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Strengthening the national ARD capacity in Benin

Context and Objectives

ICRA's activities in Benin to strengthen the national capacity for ARD are mainly carried out within the scope of three integrated activities:

• The development of a National Innovation Platform - the NIP initiative, to coordinate ARD capacity building and promote its use in Benin.
• Collaboration with IFDC in its "From Thousands to Millions (1000+) Project". This project has as its overall objective the development of priority agribusiness clusters focused on specific locations and commodities, using the Competitive Agricultural Systems and Enterprises (CASE) approach (see IFDC CASE).
• Strengthening education and research at the FSA (Faculté des sciences agronomiques) and EPAC (Ecole polytechnique d'Abomey-Calavi) of the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), in collaboration with a Dutch Consortium comprising Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen International, and Van Hall Larenstein College. This project, financed by the NUFFIC – NPT Programme for the period 2006-2010, had as overall objective the review of research and training agendas (content and methods) in order to better address the current issues faced by actors on rural development in Benin.

In addition, ICRA has been associated to the 2009-2011 pilot stage of the Africa Rice Center's RAP Project (Realizing Agricultural Potential of inland valley lowlands in sub-Saharan Africa) of the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of Inland Valley Agro-ecosystems (IVC), to be executed in Benin and Mali. Wageningen International and ICRA are involved in the implementation of multi stakeholder platforms and the facilitation of the first activities and planning processes, including the interaction between MSPs and researchers.

Achievements to date

• The National Innovation Platform (NIP) was launched February 2005 with facilitation by ICRA, leading to the formation of a committee under the leadership of the UAC-FSA, and with additional members from research institutions, universities, NGOs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Bioversity International (formerly IPGRI).
• Eight professionals were selected by the NIP Committee to form the basis of a National Capacity Strengthening Team (NCST) in ARD, to attend the ICRA 2006/07 Francophone Programme in Montpellier, France (6 funded from the IFDC 1000+ Project, and another 2 by the NUFFIC NPT Project). The Committee also identified the priority agribusiness cluster that the NCST focused on during its field work that formed an integral part of the ICRA Programme.
• With a financial contribution from the NUFFIC NPT Project, an in-country/ in-service experiential learning programme in ARD for UAC staff and other stakeholders took place in Benin in June and July 2007. This programme consisted of three workshops and an integrated fieldwork. It resulted in the formulation of new, interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research programmes at UAC.
• In 2008, ICRA actively supported the establishment of the PNISA (Plate-forme Nationale pour l’Innovation dans le Secteur Agricole). A consultative meeting was organised in November 2008 to prepare the constitutive general assembly which was held late December.
• As part of the collaborative framework between ICRA and IFDC, the NCST members got involved in the training and coaching of business support services, sub-contracted through the 1000s+ project. This happened through a workshop organised in October 2008, in Possotomé, to identify the capacity strengthening needs of these business support services. Following this workshop NCST, with support from ICRA, developed a proposal to improve the clusters' efficiency, organised a one-week training workshop on value chain analysis, and subsequently implemented this at regional level from April to June 2009, in respectively South, Mid and North Benin.
  Three NCST members were involved in the preparatory workshop for the new Capacity Building programme for ARD Facilitators (Design & Management of ARD Learning) that took place in May 2009 Cotonou, and participated in that programme from 21/9 to 10/10 2009 in Montpellier, France.
• RAP-IVs project: In 2009, ICRA staff co-facilitated the launching workshops in Sikasso in March and, with WI staff, interacted with project managements to develop common action plans. In Benin, NCST members played a considerable role in the identification of provisional MSP members and in the co-facilitation of workshops and meetings. For details on this partnership, see the Africa Rice Center partnership page.
• In 2010, jointly with PNISA, ICRA facilitated two workshops (in January and in September-October) as part of several NUFFIC-funded (NPT_ projects coordinated by WUR, including the NPT project with FSA and EPAC.
• In 2011, ICRA implemented a JoLISAA training workshop in Benin (5-9 December) , to introduce a team of facilitators to innovation case assessment methodology (see JoLISAA).

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