Paper short abstract:

A reminder that although much is known and understood about the attitudes and behaviors of effective development practitioners the same mistakes and oversights are often made. Christiansen's "What lessons have we learned? What lessons have we not learned? regarding development will be revisited.

Paper long abstract:

I often rely on, cite, and attempt to practice the words, rather wisdom, of a significant mentor regarding international agricultural development, especially when providing agricultural and extension education, i.e., those received from Dr. James E. Christiansen, formerly of Texas A&M University and deceased since 2018: “Underlying all successful development programs is the thread of paying attention to, involving, working with, collaborating with, giving responsibility to, and obtaining feedback from the intended beneficiaries of development programs, projects, and activities” (Christiansen, 2000, slide 9). Also explicated by his advice is the salient importance of recognizing and respecting a society’s norms. Christiansen had a nearly half-century long career as an agricultural and extension educator and scholar practitioner mostly at Texas A&M University with much of his field work having occurred in Iran and Latin America. His "prescription" for increasing the likelihood of successful development projects in which the agency of the beneficiaries is recognized, engaged, and used by development specialists was shared at the 16th annual conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Arlington, VA, 2000. His words were published in the conference proceedings or "gray literature" but, regrettably, were not shared in the parent organization's peer-reviewed journal or a similar publication by which wider dissemination would have likely occurred. Their weight and applicability, however, merited our attention then and continue to do so now. This panel contribution should elicit participant discussion that yields complementary insights and best practices for creating agency in and through agricultural development.