Pioneers for food security

Sharing knowledge for better development programmes at the IFAD-EUFF capitalisation workshop in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

How can we effectively introduce new seed production techniques? Which roles do farmer organizations play in helping smallholders to grow more food? How can agricultural research support seed production? These are some of the issues that the participants of the capitalisation workshop on the IFAD EU Food Facility project in West Africa discussed at today’s opening of the meeting – and you will find the answers below.

The EU Food Facility (EUFF) was created as an answer to soaring food prices in developing countries in 2007/2008. With the Facility, the European Union provided one billion euros for projects that:

• improve the access to agricultural inputs and services,
• maintain or improve the agricultural productive capacity and
• address the basic food needs in developing countries

and chose IFAD as one of the implementing partners in West Africa.

Since the programme has been launched one and a half years ago, much has been achieved. Building on existing IFAD projects, 20 million euros were used to support small farmers achieve higher yields, grow more food and earn more money. The projects in Mali, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ghana were implemented in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and reached more than 200 000 rural families.

Now, that the programme’s activities have closed at the end of 2011, project partners are coming together for a capitalisation and a closing workshop. During the next days (23-26 March), they will share experiences, draw lessons and discuss the way forward.

“The first meeting of all implementing partners showed, how beneficial it is, to exchange knowledge and experiences. It has been an important part of our collaboration since,” said Adriane del Torto, IFAD’s EUFF coordinator for West Africa. All participants have brought one or two examples of capitalization products – success stories, videos, posters or other materials – which will be reviewed by their peers to improve and enrich the products, before they are officially released. “The sharing of knowledge in this way has helped everyone involved in the projects. We all have learned how to properly identify and explain what works in our programs. This could potentially help to raise funds and to scale up our projects with relevant and efficient activities. From the experiences that will be shared here today, some have successfully been replicated in other settings. In the long-run this will lead to better and more sustainable results in development programmes. And this is why we have organized this capitalization workshop,“ explained Adriane in her opening statement (scroll down for the video).

Following the opening ceremony, every project presented their cases, followed by a short Q&A, and as promised, here are the answers to the questions raised above: How did the projects manage to spread new, more efficient seed growing techniques within such a short time, was one of the questions that came up. The answer came from the Ghanaian participants, who used a proven knowledge-dissmenination technique for their Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP): word of mouth. Many of the farmers, participating in the programme, produced their yam seeds on sites that were close to roads or other places with many people passing by every day . Soon, they realized that these farmers weren’t following the traditional seed production technique. They became curious. And learned from the farmers about the benefits of this new seed production technology – and how it works. In this way, the project reached a much larger, and growing group, who now uses the new technique.

The role of farmer organizations, was another issue, that came up frequently. All participants agreed, how important the organizations, such as cooperatives, are in enabling smallholders to increase their production. In some projects, for example the Management of Certified Groundnut Seeds Production in Senegal, cooperatives and their establishment were a constituent part of the project design.

And last but not least, how can agricultural research support seed production? The answer to this was given by Prof Corneille Ahanhanzo from Benin, who highlighted the need for strong links between agricultural research and seed producers: “Researchers help to find improved techniques and better seeds. We are pioneers for food security.”

Monitoring and Evaluating the IFAD Country Programme in Ghana

by Adriane Del Torto
 
Monitorting and Evaluation (M&E) is often considered one of the weakest links in development programmes. This is also true for IFAD. The IFAD Country Programme in Ghana took this as a challenge to overcome and started to invest in M&E about two years ago. After putting an emphasis on this theme for some time now, it was finally decided that the stakeholders involved in M&E should get together to share successes and address the gaps that still exist in M&E. From 12 to 14 December, a Ghana Country Programme Learning and Exchange Workshop on M&E took place at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

The workshop , organised by the IFAD Country Office in close collaboration with the West Africa Rural Foundation (WARF) brought together representatives from all IFAD projects, the Roots and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Project (RTIMP), Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), Rural Enterprises Programme( REP II), Rural Agriculture Finance Programme( RAFIP), Northern Region Poverty Reduction Project (NORPREP), WARF, the Government of Ghana - the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFIP) and the National Development and Planning Commission (NDPC) and partners IFPRI/SAKKSS, IPA, University of Ghana, Busylab , Esoko Mobile Technology, in  an innovative and interactive workshop.

The overall objective of this workshop is to identify how to use M&E to its fullest capacities. This means using the information generated by M&;E on implementation progress as a management tool rather than an institutional requirement. The workshop helped identify outcomes, output and impact of projects while emphasising on the qualitative side of M&E which is often excluded.

The basis of the discussion were the newfound focus on M&E for the Ghana Country Programme, the recommendations from the last country programme supervision mission (which took place mid November to mid December 2011) , the current national and project M&E structures, capitalisation efforts and finally research in M&E undertaken by our implementation partners.

