RuralNet Associates Limited is a development consultancy company, established in August 1999 in Lusaka, Zambia. As a development consultancy, RuralNet focus primarily on facilitating rural and urban poverty reduction through livelihood improvement by providing appropriate expertise and professional skills that help deal with development challenges. RuralNet has considerable experience in various d
evelopment disciplines. The firm has 15 full time professional staff with a good administration support. In addition, the firm has over 30 Associates in Africa and abroad. Over the years, RuralNet has undertaken a wide range of assignments for national governments, multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, international and local NGOs, academic institutions and think tanks and other consultancy companies. After more than 10 years of consistent and high profile provision of advisory services and products, RuralNet Associates Limited was in 2012 restructured bringing on board a number of consultants who work in the following thematic areas:
Community Driven Development - Focal areas under this theme include: community economic development (such as creating linkage to the markets); community capacity building (empowering communities to plan and initiate development); social capital formation (e.g. health, education, water and sanitation); political participatory development (e.g. adaptive governance systems, political and fiscal devolution); community-based natural resource management including climate change adaptation; asset-based community development (e.g. infrastructure development); community-based participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME); community mobilization; gender equity; Participatory identification of key development issues at community and district level; and, Facilitation of district and community strategic planning;
Monitoring and Evaluation – Areas covered have tended to include the following aspects of M&E: (i) Designing and assessing performance indicators; (ii) Facilitating the design of logical frameworks; (iii) Undertaking various types of surveys – baseline, mid-term and end-term surveys; (iii) Rapid appraisals; (iv) Participatory assessments; (v) Public expenditure tracking surveys; (vi) Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis; and, (vii) Impact evaluations. RuralNet has accumulated an impressive track record of providing well received deliverables in this area. Human and Social Development - Two mutually reinforcing sub-themes have been at the heart of this thematic area. The first is the analysis of processes by which capabilities are expanded. Access to education, skills development and health services have featured very prominently in this sub-theme. Included as well has been access to many other services and resources that help to endow human capabilities such as water and sanitation, infrastructure, shelter, financial resources, physical assets and natural resources. Analysis of resources at the command of households/communities to pursue their wellbeing including sustainable livelihoods has provided a holistic framework for this sub-theme. The second is the analysis of processes and contexts in which the acquired capabilities are deployed to achieve wellbeing goals. The way in which societies organize themselves in terms of socio-political institutions and cultural norms that shape intra- and inter-household allocation of resources has been central to activities undertaken under this sub-theme. Social Protection and Vulnerability Analysis – RuralNet has since inception been very active in the area of poverty and vulnerability assessments. We have tended to use a threefold approach to the analysis of vulnerability: (i) Examining the nature of risks to which the vulnerable are exposed to; (ii) Analysing the transmission mechanisms of the adverse effects of shocks; and, (iii) Assessing the coping mechanisms available to the vulnerable. All these take place within an integrated analytical framework of how households and communities build their wellbeing from three dimensions– outcomes (resources a person is able to command, what they are able to achieve with the resources and the meaning they give the goals they achieve and how they think of what they have), structures (the social and economic context in which wellbeing takes place) and processes (time and the processes that generate wellbeing outcomes). Agriculture and Food Security - The many activities RuralNet undertakes under this thematic area can be grouped into three broad areas:
1. Programme design RuralNet has helped to design many agricultural projects/programmes in Africa.
2. Project/programme implementation This has been the case since 2003 with RuralNet mobilizing personnel to implement particular aspects of projects to help small farmers raise productivity and link them to the markets.
3. Evaluations and special studies RuralNet’s special understanding of rural livelihoods is widely sought after in evaluations, lesson learning and special studies assignments across Africa. Environment Management and Climate - A number of issues treated under this thematic area have included: (i) Land tenure systems; (ii) Land information systems and GIS; (iii) Natural Resources inventories; (iv) Natural resource use planning; (v) Natural Resources legal frameworks; (vi) Adaptive governance systems and community participation for natural resource management; (vii) Capacity development; (viii) Vulnerability Assessments to Climate Change; (ix) Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change; and, (x) Design of Projects/Programmes for climate change adaptation. For a detailed profile of RuralNet Associates Limited please do visit RuralNets’ profile at http:/www.ruralnet.co.zm
After more than 10 years of consistent and high profile provision of advisory services and products, RuralNet Associates Limited was in 2012 restructured bringing on board a number of consultants who work in the following thematic areas:
Community Driven Development - Focal areas under this theme include: community economic development (such as creating linkage to the markets); community capacity building (empowering communities to plan and initiate development); social capital formation (e.g. For a detailed profile of RuralNet Associates Limited please do visit RuralNets’ profile at http:/www.ruralnet.co.zm
