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Relates only to the contingent environment I am proposing to work in.

The change has three aspects:

1. Stop accepting that the outcome cycle for this environment can’t be changed.
2. Stop assuming that charities / NGOs are the way to solve the problems.
3. Stop assuming primary stakeholders can’t take control of, (and own), the processes and resources for change.

Critical success factors for the intervention (as seen at present prior to a design thinking session).

• Uses appropriate methodology that ensures that primary stakeholders are centralised on their terms
• Processes can be explained simply
• Processes can be replicated
• Processes can be adapted

Towards the end of the Project Four brief, under “some additional factors to consider”, is the bullet point question “Have you seriously considered what would happen if this change occurred?”

If I demonstrate that this is useful work, and I could deliver not just the intervention but also then do it for real…

…..am I compelled to do this?

If I don’t, does it undermine the project?

If I feel compelled, does that impact the research phase as I become a new type of stakeholder?

Who?

As a person?

Born and raised in England, near a river and a wood. Steeped in a concentrated old school social system of pubs, football, music, travel, and carrying on. Middle of three brothers.

Parents from the North East and they had it much tougher. They got out by going to grammar school and then university.   

I’ve a varied career mainly in automotive industries and higher education (business schools). I still work in the automotive sector as a consultant and spend some time at a business school focusing on project management executive education

As a researcher? My curiosity? MAAI participation?

Interested in how and why things work to improve performance and resilience through better design.

Taking a year to reenergise and realign for the next ten years.  

My values?

Straight up, straight down and try to treat people the same way.

Capitalist.

Why this project?

Subsistence farmers – primary stakeholders – have a lot of potential value.

Secondary stakeholders can help build resilience.

I think I can do a good job of bringing out the potential value using previous experience, education, what I learn on MAAI and my approach to getting stuff done.

Where?

Malawi

• Per capita GDP c. $ 600 pa
• c. 7% of rural population have access to electricity
• c. 25% of the population is mal-nourished
• c. 35% of children are stunted
• adult female literacy at roughly 62–67% compared to over 75% for men

This is a direct result of long-term poor governance.

Positionality checklist

Duarte (2017) says that positionality requires researchers to identify their own degrees of privilege through factors of:

Race?                   Is what it is.

Class?                 Middle. My parents worked very hard their entire lives from very poor backgrounds. We benefitted and never forget it and them.

Education?        OK state schools. Left early and worked hard since.

Income?             Worked hard for it.

Ability?                Natural, the product of a good upbringing, and hard work.

Gender?             Is what it is.

Savin-Baden and Howell-Major 2013 develop positionality as referring to where a researcher stands in relation to their research participants and “reflects the position that the researcher has chosen to adopt within a given research study”.

Thanking the authors above, I chose to use the latitude given to adopt a commercial position in that the intervention will only work if the participants can turn the output into a successful commercially viable outcome.

Approach

Probably…………..maybe both inductive and deductive at the end but abductive at the start and in the middle or not

Paradigm.

Socio-critical and / or pragmatism

Ontology

Reality is king

Practicality is table stakes

Epistemology

Knowledge can be developed and therefore changed. Knowledge is developed by iteration within a measurable framework.

Methodology

Mixed – desk research, interviews, action research

Question types

To be developed

Critical success factors

To be developed

Sources and engagement

• Two visits to Malawi in 2025. Met and discussed governance issues with ministers, banks, and chamber of commerce.
• Ran three successful workshops which successfully tested engagement methodologies for small groups.
• Multiple conversations with Martin the Farmer (scale crop farmer and forester).
• Tiyeni are an active NGO in Malawi who have done great work but struggle with sustainability of outcome.   

Reflection

Thinking this through, the project is viable and valuable.

Multiple execution and measurement challenges to be worked on. As noted by Jaques and Salmon (2007)

“Learning how to work with specific primary stakeholders. Groups do not exist in a vacuum; they are part of a social network and a physical or virtual environment in which the learners exchange experiences and share values at different levels”.

Duarte, M.E. (2017). Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet Across Indian Country. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Jaques, D., & Salmon, G. (2007). Learning in Groups: A Handbook for Face-to-Face and Online Environments (4th ed.). Routledge.

Savin-Baden, M., & Howell Major, C. (2013). Qualitative Research: The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice (1st ed.). Routledge.

Tiyeni https://www.tiyeni.org/

Subsistence farming is a dirty business.

For many or most subsistence farmers, the activity consumes more calories than it produces.

The lack of scale makes mechanization unviable, so subsistence farming is structurally less efficient than scaled-up farming.

Subsistence farming is exposed to climate change and unpredictable weather due to a lack of irrigation.

Subsistence farming is often limited to certain times of the year due to its inability to manage inputs including water.

Subsistence farming cannot easily store or preserve its output, so any market value is short-lived.

Subsistence farming cannot easily pack and / or process its output to add value or to access more lucrative markets.

Subsistence farming can only sell locally, and at the spot price. Farmers directly compete with their neighbours, in the same market at the same time.

Subsistence farmers are continuously at physical risk from accidents and wear and tear.

Subsistence farmers often have no legal title to their land and few means of getting one.

Subsistence farming produces little or no reliable excess so farmers cannot create capital as a wealth store or to leverage it. 

Most subsistence farmers struggle to break out of this cycle. Potential solutions struggle to break into this market.