PAEPARD Agricultural Innovation Facilitators' Workshop

28 November - 2 December 2011. Entebbe. PAEPARD Agricultural Innovation Facilitators' Workshop.

The Platform for African-European partnership for Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD) in collaboration with The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) has organised a five-day facilitators' Inception Workshop of the PAEPARD Project. The main objective of this workshop is to familiarise participants with their potential role as facilitators of "agricultural innovation partnerships" established with the support of the PAEPARD project.

The workshop is daily documented by one of the participants (Nawsheen Hosenally from Mauritius)

Day 1 – Monday 28th November 2011: Introduction to PAEPARDThe theme for the first day of the workshop was “Introduction to PAEPARD”.

The question of the open space was "You have been selected as a 'facilitator of multi-stakeholder innovation processes: Which theme do you think is essential to discuss - from your experience with ARD multi-stakeholder innovation processes in - in a sub-workshop?"

The 8 sub-workshops were on the following topics:
1. How to identify relevant partners within a multi-stakeholder partnership?
2. How to balance/manage power imbalances within a consortium?

3. How can we reinforce capacities to work in partnership?
4. How can we manage stakeholders in a team? Divide roles and overcome mistrust
5. How can we keep ourselves relevant and in demand by the partnership?
6. How do we harmonise our work methods when we are driven by different ideologies?
7. How can we maintain neutrality in our facilitation?

8. How can we share financial and information resources in a sustainable partnership?

Day 2: Tuesday 29th November 2011: Facilitation of ARD Partnerships
The theme for Day 2 was "Facilitation of ARD Partnerships" and the aim was that all participants know about the role of a facilitator in a multi-stakeholder partnership.

Day 3 - Wednesday 30th November 2011: Facilitation Tools
Role Play
The first session of Day 3 was a role-play by Janet Achora and Monica Kapiriri Namumbya (both from Uganda), whereby Monica had to approach Janet (consortium) as the Agricultural Innovation Facilitator by PAEPARD.

Moderation, Coordination, Facilitation and Leadership
This session discussed the differences between Moderation, Coordination, Facilitation and Leadership.There were 3 boards in front, on each one there was a question, written on a card of different colours:
Green Card: Achieve the task (Common objectives)
Blue Card: Manage the team and avoid conflict
Pink Card: Promote learning by partners
Research Questions
The last exercise for the day was about Research Questions. Each country pair had to work together on their respective concept notes and had to generate 5 research questions and 3 sub-questions for each of the selected concept notes of the Second round of the PAEPARD call ARD proposals

Day 4 - Thursday 1st December 2011: Designing a partnership facilitation process

Presentation on PAEPARD Inception Workshop - June 2011
The objective was for participants to have an idea about how an inception workshop was organised by PAEPARD in the past and the points to keep in mind while planning and implementing the workshop. There are 4 steps which are involved for a concept note to become a formal proposal and the example given was from the PAEPARD First Call:

1. Original proposal to PAEPARD
2. Concept Note (Draft) drafted as a result of the PAEPARD Inception Workshop
3. Complete Concept Note
4. Draft Proposal Write-shop to generate formal proposal (submission)

Individual plans
Each country pair was asked to design a timeline of 3 months on the type of activities they will organise with respect to their respective consortium and also the specific output/milestone achieved for each proposed activity.

Video Projection
Mrs. Habiba Hassan Wassef of Egypt, talks about how Africans should be aware of their Intellectual Property Rights before sharing their views with Europeans.

Financing ARD
To understand about how ARD can be financed, a document from ICRA, which contained key concepts on how to finance ARD were given to the participants, who were asked to read the document. Then there was a brainstorming session to find the possible finance sources at National Level, Sub-Regional Level (Africa) and International Level.

Presentation by ASARECA
To get a better idea of how ARD are financed in Africa, there was a presentation by Mr. Joseph Methu from ASARECA. He explained about how ASARECA does the coordination work regarding financing of ARD in the East Africa Region.

Statements from World Bank

This session was a presentation on a report from the World Bank: IMPLEMENTING AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION FUNDS: Lessons from Competitive Research and Matching Grant Projects.. From that Report, different statements were taken and presented to the participants.

