What's this research all about?

By way of introducing Nepal and sharing some of the things I have learned about it, I will tell you a little more about what my research is looking into.

This research has several fundamental objectives for me personally and hopefully in a larger sense for others. The first, is as a student working towards an MSc in Capacity Development and Extension, through this project I am practising skills which will be valuable to me later on in my career.  Capacity building as a practise is a 'values based practise', a process that looks at the systemic interaction of the individual, the institution and the societal levels and how they work to inhibit or allow for change in

My Coady International Institute Crew… Capacity building in Nova Scotia
and taking the learning home to share with their organizations.

people's lives.  This research is taking that approach and recognizes that the knowledge, skills and experiences of the research participants themselves should be at the centre of the story that emerges from the data.  It also posits that they are part of a larger system and the layers of this system interact to enable or hinder change from happening.  An actual definition of Capacity Building is debatable but these are some of the core values seen in the literature.

My research will probably not solve world peace or hunger issues in one fell swoop, but it will give me the tools I need to think and look critically at the environment around me. It will teach me about context, and how complex and unique and important context is in better understanding every community that I engage.  It will also contribute to a new body of knowledge and will hopefully push the frontier of what is known and add to it a new perspective and new information on things.

Specifically I am investigating gender relations and whether they are holding smallholder farmers back from achieving a well rounded livelihood as well as further commercialization of their farm business.  My thesis holds the feminist perspective at the core and asks the question, what is the experience of women in a more commercialised farm business and what is their perceived sense of empowerment?

So that is the quick and dirty overview of my research question but I'll fill in a few more details about the Nepal agriculture context next.