But my questions are:is it always advisable to be collaborating is collaboration always beneficial.I stand to be corrected
Hello all,
We have come to the end of Week 2. Thank you for all your contributions. This topic was all about your understanding of collaboration and sharing the kind of collaboration you are involved in.
I believe even those that have been confused now are clear on what collaboration is all about. It all comes down to two or more people working together towards shared goals. This means in collaboration there will be teams involved in processes for a certain purpose.
In terms of the kind of collaboration you are involved in, I will quote just one for now, even though a number of you shared as well:
The list shows different ways one can collaborate with a stakeholder. We should note though that there is a difference between collaboration and cooperation. Some of the relationships radio stations form with stakeholders are more of cooperation than collaboration. When you don’t have an agreement (formal or informal) of working together for a particular goal then you are only cooperating. Inviting an expert to share his or her expertise on a certain topic through an interview with no shared vision or goal is asking the expert to cooperate with you as a radio station. They might pitch up or disappoint you because there is nothing binding them to assist in the program. It is until both parties negotiate to partner or work together on a particular program would you consider it collaborating.
I would also like to thank the resource people @Yakubu and @bfiafor for their input.
Enjoy your weekend!
Fantastic lessons have I learnt so far. Thanks be to FRI for the privilege given to us at Ejulenen Community radio, Igbodigo, Ondo State Nigeria
Collaboration means working in partnership with other stakeholders be it government departments, farmers organisations or committees and fellow radios or non governmental organisations. These collaborations can be according to the areas of specialization or expertise of the entities joined together. Therefore, government departments may be good at organising farmers into meaningful groups, NGO bringing new innovations, famers experimenting the new innovations, and a radio or NGO as is in my case publishing the experiments, success stories and progress through radio, social media, television and other channels.
The example of such collaboration that s Story workshop areas is doing with the department of Land Resources of Ministry of Agriculture, agrodealers in areas of seeds, fertilzer and other farm inputs with support from AGRA. This collaboration is promoting area specific fertiliser.
The other collaboration was on under-five child nutrition issues. Was promoting production and utilisation of locally grown nutritious foods that complete s balanced diet. In case of Malawi, we call them six food groups. This was a collaboration of various ministries that are in a concept of Care Group System. Some of these ministries include, Education, Agriculture and other. The other organisations included the World Relief International, Red Cross, and Catholic Relief Commission. The project of Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) was funded by UNICEF.
The advantage of such collaboration is that they respond to farmers needs and demands to easily from input supplies, innovation information, to production of an end product. It can even complete the value chain by simply add market/processers in the partner making the collaboration even more relevant to the farmer.
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@Busi_Ngcebetsha: Good summary and distinction between collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders and broadcasters.
Critical elements for effective collaboration (a binding agreement, the establishment of clear cut aim/goal, targets, roles and responsibilities of parties and honoring of agreed terms).
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Collaboration means joining hands together to achieve a particular target.
We collaborate with NGOs, experts and agro inputs dealers. Even prominent farmers.
How can collaboration be funded jointly? How can you discontinue a partner who is not abiding by the agreement of collaboration?
Jaspher Okello from Radio Pacis in Uganda
Thank you Yakubu for further clarification too.
Thank you Busi for summary, it is now so clear to me.
In my country, there hasn’t been any meaningful collaboration between stakeholders and broadcasters for better farmer programs. The few stations that include farmers programs in their programming do so because they will be short of content. Despite that, I feel effective collaboration is possible and could work very well if stakeholders collaborate with local media. This is to enable farmers to really understand because the language that should be used is local one. If for example,the stakeholder collaborate with national broadcasters, most farmers are left out because the programs will be in English (that is the case in Southern Africa).
In most cases, subsistence farmers don’t get enough knowledge concerning farming. The local media, community radio, becomes an effective to disseminate that vital information. The main challenge in my neighbourhood is the lack of trust between the stakeholders and broadcasters. There’s no longer a “neutral community”… owing to the political polarisation. At the turn of the century, the country embarked on a fast track land redistribution program which was meant to give many landless blacks an opportunity to farm. Since there was a lot of talk around the program, there is suspicion among stakeholders. There are those who suspect that broadcasters are interested in undermining the agrarian reform program.
The 11 elements are indeed essential and are necessary for improving our collaborations.
I did not tell you people who l collaborate with, though it is obvious that number one are the farmers whom l present programs for; the my managers and fellow preseners/Cohosts, the the extension workers for technical/ agricultural info and advise, Officials from different government and non governmental organisations. Cooperative societies and farm equipment and appliances sellers.
How do l identity who to collaborate with? This depends on the issue at hand. What do l want, what does it concern but most of all it is determined by what the farmers’ needs and inerests are at that particular time. It could be problems that need solutions thus the collaboration will depend on this.
Collaboration is the process of two or more individuals or organization working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. In short, it is a process of different organizations or individuals with common goal of achieving the agreed task.
I can give the example of my institution I work for and Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU). We are working in collaboration with the union in producing quality and more informative agricultural radio programs.
We, as broadcasters provide a platform for the union to talk to its members (farmers) on various issues that affect, benefit or even lobbying on behalf of them.
The program is designed in a such way that it opens and closes with ZNFU sig-tunes but we plan for content. We are the producers of the program.
As broadcasters, we are benefiting from this collaboration with the union because farmers feel like the program is their own hence it has a large audience.
This has led to many stakeholders in agriculture sector to have confidence with us and they are always willing to participate, advertise or feature during the radio program. Of course, this can be at a fee.
The union from time to time, it provides us a reliable resource personal who understands the subject matter or topic to the benefit of the farming community. Farmers are also invited to feature on the program at no fee.
It is a Win - Win collaboration. We are providing the platform for the union to talk to or on behalf of farmers and they are providing resource personal for the radio programs at no cost. We are also using their corporate reputation to source sponsors of the program. The purpose of this collaboration is to reach out as many farmers as possible so that they can be more informed on issues that affect them in their daily lives.
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Collaboration is a production or creation made by collaborating that is to work together with others to achieve a common goal. Before farm radio programme will be successful you have to involve farmers that is visiting them on field or interviewing them. A host collaborating with farmers especially helps the farmers a lost . mine station for instance i normally invite the leaders and few of the farmers within the farmers Association to voice out their problems at the same time Agric officers being on the platform to answer their questions. And one thing I have learnt is you the host got more experience because you are working with the farmers. And also collaboration between a farmer and a host gives them the chance to share their ideas with you. Not only farmers you can try Agric officers ,
Agragators,traditional councils, District Assembly and other resource people to collaborate and that really help the programme forward.
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Collaboration can seen in the area of involving key Stakeholders in implementing a sustainable media program.
In my media work, I make sure I engage all stakeholders (Extension agents, contact farmers, community heads, correspondent etc) to ensure sustainable in my media production
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In my own little knowledge and understanding collaboration means to collaborate with an organization or company or even an individual in order to advise their products or Program and the prosite is use as revenue to support the radio station
My names are philip ndegwa from Kangema ranet fm in central Kenya.Collaboration is where by people make it easier for a specific task or project to be done or achieved,example in African context there were people who collaborated with white=colonialists to achieve there gender of white dormination.What makes collaboration effective is corporation and mutual understanding between all people involved.
A post was merged into an existing topic: Week 1: Introduction to agriculture and climate change discussion
Joseph Abby Tembo… Collaboration it means working together with other stakeholders in order to achieved a common goal. The farmers themselves who are the community members, Agriculture camp officers. NGOs and
some Government institutions. And out of that we all the share the benefits.
Collaboration is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation.