AGRI90093 Chap.7 Building an Extension Strategy
Building an Extension Strategy
An extension strategy is a connected argument about change rather than a list of activities. The six-step process moves from desired change to goals, outcomes, people, engagement and enabling resources, with review between decisions. This chapter tests causal joins, distinguishes practice from events and uses economic, human, social and psychological capital to determine whether a design can operate in real settings.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Desired change in practice, systems, culture or a combination
- 02
Goals that are intelligible, achievable, tangible and suited to evaluation
- 03
Outcomes negotiated early and separated from program outputs
- 04
Affected and influential people, capacity, preference and role
- 05
Engagement selected after stakeholder and mechanism analysis
- 06
Economic, human, social and psychological resources that enable action
Worked example · free
Repair a soil-testing strategy
- 1Define the desired practice as a documented sampling and interpretation routine.
- 1State capacity and practice outcomes instead of using attendance as the change.
- 1Segment participants and combine a practical demonstration with first-result advice.
- 1Resource laboratory cost, adviser time and accessible timing before claiming nutrient effects.
Key terms
- Desired Change
- The specific difference sought in practice, systems, culture or their combination.
- Human Capital
- The knowledge and skills available to support action.
- Social Capital
- The relationships and networks through which people gain support and resources.
- Psychological Capital
- Confidence, identity, hope and resilience that affect readiness and sustained action.
Building an Extension Strategy FAQ
What are the six steps in an extension strategy?
Define the desired change, set goals, identify outcomes, identify who must be involved, plan engagement and identify enabling resources. The steps are connected rather than isolated. Later choices should be checked against earlier commitments and revised when context or evidence changes.
Why should engagement be chosen after stakeholder analysis?
A favourite format can easily be imposed on people whose roles, access, preferences or capacity differ. Stakeholder analysis identifies who is affected and influential, what participation requires and how learning may occur. Engagement can then serve the mechanism rather than forcing people into a preset channel.
What resource categories should a plan consider?
Economic capital concerns what people have, human capital what they know, social capital who they can reach and psychological capital who they understand themselves to be. Time, labour, trust and confidence can bind even when financial resources appear adequate.
Assessment move
Memorise the six steps by drawing the serpentine path, then practise reading cases forward and backward. Forward reading checks whether each design choice follows from the last. Backward reading begins with a claimed outcome and asks which practice, capacity, engagement, people and resources support it. For each resource category, identify a plausible constraint and one design response.
Remove events disguised as desired change. A strong strategy answer makes every causal join explicit and finishes with evidence that could challenge or refine the plan. Create a one-page design brief before drafting prose. State the problem in contextual terms, name the actors whose practice matters and define the desired change as an observable difference rather than an event.
Add the capacity conditions that make the practice possible and the theory-based mechanism that links extension work to those capacities. This sequence forces the strategy to explain change instead of beginning with a favourite activity. Walk the six-step pathway forward with because statements.
The context matters because it shapes feasibility or motivation; the desired change follows because it responds to that diagnosis; the selected people matter because they influence or experience the change; the approach fits because it activates a named mechanism; and the resources are necessary because they support delivery and adaptation. Mark any join that cannot be completed without vague language.
That gap is a design problem to investigate, not a sentence to hide. Perform the backward test from every higher outcome. Ask which practice could plausibly contribute to it, which capacities support that practice, how the engagement portfolio develops those capacities and which actors and resources enable the work. Add assumptions at each transition.
If several outcomes depend on the same unsupported leap, narrow the claim or revise the design. Backward tracing is particularly useful for finding activities that are busy but causally isolated. Prepare a resource ledger covering people, relationships, knowledge, time, finance, infrastructure and organisational authority.
For each category, record what is available, what is missing, how the constraint changes design and whether a partner can supply it. Include coordination costs and the practical work of facilitation, monitoring and revision. A strategy that names only a budget overlooks the relationships and permissions on which implementation may depend. Close with an adaptation plan rather than a static declaration.
Select early evidence about participation, capacity mechanisms and implementation quality, identify who will review it and state which parts of the strategy can change. Distinguish evidence for improving delivery from evidence for judging outcomes.
In the final edit, remove duplicated activities, align terminology across the context, outcome and evaluation sections, and verify that stakeholder analysis has altered at least one consequential design choice.
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