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Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts

A journey through the implementation of an IFAD project in Fiji

Posted by Francesca Aloisio Monday, July 10, 2017 0 comments

By Inosi Vulawalu, Knowledge Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Fiji AgriculturePartnership Project (FAPP)

The Fiji Agricultural Partnerships Project (FAPP) is the first IFAD in-country loan investment in the country and became effective in December 2015. It has a Project Management Unit (PMU) located within the Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture Headquarters in Suva. The Project is co-funded by the Government of Fiji (GoF) and IFAD and has a four-year timeframe. It will be implemented in one district of Naitasiri province, 2 districts of Ba province and 4 districts of Nadroga/Navosa province. The overall goal of FAPP is reducing hardship in remote rural communities of Fiji. To achieve this goal, the Project endeavours to engage small-scale producers in sustainable farming and establishing business partnerships in remote areas, particularly in the highlands.

Over the past months, the PMU participated in a number of trainings and learning events that were instrumental in having the team strengthen their skills and experiences, familiarize with IFAD processes and operating modalities, and put in place project implementation arrangements.

Training in value chain analysis and knowledge management

Most recently, FAPP’s PMU staff participated in the Value Chain Analysis capacity building training organized by the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Pacific Islands Farmers Organisation Network (PIFON). The workshop was held from 26 to 28 April 2017 and participants included IFAD Sub-regional Coordinator for the Pacific, Sakiusa Tubuna, staff of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and Tim Martyn from FAO. It was also attended by nine Research and Extension staff of Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The training covered topics such as introducing the basic concepts of value chain, key lessons from Pacific value chain studies, and undertaking a value chain analysis for fresh and processed ginger and taro. Field visits were also part of the program. Participants visited some value chain actors who are the leading agricultural exporters in Fiji to-date, such as Ben’s Trading Limited, Kaiming Agro Processing Ltd both situated in Navua and Ranadi’s Plantation. Ben’s Trading Ltd primarily exports root-crops such as taro and cassava, to markets in Australia, NZ and USA. Kaiming Agro Processing Limited exports crystallized and glazed ginger to USA, Australia, NZ, UK and Germany. Ranadi Plantation situated along the Queens Highway in Deuba is about 45minutes drive away from Suva. They are one of the largest organic ginger producers in Fiji and also exports fruits, legumes and spices

Last year I also had the opportunity to attend a regional workshop on “Developing Knowledge Management Capacity for Improved Agriculture, Information, Research and Policy Banks in the Pacific“. The training was organized by the Pacific Agriculture Policy Project (PAPP) co-funded by the EU, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and took place in Fiji from 31 May to 3 June 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to assist us improve our knowledge sharing environment to disseminate agricultural information and knowledge within our country and amongst other countries. Topics covered were on Knowledge Management (KM) products, tools and understanding the KM tree provided by CTA.

Another workshop I also attended was on “Development of E-agriculture Strategy for Fiji”. It was organized by the International Telecommunication Unit (specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies) and FAO. It took place in Suva and its purpose was to help identify and address challenges in a broad manner and help Fiji leverage the best outcomes from emerging and innovative technologies.

FAPP also conducted its first ever stakeholder workshop in April 2016. The Permanent Secretary for Agriculture Jitendra Singh officiated the opening and acknowledged the participation of international agencies like IFAD to partner and develop the livelihoods of people residing in rural and vulnerable communities. The workshop, held at the Holiday Inn in Suva, was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and few farmers from the PHVA project in Nadarivatu.


The team also joined IFAD Indigenous people consultation session held in Deuba on 23 November 2016. Monica Romano, IFAD Project Implementation Specialist, conducted a presentation on the action plan for strengthening KM communication in managing the IFAD Pacific portfolio in the pacific.

Awareness raising about FAPP

The PMU has conducted some awareness sessions to the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension officers that will be cooperating with FAPP in the project’s target areas. For example, in October 2016, we paid a visit to the extension officers responsible for target areas in Nadroga/Navosa province and their Principal Agriculture Officer Western. The meeting was held at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Sigatoka Research Station in Nacocolevu, approximately 10km from Sigatoka town. The team also visited three exporters in Bilalevu, which falls in the Waicoba district of Nadroga Province. These exporters procure eggplants, Okra, Moringa (Saijan) leaves mostly from farmers in the upper valley of Sigatoka and exports to New Zealand market and supplies also to local markets.

