana and Tanzania. Leaders are unprepared to cope with challenges of implementing education MDGs. Findings being developed into toolkit for dissemination across Ghana/ Tanzania with Ministry support.

Peer to Peer Development and Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World - the Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP)

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current The WFSJ is a Canadian non-profit, INGO representing science and technology journalists associations. Its members are national, regional and other international associations of science and technology journalists. It serves to further science journalism as a bridge between scientists and the public. Its goal is to improve the quality of science reporting, promote standards and support science and technology journalists worldwide.

The Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP) has four main objectives. They are;

The professional development of science journalists in the developing world
The establishment of national and regional associations of science journalists in developing countries
Establish the WFSJ as a support to science journalists and associations in the developing world
Establishment of relationships between scientists and the media

This peer-to-peer mentoring project was successful in mentoring and graduating 32 science journalists, creating an online course in science journalism, fostering science journalists associations in Africa and the Middle East, supporting local activities of these associations, and creating international twinning arrangements among associations. Networking and contacts among journalists were highly valued and were directly linked to: improved training; reduced feelings of isolation; enhanced opportunities for twinning of associations; the development of local initiatives; and a sense of community among science journalists.

The Extent and Nature of Absolute Poverty

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current To produce cost-effective and efficient ways of eradicating poverty, it must be defined and measured accurately. Social science research shows that, whilst all cultures have a concept and definition of poverty, these often vary. Until the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen there was no agreed definition. However, the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action included the preparation of national anti-poverty plans based on measures in all countries of 'absolute' and 'overall' poverty. 'Absolute' poverty is defined as ,a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to social services., This research will provide reliable scientific estimates of the extent and nature of absolute poverty in the world, based on the definition agreed to by the government of 117 countries at the 1995 World Summit on Social Development and within the framework of International Human Rights Conventions. This research will provide reliable and valid scientific measurements of the extent and nature of absolute poverty of adults and children, by operationalising the internationally agreed definition. Without good comparable measures of poverty, it will be impossible to determine if any anti-poverty policies are working effectively and efficiently.

Disability and healthcare technologies KaR programme.

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current Since late 2000, DFID has supported a new inter-disciplinary knowledge and research (KaR) programme, which sought to support the development and application of appropriate technologies, which aim specifically to improve the health and quality of life for poor people in developing countries. This KaR programme provided support for 18 projects, mostly selected through open competition, under two themes:

*Minimising the detrimental effects of disability on the lives of poor people

*Improved health care technologies and infrastructure for poor people. Appropriate technologies, aimed specifically at improving the health and quality of life for poor people in developing countries, developed, adopted and in widespread use, supported by adequate management and technical capacity. High quality new knowledge and sustainable new technologies for poverty focussed health care and new approaches to the provision and management of health facilities and ancillary services to meet the needs of poor people, available in developing countries.

High quality new knowledge and sustainable new technologies, that effectively combat the detrimental effects of disability on the lives of poor people, available in developing countries.

International review of bacterial wilt caused by Pseudomonas solanacearum

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Completed This project was originally established as a one year study with three objectives:
To carry out a detailed international-scale review on bacterial wilt caused by P.solanacearum in order to provide a comprehensive account of the present knowledge base and guide future work, bring together information about crop losses, foster international collaboration between DFID-funded research projects and overseas institutes and adapt and implement inputs from these projects to national agricultural programmes.
To initiate research on strains of Pseudomonas recently identified as the cause of bacterial diseases of banana in Indonesia and the Philippines, establish specific research goals and priorities and identify potential collaborating institutes.
To review the prospects for renewed DFID research on coconut lethal yellowing disease, which is actively spreading in Central America and threatens cultivation throughout Central and South America.
Additional duties were to assess requirements and coordinate inputs for research on other bacterial diseases, so as to provide greater continuity of research, improve access to UK expertise for overseas research groups and encourage broader application of research results.
The project was extended to two years in March, 1990 to allow completion of overseas travel, follow up research proposals with contacts made during the review missions, completion of the P.solanacearum review publication and increased research input to a related project (X0071). International review of bacterial wilt caused by Pseudomonas solanacearum Survey visits were made to the Americas, Caribbean and E.Africa and collaborative links established with national research programmes in Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mexico and Grenada and with CIP in Peru. Bacterial isolates were obtained from these sources and used to set up a centralised culture collection and database for Pseudomonas solanacearum and related organisms. Screening of the collection for bacteriophage and bacteriocins was started and temperate phage were isolated from several cultures.

Isolates of the bacterium causing banana blood disease in Indonesia were characterised. Results showed that this organism differed from strains of P.solanacearum causing Moko disease in the Americas and it will be described as the new sub-species.

The status of coconut lethal yellowing in Mexico was reviewed and a proposal was made for renewed research on the disease, to take advantage of improved diagnostic techniques.

Strain identification, detection of latent infection and integrated control of P.solanacearum are problems requiring particular attention. International efforts are needed to compare banana diseases in America and Asia and investigate new sources of resistance, and to limit the impact of coconut lethal yellowing disease on small farmers in Mexico and Central America.

