ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, evaluations of “development” interventions have been primarily framed by five specific evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability) promulgated by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Efforts to reconsider these criteria have focused on adapting to shifts in global development goals, rapid technological advancements and intricacies of development efforts within the broader system. However, these efforts have been limited in their ability to question the (Eurocentric) structures, values, and knowledge systems upon which the criteria are founded. Through a decolonial lens, this article traces the historical origins of the OECD DAC evaluation criteria, highlighting their Eurocentric foundations and the power imbalances inherent in their framing. It explores how the criteria prioritise Western knowledge systems and interests, marginalising alternative perspectives and knowledges outside the OECD donor context, and considers what such alternate framings might contribute to decolonising the established evaluation paradigm.

ABSTRACT Extension services are crucial for sustaining livestock-based livelihoods; currently, multiple agencies provide these extension services. This research examines farmers’ access to and frequency of contact with major livestock extension service providers, which are instrumental in increasing productivity and income. Data were collected from 276 farmers (138 farmers from each of two service providers) and regression models were employed to study the proposed research problem. Results revealed that farmers’ age, education, and leadership style have positive effects and gender has a negative influence on access to university extension service providers. Further, farmers’ experience, leadership style, land holding, crop cultivation, and social participation have varying levels of positive influence on the intensity of farmers’ access to extension services. Overall, contact intensity with the extension system was less gender inclusive but more inclusive of marginalised farmers. Developmental agencies need to consider the above factors while implementing livestock promotional activities as a tool for sustainable development.

ABSTRACT Whose knowledge counts? Communities in developing countries have long been the subjects of research. Knowledge production, however, takes place at multitudinous levels, and inquiry by those on the inside of study can offer a paramount perspective in understanding phenomena directly related to, or about, them. This article presents research and insights of four Cambodian community members who became researchers and led studies using the Cambodian home-grown methodology Facilitative Listening Design. They conducted research on what they describe as their own “communities”: blind women, Indigenous women, ethnic minority women, and LGBTIQ+ individuals. In a dialogic process with both “insider” community and “outsider” academic researchers, they contribute their knowledge to this article as co-authors, not subjects, and weave their insights into a larger collective inquiry on contemporary hierarchies and politics of a global “knowledge game”. Through their contributions, which shift power by re-telling research in their own words, knowledge is shown to be contingent, subjective, and shaped by relationships of power – to which their work illustrates that not only does their knowledge count – but it is epistemologically critical.

ABSTRACT Gender equality in agriculture is crucial to ensuring food security and economic development. This study provides new empirical evidence of the gender gap in rice productivity from the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar. The Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition reveals that seasonality affects the gender disparity in productivity. Women managers are 7 per cent less productive than men in monsoon paddy production, with 95 per cent of this gap explained by structural effects. Plots jointly managed by women and men outperform those managed by either women or men alone in summer paddy production. Divorced women account for a large portion of the productivity differential among non-married women. Addressing Myanmar’s gender rice productivity gap requires season-specific interventions to meet women’s unique needs and challenges.

ABSTRACT This article examines Latin American pracademics bridging academia and activism in women's and gender studies, a field shaped by feminist movements and scholarly innovation. While research on pracademics often focuses on those combining academic work with professional practice, this article explores activist scholars whose practice involves social movement engagement. Drawing on interviews with feminist academics and activists in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, it analyses how academic and activist identities interact and evolve. Its findings reveal feminist activism has transformed academic institutions through new teaching and research approaches, while academic knowledge has informed movement strategies and policy reforms. The study also identifies a potential emerging shift in how newer generations of feminist pracademics balance these dual roles, raising questions about the future relationship between feminist scholarship and activism. This analysis contributes to broader debates about knowledge production, institutional change, and the role of academia in social transformation.

ABSTRACT This article analyses how emerging digital financial infrastructures potentially contribute to the principles of the New International Economic Order (NIEO). Specifically, it considers how digital financial technologies (fintech) drive economic transformation, potentially empowering Sub-Saharan nation-states to better manage the structural challenges of their economic environments. Our view is that, while financial technologies are oft-maligned as private market-based ventures that escape state regulation, they nonetheless have the potential to promote financial inclusion and enhance financial sovereignty, thus contributing to national development strategies and the goals of the NIEO.

ABSTRACT This viewpoint discusses the importance of a legal and institutional framework that makes pracademia sustainable for engagement or for the transfer of knowledge to communities that Ecuadorian universities do. It argues that a virtuous integration of national higher education laws on engagement, plus institutional conditions provided by universities, allows relevant pracademic action that fosters development. Ecuadorian law’s definition of engagement as a substantive function guides universities’ work to contribute to the development of communities. After analysing three engagement programs carried out by pracademics, it is found that universities comply with national higher education regulations. However, the achieved results also depend on the pracademics’ and university’s ability to assess actors, generate incentives for collaboration, assess the benefits and results of engaging with actors, and design engagement programs with a pracademic focus. This suggests laws and regulations regarding engagement, and its compliance by universities, as an important topic for pracademia.

ABSTRACT The agricultural innovation systems (AIS) approach holds promise for researchers seeking to gain deeper understanding of how actors, norms, and knowledge interact and drive improvements in the agricultural sector in developing countries. However, use of the AIS framework in empirical research is limited and conceptual and operational frameworks are needed. In this paper we have created a conceptual framework for how innovation platforms (IPs), a unique type of multistakeholder meetings, contribute to the AIS approach by fostering innovation, networking, and performance. The conceptual framework is then applied to a case study of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems (LSIL). Findings from the case study analysis showed the meetings fostered innovative thinking, strengthened networks, and shared knowledge among actors. While the generalisability of the case is limited, the study demonstrates how future research could use the conceptual framework for advancing knowledge around AIS and IP meetings.

ABSTRACT This study examines youths’ decision to participate in agriculture and agribusiness from an agricultural knowledge lens. Data collected from 520 respondents across Ghana were analysed descriptively and inferentially. The results show the influence of different levels of science-based (objective) agricultural knowledge on youths’ participation in agriculture and agribusiness, in addition to subject knowledge. Similarly, the findings reveal that gender, having family and friends engaged in agriculture, and participating in capacity-building training influence youths’ participation in agriculture and agribusiness. Agricultural experience, age, and education significantly shape objective agricultural knowledge. The policy implications of these findings are discussed and strategies for promoting the acquisition of objective knowledge and scaling up youths’ participation in agriculture and agribusiness are provided.