1. Statement 1: The more a call is competitive – and selective, the less facilitators will be asked to play an intermediation role, as the investment will have less chances to lead to a return.
2. Statement 2: Competitive grants strengthen the strongest actors and do not reduce the disparities between the strong and the weak.
3. Statement 3: Mainly the growing rhetoric’s among the agricultural research and development partners to become more accountable to the beneficiary and other stakeholders has necessitated the need for partnerships and new funding schemes
4. Statement 4: Only organizations which have a minimum budget , a critical mass of staff and a research and innovation management capacity can compete in competitive grants

Proposal formulation
The last session for Day 4 was about the proposal formulation. Participants were given a document on points to be taken into consideration while doing a proposal formulation.

Participants:

Achora Janet Cox
Senior Programme Officer

Women of Uganda Network

ADIMOU Jean – Baptiste

Coordonnateur du Groupe d’appui, d’Encadrement et de Recherche en Milieu rural – GERME

ADJEI-NSIAH Samuel

Senior Research Fellow, Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre. Kade
College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences
University of Ghana

Babatunde Musibau Adetunji

Lecturer, Department of Economics,

University of Ibadan

Bernardin Toto

Secrétaire Permanent de la Plateforme Nationale des Organisations Paysannes et de Producteurs Agricoles du Bénin,

PNOPPA, Benin

BIGIRIMANA Jean Claude

Chercheur à l'institut des sciences agronomiques du Burundi dans le Programme de Production des Semences et les Ressources Phytogénétques.

BONKOUNGOU Joachim

Directeur exécutif de l’ONG 

« Initiatives pour un Développement Intégré Durable du Burkina Faso

BUKENYA Christopher

Technical Service Manager at the NAADS Secretariat

COULIBALY Aminata

Chargée de communication et marketing 

à la Fédération agricole Nian-Zwé

DIBI Amlan Béatrice

Organisation Non Gouvernementale EMMANUEL

DIOMANDE Daouda

Directeur Général de la Coopérative des commerçantes de vivriers de Cocody
(COCOVICO)

EGESSA Patrick

NAADS COORDINATOR, BUSIA DISTRICT 

Agricultural Economist

GLINX Laurent

Secrétaire Général 

de la Plate-forme Nationale pour l’Innovation 

dans le Secteur Agricole au
Benin (PNISA-Bénin)

Gunesh Toolsee

Manager, Farmers Service Corporation

Mauritius

KATUNGISA Kenneth 

Project Manger – Support Farmer Organizations in Africa Project (SFOAP)
Uganda National Farmers Federation

MBOG Sylvie Christel
Local Development Ressource at ODECO
Cameroon

Monica Kapiriri Namumbya
Independent consultant
Uganda

NAWSHEEN Hosenally
Sales Coordinator
Meaders Feeds Ltd

NDIMANYA Patrice
Lecturer at the department of rural Economics, university of Burundi

Nketiah Joseph

Lecturer Methodist University College Ghana,

Faculty of Agriculture

SHEI WILLIAM KANJO
Rural Development Consultancy (RDC) Ndop,

North West Region, Cameroon
Coordinator and lead consultant

SUALE David

Country Coordinator
Research Into Use
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security

VUTSORO Roger
Chargé de communication et information
Fédération des Organisations des Producteurs Agricoles du Congo

ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook

ARD and infoDev kindly announce the release of the:

ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks and Institutions Click Here to Access the PDF  (http://bit.ly/ICTinAg) The ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook is designed to support development practitioners exploring, designing, implementing, and investing in information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled agriculture interventions.  The book is a compilation of resources related to 14 agricultural subsectors.  Each module covers the challenges, lessons learned, and enabling factors associated with using ICT to improve smallholder livelihoods in these subsectors.  Over 200 examples and case studies from five regions are presented in the text. The e-Sourcebook and website was made possible through the Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy program and generous funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Also announcing the ICT in Agriculture Website: http://www.ictinagriculture.org  A central goal of the sourcebook is to expand knowledge on the nexus between ICT and agriculture, and to generate discussion on how to use ICT effectively to improve the sector and reduce poverty.  The Agriculture and Rural Development Department (ARD) and infoDev of the World Bank invites you to participate in this discussion.  See the website above to access to sourcebook and for additional information and resources on ICT in agriculture. We are also hosting a series of forums on ICT in agriculture with FAO's e-agriculture community. The first forum, on ICT and Strengthening Markets, will be held from December 5th-16th. Please visit the website to learn how to participate. If you would like to receive occasional newsletters on ICT in agriculture from the World Bank, please click here to send an email (ictinag@worldbank.org).

