The African Union led Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has commenced its second phase of implementation for another period of 4 years (May 2019- April 2023). Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) is the Executing Agency for the SDC grant of over 6.3 million US dollars. The Initiative’s overall project goal is to contribute to mainstreaming of Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) into national agricultural production systems by 2025 in order to improve agricultural productivity, food security, access to markets and sustainable development in Africa.
In preparation for rolling out the new phase, BvAT organized 2 regional inception workshops. The Eastern Africa partners met between 10th and 11th July in Nairobi, Kenya, while the West Africa partners had their inception meeting on 17th and 18th July 2019 in Dakar, Senegal. Each group brought together 30 partners from across our implementing partners and those targeted to take part in Phase 2 of the project. The workshops also
included chairpersons of the National and Regional Steering Committees.
The main objectives of the workshops were to:
- Un-package Phase 2 new Strategies of implementation
- Develop common undertanding of the project elements, procedures and
implementation - Discuss development of partner workplans and budgets
- Familiarise with contractual requirements and obligations including project and financial
guidelines
The workshop participants also reviewed the Project Document (ProDoc) and provided valuable inputs for further revisions particularly in the indicator definitions and measurement. Partners also familiarized themselves with key strategies being rolled out in the next phase especially the Grants Management Strategy, the Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy and the Network of Teams Strategy.
The workshops officially marked the start of Phase 2 of the EOA-I project planned to be implemented in 9 countries namely Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. Rwanda is a new addition to the 8 countries previously implemented in Phase 1. The Executing Agency and partners expressed much appreciation to the support given by the Continental Steering Committee and the main donor, SDC. They look forward to working with the upcoming Knowledge Hubs for Organic Agriculture supported by BMZ through GIZ.
News article by Ms. Venancia Wambua, EOA-I in Africa Project Manager.