After each project identified the key issues raised by the supervision mission, the partners making their presentations, the workshop allowed each project to review the M&E indicators making sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound) and ensure that these indicators are the right one to measure the outcomes and impacts desired by the project. It also allowed for the identification of research needs that will improve the M&E and impact reporting

The workshop highlighted the good results in M&E in the Ghana portfolio until now, and also how much these efforts contribute daily to the improvement of the systems and the improvements still needed. Most importantly, projects have shared and exchanged on how to improve their indicators and how to address the difficulties they are facing. Some recurrent themes are the following:

- need to improve data collection at the field level by involving beneficiaries and possibly digitalising

- need to strengthen grassroots institutions
- need for data control at all levels
- need for better data management and analysis
- need for commitment of all actors
- need to fill information gaps through studies
- need to identify, undersand and maintain linkages
- need for better gender mainstreaming
- need to identify further partnerships through good planning

Each project came up with an action plan during the workshop that will be mainstreamed into the AWPB to ensure its implementation.

Most importantly, a topic that came up on many occasions is the importance of good communication and the importance of making the time to exchange on the positive outcomes achieved. In order to ensure good communication there are several Fora in Ghana to ensure exchanges between stakeholders on themes of on microfinance, rural finance and value chains. Furthermore, WARF and FIDAFRIQUE are imporant partners in Ghana but also for IFAD projects in West and Central Africa: they help will ensure that the information to be shared is well articulated and diffused on the regional platform.


Outstanding challenges and considerations for the future are how to make adequate time to engage in proper M&E activities and to ensure that the lessons learned from good M&E fit into policy dialogue.

IFAD's Cartagena workshop on rural youth entrepreneurship ends with guidelines for policy development

The 1st Meeting on Youth Entrepreneurship and Rural Micro-enterprising ended with a series of recommendations that will help the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and its partners, develop and implement policies that can create more favourable conditions for the growth of young people’s micro enterprises. The five-day knowledge sharing and policy dialogue event was organized by IFAD, the Oportunidades Rurales programme of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and the Regional Program to Support Rural Afro-Latino Populations (ACUA). Along with more than 20 senior staff and project staff members of the three development partners, over thirty young entrepreneurs coming from Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Nicaragua, Madagascar, Peru, Senegal and Syria participated in the workshop, which was opened by Mohamed Beavogui, Director of IFAD’s West and Central Africa Division. During the deliberations of the workshop the young entrepreneurs were divided in four working group of discussion dedicated to four thematic areas, including:

· The issue of non-inclusion of the projects of young rural people in the development plans and strategies of governments
· The lack of or limited space for participation in exchanges between adults and young people to transmit knowledge
· Restrictions on young people’s access to credit and rural financial services
· Excessive limitations facing on young people’s access to market and value chain opportunities.

In a message to the workshop, HE Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar, Minister of Agriculture of Colombia, welcomed the participants to his country, expressing “Greetings with enthusiasm to all participants coming from various parts of the world, for choosing to hold their workshop in Colombia.” He said: “On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government of Colombia, we wish you the best of success in your deliberations and in achieving concrete results, with the hope that the enthusiasm which brought these young people here will be further reinforced.”

At closure of the workshop, Roberto Haudry, IFAD’s Country Programme Manager for Colombia, outlined the key outcomes of the workshop. He said the conclusions that managers and Project staff members of IFAD, Oportunideds Rurales and ACUA have reached following their intensive interactions with the participating young entrepreneurs, would be distilled into two main products, consisting of immediate general recommendations and a policy framework that would require a longer time for development. Haudry said “The proposals made by the young entrepreneurs during the event, including policy hints, activities and tools, will be reproduced exactly as they were expressed.” He added that the three partners will try to incorporate these proposals into their current operations and future interventions. He summarized the general recommendations as follow:

· IFAD and its projects lack, and should acquire the capacity to hear the young people, learn more from them and trust them much more. IFAD and its partners commit themselves to multiplying their exchanges with rural young people, and facilitating exchanges between themselves, in order to learn more about each other’s successful business models, difficulties, solutions and innovations.
· Promoting inter-generational dialogue is very important and requires greater attention. Each generation of young, adults and elders have their own special characteristics, extending from new technology assimilation, through productivity and assets accumulation, to knowledge and wisdom. Understanding the complimentary potential of the three elements and acting upon such understanding needs to be improved.
· The need to design financial instruments and vehicles that permit the inclusion of many millions of young people in the citizenship of access to financial services, markets and information is more pressing now than ever before.
· Recognition of the ICT talents of young people needs to be made by the creation of “knowledge markets” through which they can transmit information, know-how and innovations to each other.
· Recognition of the need to invest in culture is crucial to make good agriculture, particularly in the case of young people.
· Acknowledgement of the global dimension of young people’s space is only logical as they constantly move between rural, urban and global terrains and cyberspaces. Therefore, learning skills such as English, for example, has been identified as a basic necessary tool for young people. · The need to invest in non-formal education, including cultural and physical creativity, would help motivate young people for greater productivity.
· The need to provide the young people with direct access to various resources and assets, including financial services and markets, is crucial and requires greater investments.

