• As part and parcel of its paradigm shift—that is, from service delivery to community empowerment—ASE has changed its approach from "training" its target groups to learning together with them as per its new approach: participatory learning. Likewise, having turned its back on "teaching", it has been facilitating learning, and instead of trying to "transfer knowledge", it has opted for knowledge sharing. It, however, goes without saying that such a drastic shift of approach requires enhancing the capacities of its staff. Moreover, the shift compels ASE to come up with a home-grown methodology and tools for efficiently facilitating community learning sessions with the farmers it is serving. ASE is greatly encouraged by the collective ability and readiness that its staff have so far manifested to quickly adopt its new approaches, which give preponderance to participatory learning and facilitation. The effort it has hitherto made towards the realisation of its participatory innovation development programme has not, however, been as yet able to bear the desired fruit.
• Community training has all along been ASE’s core function and particular to it. And its own development agents (DAs) have been giving the training. ASE has, however, gladly noticed that the Ethiopian Government has of late adopted a similar approach and that establishing farmers’ training centres and offering farmers courses in agriculture has now become the core duty of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. As a result of that, nonetheless, there are now certain questions that ASE’s Strategic Plan will have to find appropriate answers to—including the following:

• Should the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and ASE run such training programmes in the same kebele simultaneously?
• Should ASE continue to deploy its own development agents to give this training as it has been doing all along?
• ASE has been implementing its adult and non-formal education programme mainly by organising community-training programmes that encompass social learning, participatory research and development as well as functional adult literacy. ASE has, of course, been implementing a number of other adult and non-formal education initiatives such as correspondence education in agriculture for farmers, community radio education and ACCESS as well. All of these initiatives, ASE believes, will help enable it to attain its strategic goal of becoming a centre of excellence in community learning.  In the last strategic plan period, a number of activities that should have helped ASE attain this goal were initiated and implemented. Nevertheless, because they were not undertaken as seriously as they should have, and due to the fact they were not institutionalised within ASE, they were not able to. ASE will have to, therefore, come up with a carefully prepared roadmap this time round—that is, a roadmap that will definitely help it become a centre of excellence in community learning.
• The Government’s plan to establish FTCs, assign for them trainers and train farmers in agricultural skills presents ASE with an opportunity to work with it (the Government) towards attaining their common goal. The FTCs are aimed at developing human capital in the rural areas of Ethiopia—which is a goal that ASE, too, has been trying to attain. The FTC approach is, however, new to the Government. That means, translating it into action will inevitably be quite difficult for the extension workers it will deploy, given the fact that they lack the appropriate experience. ASE, on the other hand, has gained rich experience in these areas—that is, in community training, communication, facilitation, participatory research and development, as well as in promoting indigenous knowledge and local innovations, etc. So it is well positioned to help improve the competence of the Government’s extension workers who will be assigned to run the FTC. ASE will have to, therefore, figure out how it could work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to that end.

ASE’s 36-year experience in community-learning-related activities is a huge asset for the organisation in this regard. ASE’s ambitious plan to become a centre of excellence in community learning is, therefore, justifiable. Moreover, despite the critical need of the country for adult and non-formal education, there are only very few agencies (governmental and non-governmental) that are trying to address this issue in an organised and systematic manner. Obviously, many of the NGOs in the country are involved, in one way or another, in community education. We, nevertheless, know of no agency or organisation that was established for the sole purpose of making a difference in the sector at the national level. Excellence is all about developing the right competence, ensuring richness in information about and knowledge of the chosen theme, competence in research work, developing effective models and the capacity needed to answer academic and practical questions and providing policy options to the Government and pertinent institutions.  ASE will have to, therefore, make sure that it has fulfilled all these indicators before trying to become a centre of excellence in community learning (participatory learning and action). Building a centre of excellence normally takes more than four, even five, years. Still, ASE will lay the foundation thereof during the current strategic period as follows:

• Develop a community-learning model (participatory learning and action) that is in line with the reality on the ground, so far as Ethiopian farmers and pastoralists are concerned. The model should consist of a clear conceptual framework, methodological approaches and tools.
• Develop and produce audio-visual and printed materials of good quality that are compatible with the rural settings of Ethiopia. ASE has to develop the delivery techniques of these materials, too. 
• Initiate, implement and share experiences in correspondence education in agriculture and other topics for smallholder farmers and pastoralists who live in remote areas, or for those who have little or no learning opportunity.
• Initiate, implement and share experiences in Community Radio, the main purpose of which is educating the people about contemporary issues and helping them to develop their culture, languages, values and social capital.
• Continue to institutionalise the concept of participatory innovation development (PID), the core function of which is the participatory learning of all the pertinent actors. ASE should take the lead in demonstrating the process, methods and products of PID, as an adult learning function. 
• Establish CBIs that may adopt participatory learning as a basic principle of life.
• Establish a training centre where frontline development workers of NGOs and of the Government could be given skills-training in communication, facilitation and innovation.
• Establish a national database of the practices and experiences of the agencies that are involved in community learning in the country.
• Spearhead the forging of a national community-learning network (participatory learning and action).
• In close collaboration with universities and other interested agencies, conduct researches on community learning, participatory innovation development, ACESS and others.
• Enhance the capacity of ASE’s staff and thereby make sure that most of them are well versed in such fields as agricultural extension, agricultural education, communication skills, facilitation skills, participatory innovation development, knowledge management, participatory approaches to research and development, participatory learning and planning, monitoring and evaluation, rural sociology, etc. This capacity can be enhanced through on-the-job training, by sending staff members to institutions of higher learning and recruiting staff that are conversant in some of the above-mentioned disciplines.
• Initiate knowledge management activities by identifying Good, Bad and New practices in community learning and by organising learning and sharing events with partners.
• Be actively involved in the formulation and review of policies governing agricultural extension, adult and non-formal education, etc.
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