2006 ANNUAL REPORT & PROGRAMME REPORT ... - Prolinnova

A Training of Facilitators in PID was held from in October 2006, attended by 29 participants
(10 women and 19 men) coming from academia, government, media and, the great majority,
from NGOs.
Two students from the Vrije University of Amsterdam have been attached to the programme
and are carrying out research on environmental management and social dynamics of
innovative communities. A third student has been doing research on local innovation in urban
agriculture.
In terms of documentation, the secretariat prepared an article on PID in Uganda for the
September issue of the LEISA magazine. Another article was written and published in a
Ugandan daily (Monitor) in August. Several posters on local innovation in Uganda have been
produced and disseminated. The posters have stirred the curiosity of farmers and extension
workers, supporting the identification and development of other local innovations.
The CP continued to dialogue with policy makers on institutionalisation of participatory
approaches in the government (e.g. National Agricultural Advisory Services) and academia.
As part of this effort, a presentation was made at Makerere University Kampala, Faculty of
Forestry and Nature Conservation, leading to further interest from other faculties, the Faculty
of Agriculture in particular. The presentation was attended by 54 participants (lecturers,
heads of departments and students).
Efforts to engage NAADS on institutionalisation of participatory approaches in their service
delivery continued through meetings with the organisation’s staff.
Uganda is also involved in the piloting of Local Innovation Funds under FAIR. A feasibility
study on the institutional set up and functioning of a LISF in the Ugandan context was
completed.
In December, a strategic planning workshop for stakeholders was held to review approaches
and experiences of the programme in Uganda from 2003 to 2006. This was attended by 26
participants (10 women and 16 men), from farmer organisations, academia, GOs and NGOs.
At this event, participants conducted a SWOT analysis of the programme, which provided
valuable inputs to elaboration of the 2007-2010 Strategic Plan.
It is important to note that the Ugandan CP played an important role in co-organising the
Innovation Africa Symposium and also supported PELUM Uganda in organising – on behalf
of PROLINNOVA – the international farmer-led documentation Workshop. Both took place in
Uganda at the end of 2006, and are further discussed in chapter 2.
1.11 Other countries/regions
Pacific
In 2006, contacts with the Pacific region were established, through the Secretariat of the
Pacific Community and the Farmer First Network in Melanesia. Representatives of both
organisations participated in the PROLINNOVA international meeting in Cambodia. A number
of joint activities were agreed on, including the participation of a Pacific representative in the
2 nd Training of Facilitators in Participatory Innovation Development in Uganda.
As a follow-up to this event, a PID training course was organised in the Solomon Islands in
September, supported by PROLINNOVA. The workshop brought together community
development workers, research officers from the department of agriculture and farmers. A
total of 13 participants (6 women) attended the training. The majority of participants were
from the Solomon Islands, with 2 participants coming from Fiji and Vanuatu.
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