Studies on the distribution and identification of bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) in Africa

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Completed The objectives of the project were:
To identify the strains of Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV) occurring in Phaseolus growing areas of Africa and to investigate their ecology
To investigate the pathogenic variability of these strains and to preserve the strains for future use in resistance breeding programmes
To produce a map of strain distribution in Africa
To select and provide the most appropriate strains for use in BCMV resistance breeding programmes in different African locations
To develop new serological procedures for identifying and distinguishing different BCMV strains in the field and in the laboratory
To study the importance of legume weeds species in the ecology and epidemiology of BCMV. The project was completed on time and within the budget. Knowledge of the distribution of different strains of BCMV in Africa.

A diagnostic assay for BCMV. Phaseolus beans and other legume potential hosts of BCMV in Uganda, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zaire, Burundi and Kenya were surveyed, and samples received from other countries. Both necrotic (serotype A) and non-necrotic (serotype B) strains were identified: necrotic (including a temperature dependent) strains were widespread except in Ethiopia

non-necrotic strains occurred infrequently except in Ethiopia.

All typed strains have been preserved at HRI

many have been sent to African national breeding programmes.

Ployclonal antisera to five strains have been developed and a viobacterial agglutination test developed for field use. New information on host range, particularly in African legume weeds, has been obtained.

Uganda: Germplasm evaluation project (HOLDBACK FUNDS)

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Completed The wider objectives of the project are:
To identify of elite genotypes for potential release to farmers in Uganda and subsequently the whole Great Lakes countries (Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire)
To preserve a genebank of banana/plantain cultivars vulnerable to extinction and those with breeding potential.
The immediate objectives are:
To evaluate resistance/tolerance to Black Sigatoka, Fusarium wilt and other pathogens infecting the plant
To evaluate resistance/tolerance to weevil/nematode pests
To evaluate yield and plant growth characteristics
To evaluate nutrient requirements
To evaluate post-harvest qualities and food palatability
To evaluate farmer participation in cultivar evaluation and selection
To characterise management packages and socio-economic aspects. Several of the imported cultivars are acceptable to farmers and serve all the purposes for which bananas are traditionally used. FHIA-0I was acceptable as a cooking banana which can also be eaten as dessert and squeezed to provide juice. The results indicate that this cultivar is resistant to black Sigatoka, Fusarium wilt and banana weevil, and is tolerant of banana nematodes. All FHIA-01 hybrids appear to be more drought tolerant than the local bananas. FHIA-01 was identified as an ideal food security crop in the areas often hit by drought in Uganda. Farmers have already shown a lot of interest in the cultivar. The KARI banana programme has received orders for over 300,000 plants from areas where the cultivars are tested. More orders are expected, but the multiplication of planting materials is proving to be a major constraint.

It is anticipated that, with the continued importation and evaluation of more cultivars, better material than FHIA-01 will be identified. FHIA-01 does not produce higher yields than the local checks in areas where black Sigatoka is absent. All cultivars rated as acceptable by the post harvest test panels were recommended to exporters for trial shipments in the region and overseas.

UK project boosts Rwandan science

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:00:00 GMT

SciDev.Net article describes how a DFID-funded project aims to improve Rwanda's science, technology and innovation infrastructure

Launching Research into Use: enabling the poor to benefit from research

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:00:00 GMT

A multi-million pound DFID-funded programme that aims to maximise the poverty-reducing impact of previous research on natural resources has been launched in Johannesburg

What has culture got to do with HIV and AIDS?

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Initial findings of a project to analyse cultural approaches to HIV/AIDS highlight a need for a shift in donor culture

Media and the Rwanda Genocide

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:00:00 GMT

The Crisis States Research Centre and POLIS to host a panel discussion on 'The Media and the Rwanda Genocide'

R4D Rwanda

Africa Power & Politics. Annual Report 2 (2008-9)

Steven explains how a plant clinic operates

Save Plant Clinic, Rwanda

Gender sensitive programme design and planning in conflict affected situations. Research Report.

Maize Innovation Platform celebrates its first birthday in Rwanda's Eastern province

DFID Supports World Malaria Day 2009

Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information - PERii - 2008 Annual Report and Country Coordinators Reports

Quality Matters - the EdQual Newsletter. Issue 4

Crisis States Research Centre. Annual Report Oct 2007  Sept 2008

id21 natural resources highlights 3. Land.

EdQual Workshop Report No. 8. Research methods training and planning workshop.

Implementing Curriculum Change Project. Workshop Report No. 2. Research methods & planning workshop.

Impact Evaluation of Performance-based Contracting for General Health and HIV/AIDS Services in Rwanda

Improved treatment for sleeping sickness

Supporting science journalism in Africa and the Middle East

Latest edition of the New Agriculturist focuses on potato as alternative staple, and global use of water.

The contribution of post-basic education and training to poverty reduction: evidence from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa

Crisis States Research Centre - Phase 2

Implementing Quality Education in Low Income Countries (EdQual)

Peer to Peer Development and Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World - the Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP)

The Extent and Nature of Absolute Poverty

Disability and healthcare technologies KaR programme.

International review of bacterial wilt caused by Pseudomonas solanacearum

Studies on the distribution and identification of bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) in Africa

Uganda: Germplasm evaluation project (HOLDBACK FUNDS)

UK project boosts Rwandan science

Launching Research into Use: enabling the poor to benefit from research

What has culture got to do with HIV and AIDS?

Media and the Rwanda Genocide

Crisis States Research Centre. Annual Report Oct 2007 Sept 2008