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4th international Prolinnova partners meeting in Senegal
>> Posted: May
6, 2007
 On 19–23 March 2007, the fourth annual international Prolinnova partners meeting was hosted in Senegal by IED Afrique (Innovations, Environnement et Développement en Afrique). This is the Dakar-based NGO that coordinates PROFEIS (Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel), a francophone programme in West Africa that started in late 2006. The meeting, held in Toubab Dialao, a fishing village about 50 km south of Dakar, provided a first opportunity for the partners from the already established Prolinnova Country Programmes (CPs) and their francophone colleagues to meet. It also gave a chance for Prolinnova partners to learn more about COMPAS (Comparing and Supporting Endogenous Development), a network with which they are seeking closer collaboration.
 Forty people from 20 countries exchanged experiences in recognising and promoting local innovation, building multi-stakeholder partnerships, integrating Participatory Innovation Development (PID) into university curricula and engaging in policy dialogue. They developed plans for joint future action in these and other activities, e.g. related to promoting local innovation in communities affected by HIV/AIDS.
In addition to people from governmental and non-governmental organisations in the CPs, several people from "new" countries keen to build up Prolinnova -type programmes in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal joined the meeting. The representative from Solomon Islands was unfortunately stranded on the way because of transit visa problems.
At the marketplace for sharing publications, posters, photos, films etc on promoting local innovation, Amanuel Assefa, Co-Chair of the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG), launched two booklets that compile experiences of the various CPs: Facilitating Multistakeholder Partnerships and Recognising Local Innovation. These booklets are available from IIRR in the Philippines and are posted here. These are the first two volumes in a series of publications on work in the Prolinnova programme.
Newly elected Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) meets
Immediately after the fourth international partners meeting, the fifth meeting of the POG – and the first since the elections in early 2007 – was held on 24 March 2007, likewise in Toubab Dialao, Senegal. Newly elected members are Bassoum Souleymane (Senegal), Elizabeth Vargas (Bolivia), Oliver Oliveros (France), Scott Killough (USA), Will Critchley (Netherlands) and Unga Dara Rat Moni (Cambodia). POG members who stayed on for another two-year term are Betty Del Rosario (Philippines) and Amanuel Assefa (Ethiopia). Betty, as outgoing Chair of the POG, thanked the members who had served in 2005–06 and stepped down – Anna Tengberg, Ahmed Hanafi, Monique Salomon, and Reinhard Woytek. She congratulated the new POG elected by the Prolinnova partners for 2007–08 and the new Chair elected by the POG, Scott Killough of World Neighbors.
The POG reviewed the progress in the programme, giving particular attention to experiences with Local Innovation Support Funds under the FAIR (Farmer Access to Innovation Resources) project, expansion of the Prolinnova community of practice, status of proposals for funding international projects, links with regional and subregional platforms for agricultural research and development, and identification of focal persons within the POG for different tasks/thematic issues.
Bara Guèye, Director of IED Afrique (Innovations, Environnement et Développement en Afrique), the Dakar-based NGO that coordinates PROFEIS (Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel), presented the initial activities of this new francophone programme in West Africa to the POG, which is overseeing also this programme under the overall umbrella of Prolinnova.
The POG welcomed Prolinnova–Kenya into the international community of practice, and expressed its great satisfaction at seeing that organisations in Kenya have taken this initiative to start building a multi-stakeholder platform to promote local innovation in their country. The Prolinnova programme has thus expanded beyond the nine CPs primarily funded by the Netherlands Government to include three countries in the Andes (Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru) and three additional countries in francophone West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal), all of which were welcomed by the POG in late 2006, and now Kenya – a total of 16 countries. Partners in Mali and Senegal have already mobilised funds for their work from the German organisation Misereor. They and the partners in the other "new" CPs have taken major planning steps, using mainly their own resources and with limited inception support from the Prolinnova grant from the Netherlands, and are actively seeking further support from elsewhere.
View or download the updated Senegal Workshop Report (Word Document, size : 1 MB)
>> Updated: June 20, 2007
View (more) photos of the Senegal Workshop / Meeting at the Photo Documentation Gallery
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Prolinnova-Nepal Partner Wins Award for Best Knowledge Product
>> Posted: March 1, 2007
Practical Action – a UK based International NGO -with its offices in seven countries in Asia, Africa and South America, recently announced knowledge sharing competition among its seven country and regional offices. This year, PROLINNOVA received a lift as the conceptual guideline to "Participatory Innovation Development" was acknowledged as one of the best knowledge product and received the third prize. The entries (Knowledge products) were judged on the basis of its quality, impact and relevance to Practical Action’s own strategic priorities. The entry was submitted by Practical Action Nepal, one of the PROLINNOVA-Nepal programme partners. Considering Practical Action’s acknowledgement to the concept of "Participatory Innovation Development", this award is significant for PROLINNOVA as one of the emerging alternatives to development.