Earlier in July 2016, the project team had visited the highlands of Viti Levu and briefed the extension staff as well. The extension officers will be working in cooperation and coordination with project in-field staff, providing support in technology transfer to the communities. That’s why we felt it was important that we established linkages with them early on and we explained the project's focus and implementation structure in the field. The team had also the opportunity to visit some of the Ministry of Agriculture’s projects in Navai and Nadala villages. Navai village falls within Nabobuco district of Naitasiri but is located very closely to Nadala village in the district of Savatu, Ba province and Nadrau in the province of Nadroga/Navosa province. We visited a potato and other assorted vegetable farmer and also witnessed a small mushroom plot managed by a woman. Demand for mushroom in Fiji according to the Ministry of Agriculture Extension officers in Nadarivatu, is huge. The Ministry of Agriculture through promotion and training of local farmers will enable them to sell mushroom in local markets and generate income.

In addition to these training and visits, the PMU also visited Kaiming Agro Processing Ltd, Ben’s Trading Limited and Joes Farm on 3 March 2017. This enabled us to better understand the operation processes and also to brief them on FAPP’s component on SMEs. Joes Farm exports vegetables to PICs such as Kiribati, Nauru and the Marshall Islands. They also export Dalo, Cassava, Jackfruits, Breadfruits, Yams to Australia and USA.

Given the vital role the Research Division will also play in the project, the PMU also made a courtesy visit to the Koronivia Research Station (KRS) to brief the Principal Research Officers on FAPP and most importantly the project’s linkages to the Research Division. Principal Research Officer - Agronomy guided the PMU team to the Naduruloulou Research Station where various propagation methods of fruit trees are conducted. Nursery management is also a vital component of the station’s operation


FAPP team made another visit in April this year to the Extension officers following its meeting with the Assistant Minister for Agriculture to provide an update on FAPP. The meeting also included other government stakeholders from the Ministry of Provincial Development and the Ministry of I’taukei Affairs.

FAPP team led by the Project Manager Kaliova Nadumu briefed the new Assistant Minister for Agriculture Hon Viam Pillay regarding the project and its core purposes. Hon. Viam Pillay acknowledged the team for the brief. He requested the team to keep extension officers updated on the progress of FAPP.

IFAD Implementation Support Missions

In November 2016, a team of international experts from IFAD led by the IFAD Sub Regional Coordinator visited us to undertake an Implementation Support Mission. The team consisted of Ronald Hartman, IFAD Country Director managing the Pacific portfolio; Monica Romano; Ed Angeles (IFAD Finance Specialist); and Finance Trainee, Viliame Mavoa.

The team reviewed the project’s progress and worked with PMU to advance implementation, identify bottlenecks, and revise the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) and Procurement Plan, and define KM activities. They also met various stakeholders to discuss project related issues. Ron Hartman had the opportunity to meet the Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Joeli Cawaki, and acknowledged the Ministry of Agriculture’s support towards the project.

Earlier in 2016, IFAD provided implementation support in the areas of project management, with the support of Monica Romano, and financial management and procurement, with the help of Ed Angeles, who revised the Project Implementation Manual (PIM). During a Mission in April 2016, Monica also helped the PMU to prepare KM and M&E action plans, liaising with the M&E office of the Ministry of Agriculture, and drafting the overall project M&E framework, including formats to be used in the field. This work has been further advanced through the assistance of the IFAD M&E Consultant, Fabrizio Vivarini, who was with the team for almost two weeks in December 2016 looking into the RIMS framework, logframe and reporting templates to be used both by PMU and the Lead Implementing Partner (LIP). Therefore, the KM and M&E system is now fully in place.

The financial management and procurement aspect of the project is also now fully established. The PMU welcomed the project’s Financial Management & Procurement Assistant, Atelena Nauku, at the beginning of 2017. We benefitted a lot from her vast experience and in-depth knowledge of the GoF’s financial management and procurement guidelines. Required office equipment for the PMU and the newly established Agribusiness Development Unit (ADU) is procured with necessary register maintained. The Finance Management and Procurement Officer liaised with the Ministry of Economy and facilitated a refresher on-the-job training on operating the financial management systems. Officers from the Ministry of Economy had conducted two of this type of trainings to the project’s FMPO and his assistant.

Learning from and experience sharing with other IFAD funded projects

Early on after its effectiveness, FAPP benefitted from the support from neighbouring IFAD funded projects in the Pacific.. Soane Patolo, Manager of the MORDI Tonga Trust, a NGO implementing the IFAD-supported Tonga Rural Innovation Project (TRIP), was sent to share some valuable experience of project implementation and experiences. The PMU also liaised with the Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) of Kiribati’s Outer Island Food and Water Project (OIFWP) when preparing for the RIMS Baseline Survey for FAPP.