Work Programme for agriculture at the climate talks in Durban

A group of 15 leading agricultural organisations (including three United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), the World Farmers' Organisation, CTA, FANRPAN and the International Food Policy Research Institute) have jointly endorsed a letter to the COP17 climate negotiators with a specific call-to-action, namely to approve a Work Programme for agriculture at the climate talks in Durban [under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA)] .

Agriculture is the low-hanging fruit for a deal at the climate talks this year, and this letter represents a strong consensus from key actors in agriculture on how negotiators can make progress this year -- both to mitigate agriculture's current level of emissions but also to help farmers adapt to changing growing conditions. The letter calls on negotiators to "take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future challenges."

The letter comes ahead of Agriculture and Rural Development Day, which takes place in parallel to the COP17 climate talks this Saturday, 3 Dec in Durban.

You can also read a Wall Street Journal article about the letter just published today:

http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2011/11/28/agriculture-orgs-up-pressure-ahead-of-durban-climate-talks/

Meeting for Coordinators’ of projects funded by the Coordinated Call for Africa

November 28th, 2011. The European Commission, Directorate E – Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food, in partnership with CAAST-Net held a meeting of coordinators of projects funded via the Coordinated Call for Africa. The meeting explored possibilities for cooperation between the Africa Call Food Security projects in order to exploit the natural synergies of the projects. This meeting created a framework for future cooperation, identifying needs, opportunities, and priorities for areas of cooperation.

Objectives:

• The creation of a network of Food Security projects funded by the Africa Call and projects relevant to the Africa Call;
• Mutual sharing of project aims, activities, etc;
• The creation of an international contact point for each project to facilitate cooperation;
• A framework for future cooperation.

Africa Call Food Security Project Abstracts
EAU4Food
EAU4Food seeks to address the need for new approaches to increase food production in irrigated areas in Africa, while ensuring healthy and resilient environments. Potential pitfalls of introducing innovations in local farming systems, like limited adoption by farmers and trade-off effects to other (environmental) systems are overcome by, respectively, i) utilizing a true trans-disciplinary approach, which involves the active participation of all stakeholders in all relevant disciplines, and ii) by determining and respecting so called sustainable production thresholds. EAU4Food is executed in four irrigated areas in Africa, viz. Southern Africa (Mozambique and South-Africa), Tunisia, Mali and Ethiopia to fully benefit from the potential of cross distributing promising strategies and innovations.

Waterbiotech
Natural biological treatment systems include lagooning, land treatment, phytodepuration, or constructed wetlands systems. They can be applied as secondary or tertiary purification treatment, allowing the removal of pathogenic microorganisms and the degradation of the organic pollutants, so that waste water can be recycled for irrigation and domestic use and hence reduce the pressure on the hydric resources. Other biotechnological techniques to be taken into account within this proposal are bio-filtration, membrane bioreactors and algae and other aquatic crops application for wastewater purification.

SUNRAY
SUNRAY has seven work packages: WP1 optimises communication and coordination within the Consortium. WP2 maps current nutrition research activities in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the operating environment. WP3 analyses the views of stakeholders. WP4 examines the impact of environmental changes on nutrition. WP5 builds consensus on research priorities through workshops in three African regions. WP6 develops a strategic framework for future research in the form of a roadmap. WP7 disseminates project outputs. The SUNRAY Consortium has four African and five European institutions and an Advisory Group of six external experts with complementary expertise. The total budget of 968,972 Euros is for a period of 18 months

INSARD
The main aim of this project is to facilitate the participation of a broader range of European and African civil society organizations in the formulation and implementation of ARD. It will do so by:
1. Designing a structure for coordination and communication between European and African CSO’s involved in influencing policies and practices around ARD.
2. Define policy influencing strategies, including thematic priorities, target groups/individuals and tools.
3. Lobby key African and European research organizations and donors.
4. Working towards defining research priorities which draw on interaction between researchers and CSOs.

PAEPARD
The Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (Phase II) is to build joint African-European multi-stakeholder partnerships in agricultural research for development. PAEPARD II nurtures partnerships to increase the quantity and quality of joint proposals (leading to more funded initiatives). PAEPARD II not only focuses on FP7, but includes other European Commission (EDF, EC Budget through the FSTP) and bilateral funding instruments supporting ARD that might be mobilized for emerging ARD partnerships.

