President Lawrence H. Summers and Provost Steven E. Hyman May 16, 2005Harvard's Task Forces on Women Faculty and on Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) today released their final reports, following an intensive, three-month period of inquiry and analysis. The Task Force recommendations, which are based on broad consultation within the University and with peer institutions, propose various measures to enhance the diversity of the faculty ranks at Harvard across all fields and to improve the climate and prospects for faculty once on campus. They also propose a series of reforms and enhancements to the way women pursuing science and engineering are treated at every point along the "pipeline" from undergraduates, to graduate students, to post-doctoral fellows, to the faculty ranks.

Stür, W. 2001. Participatory research for productivity enhancement of smallholder ruminant livestock systems. ILRI - PRGA capacity-building workshop, KARI Agricultural Research Centre Muguga, Nairobi, Kenya, 7-11 May 2001.The Smallholder Dairy Program at the International Livestock Research Institute has the aim of improving the livelihood of smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya through improvements in productivity, marketing and the policy environment. Some of the participants had used PRA tools in their work in a consultative mode. There was little experience with collaborative or collegial types of participation. The workshop was designed to provide participants with    * guiding principles and a framework for participatory research and development    * basic skills needed for using participatory approaches    * practical tools for evaluating technologies with farmers    * action plans for incorporating participatory methods in their daily work.

Africa Rice Warda webpage New Rice for Africa (NERICA) Offers Hope to Women Farmers and Millions More,April 2005Bintu clears brush from new land, then plants rice seeds of the Asian rice species that entered Africa about 450 years ago. But Asian rices—developed for high-input irrigated farming—can’t compete with the weeds on Bintu's rainfed farmland, which soon take over. So, after a crop or two, Bintu must clear more land.She would rather plant the traditional African rice species that her ancestors grew. It has wide, droopy leaves that smother weeds, and has thrived in harsh environments for 3500 years. The African rice also resists drought, acid soils, and local pests that plague the Asian rices.

Horton, D., A. Alexaki, S. Bennet-Lartey, K. Noële Brice, D. Campilan, F. Carden, J. de Souza Silva, L. Thanh Duong, I. Khadar, A. Maestrey Boza, I, Kayes Muniruzzaman, J. Perez, M. Somarriba Chang, R. Vernooy, and J. Watts. 2003. Evaluating Capacity Development: Experiences from Research and Development Organizations around the World. ISNAR/IDRC/CTA. 188 pp.The international community is placing a growing emphasis on developing local capacity as the key to alleviating poverty and hunger in the developing world. Although ensuring the effectiveness of a capacity building effort requires appropriate use of evaluation, few organizations have implemented a system for monitoring or evaluating the changes taking place during organizational development. In January 2000, ISNAR began the ambitious Evaluating Capacity Development project, which aimed to improve capacity development efforts in research and development organizations through the use of evaluation.This book explains how the project used an action learning approach, bringing together people from various countries and different types of organizations. As they conducted six evaluation studies over the course of three years, project participants learned a great deal about capacity development and the process of evaluation. The authors use examples and lessons drawn from the evaluation studies as a basis for making more general conclusions regarding how capacity development efforts and evaluation can help organizations to achieve their missions.

Capacity.org is an initiative of the European Centre for Development Policy Management dedicated to advancing the policy and practice of capacity development within international development cooperation. Capacity.org focuses on both the "why" of capacity development - fostering debate on policy questions - and the "how" of capacity development - learning from practical experiences in the field. Capacity.org aims to "unbundle" the complex of ideas and practices surrounding this term. In particular, it aims to encourage perspectives and experiences from the South, to provide ease of access to related materials and topics, and to promote a virtual platform for exchange.Designed with development researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in primarily Africa and donor countries in mind, and drawing on publications, reports, viewpoints and experiences of individuals and organisations involved in capacity dvelopment work.Capacity.org offers a range of services to users:* A quarterly "newsletter" comprising a welcome letter, guest contributions, selected bibliography and abstracts of current information;* A virtual library providing access to full text publications, stored in a database and supported by a search facility;* Hyperlinks to related websites, including a list of organisations active in the field of capacity building, and a regular update of relevant programmes and events.