Looking forward to project implementation in the field

Project preparation and implementation arrangements are near to completion by now. We are now working on the RIMS baseline survey that will be the basis for our continued project monitoring. We look forward to implementation of in-field activities and to sharing our experience of linking small producers and farmers with markets in Fiji.

Moving beyond the rhetoric

Posted by Roxanna Samii Thursday, March 7, 2013 0 comments

By Nicholas Phythian

Moving beyond the rhetoric...

For many reporters, the challenge at any international gathering is to get beyond the rhetoric and statistics and make it relevant for the reader, the listener or the viewer back home.

Sometimes a keynote speaker offers a peg, turning the meeting itself into a news event.

As delegates gathered in Rome for the annual meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in the week that Pope Benedict announced his retirement, that was unlikely to happen.

A Thomson Reuters Foundation workshop on the fringe of the meeting offered journalists from around the world a chance to step back, share experiences and look for connections between what was happening in Rome and the reality back home.

“Every time, Reuters continues to enrich my pool of knowledge, and give me exposure to wonderful journalists and teachers from around the world,”  Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam from Pakistan's Express Tribune wrote afterwards. “It makes me think outside my bubble and sharpen my skills.”

The workshop, which ran from 13-15 February 2013, brought together 21 radio, television and text journalists from Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asian Republics. Each brought their own unique experience of reporting on rural poverty.

What's change? 

Persuading your editor to publish a story about rural development can be difficult at the best of times. One approach is to look for change, and its impact on real people.

In Rome, keynote speaker Hui Liangyu of China briefed delegates on rural development there, a far cry from the previous year when billionaire Bill Gates ruffled feathers with a speech calling for public 'scorecards' to monitor the impact of projects and increase accountability.

The presence of a Chinese vice premier was a huge boost for IFAD but he gave little away about China's policy on some of the thornier development questions of the day, or on how Beijing planned to partner IFAD.

The Fund, one of three UN food or agriculture agencies based in Rome, functions like a bank but offers its clients expertise that goes way beyond financial advice. It works in partnership with other members of the development community, and national governments.

The Pope found time to send a message to the IFAD Governing Council. There was the hint of another story, when a senior IFAD official said partners from oil-rich states wanted IFAD to do more for them … in terms of sharing knowledge.

Either might have worked for some news editors back home, but not for everyone. Workshop participants had to find alternative story options.

Facilitators Miren Gutierrez and Nicholas Phythian were on hand to highlight promising story ideas and likely angles.

Some participants came under intense pressure from news editors to get to St Peter's Square and file stories on reactions to the Pope's historic announcement. That they managed to file on that as well as follow the workshop was a tribute to their journalistic ingenuity.

Originally posted on TrustMedia Alumni blog

What gets measured, gets done

Posted by Maria Losacco Tuesday, February 5, 2013 7 comments

Written by Elaine Reinke

“My social life is very important to me”, declares Jihad Al-Hakimi, Microfinance Manager of the Economic Opportunities Fund in Yemen, grabs his wedding ring from the table and places it above my ipad. As part of this valuation exercise, participants of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) training were asked to bring a number of personal items and rank them by their value – not so easy, given that the 21 trainees had very different views about the value of their belongings.

Considering the multiple realities of different stakeholders – that’s a core principle of SROI. Being a participatory method to assess the social, environmental, economic and other dimensions of benefits resulting from development interventions, it can be used at different stages of the project cycle: at the onset in support of planning and appraisal, during implementation for monitoring, and at completion for evaluation.
Under IFAD’s Innovation Mainstreaming Initiative, the Near East, North Africa and Europe Division is testing SROI as a new means to generate evidence-based knowledge and learning in IFAD-funded projects. Together with Fons van der Velden and Pol de Greve from Context, International Cooperation Foundation, a Netherlands-based social business providing capacity development support to development actors and social enterprises, I travelled to North Kordofan, Sudan, for the first SROI pilot.

This women of Elhamair community explains
how her life changed due to the water yard.
In the state capital El Obeid we met the male and female trainees from different projects and line ministries in Sudan and Yemen to embark on a joint learning journey over the coming 12 days. Following Context’s SROI manual, we started off with a three day classroom (yet practical) training covering the nine steps of SROI – but there went the theory. Allowing the participants to get their hands on the matter, the training has been embedded into assessing water-related activities in the IFAD-supported Western Sudan Resource Management Project.

