Past
Achievements and Events
October - December 2005
Pre-October 2005
- Innovations in Rural Extension: Case Studies from Bangladesh
- Prolinnova Country Programme Coordinators' Meeting in Entebbe
- Prolinnova Annual Report 2004 now available for view / download
- Prolinnova featured at EFARD conference, April 2005
- South African extensionists give recognition to farmer innovations
- First face-to-face meeting of the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG)
- South Africa: Small Holder's Innovative Approach to Producing and Exporting Fruits
- Burkina Faso Indigenous Innovation in Farmer-to-Farmer Extension
- Participatory Video Training Workshop
- IK Note 76: Promoting Local Innovation: Enhancing IK Dynamics and Links with Scientific Knowledge
- Prolinnova National Workshop in Sudan
- Regional Workshop on PID held in Bangladesh
- IK
note no. 74 Building Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships to Promote
Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in Ghana
- Indigenous
Innovation
- Prolinnova
Promoting Local Innovation in Ecologically-Oriented Agriculture
and Natural Resource Management : Mid-year progress report
- IK
Note 72: Regional radio in Tunisia – a bridge between research
and indigenous innovation
- Farmer
innovation fair
- A
“Participatory Innovation Development (PID)/Participatory
Technology Development (PTD) Training of Facilitators’ Course”
- IK
Note 70: A woman innovators speaks
- Training
in Uganda
- PROLINNOVA
Oversight Group
- Bibliography
on Impact Assessment of PR and GA
- Report
on the First International Workshop on Promoting Local Innovation
(Prolinnova) - 8–12 March 2004, Furra Institute of Development
Studies,Yirgalem, Ethiopia
- Netherlands
contributes to expansion of PROLINNOVA
- PROLINNOVA
experiences can be shared through InterSard
- New
book! “Advancing Participatory Technology Development”
- National
PROLINNOVA programmes designed at African workshops
- PROFIEET
profiled at the GFAR meeting in Nairobi
- PROLINNOVA
at the GFAR conference in Dakar
- International
Workshop to design a Global Partnership Programme
- Training
on Participatory Innovation Development: A Training of Facilitators’
Course
- Other
important past achievements and events
PID workshop in Limpopo Province, South Africa
>> Posted: December 29, 2005
Prolinnova–South Africa held a three-day workshop (30 Nov–2 Dec 2005) on Participatory Innovation Development (PID) in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, in northern South Africa. It was the first in a learning sequence that continues with fieldwork in the participants' working areas and a second workshop in early 2006. A total of 34 people (24 men, 10 women) took part. Of these, six were farmers (4 men, 2 women) from Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Provinces. The other participants came from the Limpopo Department of Agriculture, the Universities of Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Sustainable Rural Livelihood (SRL) Division and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The workshop was designed to stimulate exchange between stakeholders about the role of local innovation and experimentation in agricultural research and development, primarily in Limpopo Province, and to encourage organisation of farmer innovators to promote local innovation. A similar learning sequence took place in KZN Province last year and led to publication of a catalogue of farmers' innovations. more...
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Participatory extension in the Pacific
>> Posted: December 19, 2005
The first ever extension summit for the Pacific, organised by the Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC) and its “Development of Sustainable Agriculture” project, was held in Tonga on 21–25 November 2005. Laurens van Veldhuizen of ETC EcoCulture gave a keynote address on institutionalising participatory research and extension. He also made a presentation on modern information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate international learning in the Prolinnova programme. This was prepared with the support of Dorine Ruter, ICT specialist at ETC. Two representative from the Pacific Islands plan to join the upcoming international Prolinnova workshop to be held in 6–10 March 2006 in Cambodia.
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Starting FAIR – Local Innovation Support Funds
>> Posted: December 6, 2005
The coordinator of FAIR (Farmer Access to Innovation Resources), Anton Krone of Prolinnova -South Africa, was in Montpellier, France, in mid-October 2005 taking part in a meeting of coordinators of the twelve projects that have won support from the DURAS (Promoting Sustainable Development in Agricultural Research Systems) Competitive Grant Scheme. DURAS is a research-for-development programme under the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) and is funded by the French Government. At the meeting in Montpellier , the project coordinators learned about each other's activities and approaches, and discussed project monitoring, reporting and evaluation. More information about the workshop can be found at the DURAS website.
Under FAIR, action research is being carried out on setting up and managing pilot Local Innovation Support Funds (LISFs) in Cambodia, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda. Two additional Prolinnova Country Programmes – Ethiopia and Nepal – are undertaking similar activities with their own funds. FAIR is looking into mechanisms to enable groups of innovative farmers to access resources that will help them conduct further research and communication to improve and share their innovations, in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Winning a DURAS grant for this important new component in the international Prolinnova programme is a great achievement. Now comes the challenge to develop institutional arrangements and mechanisms that can be easily accessed by farmers, are not bureaucratic and are independent from mainstream research and development institutes but are supported by them. Participatory monitoring and evaluation of this process as a source of learning is central to the project. The project was launched in October 2005. One of the first activities is to make an overview of experiences worldwide with setting up and operating local funds for agricultural research and development.
more... (Piloting LISFs)
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PM&E in Participatory Research and Gender Analysis
>> Posted: December 5, 2005
A member of the Prolinnova International Support Team, Marise Espineli of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), was invited by the Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA) systemwide programme of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) to present the process of designing participatory monitoring and evaluation in Prolinnova at the Impact Assessment Workshop held on October 19-21, 2005 at the CIMMYT headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. View workshop flyer Copyright © PRGA Program 2005 (Word Document: size : 1 MB) more...