The closing session ended with an announced that a special event similar to the Cartagena Youth workshop will be held in Africa in 2011, as part of a global consultation process with rural young people.
The last two days of the workshop were dedicated to field visits in the context of a “Learning Route” programme to the sites of IFAD supported interventions in the Departmental District of La Gallera, which is located in the ZENÚ indigenous reservation and in to the Verdara La Aren of Sincelejo. The participants also visited the sites of rural development interventions in the municipalities of Sincé and Corozal in the Department of Sucre. This had followed other field visits to the sites and activities of micro-enterprises of poor rural people, particularly women, supported by Oprtunidades Rurales in the island of Baru and the San Basilio de Paneque. The huge variety of artisan workshops developed by the young entrepreneurs, for example in Baru, which range from bakeries, to shoemakers to artificial jewellery making workshops, was impressive.

Organized in collaboration with the Association of Women and Young Afro Colombian (AFROCARIBE), the Costa ASOPIELES Marroquineros Association and the Association of the Social Agro-industrial Development Savannah (ASODESEA), the Learning Route provided ample opportunities to learn and share knowledge. This includes the concrete outcomes of Colombia’s experience in rural small business development and its approach to the involvement of young people. The Rural Micro Enterprise (MER) in Colombia has helped nearly 500 thousand families develop secure and sustainable sources of income through engagement in a variety of micro-enterprises and other income-generating activities. Between 2004 and 2009 about 25,000 families received tools, resources and training enabling them to move out of absolute poverty from this investment programme developed by IFAD and the Colombian Government. The innovative Learning Route imitative developed with the technical cooperation of PROCASUR, has become a model in “knowledge travelling” that aims at improving the capacities of farmers associations and organizations of entrepreneurs in identifying, evaluating and learning (for replication and up-scaling) from initiatives of micro enterprises in other regions.

A number of the participating young entrepreneurs have also set up vender tables in Cartagena’s old city centre, where the general public could admire and purchase their products. This “Fair” of products of young micro-entrepreneurs from various parts of has attracted a large number of visitors curious to know more about the Youth initiatives. A good example of these innovations was the development by a group of young rural Colombians of the “marimba” musical instrument, or what they call the “forest piano” that is fast spreading in the countryside bringing happiness to many rural communities after hard work days in the fields. The young entrepreneurs who benefited from micro finance services supported by IFAD and its partners have made a highly visible success in their new industry not only in Colombia. The group affirmed that they are expanding the market outreach of their “marimba” to neighbouring countries too. Naturally, the workshop could not have a better closure that that of the sounds and rhythms of the marimba played by its creators. Naturally IFAD’s staff too, like the director Beavovui, also had a go and tried the fantastic sounds of the instrument. As a final act, Betty Sterling of LAC, took advantage of the youngster’s enthusiasm to hand over the participation diplomas to the young leaders of tomorrow, who seemingly enjoyed the event as much as they have effectively contributed to its outcomes.

Meeting to prepare IFAD Response to the Crisis in Haiti

DAY 1 – 28 January

The workshop was opened by Ms Josefina Stubbs, Director of the Latin America and the Caribbean Division. Josefina Stubbs extends condolences of IFAD over earthquake in Haiti. She provided a comprehensive overview of the objectives and background to the workshop. PL Director highlighted the immediate response of IFAD to the crisis that focused on facilitating the resumption of agricultural activities as a means of restoring the livelihoods of thousands of communities that are dependent on agriculture. The main challenges for the workshop were to identify interventions and strategies for the long-term reconstruction of the agricultural sector. In order to achieve this will require an integrated and participatory approach. She welcomed the FAO residents for Haiti and Santo Domingo and other FAO staff as well as representatives from a national NGO from Haiti and IICA, a regional organization at the workshop. This is indeed not only a reflection of the importance of partnership as efforts are being channelled to start the rehabilitation of the agricultural sector.

Attendees were also invited to introduce themselves. The remainder of the day was comprised of formal presentations on the situation from each of the IFAD-funded projects, by representatives of FAO and non-government organizations.

COUNTRY OVERVIEW - Experience sharing and testimonies on impact on rural areas

Representatives of the IFAD-funded projects staff, along with NGOs, FAO and IFAD staff, reported on the progress to date with respect to the situation of the agricultural sector.

The disaster made a serious impact on agricultural related livelihoods, including both on-farm and off-farm activities. It destroyed not only physical facilities (i.e. agriculture tools and equipment, irrigation systems, houses and buildings), but also natural resource capacities.

Analysis of preliminary existing information on post-earthquake situation in rural areas based on first-hand information from IFAD-funded project staff in Haiti shows that:
i) The major impact of the earthquake for the agriculture sector is the massive migration of population from the capital city to the rural areas which magnitude is still to be confirmed. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates the number of people leaving cities for rural areas could reach more that 1 million. Migration is putting further pressure on rural households in terms of availability of food and access to basic services and socio-economic stability in areas already

grappling with meagre resources;
ii) Assessment of physical damages in the rural areas is still underway. However, it is confirmed that there has been some damage to irrigation systems, productive infrastructure, roads, including main routes to agricultural markets, particularly in the Western regions (Leogane, Grand Goave, and Petit Goave, Nippes in a 100 km radius).