And off we went to the field: divided into two groups, we visited the villages of Elhamair and Sawarda to capture and understand the invested resources and benefits for the local community generated by a Hafir (open pond for rainwater harvesting) and a water yard (elevated groundwater tank) that were constructed by the project in 2011 – and the value the beneficiaries attached to these resources and benefits.
Pol de Greve, Mohamed Y. Elnour and
Ahmed H. S. Mohammed
take detailed notes of resources and benefits
connected to the water yard.
For the group visiting the water yard in Elhamair, the first day in the community felt like a piece of cake: the training participants were impressively skilled facilitators letting the villagers tell their story of the water yard and how it changed their lives. At the end of the day, the community had developed its own theory of change and listed all resources, including their value, that were invested in the water yard. On the next day, we started understanding what Oscar Wilde meant by “some people always know the price but not the value”: the training participants teased out a list of some 43 benefits – but helping the beneficiaries to value these was a quite challenging task, especially when it came to intangible and indirect benefits such as reduced tensions among settlers and nomads, and empowerment of women through water users committees. But we made it – and the community rewarded us with a remarkable performance of traditional dance, singing and poetry.
Back in the classroom, we jointly reflected on the lessons learned from our field work, and then rolled up our sleeves to embark on the process of verification, analysis and report-writing for both case studies. By triangulating different sources of data, the training participants calculated the total value of all invested resources versus benefits to derive the SROI ratio. It turned out that for every dollar invested, the project generated a benefit worth 1.66 dollars in case of the Hafir and 2.5 dollars for the water yard. Pretty impressive, yet a number is just number. The important part of SROI is what Pol and Fons call “narrative numeracy”, that is embedding the number into a narrative which reveals the story behind and captures those elements that are most difficult to measure. By considering the views of multiple stakeholders, developing this story is where project-based learning is happening.

Focus group discussion with selected community
members under a shady tree of Elhamair village.
At closing time, participants looked back over the entire process and developed follow-up action plans in their respective project teams. They are now keen to conduct additional case studies and integrate these into project reporting, use SROI in mid-term reviews, organize SROI planning workshops at country-level and provide SROI training to government partners. Their plans and reflections fed into a debriefing with more than 20 government officials and local leaders in El Obeid, including HE the State Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, who also opened our workshop. The discussions demonstrated profound interest among different stakeholders in using SROI as a contribution to improve results measurement at strategic level. This will also guide Pol, Fons and myself in designing the next steps in our joint innovation project: organizing a second on-the-job training in another country in the region, and pulling the threads together in a Rome-based reflection cum write shop to develop a meaningful knowledge product on IFAD’s first experience with SROI for wider dissemination. 

The end marks the beginning...

Posted by Adriane Del Torto Saturday, September 29, 2012 0 comments

by Adriane Del Torto

Although the information and initiation workshop to IFAD procedures for PAPAM, the Agricultural Productivity Programme in Mali, a World Bank Programme co-financed by IFAD, has come to a close, it is really marking the beginning of this programme, which now detains more tools to be able to be more efficient in implementing the project.


The third and last day of the workshop addressed more financial management, including yearly audits and the importance of the audit exercise in steering projects in the right direction. In addition some information was given on corruption and fraud and the policies IFAD has put into place to combat these in development programmes. The audience was informed of the existence of an independent investigations office to fight corruption and how this office works, encouraging all parties to keep an eye open and to report any suspicious behaviour, with the reassurance that any report would be entirely confidential and object of close investigation before any action or sanction is taken on IFAD’s behalf.

Then a thorough session was held on Monitoring and Evaluation as well as the RIMS (Results and Impact Monitoring System). This cross cutting issue to all IFAD projects and programmes is at the forefront of discussions now, as M&E it was gives us the necessary data to analyse in order to assess impact and successes on the field.

Importance was put on the necessity of building the M&E system into the project as soon as it becomes effective. In Mali, PIDRN (Investment and Development Project in the Northern Regions of Mali) has been especially successful in designing its M&E system and collecting the data. In fact, the M&E specialist from this project was invited to make the presentation of the system and how the project has achieved its successes in M&E. Again, planning, communication and rigour are key to successful M&E in addition to a proper baseline survey and the identification of the right indicators. PAPAM has been encouraged to work with PIDRN to learn from their experience and further capitalise on the experience of M&E.

Finally, the workshop gave an overview of the different aspect of project implementation including supervisions, midterm review and closing. Each step was explained as well as the objective of the different missions and how to prepare for them in due time.

