Successful Innov4AgPacific Kick-off Webinars Conducted

The CTA/IFAD/PIPSO Innov4AgPacific Value Chain Coordination/Agricultural Innovation (VCC/AI) platform and its integrated online discussion groups is a tool to support communication and facilitate cooperation, networking, negotiation, knowledge exchange and interactive learning among a diverse range of public-private-producer actors. The Aim is to enhance agricultural/value chain performance and bottom-up policy making, engagement, advocacy and outreach in the seven Pacific Island States, the target countries of the Innov4AgPacific project.

In preparation for furthering the work that was started in 2018 of refining, validating and endorsing National and Regional Action Plans and bringing to scale Value Chain development activities, several representatives of agribusiness, government ministries and farmer associations and financial and policy experts from all seven target countries participated in the recently concluded Innov4AgPacific Kick-off webinar for the Value Chain Coordination/Agricultural Innovation (VCC/AI) platform.

The webinar was the beginning of a series of online training sessions targeting national partners to strengthen their capacities in building multi-stakeholder coalitions for innovation, influencing policy processes and facilitating integrated agribusiness/value chain development. The training targets the development of technical capacities (administer and manage online groups) as well as online facilitation skills (grow and nurture communities) at national and regional levels in support of refining concrete priority joint actions through multi-stakeholder participation while growing and sustaining commitment among members.

The webinar provided a quick overview about the overall Innov4agpacific project and its ongoing in-country activities such as the Innovation Grant Facility and Community Nutrition Seed Funding Projects. The features of the VCC/AI platform and its integrated online discussion group tools were discussed and  expectations as well as needs of the training were identified.

About the Value Chain Coordination/Agricultural Innovation (VCC/AI) platform:

• Reaching out and providing access to 270+ key multi-stakeholder actors and experts across 7 Pacific Island countries;
• Building VC specific public-private-producer partnerships & trust on national and regional level;
• Providing access to specific discussion groups on in-country value chains, roll-out of National Action Plans and thematic issues (e.g. Gender in VCs, ICT4Ag etc.)
  • Explore technological, organizational and institutional solutions
  • Discuss what is economically viable, and socio-culturally and politically acceptable
  • Increased credibility and legitimacy -> collective voice aiming to create change at different levels
  • Advocate the interest of the members to public decision makers
  • Participatory approach in identifying and analyzing problems, designing and testing innovations
• Repository of relevant information, reports, guidelines/tools, including findings and outcomes and discussions.

In the coming months, national facilitators will conduct in-country multi-stakeholder workshops through facilitation of online and face-to-face discussions and write-shops to mainstream action plans into policy processes. Additionally, seven agricultural and agribusiness experts are working closely with PIFON and the Innov4AgPacific project team to upscale national priority value chains and strengthen organizational capacities by providing training to producer groups for enhancing value chain performance.

Together with the partners, we are committed to building a community of members who will have the capacity to influence policy and change in support of Agribusiness and Value Chain Development for improved Pacific Livelihoods.