Short
Biodata Staff
profile

   

Name:

Paul Van Mele

Nationality:

Belgian

Position held:

Program Leader, Rural Learning and Innovation Systems

Year of Employment:

March 2005

Qualifications:

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2000 - PhD Wageningen University, the Netherlands
1992 - MSc Ghent University, Belgium

Specialization/Expertise: Farmer participatory research and learning, agricultural innovation systems, communication for development, project management, evaluation and documentation

Experience:

Worked for 7 years at Universities as lecturer and project manager and for 8 years at international agricultural research organizations (CABI, IRRI and WARDA) in numerous projects in Mediterranean, Africa, South America, Caribbean, South and SE Asia.

Major Achievements:

In 2003 he wrote the book 'Ants as Friends: Improving your tree crops with weaver ants', now translated in 4 languages and contributing to a revival of the use of endemic natural enemies in organic fruit and nut crops in Asia and Africa. Adult learning materials were developed for use in farmer training sessions, such as farmer field schools. The same year he edited the book 'Way out of the Woods: learning how to manage trees and forests'.

In 2004, he received the Industry Award for Effective Communication for the ‘Women-to-Women Rice Seed Health Video Project’, handed over by the International Visual Communication Association. The innovative video approach proved a major methodological breakthrough in facilitating farmer to farmer extension and nurturing partnerships with grassroots organizations.

In 2004-2005, he edited the book 'Innovations in Rural Extension: case studies from Bangladesh' and authored 16 chapters on gender, rural communication and seed systems. The videos and related publications on their production, scaling-up and impact are currently used as lecture material in various world-leading universities. As WARDA's Project leader on Partnerships, Learning & Innovation Systems, he continues coordinating the production of new educational videos and various research for development activities. The rice videos have been translated in 15 African languages by multiple partners in more than 10 countries, and reached millions of farmers in Asia and Africa.

Throughout his career he wrote over 100 publications and developed, managed and backstopped numerous research and development projects.