An e-copy of award-winning entry (PID conceptual guideline) is now available on the Nepal CP section of this website.
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Announcement: Launch of PROFEIS program
>> Posted: February 20, 2007
We wish to announce the launch of the program PROFEIS (Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel), the sister program of PROLINNOVA in West Africa.
The inception workshop of PROFEIS was held on 27-29 December 2006 in Senegal. It is through funds provided by Misereor that PROFEIS is launched now in Senegal and Mali only. But fund raising for PROFEIS still continues in order to strengthen the activities in Senegal and Mali and to expand the program in other Sahelian countries like Burkina Faso and Niger.
Twenty one (21) participants attended the inception workshop. These participants came from 11 organisations from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Organisations represented were NGOs, farmer organisations, research and extension institutions. Continued partnership building, conceptualisation around PID approach, strategic planning and governance of the program were the key issues of the inception workshop.
At the end of the inception workshop, a PID training was planned to take place in Mali. But because of financial problems faced later on by Malian partners for pre-financing the training, Senegal was chosen again to organise the PID training that was held on 15-19 January 2007. Twenty two (22) participants (17 men and 5 women) attended the PID training. These participants came from 10 organisations from Senegal and Mali. Organisations represented were NGOs, farmer organisations, research and extension institutions. Now Senegalese and Malian partners are mobilised to organise themselves and to tackle the first steps of the PROFEIS programme. These include:
- National workshops (February-March);
- Identification of dry season innovations and innovators. (March-April);
- Characterisation of dry season innovations and innovators (April-May);
- Farmer innovators organised in networks (May);
- Identification of rainy season innovations and innovators (August-September);
- Characterisation of rainy season innovations and innovators (September-October);
- Farmer innovators organised in networks (October);
- Joint experimentation training for farmer experimenters and NGO staff (November);
- Evaluation of activities and planning 2008 (December).
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New Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) elected
>> Posted: February 10, 2007
The elections for the new Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) have been completed and we can now announce the new composition (region, name, country of origin / country where working):
| Andes |
(Ms) Elizabeth Vargas, Honduras / Bolivia |
| Asia-Pacific |
(Mr) Ung Dara Rat Moni / Cambodia |
| Francophone West Africa |
(Mr) Bassoum Souleymane, Senegal |
| Rest of Africa |
(Mr) Amanuel Assefa, Ethiopia |
| International Support Team |
(Mr) Will Critchley, UK / Netherlands |
| External members |
(Ms) Beatrice Del Rosario, Philippines / Thailand |
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(Mr) Oliver Oliveros, Philippines / France |
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(Mr) Scott Killlough, USA |
| Secretariat (ex officio) |
Ann Waters-Bayer / Chesha Wettasinha, ETC EcoCulture. |
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Some background information about the POG
The establishment of a Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) was agreed by the international Prolinnova partners during their first meeting in Yirgalem, Ethiopia, in 2004. The main tasks of the POG are to decide on the general policy directions of the international programme and to ensure accountability to the country-level partners, their constituencies and the donors. The POG was set up after nominations and elections by programme partners, and includes people from the Country Programmes and International Support Team as well as outside professionals with a keen interest in enhancing local innovation systems. The inaugural meeting of the POG was held in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in February 2005. Since then, the POG has met face-to-face three more times and otherwise communicates by email. It has discussed a multitude of policy issues, including monitoring and evaluation, policy dialogue and advocacy, procedures for conflict mediation, and sources and modalities of funding. It gives guidance to Prolinnova partners in developing concepts and proposals for new activities and also serves as a mediator or “independent” organ for appeal.
Under the supervision of the POG, a number of guidelines for organisation and management of the Prolinnova Global Partnership Programme have been agreed upon. For example, there are clear steps and criteria for new Country or Regional Programme to join the partnership and a code of ethics for Participatory Innovation Development (PID). These and other guidelines are posted here.
The POG continues to develop its position as the highest authority of the Prolinnova Global Partnership Programme. The fact that ETC EcoCulture, the Netherlands-based NGO that handles most of the funds for international Prolinnova activities, is not a voting member but provides only secretarial functions, has increased the POG’s status of representing partners’ interests. The challenge is to have this governance structure effective without spending large amounts of money for travel and meetings. This is achieved by “piggy-backing” POG meetings as much as possible onto other international events attended by at least several POG members. The fifth face-to-face meeting of the POG will be held on 25 March 2007 in Senegal, immediately after the fourth international Prolinnova partnership workshop.
more about the POG ....
