The Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) serves as governance mechanism to ensure accountability of the Global Partnership Programme (GPP) to the Country Programmes (CPs), their constituencies and donors. The POG is made up of four people from the CPs, one from the International Support Team (IST) and three external people. Since its inaugural meeting in 2005 in South Africa, it has met face-to-face at least once, normally twice, each year; otherwise, it communicates by email. It has drawn up several policies and guidelines for the GPP. The Terms of Reference for the POG were originally drawn up by Prolinnova partners at their first meeting in Yirgalem, Ethiopia in March 2004 and have been revised periodically by the POG on the basis of experience

Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG)

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Hector Velásquez Alcántara (hvelasquez AT raaa.org.pe) from Peru is an agronomic engineer with a Masters degree in Agroecology. He is the Executive Coordinator of the RAAA (Red de Acción en Agricultura Alternativa / Network for Action on Alternative Agriculture), a Peruvian network that brings together NGOs, municipal governments and producer associations, among others. The network focuses on facilitating capacity building and research processes towards sustainable agriculture and the sustainable management and use of natural resources. In close partnership with the ANPE (National Association of Ecological Producers), RAAA has been the coordinating agency of Prolinnova activities in Peru since the Prolinnova–Andes regional programme started in 2006.

Pratap Kumar Shrestha (pshrestha AT uscasia.wlink.com.np) from Nepal has more than 20 years of experience in participatory research and development in the field of agriculture, biodiversity and natural resource management. He worked initially as Socio-economist and later as Head of the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Lumle Agricultural Research Centre funded by DFID (formerly ODA), UK for 9 years (1990-1998). He then joined Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD), a Nepal based NGO, as Programme Officer in 1998 and led numerous research and development projects designed to improve the livelihoods of resource poor farmers. He is a founder member of the organisation. He became Executive Director in December 2003 and successfully managed LI-BIRD with substantial contribution to its institutional growth and development. He also served as Technical Advisor for LI-BIRD for six months before leaving the organisation to join USC Canada Asia as Regional Representative and Scientific Advisor in December 2009. He is also actively engaged in policy research, especially in the field of agricultural biodiversity conservation, farmers’ rights, seed systems, and natural resource management. He was instrumental in establishing the PROLINNOVA – Nepal programme and served as Country Programme Coordinator. He also played a key role in establishing a Local Innovation Support Fund in Nepal. He holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of East Anglia, UK; and a PhD in Local Knowledge and Participatory Technology Development from the Bangor University (formerly University of Wales, Bangor), UK.

Magagi Saidou (saidmag AT refer.ne / saidmague AT yahoo.fr) from Niger holds a BSc in Food Science and Technology from the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria, and is enrolled for an MSc from this university. He is a scientist with the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN; National Institute for Agronomic Research in Niger). He has considerable experience in working with rural groups, NGOs, development projects and the FAO Special Programme for Food Security (PSSA) in co-developing, documenting, promoting and disseminating farmer innovations and appropriate technologies. In 2004, he was trained in the Philippines as Participatory Innovation Development (PID) facilitator and trainer. In 2006, Prolinnova-Niger partners appointed him as Deputy Coordinator, to facilitate communication and management, as he is bilingual in French and English. Since then, he has coordinated multi-stakeholder partnership building, publication and institutionalisation activities; facilitated workshops; trained partners in concepts and methods of PID and farmer-led documentation; and coordinated a cross-visit to Ghana and a study on local innovation in adaptation to climate change in Niger. He has contributed to building and strengthening regional and global partnership and sharing among Country Programmes in Prolinnova and PROFEIS (Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel).