On mid-day, the Minister of Agriculture of Haiti visited the workshop venue to address workshop participants. The Minister confirmed the assessment made by IFAD-funded projects staff and informed that a programme has been worked out by the Government for 600 million US$ over 18 months for agricultural development.

The Minister requested the three ongoing IFAD projects to maintain all activities approved in their AWPB 2009-2010 which are still relevant trying to speed up their implementation to meet their ambitious annual targets. In addition, the Minister welcomed additional resources to

address the immediate needs in the rural areas most affected by the earthquake outside IFAD-funded projects areas. Finally, the Minister invited IFAD and FAO to reactivate the seed distribution programme which was implemented in the aftermath of the food prices crisis.

The mission has also found out that a multi Donor Need Assessment Exercise is under preparation with the aim of presenting a detailed report at the next world conference on Haiti to be held in New York in March. The IFAD participation in this exercise will be discussed in a series of bilateral meetings with donor agencies (World Bank, IADB, AECI, FAO) next week.

In summary, the impact of the earthquake has been exacerbated by the huge migration to rural areas, increasing demand for food and agricultural production and concerns about food security.

Before leaving a grant financing agreement of US 5.6 miilion with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Day 2 – 29 January

On the 2nd Day of the Workshop, the participants discussed needs to support rural communities by:

- Reviewing and analyzing the current approved AWPB for 2010:
- Mapping the existing needs assessment information and identified information gaps;
- Identifying the main factors and trends that could impact the implementation of annual work plans;
- Identifying priorities areas and overall objectives for the 2010 short term and long term strategies;
- Started the development of response plans for each project and FAO.

In conclusion, the food security needs of earthquake-affected rural areas households will require, according to participants and based on previous experience, an immediate combination of food assistance, rapid agricultural input supplies (seeds, fertiliser, tools, poultry and small ruminants etc.) and a rehabilitation of production infrastructure, such as on-farm irrigation, storage facilities.

Workshop participants suggested that IFAD response should focus th e following:
Rehabilitation of agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation systems in time for the March 2010 planting season and the re-establishment of agricultural markets to ensure the short and long term goal for food security.
· Research, development and information sharing - documentation and data collection of the impact on and recovery of affected agriculture areas and ecosystems.
· Development of income generating activities, micro-credit schemes and community empowerment with a focus on agricultural livelihood activities.
· Distribution of seed and planting materials; crop diversification that includes or incorporates cash cropping options; livestock; and improved agricultural practices.

IFAD Response to the Crisis in Haiti

This was my first trip to Latin America. The first impression I had during my breakfast is the number of UN staff, NGOs, rescue and humanitarian teams in Santo Domingo.

After the breakfast, we made arrangement with the hotel for the workshop. Our colleagues from Haiti have arrived. I am anxious to meet them. I missed the opportunity in November 2009 as they participated in the project implementation workshop organized by the Division of Western and Central Africa.

The workshop is a unique opportunity to listen to IFAD-funded project staff and share their concerns. They provided us with testimonies and useful and painful information on the situation. Despite the pain, they are strong and speak with calm and dignity. They are eager to share information so that we can collectively assess initial findings related to rehabilitation needs and opportunities, share plans and proposals for future rehabilitation work, and develop mechanisms for collaboration and joint activities. You can read the testimonies I collected in the next blog.

The tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti is beyond what many of us can even fully imagine. We have see shots of the seism, and humanitarian efforts to get food, water and shelter to people. But listening to people stories is shaken.

Fortunately, the situation in Haiti is improving. This was good news and for which we are grateful. As Haiti begins to rebuild, the development process must be driven by values and processes that ensure real sustainability. According to our colleagues, the work of empowering communities must start and this includes building lasting food security, rehabilitating agricultural infrastructure and development of income generating activities, micro-credit schemes and community empowerment with a focus on agricultural livelihood activities.

The show is on the road: Day one of the regional implementation workshop for Western and Central Africa

There is quite a bit of frenzy in the atrium of the ORCHID Hospitality Management Services (Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons), Accra, Ghana where IFAD in conjunction with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Ghana, is holding a regional project implementation workshop for Western and Central Africa. These events present a wonderful opportunity for people to reconnect. You can see many smiling faces, people hugging and kissing and catching up with each other.

Adriana, Letizia, Christiane and others are helping with the registration. The last couple of days were quite hectic. Stefania and Martin, the two pillars of this workshop have diligently been organizing the minute details of the workshop. Yesterday we had a series of meeting to make sure that all the logistics was working like a swiss watch.

We spent all of yesterday setting up. Everyone, and I mean everyone, contributed to making sure we had everything. The gentlemen, Steven, Leo, Loko and others helped with assemblying the kits. David set up the exhibit and the publication desk. Stefania, Martin and I went were responsible for the signage and to make sure the breakout rooms were set up.

I am really excited, as tomorrow we'll be using a wide range of knowledge sharing methods. We'll start with three parallel chat shows, then we'll move to three parallel world cafes and we'll finish the day with a speed geeking session where colleagues will present their findings and learnings!

