Subregional Coordinators visualise Prolinnova CoP in Africa

The Prolinnova Subregional Coordinators in Africa - Brigid Letty for Eastern & Southern Africa and Georges Djohy for West & Central Africa - have made a diagram that shows the complexity and multiple links within the Prolinnova community of practice (CoP) in Africa, made up of the two subregional platforms and their links with Prolinnova structures in other parts of the world. The English version of the diagram can be found here and the French version can be found here. In addition, there is a much broader Prolinnova network, embracing the CoP and many more people throughout the world (over 700 addresses) in the Prolinnova Yahoogroup.

During the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) meeting and the International Partners Workshop (IPW) in Senegal in mid-May 2019, the Prolinnova network agreed to ask Agrecol Association for AgriCulture & Ecology to serve as the Northern Focal Point (NFP) for the network. The POG felt that Agrecol would be a very suitable “home” for the NFP, as Agrecol and Prolinnova share a similar philosophy.

At the meeting of the Agrecol Board and the annual meeting of Agrecol members in Goettingen, Germany, in late May, the similarities between Agrecol and Prolinnova in terms of values and interests were recognised and it was agreed that Agrecol Association would take on the role of NFP for the Prolinnova network.

Various partner organisations in the Prolinnova–Kenya network have identified and profiled 37 innovations by small-scale Kenyan farmers - women, men and groups – to improve the food and nutrition security of their families and communities. The 48-page well-illustrated Catalogue of Local Innovations was compiled by Makonge Righa and Vincent Mariadho of World Neighbors Kenya, the host organisation of the Country Platform. The innovations were identified in the years 2016–2019 in Kisumu and Makueni Counties within the framework of the Proli-FaNS (Promoting local innovation in Food and Nutrition Security) project funded by Misereor/Catholic Central Agency for Development Aid.

The local NGOs that are facilitating Prolinnova–Ghana’s work with farmers at the two action-learning sites in Bongo and Yendi held farmer innovation fairs at each site. Local media reported on the event organised by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organization (NABOCADO) in Bongo in two articles: “Innovation fair held for farmers in Bongo district” in Citi Newsroom (3 May 2019) and “Bongo-Soe farmers boost food security” in Ghanaian Times (4 May 2019). These activities form part of the Proli-FaNS (Promoting local innovation in Food and Nutrition Security) project funded by the German Government through Misereor/KZE (Catholic Central Agency for Development Aid).

The Farmer-led Research Network (FaReNe) project is a joint project of Prolinnova partners in Burkina Faso and Mali with financial support from the McKnight Foundation and technical support from the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), host of the Prolinnova international secretariat. It looks at how best to organise and use farmer-led innovation approaches, such as Participatory Innovation Development (PID), Local Innovation Support Facility/Fund (LISF) and farmer networking, and how these can contribute to agro-ecological intensification. Approaching the end of the current funding cycle, key members of the partner organisations from the two countries – NGO staff, researchers and farmer organisation representatives – met for a writeshop to document their three years of experiences, share and analyse these together, and work towards well-written papers.