The poor record of aid operations after the withdrawal of donor support has led to an increasing interest in the topic of sustainability of aid. Making a contribution to this growing topic, the thesis examines the sustainability of the development work carried out by the Vi Agroforestry Programme (VIAFP) around Lake Victoria. By combining an interview study and a policy analysis, the research uses the practice of phasing out support and the experience during the latter (extensive) phase of the Programme as indicators for sustainability. The results show that (1) the coherent and flexible methodology of phasing out support, (2) the emergence of community-based and non-governmental organisations that take over VIAFP’s work after the withdrawal of its staff, (3) the examples of organisational learning that improved the practice of the Programme, and (4) farmer groups overcoming the challenges during the extensive phase, are strong signs of sustainability. However, further attention and work from the Programme is required when it comes to its role after terminating support, the financial sustainability of emerging organisations, women’s rights and the lack of carrying out any research after phasing out support to communities. Finally, the thesis highlights the practices within the Programme that increase its sustainability, as well as recommendations for further improvement.

The village-based microfinance approach Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) has been implemented in developing countries for three decades, and is found to be an effective tool in alleviating poverty and facilitating access to financial services in rural areas.  This study, done in collaboration with Vi Agroforestry, aimed to investigate the impact of VSLA activities on female empowerment in Rwanda, and more specifically, how women's access to and control over assets have been affected by VSLA participation. The term 'female empowerment' refers to the process by which women gain control and power over their own life situations and their ability to make strategic choices, that is, the capacity to turn choices into desired actions and outcomes.  A qualitative methodology has been used, where the main data collection consisted of six individual interviews with VSLA staff responsible for implementing, monitoring and evaluating VSLA groups in six different districts, and two focus group interviews with female VSLA participants in two different districts, carried out during April and May 2021.  The findings show that VSLA participation significantly accelerates the process of female empowerment in both household and community domains for women in Rwanda and that VSLA is an efficient first step in moving from a marginalised position in the society. However, women are still in many cases restricted from claiming all potential benefits from VSLA participation by structures that dictate normative gender roles and power structures. The findings highlight the importance of continued gender-related and financial training in order to further increase female access to and control over resources through VSLAs.

ABSTRACT Vi-Agroforestry communication has been studied to see how they use communication as a tool to attract donors. The aim is to be able to contribute to shed some light on the importance of image and text as a unified communication. Its about acknowledge what the sender (aid organization) sends out to tell potential donors. It examines how the organization communicates the problems they want to solve, which method they want to solve it with and why their organization should be the preferred option before the interest is gone by the recipient. By examine the reliability (ethos), the emotional connection (pathos) and the factual conviction (logos) of the Vi Agroforestry communication it helps to understand the organizations way of communicate with their listeners. The study examined Vi-Agroforestry communication through image and text. The author hopes to contribute to explore what an aid organization, like Vi-Agroforestry, choose to focus on regarding when they get to talk about their organization and their work. The organization has been analyzed based on the rhetorical basics to go on to see which framework they create their communications. / SAMMANFATTNING Vi-skogens kommunikation har studerats för att kunna se på hur de använder sig av kommunikation som verktyg för att locka givare. Förhoppningen är att kunna bidra med att öppna upp betydelsen av bild och text i sitt sammanhang vid kommunikation. Det handlar om vad avsändaren (biståndsorganisationen) skickar ut för att nå ut till potentiella givare. Det undersöks hur organisationen kommunicerar ut de problem som de vill lösa, vilken metod de vill lösa den med och varför just deras organisation ska vara det självklara alternativet innan intresset är borta hos mottagaren. Detta studeras med hjälp av att undersöka den tillförlitlighet (ethos), den känslomässig koppling (pathos) och den saklig övertygelse (logos) i Vi-skogens kommunikation. Studien studerat Vi-skogens kommunikation genom bild och text. Författaren hoppas bidra med att undersöka vad en biståndsorganisation, som Vi-skogen, väljer att belysa och fokusera på när de själva får berätta om sin organisation och sitt arbete. Organisationen har analyserats utifrån de retoriska grunderna för att gå vidare för att se vilket ramverk de skapar sin kommunikation.

<p>This Master’s thesis is one of two parts of a combined project called <i>Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria</i>, the purpose of which is to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The present study aims to investigate whether men and women are empowered by the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) process promoted in their villages by the VI Agroforestry Project Masaka/Rakai. </p><p>The study is primarily based on interviews with farmers within the project area and brings up a local perspective on the concepts sustainable development, active participation and empowerment. The study shows that to improve the farmers’ livelihood and to create a sustainable development in the community, the farmers have to be actively involved in, and in control of, the process. The people concerned are the ones who are most familiar with the local society and to make the development sustainable in a long-term perspective, activities and solutions need to be adapted to local conditions and circumstances. However, the farmers must first know what kind of development they want, i.e. where they want to go, and be aware of what means they may utilize to get there. In other words, the farmers need to be empowered before they can be in charge of their development process. </p><p>According to the interviews, the farmers are encouraged by the VI Agroforestry Project’s PRA process to discuss their present situation with each other, to develop strategies of how to improve it and to increase the collaboration within the villages. From this I come to the conclusion that the PRA process promoted in their villages has made the farmers more aware of their situation and better equipped to identify opportunities in their neighbourhood. Therefore, I argue that the farmers are empowered by the VI Agroforestry Project’s PRA process. </p><p>The study is published both as a Master’s thesis for the Environmental Science Programme, Linköping University and as a Minor Field Study for Sida. There are only editorial differences between the two versions.</p>