Over the past three days, a lot of information has been shared with actors from PAPAM, from the Chamber of Agriculture (APCAM) from the Ministry of Agriculture and its services, the World Bank and other partners involved in the implementation of PAPAM. It is obvious that this workshop has not been exhaustive and could not address all of the concerns in implementing such an important an complex programme. The workshop however has achieved its goal in providing information to the entire PAPAM team and create synergies between all of the technical and financial partners. It is now that the real work will begin, PAPAM according to the suggestions received will now finalise the AWPB and proceed to making the request for the initial deposit so that activities can officially begin.


The learning continues – PAPAM information and introduction workshop – DAY 2

Posted by Adriane Del Torto Thursday, September 27, 2012 0 comments

by Adriane Del Torto

If the first day of the PAPAM workshop insisted on how to facilitate good project management, the second day of the workshop stressed the importance of efficiency and transparency.


Extensive presentations were made on the documents guiding project implementation and procedures and processes for withdrawal applications, procurement and overall project management. Participants discussed how many of the documents are distributed, but very little time is given to become familiar with design documents, financing agreements, letter to the borrower and other reference documents to programme implementation. In fact, the participants are very grateful of the workshop and the diversity of the themes addressed.

The participants were involved in case studies and were invited to discuss the difficulties in managing multifaceted demand based projects with a large number of partners and actors. Technicians from the field appreciated the initiation to accounting procedures. Even though they will probably not apply the knowledge, they recognise the importance of understanding how things work and how funds are channelled so that they can improve their own planning processes.





PLANNING. Another critical issue of project management given a lot of importance in the discussions. The first key to good planning, according to Mr Mamadou Sow, procurement specialist is to be realistic! Some delays in programme management are not compressible and these need to be taken into consideration when planning activities. It is useless he says to allow 30 days for a process when legally 60 days are the rule, especially when it comes to procurement. Tips to save time can be applied to areas where project management teams are involved, such as the preparation of reports and communiqués. This in all cases obliges a strong leadership and good communication starting from the IFAD team in Rome to all of the operators on the field. There is lots of work to come!

MALI : Setting the scene for good programme implementation

Posted by Adriane Del Torto Tuesday, September 25, 2012 0 comments

PAPAM – Information and introduction to IFAD procedures Workshop

On 25 September 2012, the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Mali, Dr Yaranga Coulibaly, opened the IFAD information and learning workshop on IFAD procedures for Agricultural Productivity Programme in Mali (PAPAM), one of the largest programmes in Mali IFAD has co- financed with the World Bank, for a total of 160 million dollars.

During his opening statement, His Excellency the Minister of Agriculture evoked the importance of PAPAM which is a demand based integrated development programme. The programme, has had a difficult start up due to the complexity of the institutional setup and the numerous financiers which will be servicing Mali during its most severe crisis. He has asked all of the partners of the programme to take advantage of the start-up difficulties of this programme to question not only the setup but our own capacities and take the necessary steps to ensure that this programme is launched quickly.



Mr N. Ehoue, WB - Mr P. Remy, IFAD - Hon Dr Yaranga Coulibaly, Minister of Agriculture - Mr A. Toure, PAPAM

 
At the opening were also present the World Bank representative Mr Nicaise Ehoue, Mr Aboulaye Touré, PAPAM Coordinator as well as Mr Philippe Remy, CPM at IFAD.

After the opening statements, the IFAD and WARF (West Africa Rural Foundation – who helped facilitate the workshop) teams proceeded to introduce the workshop objectives and learning sessions.

Several presentations were made to introduce IFAD and its procedures. A special session was dedicated to the difficulties in the institutional setup of the programme and the necessity to address how to favour synergies between all of the actors.

This synergy will be important throughout the entire programme life, but crucial as the programme is starting up. Good communication and cooperation between the programme actors will allow to prepare a proper annual work plan and budget, which is the basis of the planning for the activities for the year to come, not to mention a condition for the first programme funds to be disbursed.

Other crosscutting themes such as targeting , gender inclusion and knowledge management were addressed. Importance was given to addressing these activities at project start up in order to make sure that the activities are integrated into normal project life and are not seen as additional. Gender was elaborated as a participative exercise assuring all levels of community and helping to avoid elite capture in IFAD financed projects. Good targeting at the beginning of a programme assures better results as well as sustainability of activities after the programme.

The importance of teamwork and good communication between all actors, was stressed.

The workshop from 25 to 27 September has been organised by IFAD, WARF and PAPAM with the assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture. The meetings are taking place at the Laïco Hotel El Farouk in Bamako.

What do numbers tell us?