Kudos to all the colleagues in Western and Central Africa for embracing knowledge sharing methods. For sure, this workshop will be different and more engaging that previous editions!

This morning we'll have the honour and privilege of having His Excellency the Minister of Agriculture for the official opening. We'll then have a series presentation by the Director of Western and Central Africa and IFAD colleagues on the IFAD-funded project portfolio and the progress since the last implementation workshop.
So, let me sign-off at this point. More to come during the day. Internet access permitting we'll also be tweeting. So make sure you also check out the tweets both from @ifadnews and @rsamii.

Classes vertes au Burundi

Les visites de terrain sont aux personnels des projets et programmes et aux fonctionnaires du FIDA, ce que sont les classes vertes sont aux écoliers et collégiens. Elles sont une sortie sur le terrain des activités et permet à ceux qui les font de s’imprégner de la réalité de ce que rapports et autres notes essaient plus ou moins bien de décrire.

Depuis le 16 novembre 2009, la quasi-totalité des responsables des projets et programmes que le FIDA finance en Afrique de l’Est et Australe sont réunis à Bujumbura, Burundi, dans le cadre de l’atelier annuel sur l’exécution de ses projets et des programmes. Cet atelier est organisé par la Division de l’Afrique de l’Est et Australe. Autour du thème central de l’amélioration de la productivité agricole pour répondre aux besoins du marché, quelques 200 participants échangent sur les questions de l’accès au marché et de la durabilité d’une part et de l’intégration de l’agriculture et de l’élevage d’autre part, pour améliorer la productivité agricole. L’atelier va s’achever le 20 novembre 2009.

Après deux journées intenses de travaux, ponctuées de communications des différents responsables de projets, programmes et fonctionnaires du FIDA et dont une demie journée consacrée à des sessions parallèles sur le rôle de la femme dans la productivité agricole, l’appui juridique et l’administration des dons et des prêts ; plus d’une centaine de participants sont allés à la découverte du Burundi rural et des populations rurales pauvres bénéficiant des appuis des cinq projets en cours dans le pays.

Trois groupes, fort enthousiastes, se sont ainsi rendus dans la matinée du 18 novembre, à plus d’une centaine de kilomètres de la capitale, vers les provinces de Bujumburu Rurale, de Cibitoke et de Gitega. Ils y ont rencontrés des responsables des services d’appui technique et des bénéficiaires des projets. Ainsi dans la Province de Cibitoke, un groupe de participants a pu visiter un atelier de couture, une menuiserie et discuter avec une association de femmes impliquées dans la vente de légumes et de fruits.

Un autre groupe, après avoir eu le privilège d’admirer les collines vertigineuses qui surplombent Bujumbura, sur la route de l’est vers le Rwanda, puis vers la Tanzanie a fait sa classe verte dans la Commune de Bugendana, Province de Gitega pour y visiter des infrastructures d’irrigation et toucher du doigt la réalité d’un programme d’intégration agriculture-élevage, thème au centre des discussions de l’atelier de Bujumbura. Cette visite, longue de plus de 12 heures a donné lieu à des échanges animés entre les bénéficiaires de cet appui du Programme de relance et de développement du monde rural (PRDMR) et dont les résultats sont visibles.

Le troisième groupe s’est rendu dans la Commune de Rumonge, Province de Bujumbura Rurale, pour s’entretenir avec des agriculteurs ayant reçu des boutures de manioc résistantes à la maladie de la mosaïque du manioc, des plants de palmiers à huile et autres animaux pour l’élevage. Souhaitons qu’ils raconteront l’aventure mémorable qu’ils y ont vécue !

Concluding the IFAD-ICARDA workshop on knowledge and technology transfer in Aleppo, Syria, today

On Thursday, 29 October 2009

The Workshop on Knowledge and Technology Exchange for Enhanced Quality of IFAD/ICARDA Operations in the NENA region concluded its deliberations in Aleppo, Syria today with a “Retreat” that discussed the Medium Term Management Plan 2010-2012 of IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division (PN). The participating staff of IFAD and IFAD-supported projects deliberated the operational priorities of PN, including means of improving implementation and impact of country programmes and ways to expand and strengthen the lending and grant programmes while improving efficiency in portfolio and project development. The participants also discussed PN’s Contribution to IFAD-wide results by means of enhancing partnerships, expanding co-financing and intensifying knowledge sharing and dissemination.

The participants then broke into four separate roundtables working group discussions focusing on four aspects of the division’s work, namely, the Annual Work Programme and Budget (AWPB), Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Procurement and Financial Management.

The AWPB Working Group predominantly consisted of country program managers of IFAD supported projects. Along with IFAD staff in the Working Group, the participants identified a number of constraints, including the quality of AWPBs. The group expressed the need to develop a model of reference for greater consistency. Another major impediment to AWPB planning and implementation is the often incongruence of financial administration between government and IFAD funds particularly due to the fact that government funds are usually not flexibly tuned to the annual format of AWPBs. The group recommended approaching governments with the idea that they should administer their funds through a local project account for the implementation period with the flexibility necessary to carry over government funds.

