7/27/2019 IITA Bulletin No. 2191

1/4

THE

Issue No. 2191, 23-27 September 2013BULLETIN

Austria and Finland ambassadors at IITA-Ibadan, citestafs work ethics

Top: Ambassadors Korpivaara (6th from left) and

Oeppinger (6th from right) with DG Sanginga

and other members of IITA management;

Bottom: Lawrence Kaptoge, Aasafe ProcessEngineer, explaining to the guests how the new

Aasafe Manufacturing Plant operates.

From 24 to 26 September, delegationsfrom the embassies of Austriaand Finland were at IITA-Ibadan foran ocial visit to the institute. TheAustrian delegation was led by HisExcellency Ambassador Dr JoachimOeppinger with Ms Marisa Mercado,Liaison Ocer, and Ms NellaHengstler, Commercial Counselor of

the embassys Commercial Section.The Finnish delegation was led byHer Excellency Ambassador Mrs RiitaKorpivaara,who was accompanied byDr Heikki Valisuo.The guests were welcomed by Dr

Nteranya Sanginga, Director General,and members of IITA Managementwith a dinner at the InternationalHouse on Tuesday.On Wednesday, the visitors toured

IITAs Genebank, the new AasafeManufacturing Plant, the SeedProcessing Unit, Youth in AgribusinessUnit, the Cassava Processing Unit, andthe cassava and maize experimentalfarms. In each facility, the visitors werebriefed by the unit managers and alsointeracted with sta.Before leaving on Thursday, the

delegates held a meeting withIITA Management, during whichthe ambassadors expressed theirappreciation of the enthusiasm of thescientists and sta about their work.

I am really impressed by the passionof your scientists and sta in what theydo, Ambassador Oeppinger said toDG Sanginga. The envoys especiallycited the facilities for producingAasafe and the specialized equipmentfor crop processing from the units theyhad visited on campus.I would also like to cite your

Communication Unit for their excellentwork in producing the materials thatwe got. They were very informative

and well-designed, AmbassadorKorpivaara added.The ambassadors also emphasized

that they were looking forward to theirrespective countries collaborating withIITA in the areas of organic farmingand organic fertilizers.

16 named for 2013 IITA

Talent DevelopmentCompetitive Grant

www.iita.org

Got a story to share? Please email it with photos and captions to Andrea Gros

(a.gros@cgiar.org), Katherine Lopez (k.lopez@cgiar.org), Jeffrey T. Oliver

(j.oliver@cgiar.org), Godwin Atser (g.atser@cgiar.org), or Catherine Njuguna

(c.njuguna@cgiar.org).

Sixteen sta from various Hubsand units of IITA have emergedwinners of the 2013 IITA TalentDevelopment Competitive Grant.

The winners of this years grant andtheir respective training courses are:Gbenga Oloyede of FMS on CentraVacElectronic Control; Oluwole Oguntadeof the Germplasm Unit on AdvancedTraining in Phytosanitary Measures;Folarin Soyode of GRC on Genomics& Bioinformatics; David Oluwadare of

continued next page...

THE

BULLETIN

7/27/2019 IITA Bulletin No. 2191

2/4

Zambia FtF R&D Program completes

2013 review & planning exercise

(Top) Agriculture and Livestock Minister Robert Sichinga (6th from right in light blue shirt) listening

to one of the cassava growers in Chanje District participating in the Cassava Mitigation Project

component of the Zambia FtF R&D Program; (bottom) Participants to the 2013 Review and Planning

Workshop of the Zambia FtF R&D Program pose with Minister Sichinga (front row, 4th from right) at

the start of the 3-day exercise at the Protea Hotel in Chipata.

the Security Unit on Risk, Crisis andDisaster Management; Robert Oduorof IITA-Kenya on MSc in Finance;Korede Lawal of the Finance Oceon ICAN Examination; Felix Farinolaof the Research Farm Oce on

Database Certied Web Programming;V. Arthur Geh of IITA-Liberia onInternal Control; Idowu Ifaturotiof the Telecoms Unit on TelecomsArchitecture and Info Tech; OmolaraSalako of the International Schoolon Creative Teaching; SylvesterOwobu of the Supply Chain UnitonMaster in Business Administration;Abosede Pelemo of the TelecomsUnit on Microso Certied ITProfessional; an IITA-Cameroon staon Communication and Client Focus;

Anthony Fulani of the MedicalUnit onMasters in Health and SafetyEducation; Kayode Awobajo of theProject Administration Oce onUSAID Federal Rules and Regulations:Grants and Coop Agreements; andOlabode Olumide Olaoluwa ofthe Communication Oce on FilmMaking and Video Production.

