Because so many people from the Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) were invited to the Farmer First Revisited workshop in Brighton, the POG took the opportunity to hold a meeting of these people immediately before the workshop, on 11 December 2007. Enough members were present to be able to form a quorum. The highlight of the meeting was the decision by the POG to accept a new Country Programme (CP): Prolinnova Mozambique (see related news..), based on a proposal submitted by a multi-stakeholder platform coordinated by the NGO VETAID. In addition, the POG refined the criteria and procedure for including new CPs in the Prolinnova community of practice; reviewed the CP and international support activities including multi-country initiatives such as FAIR (piloting of Local Innovation Support Funds) and curriculum development; explored the current and potential relationship between Prolinnova and farmer organisations at national and international level, e.g. Via Campesina and IFAD (International Federation of Agricultural Producers), for which Betty Del Rosario is the Asian coordinator; and commented on the draft guidelines for quality assurance in international publications from Prolinnova.
The POG welcomed Monica Kapiriri from Uganda as new POG member, who starts her term in January 2008. Monica s first POG meeting will be in early April 2008, together with the next International Partners Meeting, which will also provide an opportunity for other Prolinnova partners to meet her. The POG now consists of Scott Killough and Betty Del Rosario as co-chairs, Oliver Oliveros as third external member, Elizabeth Vargas from Latin America, Moni Ung from Asia, Bassoum Souleymane from francophone Africa, Monica Kapiriri from anglophone Africa, and Will Critchley from the International Support Team.
