The week ahead at ILRI: December 15–21, 2014

During the week of December 15–21, 2014 the following activities will take place at ILRI:

ILRI Addis
ILRI Uganda
ILRI East and Southeast Asia
ILRI South Asia
ILRI Nairobi

ILRI Addis: compiled by Meron Mulatu (m.mulatu@cgiar.org; +251 116 172472)

December 13–19: Ewen Le Borgne will be traveling to Naivasha to attend a Climate Change Social learning planning and review team meeting (15–17) and enjoy some leave.
December 14–16: Siboniso Moyo will be traveling to Nairobi to attending IMC and Livestock and Fish meetings.
December 14–16: Azage Tegegne will travel to Gamo Gofa Zone for the launching of 1st ever Hormonal Estrus Synchronization work in Gamo Gofa Zone, SNNP Region.
December 14–19: Mamusha Lemma and Fanos Mekonnen will travel to North Gondar and West Gojjam to visit LIVES activities in Capacity Development and Knowledge management interventions. They will visit knowledge centers, meet farmers and discuss with Office of Agriculture Experts in the LIVES districts. Use of e-book readers by 21 public sector staff in the two regions will be assessed as well.
December 15–18: N2 Africa project is organizing a gender training workshop at the Konso auditorium. The aim of the workshop is to sensitize partners(EIAR, ARARI, OARI and Hawassa University), mainstream approaches, and design work plans to address gender inequity in legume value chains and decision-making.
Africa RISING project of the Ethiopian highlands has been working very closely with the national partner institutions (research, extension, Universities and NGOs) and farmers at farm/household scale since 2012. In addition to this effort, the project together with its CG and national partners is planning to identify and work on model watersheds in three of its research sites. The Woreda Office of Agriculture at each Africa RISING site will cover the largest portion of the investment and mobilize the mass for the physical and biological soil and water conservation interventions. The Africa RISING and its CG partners and local research and higher learning institutions will technically backstop the watershed management initiative through capacity building and demonstration of crop, livestock, water and high value trees related technologies, practices and approaches. A training and field visit program is scheduled from 14–15 Dec in Hossana (SNNPR), 17–19 Dec in Debre Birhan (Amhara) and 20–25 Dec in Michew and Abreha Atsbeha (Tigray). A total of 40 participants from extension, research and Universities are expected to attend the watershed management training and 30 participants from farmers and extension will join the field visit in Tigray. Lulseged Desta (CIAT), Kindu Mekonnen and Aberra Adie (ILRI) and Kifle Woldearegay (Mekele University) will be resource persons for the training and field visits.
December 17: IWMI – will have SHARE research planning workshop at the InfoCentre.
December 15: Workshop on improving and integrating animal health services in the livestock value chain through public private dialogue in Ethiopia (LVC-PPD) at the InfoCentre.
December 16–19: WHO review meeting at the Lalibela auditorium.

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ILRI Uganda: compiled by Brian Kawuma, (B.Kawuma@cgiar.org)

On Monday 15^th December, Danilo Pezo will attend a meeting at IITA Offices to explore opportunities to further link crops and livestock under the Humid Tropics CGIAR Program in Uganda.
December 15–18: most of the ILRI Uganda staff and the facilitators who will conduct feed value chain assessments in Lira and Hoima districts will be participating in a FEAST training workshop at Royal Suites in Bugolobi – Kampala. The training will be facilitated by Ben Lukuyu and Iddo Dror from ILRI-Nairobi.
On the 19th of December, Robert Ochagor will travel to Hoima for Key informant interviews and Focus group discussions as part of the Rapid Pig Value chain Assessment Tools testing activities.

ILRI East and Southeast Asia: compiled by Jackie Escarcha (J.Escarcha@cgiar.org)

16–19 December: Lucy Lapar will participate in strategy workshop to discuss Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) Phase 3 proposal development to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal. CSISA is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and implemented by four CG centers (CIMMYT, IRRI, ILRI, and IFPRI) with CIMMYT coordinating. For more information the project check out website at http://csisa.org/.
18–20 December: Steve Staal will present a keynote paper on Livestock Markets at the 74^th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (ISAE) organized by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. For more information regarding the event, please see http://shreeindia.info/isaeindia.org/74th-annual-conference-of-the-isae-will-be-held-under-the-auspices-of-dr-babasaheb-ambedkar-marathwada-university-aurangabad-on-december-18-to-20-2014/
25–26 December: Aziz Karimov and Thinh Nguyen will organize Extrapolate Workshop in Dien Bien province, Northwest Vietnam.

ILRI South Asia: compiled by Oli Roma (R.Oli@cgiar.org; +919990401404)

December 17–19: Michael Blummel will attend the CSISA 3rd phase planning meeting in Kathmandu.
As part of the TATA-ILRI project Padmakumar, Tanu Sigh and Sagarika Gandhi will facilitate a policy meet in Dehradun, Uttarakhand (19th Dec) to showcase five models field tested for dairy development in the hills. Secretary (Animal Husbandry, Govt. of Uttarakhand) will be the chief guest.
December 14–18: Ram Deka will visit Bangladesh to understand the progress of the Grameene Danoni project being implemented in the country and to assess the scope of future intervention for ILRI under CRP 4.3 through visiting a few relevant institutes in the country.
December 20: Ram Deka will deliver a lead presentation on “Sharing lessons of pig system in South Asia and Southeast Asia: a review” at the national conference on pig organised by the National Research Centre on Pig (an ICAR institute) in Guwahati.
December 12–15: Dhiraj Singh will be in Nepal to make payment to enumerators involved in CSISA impact study an Chitwan and meeting with Foward people for the updates of CSISA activities in Kailali Nepal.

ILRI Nairobi: compiled by Angeline Nekesa (a.nekesa@cgiar.org; +254 20 422 3863)

Directorate

14–19 Dec – Jimmy Smith will travel to Washington DC to attend the MTR follow up on Options for Governance of CGIAR meeting.

ASSP

Dec. 15–18: Ben Lukuyu will attend and facilitate the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) Training Workshop in Kampala, Uganda.

CCAFS East Africa

15–16 Dec : Nyando CCAFS site review and planning workshop to be held at the Vic hotel in Kisumu.
17–18 Dec: Nyando climate smart villages will hold feedback workshop, over the recent Farms of the Future (FtF) exchange visit involving farmers in Kericho and Kisumu Counties..

CCAFS Theme 4.2

14–17 Dec: CCAFS and partners from ILRI, IIED and IDRC are meeting for a planning retreat to coordinate activities under the CCAFS Climate Change and Social Learning Initiative. This includes finalizing a common framework to evaluate social learning in projects which will be held in Naivasha.

Food Safety and Zoonoses