ATELIER D’INITIATION DU PARTENARIAT ENTRE PRODUCTEURS ET SCIENTIFIQUES SUR L’AGRICULTURE FAMILIALE AU CAMEROUN

26-28 April 2012. Mfou, Cameroon. 3 days workshop organised by the National Consultation Forum of Farmers' Organisations of Cameroon (CNOP-CAM). L’Institut de Recherche agricole pour le Développement (IRAD), l’Université de Yaoundé II, le Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agricole pour le Développement (CIRAD), et des organisations paysannes (OP) ont expérimenté la recherche-action en partenariat (RAP) dans le cadre du projet de renforcement des Partenariats dans la Recherche Agronomique Camerounaise (REPARAC). Cette recherche a permis de jeter les bases d’un partenariat entre la recherche et les OP.

Le Directeur Regional du CIRAD et le Vice-president de la CNOP-CAM

Afin de consolider ce partenariat, un consortium composé de la Concertation Nationale des Organisations Paysannes du Cameroun (CNOP-CAM), l’IRAD, l’Université de Yaoundé II et le CIRAD a tenue un ATELIER D’INITIATION AU PARTENARIAT autour du projet intitulée «Innover pour l’intensification, la diversification et la transformation de l’agriculture familiale en Afrique Centrale à travers la recherche-action en partenariat: cas de CNOP-CAM dans la région du Centre Cameroun».

Les quatre membres du consortium étaient représentés à l’atelier:

• CNOP-CAM : 12 représentants dont les 1e et 2e vice-présidents, les représentants de 8 organisations paysannes membres du CNOP-CAM et 2 cadres (la secrétaire permanente et le responsable de l’information, de l’éducation et de la communication);
• IRAD : 2 chercheurs;
• UY II : Une enseignante et un étudiant chercheur;
• CIRAD : Un chercheur et le Directeur Régional pour l’Afrique Centrale

Objectifs et Résultats de l’atelier.L’objectif principal de l’atelier était de consolider le partenariat entre les membres du consortium autour d’opportunités et des défis de l’agriculture familiale en Afrique Centrale. Plus spécifiquement, l’atelier visait:

• une meilleure compréhension des intérêts et compétences de différents partenaires du consortium à fin de permettre une meilleure collaboration entre eux ; 
• l’élaboration des stratégies de consolidation, de gestion et de suivi du partenariat en tenant compte des intérêts et compétences des partenaires; 
• la définition des rôles et responsabilités des partenaires ainsi que les règles du jeu pour éviter les conflits et assurer la transparence pendant la mise en œuvre des activités du consortium ; 
• la revue de la note conceptuelle en vue d’identifier les lacunes et d’améliorer la qualité de la proposition du consortium, et 
• l’élaboration d’un calendrier d’activités d’écriture de la proposition finale et de mobilisation des ressources. 

Related: Cameroon: Stakeholders Seek Better Research Results. A three-day workshop to seek ways of intensifying innovations, diversification and the processing of family agriculture in the Central African Sub-region through research-related efforts began in Mfou, near Yaounde on April 26, 2012.

Watermarks for Sale

Something that is big with crafting blogs is watermarking your photos.  It's really simple to do. It ensures that nobody can claim your work for their own.  If you create lessons or tutorials, you can also watermark the text. 

Also, I have noticed that sometimes I will copy a photo to my desktop from someone else's blog because it shows a fabulous teaching idea.  But when I go to share it on my own blog, I don't have the link saved and if there was a watermark on the photo I would be able to easily credit the person who came up with the idea first.

I often put watermarks on my own work.  It's easy to do with Photoshop.

But if you don't have Photoshop, there's a free program called GIMP which is fabulous.

All you need to do is google "GIMP" to find the link.

And if you're a scrapbooker, any digital scrapbook program will be able to use PNG files, which are what I am selling.  Personally I use My Digital Studio and GIMP for all my digital images.

I have come up with a few designs myself.  If you are interested in putting watermarks on your work.  I can add your text to the designs below.  Some of them are specifically for teaching blogs, and others are better for crafting blogs. 

I also offer them in both White and Beige.  You can purchase one colour for $3, or both colours for $5  Scroll down for the Paypal button below and click on the arrow to chose which type of watermark you want.  Once you are in Paypal, please make sure to put the text you want in the 'message to seller' window or I won't know what you want your watermark to say.  Also, please make sure that your paypal is connected to an email that I can send your image to, or message me and give me your correct email.

If you want a customized design I can work with you for $10 to create your own image.

Click on the photo below, or scroll down for more details about each design.

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Get Your Personalized Watermark

white$3.00 USD beige$3.00 USD one of each color$5.00 USD

New FREEBIE product on TPT !!!!

I'm totally excited about this new product I just posted on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

And the best part????

It's FREE!!!!!

This is a SCIENCE unit great for any animal study/ biology unit for primary

AND

It's a great unit for teaching beginning Critical Thinking Skills.

Here's a few sneak peeks at the pages.

There are labelling ideas.



Some Language Arts ideas...

Some Art ideas...

And scope and sequence and making decisions ideas.

Please download this FREE product and please let me know what you think about it.

I have plans to make many more units on this theme and I'd love to hear your feeback.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

FOR FREE!!!!!

