The Prolinnova Oversight Group welcomes Timor Leste (East Timor) as a new Country Platform within the Prolinnova community of practice as of May 2017. The CP comprises NGOs, government agencies and two universities. The host NGO – RAEBIA (Resilient Agriculture and Economy through Biodiversity in Action) – grew out of work supported by USC–Canada for several years, when it introduced the participatory land-use planning approach that is now used widely in the country. The group has gained support through the Timor Leste Government’s Civil Society Organisation Fund to launch the CP. Government funding also made it possible that Xisto Martins (RAEBIA) and Joaquim da Costa Freitas (Prime Minister’s Office) could travel to Ghana to join the Prolinnova International Partners Workshop (IPW) in May 2017.

Partners from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya in the Proli-FaNS (Promoting local innovation in Food and Nutrition Security) project met in Tamale, Ghana, immediately after the 2017 Prolinnova International Partners Workshop (IPW). Both events are being hosted by ACDEP (Association of Church-based Development Projects), which coordinates the Prolinnova-Ghana multistakeholder platform and the Proli-FaNS project. The report can be found here: http://prolinnova.net/sites/default/files/documents/thematic_pages/food_...

Prolinnova–Kenya has provided an update on its activities in 2016. These include:

i) implementation of two projects – Combining Local Innovative Capacity with Scientific Research (CLIC–SR) and Promoting local innovation in Food and Nutrition Security (Proli-FaNS);

ii) presentation of a paper at the Africa Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation in Ethiopia;

iii) various sharing, learning and planning meetings of the multi-stakeholder National Steering Committee (NSC) and Local Steering Committees in the action-learning sites;

iv) taking part in the Prolinnova International Partners Workshop in Senegal;

v) participation in selecting farmer innovations for the Program on Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation of the University of Bonn, Germany;

vi) partnership with the American NGO AGC (A Growing Culture) in developing a farmers’ library for food sovereignty, including a meeting in Uganda;

vii) award from the National Environment Trust Fund to farmer innovator Joe Ouku from the farmer self-help group Nyando District Dairy Goats Association.

From the over 150 candidates that applied to be Subregional Coordinator (SRC) of Prolinnova activities in Africa, the two persons selected by the Country Platforms in the respective subregions and the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) were Amanuel Assefa for the Eastern & Southern Africa subregion and Georges Djohy for the West & Central Africa subregion.

ESA coordinator: Amanuel Assefa, Ethiopia         WCA coordinator: Georges Djohy, Benin