Tutorial Hilangkan Navbar Pada Blog

Navbar berperanan untuk memudahkan blogger kembali kepada link² tertentu. Walau bagaimanapun, beberapa pengubahsuaian yang dilakukan yang menyebabkan kehadiran navbar ini sedikit menyemakkan.:). Jadi tutorial kali ini akan menunjukkan cara untuk hilangkan navbar pada blog anda.

Antara pengubahsuaian yang menyebabkan navbar ini tidak diperlukan adalah tutorial letakkan button follow dan dashboard dalam blog.

Tutorial untuk hilangkan navbar adalah seperti berikut.
Terdapat 2 cara, anda boleh pilih mana yang bersesuaian dengan blog anda.


CARA 1:

1. Dari dashboard > design > edit HTML

2. Dengan menggunakan fungsi Find ( ctrl + F), cari 'navbar'
(hasil cari biasanya samada navbar-iframe atau navbar sahaja)

3. Dari kod yang ada di bawah navbar,
Tukarkan 'display:block' kepada 'display:none'

contoh:



4. Save dan lihat hasilnya.


CARA 2:

Nota: Cara kedua digunakan jika anda tidak mempunyai 'navbar' dalam 'edit HTML' blog anda.

1. Dari dashboard > design > edit HTML

2. Dengan menggunakan fungsi find ( ctrl + F), cari kod body {


3. Copy dan paste code berikut SEBELUM code body {

#navbar-iframe {
display: none ;
}

contoh:



4. Save dan lihat hasilnya.:)

Second African Diaspora Marketplace

November 21, 2011 – The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) a leader in global payment services, the Western Union Foundation  and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the second African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM), an initiative which encourages sustainable economic growth and employment by supporting U.S.-based African diaspora entrepreneurs with ideas for start-up and established businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Through this collaboration, Western Union and USAID are helping to tap the economic potential of the 1.4 million Africans living in the U.S., bringing more direct investment to the continent. The African Diaspora Marketplace will strengthen and help satisfy demand for locally-produced products and services by leveraging diaspora capital and resources.”

The number of grants awarded will be determined based on grant pool and program need, and is likely to be in the range of 15 to 30 businesses.  The matching grant size is expected to be up to US $50,000, with an additional supplement of US $25,000-$50,000 in technical assistance. 

 African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM)  related to agriculture/agribusiness: See PAEPARD blog post 23/05/2011.

Tutorial Letak Button Follow dan Dashboard Dalam Blog

Dalam template asal blogger, sudah diletakkan untuk widget follower dan juga dashboard. Walau bagaimanapun, anda boleh melakukan sedikit pengubahsuaian. Tutorial kali ini akan tunjukkan cara untuk letak button follow dan dashboard dalam blog seperti gambar di bawah.

Anda juga boleh tengok demo button follow dan dashboard ini di test blog ini.

Tutorial adalah seperti berikut.

1. Dari dashboard > design > add a gadget > HTML/javascript

2. Copy dan paste kod di bawah ke dalam ruangan HTML/javascript yang dibuka.
[tidak faham.?]

<div style="position: fixed; top: 5px; right: 90px;"><a class="linkopacity" href="http://www.blogger.com/follow-blog.g?blogID=ID BLOG ANDA" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Follow !" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-feYAFwQF-GM/TtOSBVXcMmI/AAAAAAAAHvk/GH1PZPVvU7c/follow.png" border="0" /></a><div style="display:scroll; position:fixed; top:5px; right:2px;"><a class="linkopacity" href="http://blogger.com/home" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Dashboard !" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N61PPu_1haE/TtOSBZgZikI/AAAAAAAAHvc/vIEC_dYpIVo/dashboard.png" /></a></div>

Nota: Gantikan 'ID BLOG ANDA'

Bagaimana untuk cari ID Blog.?
> Anda klik pada 'new post' dari dashboard, dan akan ada paparan seperti gambar di bawah. Noombor yang admin highlight adalah contoh NO ID BLOG

3. Setelah anda selesai letakkan ID blog anda, save dan lihat hasilnya.:)

Update:
TAMBAHAN:
Bagi sesiapa yang mempunyai masalah kehadiran navbar dalam blog, anda boleh hilangkan navbar tersebut dengan mengikuti tutorial hilangkan navbar dalam blog.