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Starting up in Kenya
>> Posted: February 7, 2007
On 17 January 2007, a meeting of stakeholders in Agriculture, Research and Development was held in Nairobi, with the aim of initiating Prolinnova in Kenya. The meeting was organised by PELUM Kenya and facilitated by Mr Fred Kafeero of Environmental Alert, the coordinating NGO of Prolinnova–Uganda. The main objective of this meeting was to inform interested partners about the international partnership programme in order for them to understand and make an informed decision of whether they wanted to form a Country Programme in Kenya. Fred Kafeero presented key issues such as the objectives of the international programme, key landmarks in setting it up, its structure and its main achievements. After discussion of this among the participants, he explained the developments that have taken place in Uganda and other countries with regard to promoting local innovation and participatory innovation development processes. The participants were happy to learn of the developments in other countries and unanimously agreed to start up a Prolinnova–Kenya. After this principle decision, they delved into discussing issues relating to who the main stakeholders of the Kenyan programme would be; the key broad issues that it would address; its structure and the steps to be taken in the short term to ensure that Prolinnova–Kenya becomes operational. The participants agreed to create an Interim Task Force to oversee the operation of setting up this new country Programme. They asked the Kenyan non-governmental organisation SACRED-Africa (Sustainable Agriculture Centre for Research, Extension and Development in Africa) to host the secretariat on an interim basis. Detailed information about the meeting proceedings can be found in the report (Word Document, size : 224 KB).
We extend special thanks to Fred Kafeero of Prolinnova–Uganda for the support he gave and the facilitation role he played before and during the meeting.
For more information, contact Pamela Marinda (ayiera@yahoo.co.uk or pmarinda@stiedu.org) or Eusebius Mukhwana (sacred@africaonline.co.ke).
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Report on International Workshop on Campaigning, Lobbying and Advocacy in Tanzania
>> Posted: January 24, 2007
An international workshop on Policy Advocacy, Campaign and Lobbying was held last August 21-25, 2006 in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. The workshop, which was hosted by PELUM-Tanzania, was intended to help build the capacity of development practitioners to campaign, advocate and lobby for change on issues that negatively impact on farmers, their communities and livelihoods. A full report / proceedings about the workshop is available on the Prolinnova-Tanzania Country Programme section of this website (alternative link to the report/ proceedings here (Word Document, size : 2 MB)).
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International Farmer-led Documentation workshop in Uganda
>> Posted: January 4, 2007
PROLINNOVA, PELUM Uganda and Oxfam NOVIB joined hands in organising an international exchange and capacity building workshop on Farmer-led Documentation (FLD). This workshop was held from 6 to 10th November, 2006 in Kampala, Uganda. From the side of PROLINNOVA this was a follow-up to earlier work in the area of Participatory Video. Organizations shared their experiences and challenges. At the end of the meeting, participants decided to form a network to support and learn from each other, influence policy and mainstream a more participatory agriculture research for development. A core team made up of VetAid and ADCR was nominated and took upon itself the responsibility of taking the process further: keeping contact with partners, monitoring progress in activity implementation, contacting new partners, formally contacting governmental agencies, fund raising and organising a follow-up workshop in 2007.
Aims
The workshop aimed at:
- increasing insight in the role of local knowledge and its mobilisation and documentation by communities as part of wider development efforts;
- sharing and analysing how different traditional and modern media can be used for farmer-led documentation and develop lessons learnt;
- encouraging development organisations to integrate farmer-led documentation into their regular programmes and facilitate learning between the participants and their organisations, during the workshop as well as afterwards.
 Participants
The workshop brought together 20 professionals from NGOs, one farmer, two extension organisations and one researcher. Added to this there were the three facilitators and three (other) members of the workshop steering committee. PROLINNOVA country programmes represented included Northern Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania.
Sharing Experiences
The workshop used a variety of highly interactive learning forms. Workshop participants, for example, formed teams to document the various sessions as a practical exercise. Seven case studies of FLD were presented and analysed including community libraries, use of Participatory Video, picture documentation by farmers (2 cases), documentation as part of Farmer Field Schools, a new Q&A pilot in Uganda using a voucher system, and the CELAC approach of using ICT in farmer-led knowledge management by NAADS in Uganda. Other experiences were shared by participants throughout the workshop, in particular during an information market.
FLD Approach
While farmer-led documentation is a new term for participants and facilitators alike (though some of the ideas are not new), the systematic sharing and comparison of various experiences allowed the start of development of a coherent "approach". This was evident from the synthesis session on the fourth day.
Outputs and Follow up
The workshop programme had also set aside substantial time for planning of realistic follow-up plans. This led to proposals for practical steps to integrate FLD in regular work of participants. A number of ideas were discussed for follow-up actions at the international level. These include the preparation of the full proceedings (PDF file; size : 502 KB), a CD-Rom with all the cases and materials/audiovisuals produced during the workshop (under preparation), implementation of FLD pilots and a continued sharing and learning through a Community of Practice being electronically supported by the Oxfam NOVIB KIC (www.oxfamkic.org) website.
Notes: A new section on Farmer-Led Documentation Resources has been created in the Readings and Resources section of the Prolinnova website. Photos taken during the FLD workshop in Uganda are available on the Prolinnova Picture Gallery.
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Documents uploaded on the Prolinnova website (June 2007) 