Social Norms
Social norms action with informed and engaged societies
Social Norms
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
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Documenting Traditional Knowledge in Yunnan - China

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The Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS) is working to assist farmers with documenting their traditional agricultural knowledge in their own language. The main purpose of the programme is to help these farmers become economically autonomous within their communities; ultimately, farmers would discover, develop, and improve the market value of their local produce. Simple Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools such as a tape recorder are used. Programmes produced are broadcast on the radio.
Communication Strategies
The focus of programme activities is as follows:
  • Traditional knowledge (TK) documentation and exchange to alleviate poverty in Lancang county
  • Use of TK to develop traditional products to increase farmers' income in Mojiang county
  • Development of indigenous biodiversity educational modules in local language as part of an E-kit to rescue the endangered minor language of Bai.
 Tape recorders are utilised to capture the knowledge of the community elders for use in Bai schools, which are set up to train the local Bai youth in their endangered language, crafts of the community, and their appreciation of TK. ICT is used to enhance the learning process with local content (enabling the local Education Bureau to extend indigenous experiences and knowledge to other nationalities while accomplishing academic recognition for the school and the graduates.)

Special programmes on the value of TK and its role in alleviating poverty are generated by local farmers and scientists. The Yunnan Radio Station produces these programmes in order to promote communication between communities as well as farmers. Farmers can use the programme to better understand the relationship between their TK and modern knowledge, as well as its market potential. Farmers in the local community share traditional cultivation management, traditional use of processing technologies, and special management knowledge on the conservation of genetic resources. A tape recorder enables the farmers to produce papers for re-use by the community as well as publication in The IK Journal. This information focuses on biological resources, like plant genetic resources, that specific to certain local environments. Abstracts of tapes have been published in the YAAS Science and Technical Journal.
Development Issues
Agriculture, Economic Development.
Key Points
Programme organisers claim that the agricultural research policies of the current government in the Peoples' Republic of China have been and continue to be market-oriented. However, the deep-rooted sense of tradition instilled in farmers, they say, has kept TK alive. The YFSTA has 100,000 members.

In 2001, this project helped spawn a project to manufacture the Sulima juice - a juice extracted initially by the Mosu community in the Ninglang county.
Partners

Yunnan Radio Station, the Yunnan Farmers' Specialist and Technician Association (YFSTA), the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).

Sources

Chapter 2 ("Insights from Existing Initiatives") of "Unlocking economic opportunity in the south through local content: A proposal from the G8 Dotforce" by Peter Armstrong, OneWorld (Editor); Chris Addison, Consultant; Subbiah Arunachalam, MSSRF; Peter Ballantyne, IICD; Hugo Besemer, Consultant; Diane Cabell, Harvard Law School; Pete Cranston, OneWorld; James Jeynes, Accenture; Barbara Keating, OneWorld; Eric Saltzman, Berkman Center, Harvard Law School; John West, Consultant - March 2002. For a copy of the full report, please see Open Knowledge Workspace page on DGroups site, which can be accessed from DGroups site. Or contact Peter Armstrong, Director, One World peter.armstrong@oneworld.net

Comments

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/30/1999 - 00:00 Permalink

Miles of blank margin, left and right, but miniscule font size. Any particular reason for wanting to make the smallest type too small to see???

Editor's note: Many thanks for your comments. The blank margin on the left and right was created due to our attempt to size our site so that people with older, smaller computer screens would be able to view the entire site in one screen, without scrolling left or right. We are assessing this now, 5 years into this initiative, to see if this is still a reality or if we should expand the width of the content within the site. The type size may be a function of your browser? Perhaps try going to View: Text Size and changing it to be larger? We generally use size "2" font, with the occasional size "1".

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/05/2008 - 16:15 Permalink

My name is Sue and I am a consultant developing TK recodring in Malaysia.
I find this page very useful because the message is precise and clear.

Keep up the good job!