The pilot grant began last yearas part of the sta developmentplan, with DG Sanginga allocatingUS$40,000 additional funding for

sta training.Zoumana Bamba, IITA Head of

Capacity Development, describedthe grant as the rst initiative ofits kind since IITAs inception. Thegrant supports sta who wishesto undertake training or study forqualications that are related totheir work. It aims to create thecritically needed human resourcebase to mitigate the constraints ofdevelopment.

With the approval of the pilot

scheme, the Capacity DevelopmentOce (CDO) set out guidelines andcalled for applications from stawith their choice of training courses,which ended on 31 May. The CDOreceived 67 applications with totaltraining cost of US$203,261.

The CDO and the Human ResourceService (HRS), through a selectioncommiee, then reviewed allapplications. The commiee wascomposed of representatives ofNRS sta associations and sta from

HRS, R4D, and CDO. On 10 June, thecommiee made their selection ofthe 16 nal grantees.

16 selected for 2013... from previous page

Implementing partners of the IITA-coordinated Zambia Feed-the-Future (FtF) Research and DevelopmentProgram gathered at the Protea Hotel

in Chipata, Eastern Province of Zambiaon 18-20 September to review progressof the program and develop workplans for 2014. Gracing the exercisewas the Honorable Robert Sichinga,Minister of Agriculture and Livestock,who also accompanied the delegateson a tour of two project sites in Chanjeand Chiparamba districts.In his opening talk, Minister

Sichinga highlighted the programsdiversication eorts. We all knowthat Zambia is highly dependent on

maize. Although this has always beenthe case, it also makes the countrysfood security vulnerable to factors thatmay aect the production of maize,he said.I laud this programs eorts in

promoting crops and technologiesthat will enable our maize farmers todiversify their production not only toenhance their incomes and nutrition,but more so to provide a food securitysafety net for Zambia, he emphasized.

However, I also appeal to the scientistspresent here not to be too caught up inthe development of the technologiesthemselves. More importantly, Iask you to focus on delivering thesetechnologies and making sure they areadopted by farmers if we are to eectreal and meaningful change in theirlives. Otherwise, all these will be fornothing, the Minister added.

In Chanje, the minister and delegatessaw an exhibition of products andimproved varieties under the Orange-

eshed Sweet Potato and Mitigating

Cassava Disease Threats projectsbeing implemented in the district.In Chiparamba, the delegation sawan exhibition of the SustainableIntensication of Maize-Legume Systems

for Zambia (SIMLEZA), ImprovingGroundnut Farmers Incomes andNutrition through Innovation andTechnology Enhancement (I-FINITE),and Aatoxin Mitigation projects. Inboth sites, the visitors also interactedwith the farmers participating in theprojects.

About 40 representatives fromthe programs six implementingorganizations: IITA, CIMMYT, CIP,ICRISAT, HarvestPlus, and the ZambiaAgricultural Research Institute (ZARI),as well as private seed companiesand NARS participated in this yearsreview and planning exercise.

page 2IITA Bulletin 2191

7/27/2019 IITA Bulletin No. 2191

3/4

The fun retreat: The team building exercises during the IITA Eastern Hub retreat included dancing

(top left) at a performing arts school and sports competitions (top right). (Bottom) Charity Mutegi,

winner of the 2013 Norman Borlaug Award, receiving a plaque from Eveline Odiambo given on

behalf of the Hub.

