“Facilitation is compulsory to support agricultural innovation development in developing countries.”

Hello, who are you?

I am Raymond Kiogo, research engineer at the Institut de Recherche en Science Appliquée et Technologie (IRSAT). I have 5 years of experience in coaching and providing advice to producer organizations. I am conscious that with the current context of climate change, and pressure on resources and the scarcity of means of production, developing countries have to place agricultural innovation at the heart of development strategies and policies. And facilitation of multi-stakeholder innovation partnerships is the missing piece of the puzzle! My interest in CDAIS is to offer my skills for development and to build on new experience to strengthen my professional career. The iterative and flexible approach of CDAIS is of great interest to me. The project is truly looking for concrete results to improve the wellbeing of beneficiaries.

What are your roles and responsibilities as National Innovation Facilitator?

I am facilitator for two innovation partnerships: family micro-entreprises for food processing led by women, and drip irrigation systems for small scaled family farms. My role is to facilitate the development of these innovations through strengthening the functional capacities of stakeholders involved in the networks: helping them to identify, formulate issues and solutions, implement the actions and accompany them towards professionalization. It is about listening, bringing people with different organizational culture and diverse interests to collaborate, creating a climate for co-construction and for collective creativity. My responsibility is to lead the implementation of the coaching plans, and to identify new challenges that need to be overcome.

What has CDAIS changed for you?

I have been trained on facilitation of multi stakeholders innovation partnerships. I have facilitated diagnosis and elaboration of coaching plans and have been selected to accompany tw FONRID projects around agricultural innovation. CDAIS enabled me to strengthen my capacity to work in a team, to accompany multi-stakeholder partnerships and to organize workshops. It also helped me in understanding that support and advice to producers requires skills in facilitation and listening, and supporting and balancing various objectives.