Prolinnova India completed three years of its existence as member of the global network. We learnt much from fellow members and tried to contribute to strengthening our network and bringing its message to more people. Innovation processes and Participatory Innovation Development are much used words now but less understood in all their dimensions and details. However this makes it difficult to access funds for our work since competition has widened, which is also a good thing in itself, but constrains the activities of Prolinnova India. Hence many Prolinnova activities were woven into regular work.

 

Prolinnova India continued third year implementation of the regional project “Local Innovation and Experimentation for Climate Change Adaptation” (LINEX-CCA) together with Prolinnova - Cambodia,  Prolinnova - Nepal and Prolinnova’s International Secretariat  in the Netherlands. In January 2014  Prolinnova India shared with the network the LINEX-CCA reports for July- Dec 2013. In July 2014 the report for Jan-June 2014 was shared. Both documents of the project were uploaded on the Prolinnova website.

 

In January 2014  Prolinnova-India  participated in the E-Evaluation of Prolinnova Network conducted by IIRR. In January too, Prolinnova-India connected with the Asian Farmers Association (AFA) headquartered in the Phillipines and its Executive Director, Esther Penunia. On Jan 31^st along with AFA and INHERE representatives met with Executive Secretary of APAARI for exploratory meeting on support for organizing Asian Innovative Farmers Meet and Exhibition. The proposal received a positive response and requires follow up.

 

On February 5, 2014 Sonali Bisht spoke to students of Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi and Michigan State University, USA on promoting local innovations, food security, values chains, livelihood and livelihood security. INHERE participated in conference on organic farming in Bhutan. We participated in Regional Workshop on Feb 8, 2014 in Almora, India on mainstreaming Agro-biodiversity conservation and utilization in agriculture sector to ensure eco system services and reduce vulnerability, which was organized by Biodiversity International, NGPRI, India and VPKAS, ICAR for inputs into a Global Environmental Facility (GEF) project. VPKAS is a collaborating partner of Prolinnova India and works closely on the CCA-LINEX project.

Six documents shared by Misereor Consultant on Climate Change were translated into Hindi for use by partner organizations who work at field level in the Hindi language.

 

IFOAM Conference on organic and ecological agriculture in mountain ecosystems was held in Thimphu, Bhutan March 5-8, 2014. Dr Azeb Worku from Ethiopia, had put on display, among other publications from Ethiopia, publication on "Some Examples of Best Practices by Small Holder Farmers in Ethiopia" a co publication of Prolinnova Ethiopia developed by Hailu Araya, Yohannes Gebremichael and Sue Edwards. Prolinnova India and INHERE also participated in the workshop and spoke about Prolinnova global network and its work globally and in India. 

 

We participated in the State Consultation focusing on Gender and Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Region on 30th April 2014 at Dehradun, Uttarakhand by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN carried out a short study titled ‘Gender and Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Region’. The state consultation was a process to share and get feedback on findings.

 regarding the current status of women vis-ă-vis climate change impacts, their potential role in adapting to climate change and an analysis of policy options for the same.

 

The Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA) in collaboration with Freidrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organized a workshop on Youth and Climate Change in Uttarakhand,April 29-30, 2014 for young researchers to identify approaches to improve research in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) focusing on climate change. The workshop had the objective to expose youth to the climatic stress and challenges that IHR has and also encourage them to take up research in an efficient manner. Resource person from INHERE spoke on the  topic of Agriculture and Climate Change to provide better understanding and outlook to the participants. INHERE wove in its presentation the experience from LINEX-CCA which generated interest and enthusiasm among young people.

 

We participated in a workshop on tools for assessing climate change resilience held in Jabalpur at Jabalpur Diocesan Social Service Society in April 28-May 2, 2014 for Misereor partners in India working on climate change issues. Sonali Bisht was a resource person for session on sharing experience on dealing with climate change.

 

Prolinnova India participated in the 10th International Partners Workshop held in Cambodia and the joint Prolinnova Asia meeting on the LINEX-CCA project. INHERE participated in global policy consultations on formation of Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture held in Hanoi, Vietnam in June 2014 and in The Hague, Netherlands July 9-11, 2014 and shared its experience with Prolinnova India colleagues.

 

On November 29, the International Farmer Innovation Day was celebrated. Report of the event was shared with Prolinnova community soon after.

 

In December we interacted with Ingrid Flink, Intern with Prolinnova IST who is working to put together learning from the LINEX-CCA project and shared material and photographs. Good documentation of work done is always a great support and much appreciated.

 

INHERE as part of Prolinnova India was facilitated by Chesha from the Prolinnova  secretariat in developing the second phase of the LINEX-CCA project which has been sanctioned by Misereor, Germany with implementation beginning in January 2015.