Another pressing and fundamental issue is the lack of synergy or fine tuning between AWPB and the Logframe. Implementing the AWPB often reduces the projects into its activities without enhancing appropriate linkages of these activities for impact. The group recommended that the Logframe should be the steering course of AWPBs and that it should be updated continuously. This also was linked directly to another issue, the flexibility of AWPB. The AWPB should be adjustable more frequently and less constrained by current restrictions. Often there are also stalls in the planning and delivery of AWPB particularly due to the national procedures for approval and the participants emphasized the need for early proactive planning. The group also recommended that capacity building in preparation for implementation of AWPB should be a concentrated continuous effort. The fact that the planning of the project is imbedded in the AWPB under the overall Logframe makes it fundamental to implementation and impact making capacity building all the more crucial.

Finally the last issue raised was that knowledge management and innovation is not reflected in the AWPBs. This lack of reflection reduces the effectiveness of knowledge management and innovation support to the project. This support can go someway in enhancing capacity of project management units and supporting innovative management and intervention, which all fundamentally contribute to greater impact of projects.

The M&E working group discussed the impediments to more effective M&E systems in the IFAD-supported projects. Chief among them are dissymmetric perceptions with regard to the importance of M&E. Some Governmental officials tend to pay more attention to physical progress (i.e. output) than to measurements of outcomes and impacts. Another reported issue is pertaining to the M&E design itself whereby too many indicators, some of them are not relevant to the country context, are being monitored. Furthermore, there seems to be a disconnect in some Project Management Units between M&E staff and the rest of the project staff. A list of suggestions for M&E improvement was proposed:

• Sound and pertinent M&E system should be devised at the project design stage and not during start-up as it seems to be the case in most of the projects


• Empowering M&E staff through capacity building aimed at fostering the Monitoring for Evaluation approach


• Work with the Governments to foster awareness related to the necessity to measure impact

The Procurement working group addressed the need for capacity building at the PMU level with a view to strengthening the skills of PMU staff in managing procurement. The group made a series of recommendations to improve procurement performance by resolving the most common procurement challenges currently facing the on-going IFAD–assisted projects.

During the day, the workshop participants toured research stations within the ICARDA headquarters compound, where they were able to inspect some laboratories, facilities and filed experiments in areas of soil conservation and water harvesting. The participants had the opportunity to interact with the researchers at these well equipped facilities and discuss practical solutions to problem facing IFAD’s going projects. This includes a wide range of released technologies and services offered by the GIS department that are suitable to improve interventions in the agro-climatic zones where IFAD is active.

Nadim Khouri, Director of PN closed the workshop with a presentation in which he highlighted the major achievements of three decades of cooperation between the IFAD and ICARDA, during which the Fund provide US$37 million in grants to the centre. He highlighted the sectoral distribution of these grants, of which 76 percent was allocated for applied research and technology transfer, 12 percent for management of natural resources, nine percent for value chain and three percent for capacity-building. He emphasized the importance of further enhancing cooperation with ICARDA building an even stronger strategic alliance between the two institutions. He again thanked the Government of the Arab Republic of Syria and ICARDA for hosting this important learning event.


On Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Participants at the IFAD-ICARDA workshop on Knowledge and Technology Transfer in Aleppo Syria have dedicated this day to field visits to sites of three IFAD-supported projects in Syria, the closed Jebel el-Hoss Agricultural Development, the on-going Idleb Rural Development Project and the on-going Badia Rangeland Development Project.

Participants who visited the Badia Rangelands Development Project reported that implementation of the project activities are being carried out by some 200 herder cooperatives. Each cooperative has about 100 members. The cooperatives collaborated with the BRDP in rangeland rehabilitation. The process works like this: the cooperative identifies the land that they would like to rehabilitate and discuss it with the management of the BRDP. Cooperatives usually allocate 500 Ha for rehabilitation. The characterisation of the plot of land takes place and the most appropriate method for rehabilitation is selected either through direct seeding of palatable range varieties or through the cultivation of forage trees. Where range reserves are being established, the cooperative provides the land and manages the grazing rights in the reserve; whereas the project provides the land preparation, cultivation and guarding for a period of 4 years.

The results are impressive. Despite the extended drought over the past years, and thanks to the selection of appropriate range varieties, implementation of high quality land preparation and cultivation practices, and very proactive project management, the results are generating more demand among cooperatives for replication. Key elements that we need to consider in the course of replication or adaptation of this methodology are:

• the land tenure and the grazing rights and whether these are vested in homogeneous social units (tribes, sub-tribes);
• the “representativity” of the herders’ cooperatives, their legal status and whether they include all users of a given geographic area; and
• strict government enforcement of environmental rules and support to environmental development.

Participants in the field trip to the IFAD-supported Rural Development Project in Idleb were able to examine some of the major achievements of the project in helping about 42,000 beneficiaries in 140 of Syria’s poorest villages improve their food production and incomes.

