A 2-day orientation and training event on local Innovation was held in Ilam Community Agriculture Campus (ICAC) on 5-6 April 2026. It was organised by the Prolinnova Ilam network comprising of NCDC (NGO), Shahayatra (NGO), ICAC (Agri College), and Agriculture Knowledge Centre (Government service), and Ilam Municipality. The lead facilitator was Basanta Ranabhat (Asia representative on the Prolinnova Oversight Group), supported by Sharad Rai (Asia Regional Coordinator) and Yogendra Shrestha (Coordinator, Prolinnova Ilam Network). Twenty participants representing NGOs, officials from the Municipality, staff from the Agriculture Campus and final year BSc. Students participated in this event that was conducted in a participatory and interactive manner. The event was made possible through the regionalisation efforts of a project titled ‘Expanding Promotion of Local Innovation for Food Security and Healthy Nutrition (ELIFaNS), which was funded by Misereor and implemented across five African countries.
The content of the event included a brief overview of Prolinnova and its operational structure, basic concepts and definitions related to local innovation and types of innovations in comparison to other forms of knowledge, in particular traditional and indigenous knowledge. It also clarified the differences between participatory technology development (PTD) and participatory innovation development (PID), and the processes for the identification and documentation of local innovations. The participants – the students in particular, actively took part in the session. Towards mainstreaming the approaches supported by Prolinnova, a course on local innovation will be introduced in the curriculum of ICAC from the beginning of this year. In the concluding session, Yogendra (Ilam network coordinator and Principal of ICAC) encouraged the students to document and undertake research on local innovation for which funding may be made available from the college.