Posted by daniela cuneo Monday, July 18, 2011 0 comments


Training and skills development play a key role in many sectors but when it comes to the difference that capacity-building, agricultural education, vocational training and skills development can make in offering a route out of poverty to rural poor people the debate becomes more serious. Why? “Today, about 34 per cent of the total rural population of developing countries is classified as extremely poor…” and agricultural education is 1 of the 6 policy and institutional measures “ that governments can take to provide an enabling framework for sustainable agricultural intensification “ …… agricultural education is “fundamental to enable women, men, young people and children to develop the skills they need to take advantage of new economic opportunities (source IFAD RPR 2011)” . In this context, it is extremely important for IFAD to assess the role and scope of capacity building, training and skills development in IFAD portfolio. The 2 days international consultation "Skills development for poverty alleviation: sharing IFAD experiences in technical and vocational skills development”that took place in IFAD on 22 and 23 June was an opportunity to:


  • understand the potential of training in IFAD supported projects
  • discuss the results achieved in the framework of the Initiative to Mainstream Initiative (IMI - a DFID supported initiative to promote innovations
  • identify successful and innovative training approaches in IFAD supported projects (six field studies conducted in on-going IFAD projects in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Madagascar, Rwanda and Sudan were presented), and
  • pave the way to strengthen the impact of training on poor rural communities in order to give the rural poor the individual and collective capabilities to overcome poverty.


In terms of numbers, results are impressive! Since 2005, more than 4.3 million people have been trained (40% on agricultural technologies and production and 23% on enterprise development and employment) through IFAD programmes. But numbers, as rightly pointed out by panellists at the international consultation, need to be interrogated to give a sense of the impact of the 4.3 million trainings delivered on the lives of those people in terms of empowerment. Unfortunately data is not collected systematically and consistently; participants agreed that more efforts should be made to improve the quality of the data collected in order to answer crucial questions such as: Who are the people trained; are they men, youths or women? and most importantly are they the rural poor we need to reach? What is the use of these trainings? Did the trainings make any difference to the quality of life of the trainees?

Definitively, this is the experience of the women trained in the context of Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project (GSLRP) in Sudan . For them “the training on nutrition, food processing and home economics was the first opportunity to socialize and acquire new skills, said Aisha Sheik GSLRP Programme Officers in Sudan.

Kudos to GSLRP project for:


  • campaigning for women’s participation in training
  • influencing men and having men support the participation of women in training (it wasn’t easy…it took 2 years but they did it!!)
  • overcoming barriers like the lack of venues where women could be trained
  • optimizing the techniques acquired by those who benefitted from the project training on brick making and having them build the training venues with green bricks
  • sharing with us during the conference the thoughts and the feedback of the beneficiaries of the training. Their words:
"Before the training, we were just sitting in the house, meetings have broadened our thinking."

"We learned how to speak Arabic and how to pray and cite the Koran"

"Before the training, our meals were sorghum porridge or Kasha, now we cook vegetables and meat; prepare special meals for children and pregnant women."

“Before we did not care when the vaccination team came for our children, now we all go out and know how important it is”
  • and for awarding certificates at the end of the training. Trainees value certificate!!!

Certificates are building blocks for further training, for social recognition and self- esteem of the trainees and Sudan is not the only example: the Rural Enterprises Projects in Ghana did the same! . But training programmes are not always successful, the field study in Bangladesh shows that skills development and acquisition of new technologies does not happen only through formal training!! This was the interesting finding of the Bangladesh field study.

The experience of the Micro-Finance and Technical Support Project (MFTSP), shows that 16 trained women operators out of 32 trained operators have never operated Mini-Hatcheries. An other 16 MH operators successfully operate MH but did not receive formal training: they “learned by doing” thanks to hands-on training delivered by Livestock Technical Assistants! According to the experience in Bangladesh , formal training can be less effective than a practical approach, as the time required to attend the formal training may be a serious constraint for many women: 30 days away from their daily duties is a significant amount of time and the women that could benefit from the training could not afford it! . So definitively duration of trainings should consider the needs of the target group but this is not the only element that contributes to designing effective training.


To be effective, training sessions must take into account a number of factors among which: the cultural strengths and weaknesses of the trainees, the ability of the trainers, the suitability of the training, the market demand and the national challenges .For examples, Madagascar and Colombia have different challenges, while Madagascar has 70% of its population in rural areas, Colombia is extremely urbanized. Moreover Madagascar has a population growing rate in terms of youth while the population in Colombia is stabilized. So, the challenge consists in mainstreaming projects into the national plans and managing project sustainability, but how do we measure the impact of IFAD project assisted trainings in the context of enabling a national framework for sustainable agriculture intensification?