New international land deals database reveals rush to buy up Africa

27 April 2012. guardian.co.uk. New international land deals database reveals rush to buy up Africa. World's largest public database lifts lid on the extent and secretive nature of the global demand for land.

Almost 5% of Africa's agricultural land has been bought or leased by investors since 2000, according to an international coalition of researchers and NGOs that has released the world's largest public database of international land deals.

The database, lifts the lid on a decade of secretive deals struck by governments, investors and speculators seeking large tracts of fertile land in developing countries around the world.

The past five years have seen a flood of reports of investors snapping up land at rock-bottom prices in some of the world's poorest countries. But, despite growing concern about the local impacts of so-called "land grabs", the lack of reliable data has made it difficult to pin down the real extent and nature of the global rush for land.

Researchers estimate that more than 200m hectares (495m acres) of land – roughly eight times the size of the UK – were sold or leased between 2000 and 2010. Details of 1,006 deals covering 70.2m hectares mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America were published by the Land Matrix project, an international partnership involving five major European research centres and 40 civil society and research groups from around the world.

It is the first time a comprehensive list of international land deals has been collected and made public. The database relies on a wide variety of sources – including media reports, academic research and field-based investigations – to add detail to a global phenomenon notoriously shrouded in secrecy.

A separate report published on 25 April 2012 by the International Land Coalition, the NGO Global Witness, and the US-based Oakland Institute, denounced the "secretive culture" around large-scale land deals, and demanded governments and businesses disclose contracts and detailed information about potential risks and impacts of land-based investments.

"Far too many people are being kept in the dark about massive land deals that could destroy their homes and livelihoods," says Megan MacInnes, senior land campaigner at Global Witness. "Companies should have to prove they are doing no harm, rather than communities with little information or power having to prove that a land deal is negatively affecting them."

Second Stakeholders' Conference "Steps to Innovation"

April 24th to April 25th in Dakar, Sénégal. The second CAAST-Net Stakeholders' Conference on Africa-Europe S&T Cooperation was hosted by the Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur, des Universités et des Centres Universitaires Régionaux et de la Recherche Scientifique (Ministry of Higher Education and Regional Academic Centres and Scientific Research).

The purpose of the CAAST.Net Stakeholders' conferences was to support science and technology (S&T) policy engagements between Europe and Africa by facilitating a stakeholder dialogue around policy topics of mutual interest that are considered important for the enhancement of S&T collaboration between Africa and Europe. 

Concurrent conference workshops took place on promoting industry-academia relationships and entrepreneurship; commercialisation of different sources of knowledge; protecting knowledge and innovations; and securing financing to foster innovation projects.

Approximately one hundred experts and stakeholders from Europe and Africa attended the conference. Participants included policy stakeholders, academics and research scientists, implementing governmental agencies, civil society and international organisations, among others.


Le ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche, porte-parole du gouvernement, Serigne Mbaye Thiam, présidait l’ouverture de la 2-ème Conférence des parties prenantes du Réseau pour la coordination et l’avancement de la coopération scientifique et technologique entre l’Afrique sub-saharienne et l’Union européenne (CAAST-NET)

Businesses in Agric Sector Get Funding Boost

April 15, 2012. The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) has launched a new competition for agri-business and rural financial services for Liberia and Sierra Leone, DR. Congo, and Somalia. The competition allows privately-owned businesses involved in the agriculture sector in the post-conflict economies of Liberia, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, and Somalia to compete for its matching grant funds, which range from US$250,000 to US$1.5 million per project.

 The AECF runs competitions open only to for-profit companies, and has to date funded over 80 projects in Africa including three in Sierra Leone. KPMG is the Fund Manager of the AECF. The competition seeks innovative business ideas in agri-business, financial services and value chains that combine commercial viability with development.

The West Africa Director of the Fund, Dr. George Manu, told reporters during the launch in Monrovia on Wednesday, April 19, 2012 that:

A project must be commercially viable and have a positive impact on the rural poor in Africa in order to qualify for funding. Furthermore, as the AECF operates on a risk sharing basis, companies applying would need to match our funding or make significant contribution to the projects.

IFPRI 2011 Global Food Policy Report

23 April 2012. The 2011 Global Food Policy Report, a new flagship publication recently launched by the International Food Policy Research Institute, presents a broad picture of the year’s food policy issues as well as areas that require future attention.

Based on rigorous research, the Global Food Policy Report is designed specifically to provide an overview of 2011 and an outlook for 2012 for non-technical audiences. For the international community, the 2011 Global Food Policy Report makes a number of specific recommendations:

• The G20 should do more to reduce competition between biofuel and food production and discourage trade restrictions that exacerbate price swings. 
• The international community should consolidate global and regional agricultural growth strategies and create or strengthen the institutions needed to make these strategies work. 
• Rio+20 conference participants should integrate economic, social, and environmental sustainability in their discussions and commit to concrete action on long-term development challenges, including poor nutrition, degraded soils, and scarce water. 
• A broad intersectoral coalition should work together to address nutrition, food, and health issues.

• Launch Seminar: April 23
• Full Report
• Preview booklet: English | Français
• Media materials
• All related video

Download in PDF

• Full Report (PDF 7.6M)
• Preview (PDF 974K)
• Aperçu (PDF 954K)