Georges Djohy, Prolinnova Subregional Coordinator (SRC) for West & Central Africa, was selected by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) to take part in the training course on communication strategies through social media to be held on 5–15 October in Rome. This training, offered by GFAR and FAO, also gives him the opportunity to cover the 44^th session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) on 9–13 October. The use of social media is becoming increasingly important in Prolinnova’s strategy to disseminate and scale up our network's achievements and to stimulate policy dialogue about the role of small-scale farmers in agricultural research and innovation.

The Prolinnova Country Platforms have elected two new members in the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG): Elske van der Fliert to an independent seat in the POG and Joe Ouko to the seat for farmer organisations.

Pratap Shrestha of USC Canada has replaced Ann Waters-Bayer as co-chair of the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG). He is a founder member of Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD), a Nepal-based NGO that initially hosted Prolinnova–Nepal, and was Executive Director of LI-BIRD in 2003–09. He was instrumental in setting up Prolinnova–Nepal and was its coordinator for five years. In 2010, he joined USC Canada Asia as Regional Representative and is now their Program Specialist on Seed Systems and Plant Genetic Resources. He is based in Pokhara, Nepal.

In the POG, Pratap shares responsibilities with Chris Macoloo, who has already been serving as co-chair for the last two years and has agreed to serve for an additional year. Chris is the Regional Associate Vice President for Africa at World Neighbors, and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. 

For more information about the POG (including biosketches of all POG members), see www.prolinnova.net/content/prolinnova-oversight-group

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.