Women Participatory Evaluation of Video Impact Using Sustainable Livelihood Approach

Parboiling is an important rice processing activity that generates income for many rural women. Using the sustainable livelihoods framework to evaluate the impact of a farmer-to-farmer video on the improved rice parboiling technology, women in Benin rated capital stocks for the baseline year (2006) and the impact year (2009) on a 0-5 scale. Women who had watched the video and those who had not, but who lived in the same villages perceived a significant improvement in four out of five livelihood capitals while processors in control villages did not perceive any significant changes. Individual and group assessments using the sustainable livelihoods approach resulted in similar results, but were important for statistical analysis and for consensus building among women, respectively. Apart from testing the sustainable livelihoods conceptual framework as a participatory impact assessment tool for video-mediated rural learning, this study shows how farmer-to-farmer training videos helped to improve multiple livelihood assets.