“The more you make partnerships functional, the more you are close to common goals.”

Hello, who are you?

I’m Samson Eshetu working for CDAIS as lead NIF since February 2018. My roles and responsibilities in the project are supporting NIFs and providing technical support in planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of niche partnership activities. I am an agricultural extensionist by profession with rich experience in areas of institutional capacity development, communication and facilitation. I heard about CDAIS when I was working for the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), a TAP partner. I had attended two of the TAP partner meetings in Kigali and Laos in 2015 and 2017, respectively when I heard about the CDAIS approach. I appreciate the approach being used and promoted by CDAIS in such a way that functional capacities mobilize and tap the potential of multi-stakeholders to work together and solve their challenges jointly.

What has CDAIS changed for you?

Facilitation of multi-stakeholder partnership requires soft skills such as facilitation, listening and communication, as we are dealing with human beings. Partners have their own agenda and behavior, hence as facilitators, we need to ensure, if possible, a win-win situation and create conducive spaces for all to express their feelings – because facilitation is about helping others to realize their dreams and visions. My exposure in previous meetings and the recently concluded refection workshop enlightened and strengthened my soft skills towards multi-stakeholders facilitation. I learnt a lot and also shared my experience during the workshop which I realized a reciprocal learning. I believe that the more you make partnership functional, the more you are close to common goals.