The Prolinnova Oversight Group (POG) met in Nepal on 7–8 May 2009 for its 8 th face-to-face meeting since its establishment in February 2005. The current POG Chair, Scott Killough from World Neighbors welcomed the new members elected in early 2009: Magagi Saidou from Niger (for francophone Africa), Hector Velasquez from Bolivia (for Latin America), Sabina Di Prima from the Centre for International Cooperation at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands (for the Prolinnova International Support Team) and Susan Kaaria from Ford Foundation Nairobi Office as an independent member.
Qureish Noordin from Prolinnova–Kenya took part in place of Monica Kapiriri, the elected POG member who was unable to attend this meeting. Oliver Oliveros, an independent member from Agropolis, France, connected with the meeting by telephone. To start things off, the group chose Susan to be Co-Chair together with Scott. The main points discussed during the meeting were the gender strategy of the Prolinnova network, communication between the POG and the Country Programmes (CPs), structure and roles of POG subcommittees (adding ones for Gender and for Farmer Organisations), the annual report on activities at CP and international level, outcomes of the internal e-evaluation of the network in January 2009 and the external evaluation completed in March 2009, and some key issues regarding long-term planning. The POG scheduled a second face-to-face meeting, this year, to be held in late August in Kenya. This will focus on the strategic plan for Prolinnova beyond 2010, which is currently being drawn up by a team consisting of partners from four CPs.