Are IFAD project assisted training initiatives sustainable? will the government support them once the project is completed? Participants confronted their experiences and challenged the theories of their colleagues. Academics highlighted the need for linking projects to a wider context and challenged IFAD projects. But IFAD projects are not in a vacuum; they are discussed and approved by the Government. Dialogue among different stakeholders is key to working out balanced national strategies, and IFAD experience in Madagascar shows how, by working together, different stakeholders namely the Ministry for Agriculture, Ministry of Education and Research with IFAD advising on implementing a not too theoretical approach, can lead to balanced and concrete strategies.


The format of trainings varies and has to adapt to the national peculiarities. Apprenticeship on sewing, carpentry, welding, reparations, basketry, hairdressing and shoemaking worked perfectly in Rwanda for the Enterprise Promotion Project (PPMER II) . 51% of the apprentices managed to run their own business and 33% did get a job ! Home-based apprenticeship offers a number of advantages among which: ability to reach a critical mass of vulnerable youth , ability to transfer skills in a limited time, making rural life more attractive, mitigation of the risk of migration from rural areas and high impact with limited resources. No doubt rural poverty can be overcome if the rural poor are empowered and given the capacity to generate their incomes. Transfer of capacity and skills can happen in different shapes and formats, through apprenticeship, hands-on training , learning by doing formal trainings and skills development definitively can contribute to empowering the rural poor. However, more needs to be done to:


  • be more effective during the design and implementation phase
  • boost project impact
  • link private and public policies
  • link the training to the market to create concrete job opportunities
  • share experiences and have strong networks
  • keep good records and statistics to assess results
  • define the skills to be a good skills developer
  • link training, policy and research- too little attention is paid to research , but research is a way to produce knowledge
These were the challenges and the opportunities that inspired the discussion. The consultation was quite intensive, it was an opportunity to understand where we are, what needs to be done and to put on the table concrete proposal to reach the rural poor, to give them the tools to get out of poverty. How can we do better? Some concrete suggestions:
  • map skill requirements during the design phase of the project
  • change mind-set and develop an entrepreneurial mentality
  • mini-surveys to get evidence of good results, KAP survey presented in the Bangladesh field study could be a useful tool. Not familiar with KAP?

K for Knowledge……, did the student understand what was explained?
A for attitude… was it useful?
P for practice……..did the student adopt it?? if not go back to attitude!!!!
  • produce learning notes on training
  • simplify the message….if we want to reach our beneficiaries let’s simplify the language of publications and articles they may be interested in!!
  • and use more powerful tools....... what about the radio???

Update on the Writeshop in Viet Nam

Posted by Martina Spisiakova Friday, October 16, 2009 3 comments

Today is the last day of the writeshop for Knowledge Management Officers (KMOs) working in the IFAD-supported projects in Viet Nam. A lot has been achieved. The participants are just finalizing their case studies and success stories. The facilitators are guiding them. Everybody is concentrating and trying to do their best. So when they go back to their provinces, they can share their work with other project staff and their articles can soon be published.

What we have done since the last post…

During the ‘Reader-centred writing’ session, the participants learned how to write in Plain English and ‘Plain Vietnamese’. They now know how to present information clearly and concisely to get a message across to their readers. The participants were divided into two groups – English and Vietnamese speaking to ensure that the facilitators follow and guide each participant during practical sessions.

The session on editing was interesting. By reading some articles from projects written in Vietnamese, the participants realized that they cannot understand them. Imagine us in IFAD reading the English translation! We are now discussing whether the KMOs, that are present at this writeshop, can edit articles in Vietnamese or the Country Office in Hanoi will have to recruit a Vietnamese editor before they get translated to English. So when we receive articles in Rome for processing – whether to include them in newsletters, publications or as basis for our IFAD success stories – they are clearly written and require minimal clarifications from their authors.

Processing data from project reports to produce a success story

One of the needs of project staff assessed prior to this writeshop was to learn how to process data from project reports for case studies and success stories. Often, when they are asked to write an article, they read progress reports which are full of numbers with little qualitative analysis. During the writeshop, the trainers gave the participants a progress report of the Programme for Improving Market Participation of the Poor in Tra Vinh Province.


The participants had to read the report and choose an angle for their article. Once they finished reading and chose the angle, the trainers held a ‘press conference’. They asked three project staff from Tra Vinh province to help the participants clarify the data which was not clear. After the conference, the participants had sufficient information to analyse the data and complete their articles with the guidance of the trainers.

