Less is More: the 5Q Approach

Andy Jarvis of CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) in Colombia will test a new feedback approach, involving cycles of five simple questions asked to relevant stakeholders, to see whether it can promote the success of agricultural projects in developing countries. Involving local farmers in the design and implementation of agricultural projects is important but mostly bypassed because it is time-consuming and often impractical. To address this, a simple cyclical approach will be designed and tested to collect feedback over the course of a project to monitor progress and inform decisions. The cycle is initiated by a set of five selected questions on a specific project posed to farmers, project implementers, and donors. A web platform will be built to publish the responses, enable the data to be discussed by all stakeholders, and allow subsequent decisions to be communicated via video across all groups. This should lead to a new set of five questions to begin the next cycle. He will engage stakeholders to evaluate the approach to see whether it can increase participation and provide quicker feedback.