Reflection on innovation processes in a smallholder goat development project in Mozambique

There is an increasing interest among researchers, practitioners and donors in using agricultural innovation system approaches to reach development outcomes. Limited practical experiences have been shared on the dynamics of these innovation processes and how project partners have dealt with that. The objective of this paper is therefore to share experiences from a smallholder livestock development project – the imGoats project in Mozambique – by reflecting on the dynamics of innovation processes in the project. The paper focusses on three intervention domains of the imGoats project: improving access to animal health services, improving market access and developing communal grazing areas. For each area, the innovation process was analysed by looking at the following elements: the local context, innovation type, actors involved, people taking the initiative, changing context, flexibility of project partners, pace of the process, and results. The findings demonstrate that the innovation processes of the three intervention domains varied considerably in terms of participation of actors, predictability of the process, expected and unexpected results and degree of experimentation. Hence, different innovation processes coexisted in the same project context, but were closely interrelated. Each addressed a particular constraint, which together contributed to the overall development objective of the project, though each innovation process was different. These findings and challenges have implications for research, practice and policy. For example, the dynamics of innovation processes may vary and depend on the intervention domain; this asks for a critical reflection on the role of research, facilitation and brokering in each of these cases. Hence, innovation processes require flexible management and should allow for joint experimentation and learning among project partners, stakeholders and decision makers; it also requires flexibility in project design and donor funding so that not only ‘obvious’ interventions are catered for, but also unforeseen developments

Relevance judgements in information retrieval

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this documentThesis (DPhil (Information Science))--University of Pretoria, 2005.Information Scienceunrestricte

The age of Aceh and the evolution of kingship 1599-1641

The evolution of Acehnese kingship is examined against the background of its relations with European traders and the tradingports in the region of the Malacca Straits. There are two defining moments in the history of Aceh: first the arrival of the Portuguese in Malacca in 1511 which gave impetus to Aceh's rise as a local power. The dispelling of the Portuguese from Malacca was the constante in Aceh's policy. The second moment was the arrival of the northern Europen traders from 1599 onwards.European presence in the Straits and beyond profoundly impacted on the region's development.Fusion and fission were part of the changing geo-political scene of the period of this study.Aceh's dominance in politics and trade was the marked feature of the period 1599-1641. A military partnership with the Dutch,later the VOC,was a marked feature of the period examined. Although the two partners failed to meet their obligations and they quarrelled,ther relations continued. The conquest of Malacca in 1641 by the VOC happened without the actual help of Aceh. Aceh's powerful role diminished.LEI Universiteit LeidenColonial and Global Histor

Extracting Relevance and Affect Information from Physiological Text Annotation

We present physiological text annotation, which refers to the practice of associating physiological responses to text content in order to infer characteristics of the user information needs and affective responses. Text annotation is a laborious task, and implicit feedback has been studied as a way to collect annotations without requiring any explicit action from the user. Previous work has explored behavioral signals, such as clicks or dwell time to automatically infer annotations, and physiological signals have mostly been explored for image or video content. We report on two experiments in which physiological text annotation is studied first to 1) indicate perceived relevance and then to 2) indicate affective responses of the users. The first experiment tackles the user’s perception of relevance of an information item, which is fundamental towards revealing the user’s information needs. The second experiment is then aimed at revealing the user’s affective responses towards a -relevant- text document. Results show that physiological user signals are associated with relevance and affect. In particular, electrodermal activity (EDA) was found to be different when users read relevant content than when they read irrelevant content and was found to be lower when reading texts with negative emotional content than when reading texts with neutral content. Together, the experiments show that physiological text annotation can provide valuable implicit inputs for personalized systems. We discuss how our findings help design personalized systems that can annotate digital content using human physiology without the need for any explicit user interaction

Towards the Legal Recognition and Governance of Forest Ecosystem Services in Mozambique

Within the context of Mozambique, this paper examines the state of forest ecosystem services, the dependency of the population on these systems for their well-being, if an adaptive governance regime is being created which will ensure the resilience of the forest ecosystem services including the legal framework, the institutions operating within this framework, the tools available and their functioning, and how cooperative governance is operating.  

Between the East and the West: the wanderings of a Javanese \u27tribe\u27 (a contribution to the study of diaspora communities

Abstract: The village of Tongar nestled in the Minangkabau highlands of western Sumatra in Indonesia is the epitome of a unique Javanese transplant, which has its beginnings in the former Dutch colony of Suriname, South America, where, starting from 1890 onwards until 1939 immigrants from the island of Java followed a five year contract as indentured labourers, and choose to settle after expiration of the contract. But decades of disillusionment, discrimination and not in the least fragmentation within the group laid a solid basis for the decision in favour of repatriation to Indonesia. At the crucial moment of universal suffrage in 1951, 75% of the Javanese rejected Dutch nationality and were therefore regarded by the colonial government as aliens. In 1954 a number of one thousand people left Suriname for Sumatra to start a new life as Indonesian citizens. Keywords: wanderings of a Javanese \u27tribe\u2