*PRGA newsletter Issue No. 5 January 2006
Assessment of CIAT’s Experience with the Learning Alliance in Central America
Ever since 2003 the Rural Agro-Enterprises Development Project of the International Center of Tropical Agriculture, CIAT, has facilitated the Learning Alliance for Rural Agro-Enterprises in Central America. This initiative promotes collaborative learning processes amongst different social actors of research, development, public and private sectors leading to promote institutional innovations which facilitate the implementation of development activities and more effective policies that may contribute to generating sustainable rural livelihoods in developing countries.
Asian researchers and extensionists completed training course on participatory approaches
Thirty participants from nine Asian countries completed a two-week training course on Application of Participatory Approaches to Agricultural Research and Extension. Participants represented national agricultural research and extension agencies, universities and non-government organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The training course, jointly organized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and CIP-UPWARD, was held on 21 November to 3 December 2005 at the IRRI Training Center.
Gender Mainstreaming In Poverty Eradication and The Millennium Development Goals, A handbook for Policy-Makers and Other Stakeholders.
In this book, Naila Kabeer brings together a diverse set of arguments, findings, and lessons from the development literature that help to explain why gender equality merits specific attention from policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders committed to the pursuit of pro-poor and human-centred development.
Bug Havens Keep Maize Pest-Proof
African maize farmers who will grow transgenic maize varieties resistant to one of the crop’s most damaging pests, the maize stem borer, learn that to keep borers at bay, some must survive.
African dryland farmers benefit from a million hectares of improved crop varieties
Many wonder if plant breeding can achieve much in the African drylands, because the growing conditions are so harsh. Most major historical breeding successes occurred where water was ample. But too many lives are at stake to shun the challenge.
The FAO Regional Office for Europe (REU) recently published the “Annotated Bibliography on and Stage-wise Analysis of Participatory Research Projects in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management” in the December 2005 issue of SD dimensions.
With the bibliography REU endeavoured to examine experiences in, and examples of, client-inclusive research, particularly in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as well as transition economies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The objectives were to (i) compile up-to-date information on participatory research in agriculture and natural-resource management (NRM); (ii) identify cases of participatory research in the focal region; and (iii) highlight success-stories from the focal region. Even after extensive research the authors have been able to present only a few examples from these regions. Unlike the "southern" developing countries, participatory research does not seem to play a prominent role in CEE and CIS countries. They have, therefore, included experiences with participatory research from the "south" and from developed countries, to show the relevance and advanced character of participatory research and hope such material will prove helpful for research managers, as a tool to more relevant, responsive and effective agricultural and NRM research.
World Social Forum/2nd Social Forum of the Americas in Caracas, Venezuela, January 23, 2006: Indigenous Rights
Indigenous and cultural rights are again themes for the 2006 World Social Forum (WSF) meeting in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez (who claims that his grandmother was a Pumé Indian) has been an outspoken supporter for creole people with indigenous and African ancestry. Begun as civil society's response to the annual World Economic Forum in Switzerland in late January, WSF has grown into a major international gathering with more than 80,000 attendees at the 2005 Brazil meeting.
This year, a special polycentric format replaces the traditional WSF meeting format. Venezuela is one of three countries to host the 2006 WSF. Following a meeting in Bamako, Mali, on January 19, WSF moves to Caracas to coincide with the Second Social Forum of the Americas.
The highlight contains a map of indigenous ethnic people in Venezuela from the country's 1982 Indigenous Census.
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