Journeying intonew innovations!

Local Talents leading

the enhancementof Local Knowledge

PROCASUR AFRICA NEWSLETTER January – June 2016 Edition

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The final quarter of 2015, was an exciting time for Procasur Africa! Two Learning Routes, one on the Gender Action Learning System and another on Inclusive Business Models, were implemented in Uganda. It was very interesting to see the successful integration of local knowledge and experiences from the field culminating in the design of action plans suited to own settings by the participants of the Learning Route. The Action Plans allow for the adaptation and adoption of ideas, innovative practices and lessons discussed during the Learning Route journey and how individual projects make use of the lessons learnt to effectively promote their objectives.

IFAD-Procasur Cross Regional Programme: Strengthening Capacities and Tools to scale up and disseminate Innovations:Procasur Africa has also been very busy planning for the implementation of a new Grant that the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) partnered with for Procasur Corporation, targeting IFAD supported projects and operations in East and Southern, West and Central Africa; scheduled to begin operations in 2016. PROCASUR is aiming at strengthening its in country strategy to design and implement Learning Routes - and other Knowledge Management (KM) tools - in close collaboration with the Country team. As a matter of fact, the Learning Routes and the methodological transfer implemented at project and country level have been extremely successful, and this is the direction we aim to continue following in the future.PROCASUR’s ten years vision for Africa is to see local champions’ know how being recognized and valued within the development community and peer to peer exchanges such as the Learning Route being recognized as reliable and effective tool for knowledge management and the scaling up on innovation.

Knowledge Management through the Learning Route Methodology:PROCASUR Africa enhances learning and sharing of knowledge within the region and the scaling up of practical solutions tested and validated in the field. We do this by harvesting and disseminating innovations, supporting the capacity of IFAD supported projects and partner institutions to achieve results and providing space for local champions to become visible partners in development. By constantly improving our understanding of rural development challenges in Africa, we are able to design and deliver customized and efficient local knowledge-management tools and methodologies, connect local knowledge to global knowledge markets, and provide the structured platforms to spread and scale up innovations.

One of our methodologies is the Learning Route, which is based on the idea that successful solutions to existing problems are already present within rural areas, and that those solutions might be adapted and spread to other contexts. It is a journey for participants to experience with their eyes and their ears the changes that have occurred in men and women’s lives, learning directly from them. This journey gets participants to understand these changes through peer learning, discussing directly with rural communities who are the promoters of the identified best practices and successful innovations.

To learn more, visit www.africa.procasur.org

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UGANDAPROCASUR Africa is opening up to new partnerships:

A pilot Learning Route with UN-Habitat And GLTN

In 2011, IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) entered into a partnership to implement a project called the ‘Land and Natural Resources Tenure Security Learning Initiative for East and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)’.

In the last quarter of the year 2015, Procasur Corporation in Africa set up a partnership with GLTN and TSLI-ESA to design and implement a Learning Route initiative on “Innovative Ideas on Securing Resource Land Rights through Inclusive Business Models”. The pilot training event took place in Uganda between the 3rd and the 10th of December 2015 and targeted primarily IFAD funded projects and GLTN partners in East and Southern Africa (ESA).

The main objective of the TSLI-ESA project is to identify common issues and to enhance lesson sharing and knowledge management on land-related tools and approaches amongst the various projects, country stakeholders and partners in selected ESA countries.

The learning initiative put a pitch on the five thematic areas of TSLI-ESA project: mapping, land tenure security, women’s access to land and Inclusive Business Models (IBMs).

With regards to the first issue, mapping land and natural resource rights, their use and management is key for securing access to land and sustainability for smallholder farmers. A wide range of strategies and tools have been developed in order to address this issue, including the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) – a pro-poor land information tool developed by the GLTN and its partners to document land and tenure relationships with the aim of enhancing access and security of tenure for the poor.

Another core topic in the Learning Route was women’s access to land: women in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a matter of fact, tend to have their land rights denied or weakened with the result of being often amongst the most vulnerable people in society. Strengthening their rights to land contributes not only to gender equality but also to poverty reduction, since women are responsible for household subsistence production and welfare.

Throughout the course of the Learning Route, there also was a key interesting study of Inclusive Business Models (IBMs) between small-scale farmers and outside investors as a means for securing land and natural resources rights. The controversy about large-scale land acquisitions by foreign investors as a threat to smallholder farmers’ land rights has visibly been recognized on the global development agenda due to the revived interest to promote investments in agriculture particularly in ESA.

