I had a chance to step back and reflect on what was happening in extension and evaluation while Robyn and I took an extended trip to Egypt and the Mediterranean earlier this year.  It was the incredible antiquities that you find in this hub of ancient and modern civilisations that leave you breathless – from pyramids to excavated cities of Pompei and Ephesus to leaning towers and the Roman Colosseum – vineyards that have been passed through the generations and old city walls and castles. It’s about legacy!

Our business is to evaluate projects and programs so we can learn from them – and capture their impacts and hence legacy! In extension, legacy is as much in the people who are engaged in the process (including those who undertake extension) as in the on-ground/in-business impacts that result from their programs. 

If we focus only on the adoption of the latest ‘widget’ or ‘practice’ emerging from research and development, we miss the bigger and more important picture of building individual social capacity and capability.  We need people to understand the story behind new technologies and approaches so they can weigh up its relevance and application to them – or whether they need to look elsewhere for the same benefits – and be ready to initiate, source and seek new innovation as it emerges around them. This is where the true progress will be made – in developing people skills, connections and critical thinking – and this should be the key focus for monitoring and evaluation.

I recently had the chance to participate in the Queensland DPI Extension Think Tank in Cairns – part of the Reef Program’s Integrated Engagement & Capacity Building project.  It was attended by over 60 extension deliverers across public, private and Natural Resource Management sectors. The day focused on three themes: Working with groups – learning together (Denise Bewsell, Scarlatti); Irresistible engagement (Les Robinson, Enabling Change); and Co-design in the Wild (Max Hardy and Anthony Boxshall, Science into Action).  These were delivered interactively, were seen as very relevant by participants and provided an excellent opportunity for learning together with others in different sectors also working in extension to improve reef outcomes. It was a great example of building capacity and capability in deliverers who themselves were in the business of working with farm owners and managers to build their capacity and capability.

Long live the legacies.