<p>During the years the awareness of gender issues has increased in the international arena and the importance of including gender aspects in development projects has been emphasised. This Master’s thesis is based on a case study of the VI Agroforestry Project (VIAFP) in Uganda and is one of the two subprojects of the study Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria basin, with the purpose to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The aim of this subproject is to investigate how gender roles among men and women in Kalisizo zone, in the Masaka and Rakai districts, in Uganda, affect the VI Agroforestry Project and if the project in return affects the gender roles. </p><p>The study is primarily based on interviews with farmers involved in the VIAFP activities in Kalisizo zone and shows that the project and the gender roles affect each other more or less in both ways. The women are somewhat more active in both farming and the activities connected with the household, and therefore also more engaged in the project activities and meetings. However, the gender roles have changed in the way that men have increased their interest in farming activities since they joined the VI Agroforestry Project. Both men and women involved in the VIAFP activities have more work on their farm than before they joined the project, but it seems as if they think it is worth the extra effort to gain more in the end. However, the project has to consider the fact that women often have a bigger workload to start with. </p><p>It is important for the VIAFP to adjust the activities and the feedback to different wishes and needs within the communities so that everyone feels they gain from the project activities, and also so that everyone who wants to participate at different activities have the opportunity to do so. Since the majority of the staff are Ugandans the ways of implying values from the North into the communities are less than if this had not been the case. </p><p>The study is published in two versions, both as a Master's thesis for the Environmental Science Programme, Linköping University and as a Minor Field Study for Sida. The differences between the versions are only editorial.</p>

This thesis is the result of nine weeks fieldwork in Babati and Bukoba districts in Northern Tanzania during spring 2012. The purpose of this thesis is to study why development projects on fuel-efficient stoves have had a limited adoption in these two regions and what obstacles and opportunities there are for further spread of fuel-efficient cooking stoves. Semi-structured interviews were the main method used for collecting the empirical data, which was then analysed from a socio-economic perspective with help from the framework of Sustainable Rural Livelihoods. The Results showed that people’s perceptions of fuel-efficient stoves are positive but that projects face many obstacles connected to socio-economic conditions. Knowledge on how to get stoves and access to financial capital is main obstacles for further spreading. Social networks and organisations are channels for information, but to spread outside these networks will need complementing strategies from organisations promoting fuel-efficient stoves. Important are also finding ways of making the financial aspect of adopting stoves less, like using materials with lower costs, using stove-models with low costs and training people in building stoves so re-investments are unnecessary and dependency of funding from organisations less. Gender is a factor affecting the adoption of fuel-efficient stoves, regarding access to assets and generated benefits. There is therefore an importance of involving gender throughout the different stages of the projects.

This Master’s thesis is one of two parts of a combined project called Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria, the purpose of which is to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The present study aims to investigate whether men and women are empowered by the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) process promoted in their villages by the VI Agroforestry Project Masaka/Rakai. The study is primarily based on interviews with farmers within the project area and brings up a local perspective on the concepts sustainable development, active participation and empowerment. The study shows that to improve the farmers’ livelihood and to create a sustainable development in the community, the farmers have to be actively involved in, and in control of, the process. The people concerned are the ones who are most familiar with the local society and to make the development sustainable in a long-term perspective, activities and solutions need to be adapted to local conditions and circumstances. However, the farmers must first know what kind of development they want, i.e. where they want to go, and be aware of what means they may utilize to get there. In other words, the farmers need to be empowered before they can be in charge of their development process. According to the interviews, the farmers are encouraged by the VI Agroforestry Project’s PRA process to discuss their present situation with each other, to develop strategies of how to improve it and to increase the collaboration within the villages. From this I come to the conclusion that the PRA process promoted in their villages has made the farmers more aware of their situation and better equipped to identify opportunities in their neighbourhood. Therefore, I argue that the farmers are empowered by the VI Agroforestry Project’s PRA process. The study is published both as a Master’s thesis for the Environmental Science Programme, Linköping University and as a Minor Field Study for Sida. There are only editorial differences between the two versions.

During the years the awareness of gender issues has increased in the international arena and the importance of including gender aspects in development projects has been emphasised. This Master’s thesis is based on a case study of the VI Agroforestry Project (VIAFP) in Uganda and is one of the two subprojects of the study Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria basin, with the purpose to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The aim of this subproject is to investigate how gender roles among men and women in Kalisizo zone, in the Masaka and Rakai districts, in Uganda, affect the VI Agroforestry Project and if the project in return affects the gender roles. The study is primarily based on interviews with farmers involved in the VIAFP activities in Kalisizo zone and shows that the project and the gender roles affect each other more or less in both ways. The women are somewhat more active in both farming and the activities connected with the household, and therefore also more engaged in the project activities and meetings. However, the gender roles have changed in the way that men have increased their interest in farming activities since they joined the VI Agroforestry Project. Both men and women involved in the VIAFP activities have more work on their farm than before they joined the project, but it seems as if they think it is worth the extra effort to gain more in the end. However, the project has to consider the fact that women often have a bigger workload to start with. It is important for the VIAFP to adjust the activities and the feedback to different wishes and needs within the communities so that everyone feels they gain from the project activities, and also so that everyone who wants to participate at different activities have the opportunity to do so. Since the majority of the staff are Ugandans the ways of implying values from the North into the communities are less than if this had not been the case. The study is published in two versions, both as a Master's thesis for the Environmental Science Programme, Linköping University and as a Minor Field Study for Sida. The differences between the versions are only editorial.