The mid-year progress report of the Promoting local innovation for Food and Nutrition Security” (Proli-FaNS) project up to July 2017 gives an overview of activities accomplished by the five Country Platforms involved – in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya. These include preparations for farmer-led research, advocacy and documentation activities, and the work of the two new subregional coordinators in Western & Central Africa and in Eastern & Southern Africa to strengthen South–South learning and collaboration.

Proli-FaNS is funded by Misereor/Katholische Zentralstelle e.V. (Catholic Central Agency for Development Aid – KZE, Germany) through a grant from the “One World No Hunger” (SEWOH) initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

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

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.

Emily Monville (Philippines) with Xisto Martins & Joaquim da Costa Freitas (Timor Leste) at IPW 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.