At the total cost of almost US$45 million, the project has already reclaimed some 20,000 ha of rocky mountainous land plots turning them into productive small agricultural holdings. It has been highly successful in increasing the area cultivated with fruit trees and different seasonal crops, supporting agricultural extension and developing water resources and water harvesting techniques. The project has been particularly successful in reaching out to landless and poor rural women and men with microfinance and vocational training helping them develop their own micro enterprises and, thereby, generating incomes for themselves and contributing to job creations for others.

A good example of the many micro enterprises supported by the project is the mushroom farm of the 45 year old small producer, Abdulaziz Ismael, who received vocational training and technical support from the project. With an initial investment of US$2000, Abdulaziz has been able to initiate a mushroom farm in his underground garage. The Mushroom farm has come to represent a reliable source of income for Abdulaziz and his family, which consists of six members, granting it a comfortable standard of living.

As one of the most successful microfinance experiences in the Arab region, the so called “Village Funds” developed and supported by the Idleb project in 22 villages are yielding some extraordinary results with 100% repayment of all small loans by micro-entrepreneurs and a zero failure rate of on-going enterprises. IFAD will be developing some of the success stories of this project and its Village Funds in various communication products that will tell some of the most amazing successes of poor rural women and men in charting a better future for their families.

The Workshop on Knowledge and Technology Exchange for Enhanced Quality of IFAD/ICARDA Operations in NENA continues

The “Knowledge and Technology Exchange for Enhanced Quality of IFAD/ICARDA Operations in the Near East and North Africa Workshop” was opened by Mahmoud El Solh, Director-General of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) and Nadim Khouri, Director of the Near East and North Africa Division of IFAD in Aleppo, Syria, last evening (Monday, 26/10/09). About 70 workshop participants, including staff members of the two institutions and other experts and resource persons from IFAD supported projects in NENA, attended the opening ceremony.

In his opening speech, Mahmoud El Solh, Director General of ICARDA said the workshop will deepen the strategic partnership between ICARDA and IFAD. “This is our opportunity to learn from IFAD colleagues on the sustainable agricultural development aspects because our research agenda should target such aspects, El Solh said.” “At the same time,” he added, “I am happy to see so many Country Programme Managers who can see what ICARDA has to offer of technologies that may facilitate their work in development.” He affirmed that there are many technologies that are winning grounds quickly, some others are really new and some technologies that need more fine tuning to meet the needs of the ultimate target group, which is the resource poor farmers.

On his part, the Director of IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division, Nadim Khouri, thanked the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and ICARDA for hosting and organizing the workshop. He said “the objective of this learning event is to update our knowledge on enhanced rainfed agricultural production systems.” “About 80% of cultivated land in the world is rainfed while about 60% of the food produced is produced by systems that do not rely on irrigation,” he said. Large numbers of resource-poor rural people live in dry areas, with limited opportunities to enhance their capacities to improve food production and standards of living. He added: “We understand that poor people have their own strategies to move out of poverty and the best strategy we can have is to understand their strategies and help them realize them and multiply their assets.”

Khouri further stated: “We basically have US$ 300 million that are going to come out of IFAD funds for the region over the next three years.” On the basis of 1:1 dollar cofinancing, IFAD could attract a similar investment from co-financiers of its projects, bringing the total external funding to US$ 600 million. Kouri said: “Normally, the largest co-financing comes from the recipient countries and beneficiaries of development projects themselves. So if our investment starts with US$300 million by the end we will have about US$1 billion basically entrusted in us and our partners to decide how to allocate in the next three years.”

Khouri emphasized that helping the most vulnerable, IFAD’s target group, requires greater efforts to make best use of available resources, knowledge and technologies to enhance the quality of the Fund’s interventions in the region, which is facing increasing challenges under climate change conditions. The learning event should help the staff of the Near East and North Africa Division further enhance their capacity to reflect upon the newly acquired knowledge and to boost the impact of IFAD’s operations.

The opening ceremony was followed by a dinner reception, which provided and initial opportunity for the experts and staff members of the two institutions and participating resource persons from IFAD-supported projects to meet and exchange views on various issues under consideration.

Most of the participants expressed satisfaction that the workshop will strengthen country capacities in the NENA region on the latest agricultural packages available from research. Many indicated that it would also would help align ICARDA operations with the Country Strategic Opportunities Papers (COSOPs) and IFAD loan projects. The workshop should also help foster a strategic partnership between IFAD and ICARDA country programmes and take stock of joint initiatives and assess future collaborations.

On Tuesday, 27 October 2009


The first day for the workshop started with a PowerPoint presentation by the Director General of ICARDA, Mahmoud El Solh on research outputs and approaches to enhance food security and improved livelihoods in dry areas. The presentation dealt with constraints leading to food insecurity and poverty in Dry Areas; technologies towards food security and better livelihoods; approaches for technology transfer; and ICARDA’s Strategic Plan 2007-2016 on Agricultural Research for Development in Dry Areas. He underlined that the severest impact of climate change will be in the NENA region. He underlined the need for new technologies to face the challenge of ever scarcer water resources. In this regard, El Solh highlighted the importance of developing more drought tolerant varieties of crops; improved management of water resources; and alternative solutions to traditional irrigation including the use of supplementary irrigation methodologies in rainfed areas.