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Global Learning Opportunity
>> Posted: December 5, 2005
From 27 October to 7 November 2005, Tim Hart and Chris Opondo were in Rome, Italy, at the 18th International Farming Systems Association (IFSA) Symposium on "Farming Systems and Poverty: Making a Difference – Global Learning Opportunity" (or "GLO" for short) to present papers on African farmers' innovations and explore possibilities for collaboration in development-oriented research in Africa. Tim is from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and a member of the Core Team of Prolinnova– South Africa. Chris Opondo, from the African Highlands Initiative (AHI), is an associate of Prolinnova -Uganda. Both received partial funding for their participation through the international Prolinnova programme; they raised further funds through IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) and the Kirkland Trust Fund Scotland.
Tim presented two papers: "Supporting farmer innovations: bridging the gap between scientific theory and the diverse farming practices of smallholders", by Willem Stoop and Tim Hart; and "Across the divide: the impact of farmer-to-farmer linkages in the absence of extension services" (Word Document: size : 52 KB), by Tim Hart and Roberta Burgess. Chris presented a paper on: "From reductionism to farmer innovation systems: implications for multi-stakeholder collaboration and learning in Uganda" (Word Document: size : 107 KB), by Chris Opondo, Joshua Zake, Ann Stroud, Joseph Tanui, Ronald Lutalo [ Prolinnova- Uganda coordinator] and Rogers Kanzikwera. More information about the GLO can be found in the joint report (Word Document: size : 266 KB) by Tim and Chris.
A post-GLO CD including all papers submitted and accepted for the GLO is being prepared by the organisers. The proceedings will be posted on the IFSA website.
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Prolinnova at GFAR and CGIAR 2005 meetings
>> Posted: December 4, 2005
Betty del Rosario, Chair of the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG), attended the Annual Meeting of the GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) to present an update on the Prolinnova programme. The meeting took place 1-4 December 2005 in Marrakesh, Morocco, immediately before the Annual General Meeting of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). Betty is Assistant Executive Secretary with APAARI (Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions), based in the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. more... Report (Word Document: size : 96 KB) and Presentation (PPT, 1 MB)
A Brazilian member of the Prolinnova International Support Team, Mariana Wongtschowski currently working with ETC EcoCulture in the Netherlands, was also in Morocco to attend the “Youth Forum on Agricultural Research for Development" (http://cgiar.org/meetings/agm05/youth_forum.html), which took place on 4 December 2005, supported by the CGIAR through the GFAR.
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Evaluation of partnership-building in the GPPs
>> Posted: December 4, 2005
The GFAR Global Partnership Programmes (GPPs) are currently being reviewed by a two-person team composed of Oumar Niangado (Mali) and Julian Gonsalves (India). The multi-stakeholder partnership-building process in the Prolinnova programme is receiving special attention. The evaluation team members have already visited the Prolinnova Country Programmes in Uganda and Nepal and will be visiting the Cambodia Country Programme in December 2005. Julian Gonsalves meets with the Chair of the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG), Betty del Rosario, in Marrakesh, Morocco, in early December. A stakeholder workshop on the GPP evaluation will be held 25-27 January 2006 in Rome.
This will be attended by Yaing Sang Koma of Prolinnova-Cambodia and Laurens van Veldhuizen of ETC-EcoCulture, a member of the Prolinnova International Support Team.
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Benefits for the poor from high-value farm products?
>> Posted: December 4, 2005
Getenesh Sintayehu, a member of the National Steering Committee for PROFIEET (Promoting Farmer Innovation and Experimentation in Ethiopia, as the Prolinnova Country Programme calls itself there), attended a workshop on 3-5 October 2005 about “How Can the Poor Benefit from the Growing Markets for High-Value Agricultural Products?”. The workshop was organised by the GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) and the Science Council of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) and was hosted by CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture) in Cali, Colombia. Getenesh is Programme Manager with SOS-Sahel Ethiopia. Her participation in the workshop was funded by the GFAR. More information about the workshop can be found under www.egfar.org
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Convergence of Sciences
>> Posted: December 4, 2005
Jean-Marie Diop from ETC Ecoculture attended a workshop on the “Convergence of Sciences” project, held on 25-28 October 2005 in Cape Coast, Ghana. This project, facilitated by the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, is building capacity in Africa to develop sustainable agriculture through multi-stakeholder consultation, action and social learning. His participation was financed by CTA (Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU). Jean-Marie backstops the Prolinnova programmes in Niger and Sudan, and is – together with Bara Guèye from IED Afrique (Innovations, Environnement et Développement en Afrique) in Senegal – developing a francophone programme in West Africa called PROFEIS (Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel). For more information, contact jm.diop@etcnl.nl or iiedsen@sentoo.sn.
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Guidelines on some issues of IPRs in Prolinnova
>> Posted: December 4, 2005
The Prolinnova partners have been discussing issues of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) for some time. The Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) has now agreed on some basic guidelines for "Fair recognition of Prolinnova partners' contributions" and "Documentation to hold local innovations in the public domain". This text is not meant to be the "last word" on this topic but rather a basis for action and further reflection and possibly revision over time. The proviso in bold italics at the bottom of the guidelines is adapted from "copyleft" statements. For more information about “copyleft”, see www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html. This refers to innovation in software development but Prolinnova is trying to apply the same principle to promote innovation systems in agriculture and natural resource management. more... (Word Document: size : 25 KB)
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Prolinnova featured at German Tropentag Conference, October 2005
>> Posted: November 21, 2005
At the annual Tropentag (International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development) conference held on 11–13 October 2005 at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, Ann Waters-Bayer from the Prolinnova International Support Team spoke about multi-stakeholder partnership building to institutionalise participatory research and development. She highlighted the benefits and constraints of NGO facilitation of such partnerships, based on comparative analysis of country-level case studies made by the Prolinnova partners. more... (Word Document: size : 91 KB)