With twelve participants from 8 ESA countries (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and Swaziland), mainly representative of IFAD funded projects and GLTN partners, the 8-day learning was a successful exercise that led the Ruteros towards a more in-depth and critical analysis of land rights, different land tenure systems and Inclusive Business Models.

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The new partnership set between Procasur and GLTN and TSLI-ESA is very promising and it has already resulted into a) the setting up of a community of practitioners to share and create synergies as actors of change to create and promote impact in their projects and communities through the development of Action Plans developed during the LR; b) strengthening the relationships and future collaborations with the representatives of those projects/organizations or institutions who participated to the LR.

Securing land and natural resources is one of the main areas of interest for Procasur in ESA and across regions. Hence the partnership with GLTN and its partners is very key and hopefully will result in further actions and collaboration.

ARTICLES AND VIDEOS FROM THE LEARNING ROUTE

Video on the learning Route Methodology from the eyes of the Participants / Ruteros video:

Watch our video!

Here we have an article on the LR from the IFAD Social Reporting Blog site:

Farmers, government and private sector working together! Learning Route on Inclusive Business Models

Have a look at the Final Report of the Learning Route initiative on “Innovative Ideas on Securing Resource Land Rights through Inclusive Business Models. Here you will find the main outcomes and consolidated results for each case study visited as well as key information of the actors who participated, as Ruteros (participants), hosts and partners.

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UGANDAEmpowering Communities through the Gender Action

Learning System Household Methodology

The mentoring of poorer households has generated profound impacts at the household level, not only in terms of food security and increased incomes, but also in terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender-based constraints are some of the most common constraints that undermine household food security and production for income. The International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) has spent several years experimenting with household methodologies in order to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in rural and agricultural development. The use of household methodologies can lead to increased awareness of gender roles in the households and in the communities. Household methodologies encourage all household members to participate in collective livelihood planning and to fully share the improved benefits that result from working together.

One of the methodologies that have been used is a community – led empowerment methodology called the Gender Action Learning System (GALS). GALS comprises of a series of specific participatory processes and diagram tools that enable household members to negotiate their needs and interests to find innovative, gender-equitable solutions in livelihoods planning and value chain development. It aims to give women as well as men more control over their lives as the basis for individual, household, community and organizational development. GALS is not only a ‘methodology for women’, but a mainstreaming methodology for women and men to address gender issues important to the effectiveness of any development, including coffee production.

The implementation of the GALS methodology and other household approaches generates important results in terms of improving relationships and collaboration among all family members. In turn, this results in a more equitable work balance in the home, a greater voice for women in household decision-making, a fairer share of economic benefits accruing to women and a noticeable reduction in domestic violence. All household methodologies work to bundle the disparate livelihood strategies pursued by women and men into one coherent strategy. The formation of a ‘family vision’, to which children in many cases contribute, enables the family to conceptualize and work towards a shared time-bound goal. Critically, household methodologies do not seek

to empower one gender (women) at the seeming expense of the other (men). Rather, during the process of planning a household livelihood strategy, all household members come to realize that working together is a win-win solution that benefits everyone. In all cases, household methodologies are associated with programmes addressing wider objectives, such as work targeting HIV/AIDs, creating assets for the most poor, improved participation in value chains and micro-finance, linking women and men to functional literacy programmes, and work with female-headed households.

For this reason PROCASUR Corporation in Africa has been a big supporter of the GALS methodology in the Gender equality thematic. In December 2015, PROCASUR organized a Learning Route (LR) initiative on “Innovative tools and approaches to enhance gender equality in value chain development” that took place between the 23rd of November and the 1st of December 2015, in Uganda.

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The LR was targeted to benefit the Butana Integrated Rural Development Project (BIRDP) and Western Sudan Resources Management Programme (WSRMP), both partnership projects of the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Twenty One (21) representatives from the IFAD Projects BIRDP and WSRMP in Sudan were taken through the various stages and processes of the GALS methodology in the Learning Route. Some of the new lessons that were drawn from the Learning Route included: The distinctiveness of the GALS approach to training and extension in that it brings about changes in gender relations “from within”, rather

than being imposed “from without”. Standard approaches to gender mainstreaming are based on the assumption that empowering women “outside” the household domain will automatically increase women’s bargaining power within households. The GALS methodology on the other hand, stimulates change from within households to bring about effective and tangible changes in gender relations which, in turn, contribute to increased productivity and enhanced sustainability. The participants were also able to

come up with an Action Plans highlighting the use of these tools and best practices by their specific organizations, to improve performance and outreach in their contexts.