The reason why we had the ‘press conference’ was that just by looking at the report data, a detailed analysis which was needed to complete the articles would not have been possible. Therefore, face-to-face question and answer session with concerned project staff was necessary. As a result, the participants were able to analyse and present complicated data so that the final outcome (article) was not full of numbers but also qualitative analysis. There was a general agreement that progress reports should improve to provide a basis for writing success stories for KMOs, since it might not always be possible to have a ‘press conference’.

The Viet Nam Country Team is planning to organize more writeshops in the future including more staff from the projects. We believe that building the capacity of project staff in different areas, including communication and knowledge management, can really make a difference to the country programme.

Knowledge Management Officers in Viet Nam learn to communicate more effectively through newsletters, publications and websites

Posted by Martina Spisiakova Monday, October 12, 2009 0 comments

Ten Knowledge Management Officers (KMO) from the IFAD-supported projects in Viet Nam came from their provinces to Hanoi to improve their communication skills. They are here to learn how to share the knowledge from projects more effectively. They will apply their new skills immediately during this event through writing case studies and success stories about their projects.

This is the fourth writeshop of this kind in Asia. To date, writeshops took place in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The objectives of the writeshop in Viet Nam are to:

  • improve the communication skills of KMOs so that they are able to produce materials, such as case studies and success stories, with confidence and better quality than in the past
  • teach the KMOs to analyse quantitative data that they often receive from their M&E officers and that they are supposed to interpret
  • produce communication materials that will be published through newsletters, publications and websites; and some training materials that they will use for training their project staff in the field
  • develop a network of KMOs that communicate regularly among themselves, with projects and the local media


The Writeshop has just started. It is really hot here. All fans are in full speed and doors are open. We just had a coffee break to re-charge our energy levels and now back to work. Everybody is engaging and contributing. The language, which is usually an obstacle in Viet Nam, is not an issue here. Four translators are present, in addition to two local English-speaking facilitators that are training in Vietnamese. People are listening and contributing.

The translators play an important role in IFAD-supported projects in Viet Nam. They accompany project staff in workshops and meetings with international audience and translate all communication materials. In Viet Nam, articles for newsletters or any other communication is firstly written in Vietnamese and then translated in English. The trainers will therefore teach the participants the principles of ‘Plain Vietnamese’. There will be a special session on editing in English for translators. So everybody should benefit from this event!

This morning, the participants discussed the main obstacles in knowledge-sharing between projects and IFAD headquarters:

  • Lack of confidence in writing reports, case studies and success stories. KMOs are aware that reports should have more quality rather than quantity. They (as well as project staff) need training to improve their writing.
  • There is a problem of analysing data which means they often write articles full of numbers but without proper analytical interpretation.
  • The flow of information from the projects to IFAD HQ is not clear.
  • The roles of project KMOs should be better defined. Their terms of reference should be standardized.
  • The Viet Nam Country Office plays an important role in collecting and processing information from the projects. But there are often other priorities so the processing of information is delayed.

So how can we build a bridge between these issues and desired outcomes? These outcomes are obviously better quality and more interesting reports and stories coming from the field. This event is the first step to fill this gap in Viet Nam. There is more to come!

Web2.0 briefing session

Posted by Maria Elena Thursday, June 11, 2009 2 comments

Virtual debriefing session: Heard about web2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, twitter and wonder how you can use them?

This session took place, 11 June - the day after Web2.0 was crowned as English's 1 millionth word.


The KM team that organized the event had to change venue to the Italian Conference Room given the huge number of staff who registered!

Thanks to the excellent presentations made by Roxy and Amedeo their enthusiasm for these tools is starting to rub off on many of us.

We all wanted to learn more about this amazing and overwhelming new world where we are no longer spectators of the web but we can actually be the PRODUCERS - that's why Times Magazine proclaimed YOU has the person of the year in 2006! The new Web is a very different than it was 15 years ago - Web2.0 brings together contributions of millions of people.

As Roxy says, "the sky is the limit" - these tools offer many, many different opportunities and ways to share knowledge - tools like: blogs, wikis, twitter, doodle, SlideShare, Picasa, Flicker, Linkedin, blip.tv, YouTube, TinyChat, Google Maps, Googledocs and more!

Many of our colleagues are twitters, bloggers, YouTubers, doodlers, etc. As we all know even The President has his blog and we are using IFAD social reporting blog to share knowledge in real-time.

Many of us are now eager to join the hands-on training sessions to find opportunities to make these tools work for us and for our partners in the field - to work better, to communicate better and to create and share knowledge.


Web2.0 tools: Catalysts for sharing knowledge