Summary report on Prolinnova-Uganda
January–June 2003
In Uganda, Prolinnova builds on previous work related to promoting local innovation under the two projects “Indigenous Soil and Water Conservation in Africa” (ISWC) and “Promoting Farmer Innovation” (PFI), both coordinated by the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries. This Ministry has joined the core facilitating team for Prolinnova planning in the country, which is coordinated by the NGO Environmental Alert, and includes three other NGOs as members: PELUM (Participatory Ecological Land Use Management) Uganda, Kulika Charitable Trust, and the Africa 2000 Network.
From March to May 2003, members of the core team made inventories of organisations and projects that have relevant experiences and/or were potentially interested in the aims and vision of Prolinnova in Uganda. They held bilateral meetings or interviews with key organisations, according to formats agreed beforehand by the core team. The main objectives of this exercise were to explore the relevance of a Prolinnova initiative in Uganda and to identify important areas of attention and priorities for a future programme in the country. The synthesis report of this inventory is under preparation but preliminary conclusions have been formulated as follows:
- There is support from almost all organisations for a Prolinnova initiative and an interest to participate as a way of scaling up, disseminating and sharing their related work and receiving assistance in documenting and validating their work.
- There is a need to clarify further the concept of farmer innovation, the role it can play in agricultural development and NRM, the interaction with formal research and if local innovations require scientific validation.
- There is a need to create linkage between Prolinnova and national policy frameworks and national institutions, among others, those that would help to protect the intellectual property rights of the innovators.
A national workshop will be held in the third week of August with representatives of all stakeholder groups, including farmers, to assess the results of the inventory, to make a joint review of in-country experiences and to develop further the agenda for Prolinnova in Uganda.