page 3IITA Bulletin 2191

IITA Eastern Arica Hub holds retreat

Sta of the Eastern Africa Hubgathered in the sleepy seaside townof Bagamoyo, Tanzania for three daysof serious contemplation of issuesaecting the hub while at the sametime have some fun in the Hubs rst-ever retreat.The idea of a hub retreat was hatched

during last years annual planningmeeting in Ibadan. A team composedof Danny Coyne, Morag Ferguson andJames Legg was then constituted toplan the same.The 3-day program was a mixture

of discussion on key issues aectingthe hub from how to make its 10 yearstrategy in line with the institutes,preparation of the annual report,stang issues, resource mobilization,communications, and purchasing.Dr Victor Manyong, R4D Director

for Eastern Africa, said that the retreatwas very important to strengthenthe relationships and collaborationamongst all the scientists. He notedit was especially a good orientationfor the new scientists at the hub as itallowed them to interact with fellowscientists and support sta. He citedthe events organizing team for doinga good job.The retreat was very successful.

We can say we have all goen to

know each other beer. We havebeer understanding of the dierentactivities each of us is involved in inthe dierent countries and even waysto strengthen collaborations. We alsodiscussed some of the important issuesaecting the hub and ways to resolvethem, he said on the last day of thehub. We will therefore have this hubretreat as an annual event.The highlight of the retreat was the

fun activities held in the aernoon aerthe days discussions. These included

games such as volleyball and a visit toa nearby performing arts school wherethe sta had to develop a dance andperform it in front of the students.A dinner was also held in honor of

Charity Mutegi, winner of this yearsNorman Borlaug Award for FieldResearch and Application, duringwhich she was presented with aplaque by Eveline Odiambo, HubAdministrator. On her part, Charitysaid her work was as a result of teameort. She also thanked Dr Manyong forhis leadership and faith in her and herpartners at the institute, at the KenyaAgricultural Research Institute, andat the Africa Agricultural TechnologyFoundation.

7/27/2019 IITA Bulletin No. 2191

4/4

Arica RISING holds learning event at ILRI in Addis

More than 60 projectimplementers, partners, andother stakeholders took part in a3-day learning event hosted by theInternational Livestock ResearchInstitute for Africa RISING (Researchin Sustainable Intensication for theNext Generation) in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia.This event is the rst for the

5-year USAID-funded program.It aims to provide participantswith an environment for learningand understanding the program,the key concepts and principlesdriving it, and activities alreadyundertaken; identify critical issuesaround approaches and goals ofthe program and some best-bet

actions/interventions to tackle;and document collective learning,discuss and prioritize implicationsfor projects, identify actions toaddress challenges that surfacedduring the event, and set out alearning agenda for the program asa whole.The activity used an open

learning format, which promotedself-learning and discovery, andprovided opportunities for cross-site

learning, sharing and exchanging ofexperiences in the dierent projects;reection on issues and challenges;and articulation of action steps.Reections on the learning will beused to put the project back on track,and also help prioritize action stepsand follow up on important issues.Dr Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon,

who leads the West Africa and Eastand Southern Africa componentsof the program said, I think thislearning event is very important

and timely. We are now ending thesecond year of the project, and thisis a good opportunity to bring all thethree projects and partners togetherand share experiences and learning.As project coordinator, the mostimportant expectation I had fromthis meeting was the buy-in frompartners, which is expected to lead tobeer understanding of the projectand the various issues involved inproject management, and beer and

timely reporting.Dr Kenton Dashiell, DDG

for Partnerships and CapacityDevelopment, said I thought this

was an exceptionally good meeting.Some of the key learning from themeeting are that we need to have R4Dplatforms operating well in target

communities of project countriesand that we need to make a specialeort to ensure good communicationamong partners.He said that the real benet of the

learning event to the project wasthat in addition to the learning andsharing that took place, we wereable to look at the action steps thatwould make sure that R4D platformsare set up, that gender is integrated,that partners/stakeholders can

make sure that there is a team ofpeople working together to ensureimpact on the lives of the projectcommunities.

Participants during the bus-stop learning session that focused on a discussion of research outputs.

page4IITA Bulletin 2191

The Africa RISING ProgramCoordination Team, headed by DrDashiell, will meet tomorrow todiscuss important issues for follow

up and other strategic programmanagement issues.

Help conserveelectricity!Before leaving your workplace

at the end of the day, make sure

that you have:

1. Powered off all unnecessary

electrical ofce/lab equipment;

2. Turned off air conditioners; and

3. Switched off all lights.