Brigid Letty (LettyB.CC.UNP AT ukzn.ac.za) is an agricultural development specialist working for the Institute of Natural Resources (INR), which is based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She is currently involved in a range of agricultural development work but has a special interest in participatory approaches to agricultural research and development. Before joining the INR in 2003, she worked for the Provincial Department of Agriculture for a six year period as an animal scientist in the Farming Systems Research Section. She is currently the overall coordinator of the South African arm of the PROLINNOVA network and also provides coordination across countries for the HAPID sub-programme, which focuses on local innovation and participatory innovation development in the face of HIV/AIDS. She has also been a member of small team that was tasked with the development of a strategy document to guide the PROLINNOVA network when moving forward beyond 2010, which is the end of the current funding cycle. From 2010, she will also be providing support to the JOLISAA (Joint Learning about Innovation Systems in African Agriculture) initiative, which is led by CIRAD and coordinated in South Africa by the University of Pretoria’s Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development.

Sabina Di Prima (s.di_prima AT dienst.vu.nl) from Italy has a   BSc degree in Economics and Business from the University of Catania, Italy, and an MSc in Environment and Resource Management from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA), Netherlands. She worked for the Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management (PREM) programme of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM-VUA) and is now staff member of the Natural Resource Management (NRM) unit at the Centre for International Cooperation (CIS) of the VUA. She is involved in teaching, training and project development / management in the areas of sustainable land management (SLM), indigenous knowledge (IK) and farmer innovation (FI). Her major interest is in environmental economics and policy. As member of the Prolinnova International Support Team, she focuses on issues of curriculum development to integrate farmer innovation and participatory innovation development (PID) approaches into institutions of higher education in agriculture and NRM.

Susan Kaaria (s.kaaria AT fordfound.org) from Kenya is Program Officer for Environment and Economic Development with the Eastern African office of Ford Foundation. She has a PhD in Forest Resource Economics and Agricultural Economics. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Susan spent ten years as a scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), working in both Latin America and Africa (Eastern and Southern). She conducted action research in community-based natural resource management; community-based participatory monitoring and evaluation systems, and innovative participatory approaches for increasing access to and benefits from markets by poor and marginalised communities, especially poor rural women. In 2008 she returned to Kenya to take up her current position with the Ford Foundation in Nairobi, where she is programming in the area of enhancing rural livelihoods and sustainability. She co-organised the Innovation Africa Symposium in November 2006 in Uganda in partnership with Prolinnova and co-edited the book that came out of that symposium.

Oliver Oliveros  (oliveros AT agropolis.fr) from the Philippines holds a BSc degree in Human Ecology from the University of the Philippines, a Certificate of Management from John Cabot University in Rome, and a Masters (Acteurs et Nouvelles Territoires) from the Université de Montpellier 3. After working as Senior Economic Development specialist with the Ministry of Socio-Economic Planning in the Philippines, he became Associate Professional Officer with the FAO, working for five years in the Secretariat of the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) in Rome as the contact person for Civ il-Society Organisations and the focal point for Rural Knowledge Systems and Innovation Processes. In 2004, he moved to Montpellier, France, as coordinator of the DURAS (Promotion of Sustainable Development in Agricultural Research Systems in the South) programme. Since 2008 he is Senior Officer for international relations, partnerships, grant coordination and M&E with Agropolis Foundation in Montpellier. He has been a staunch supporter of Prolinnova since his involvement in developing the concept in Rambouillet, France, in 1999.

Scott Killough (skillough AT wn.org) from the USA is Associate Vice-President for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods of World Neighbors. He has over 20 years’ experience in participatory development management in an NGO setting, and has field experience in programme development and management, agricultural extension education systems and sustainable agriculture in the tropics. Scott worked with IIRR (International Institute of Rural Reconstruction) in the Philippines from 1990 to 2006, where he was involved in all aspects of institutional planning and management, programme development, M&E, oversight of community-based field projects, coordination of international workshops and training, publication and documentation, and numerous technical assistance assignments. These tasks were conducted in various countries mainly in Central America, South and Southeast Asia, and East Africa. In the early 1980s, Scott worked for three years in Guatemala in community-based livestock development and as technical trainer of para-veterinary technicians. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics and Political Science from Oklahoma State University, a Master's degree in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University, and a PhD in International and Rural Development from the University of Reading, UK, with a dissertation focused on processes and impacts of farmer-to-farmer extension in Central America.