Following a plenary discussion, a group photo was taken for all participants who then broke into four working groups dedicated to discussing in depth the following areas of work:

• Group 1: Improved agricultural productivity and food security – Crops
• Group 2: Improving agricultural productivity and food security – Livestock
• Group 3: Water and natural resource management and climate change
• Group 4: Value chains, microfinance and market diagnostics

Each of the four groups attended and discussed presentations by ICARDA scientists, IFAD experts and resource persons. Following a couple of hours of discussions, the working group formulated their findings and presented brief reports to the plenary.

Focusing on crops, the first group presented what has been identified as the main challenges in this area. This includes, among others, the challenge of enhancing research for development and expanding its coverage to larger scale projects as well as the challenge of scaling up innovation and technology dissemination and outreach. The group also identified a number of constraints to overcome, such as the need for expanding the lack of awareness and “buy-in” at the national level; lack of capacity to indemnify products and creating enabling system of support linked to markets and a disconnect between National Agricultural Systems (NARs) and the national priorities. The group also highlighted the weakness of marketing systems and trade issues as well as the need to develop alternative crops, including alternatives to the cultivation of poppies, and the need for policy reforms to enable small farmers to compete for market opportunities.

The report of the second group, which focused on livestock, indicated that the discussion was based on the experience of the IFAD-supported Mashreg-Magreb project, which has developed animal feed technologies and helped establish community development organizations and approaches. The group outlined the needs for improved feeding technologies and alternative fodder and feed resources, improved milking and cheese processing with a focus on shifting market demand. Among others, a range of approaches were discussed for enhanced adaptation rate of such technologies.

Addressing water and natural resources issues, the third group affirmed that a new water productivity concept has emerged with the climate change challenge and increase severity of water scarcity. It recommended that new policies and strategies at different levels should be accommodated to improve farmers and nomads productivity ensuring good life quality and livelihood. Land productivity and water productivity concepts are to be seen together during the design and implementation phases of projects. The group also underlined the importance of mapping of resources and management of natural resources using GIS, indicating that ICT is important to have a role in transfer of technologies to farmers and nomads within search Institutes and projects. The development of technologies for scaling up and adoption requires engagement of research and development projects to fill in the gaps in production.

Dealing with value chains, markets and diagnostics, the fourth group focused its discussions on the analysis of the value-added chains of Onions and Pomegranate and the constrains facing small producers. It concluded a series of recommendations, including, among others, the possibility of increasing the use of seed capitals and start-up capital to introduce and develop the activity, institutionalization of small farmer groups and their role in processing, transfer of resources and empowering of small growers in the value-chain.

Following this first half a day of brain storming, the workshop participants moving their debates to the field visiting three ICARDA supported projects.

IFAD and ICARDA hold a regional knowledge and technology transfer workshop in Aleppo, Syria

Monday, 26 Ocober 2009

With emphasis on rainfed agriculture, a three day regional information exchange and knowledge sharing workshop starts in Aleppo, Syria this evening. Some 70 staff members of IFAD, IFAD-supported projects in the Near East and North Africa region (NENA) and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) are expected to participate. The “Knowledge and Technology Exchange for Enhanced Quality of IFAD/ICARDA operations in the NENA region” workshop aims at strengthening PN’s capacity to incorporate the latest research-generated agricultural Science and Technology (S&T) packages and other up-scalable innovations in its future operations in the region.

The learning event will take place at ICARDA headquarters with several field sessions at the sites of IFAD-supported development projects and ICARDA research stations. It will provide learning opportunities for the participants to identify and discuss major needs and priority areas that could benefit the design of development projects for NENA countries. The field work should provide ample opportunity to demonstrate the technological packages in the areas of:

• improving agricultural productivity and food security
• adaptation to climate change and natural resource management
• upgrading pro-poor untilization of value chains and markets
• diagnostics for targeting pro-poor research and development investments

The workshop will reach its objectives through wide application of several KM activities & tools, including round table discussions, focus groups (World Café), informal meetings, and direct interviewing of beneficiaries from IFAD and ICARDA projects. The participants will select specific themes (out of a list of 22 themes extending from themes like rangeland rehabilitation and water harvesting to the themes like biodiversity, gene management and biofuels) as the main focus of their work during the workshop. Designated staff will facilitate plenary sessions, contribute as resource persons, lead the field visit groups, and generate success stories from the field. The event will end with a divisional PN retreat that will examine a number of deliverables including the Divisional Management and Medium Term Plans.

Besides the benefits of cross fertilization and lifting of the overall team spirit, the workshop is expected to yield concrete deliverables, including:
• 20 learning notes on available technologies and approaches in rain-fed agriculture
• 6 success stories (human stories) from the field
• validated Divisional Management Plan 2010 and a PN Medium term plan 2010-2012
• strengthened networking and systematic knowledge sharing mechanisms between the country programme and IFAD HQ
• Outlines of 2-3 specific projects that would build on ICARDA’s knowledge and expertise in areas relevant to IFAD’s thematic priorities in the NENA region