In conclusion, the GALS methodology has brought about significant changes in gender relations, particularly with regards to land ownership and the gender division of labour. Some women reported that their husbands are now contributing more to farming activities and household-related tasks. Important changes have also been documented in households with some women now exerting major control over household assets and income. Joint and better management of household resources is increasing. There has been an improvement in production and quality of coffee, which is the main source of income for participant households. This in turn has led to increased income and improved trust between different value chain actors. Many people who have adopted the gender action learning system (GALS) are keen to share their experiences with others and become peer trainers. In this way, they become champions and agents of change in their communities and support other families who are undergoing the change process.

ARTICLES FROM THE LEARNING ROUTE

For more on the Learning Route (LR) initiative on “Innovative tools and approaches to enhance gender equality in value chain development

Read more

Local Champions of change! Please have a look at one of our local champion video from the Learning Initiative here:

Watch our video!

Images from the Learning Route:

See more from our album!

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In October 2015, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and PROCASUR signed an agreement to launch the Cross Regional Programme called Strengthening Capacities and Tools to scale up and disseminate Innovations. This program will be implemented over a period of three years (from January 2016 to December 2018) and its main goal is to reduce poverty in rural areas of Latin America (LAC), East and Southern Africa (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA). Its main objective is to improve the performance and impact during the implementation of rural development projects in LAC, ESA and WCA, through an increased access to innovative solutions, capacity building and scaling of good practices to reduce rural poverty. The program involves four IFAD divisions: Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), West and Central Africa (WCA) and the Division of Policy and Technical Assessment (PTA). While in LAC and ESA the program will build on the knowledge, skills and alliances developed by PROCASUR’s prior experience in those territories, in WCA the Learning Route methodology will be newly introduced. Thanks to the direct involvement of PTA, the program will focus on the cross-cutting issue of Land Tenure Security and Natural Resources Management; additionally, all training activities will have a crossregional approach to ensure global learning on relevant rural development topics.

PROCASUR Corporation in Africa would like to thank you all for your contributions and support! We are grateful to all the participants for their inquiring engagement at the IFAD’s Learning Session: “Sharing Innovative Solutions for the Global South” that took place on the 25th of February 2016. Moreover, we express our special gratitude to all the speakers for the remarkable commitment they showed in sharing the learning resources.

AFRICA, ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEANIFAD-Procasur Cross Regional Programme: Strengthening Procasur’s global capacities

More than 40 experts among them CPOs, CPMs, thematic specialists and representatives of IFAD partner institutions from Latin America, Africa and Asia participated at the initiative contributing to an exceptional global exchange of good practices and experiences, looking forward to new collaborations.

The event, in which we also officially launched the new IFAD-PROCASUR Global Program “Local Knowledge for Global South Innovation”, represented one more successful step along the path the two institutions share since 15 years ago, in search for and to scale-up innovative solutions valuing local knowledge for sustainable development of Global South.

In recent years, the importance of scaling up innovations for smallholder agricultural development and rural poverty reduction has been recognized as crucial in coping with emerging global challenges. This has motivated a renewed interest in local knowledge and in the development and testing of new learning tools to effectively trigger dissemination and scaling up of innovations.

It is in this context that the concept of learning from the know-how of others inspired PROCASUR to design “Learning Routes” and other knowledge management and capacity-building approaches and tools, with the objective of valuing local knowledge and facilitating the development of platforms in which experiences and innovations can be exchanged. This methodology has proved effective in providing peer-to-peer training and technical assistance, and in addressing the needs of vulnerable groups.

During IFAD’s Learning Days, the session held on tools and approaches for sharing innovative solutions. Each regional division shared their experiences with a wide variety of innovations and knowledge management approaches. These included the following testimonies from IFAD country teams and technical experts. For more on the testimonies from IFAD country teams and technical experts see the post below by Steven Jonckheere:

How do you share innovative solutions?

Let’s keep in touch to continue sharing knowledge and looking for collaboration opportunities!

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ARTICLES FROM THE LEARNING ROUTE

Testimonies from IFAD country teams and technical experts from the learning session held on tools and approaches for sharing innovative solutions: Testimonies from the General Staff Meeting held in Rome

Have a look at our Global Brochure!

For more news on the new grant:

Read more news on the new grant

Our thank you video!

Watch our Thank You video! https://youtu.be/BXvUcE1Fi0U

Impressum Editor: Vivienne Likhanga Designer: Global Communication UnitPublisher: Valentina SauvePublished by PROCASUR 2016