Uganda National Agricultural Extension Symposium – 2018

The Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (UFAAS) brings together Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) actors from: Public sector, Private sector, Academia, including schools, NGOs/civil society, Farmer Organizations and Media. It is a Non-State Actor that closely works with the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), plus other development partners and AEAS actors. UFAAS’ new vision is “Professional AEAS effectively driving the agricultural revolution in Uganda” while its mission is to promote strategic partnerships, advocacy, capacity building, information sharing and interaction among AEAS actors in Uganda.

The Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES) project in Uganda is funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), supports the Presidential Feed the Future Initiative, which strives to increase agricultural productivity and the incomes of both men and women in rural areas who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. INGENAES supports the development of improved extension and advisory systems (EAS) to improve gender and nutrition integration within extension services by reducing gender gaps in EAS and increasing empowerment of women farmers while engaging men farmers. INGENAES assists multiple types of stakeholders such as farmers, producer groups, cooperatives, policy makers, development non-governmental organization (NGO) practitioners, and donors.

For the last 2 years, UFAAS together with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) have been implementing the INGENAES Project in Uganda to support the farmers based organizations (FBOs), NGOs and the Public Sector and selected University Fellows to integrate Gender and Nutrition within their extension and related work. This was supported through sensitization and training, facilitating a Community of practice (CoP) of AEAS actors for interaction and sharing; and supporting a Fellowship Program for students and young professionals’ capacity building in gender and nutrition.

As this project comes to a close, a national symposium is being organized to will bring together extension stakeholders across Uganda to deliberate on enhancing agricultural extension’s capacity and quality to address needs of women and men farmers, with a special focus on Gender and Nutrition and professionalism.

Purpose
To bring together thought leaders, practitioners, academicians, private sector organizations, and NGOs to deliberate on: What has worked, how do we build what is working and how do we ensure an enabling environment for integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agriculture extension within the context of Uganda.

Objectives
1. To explore and showcase successes, challenges, lessons learned in integrating gender responsive and nutrition sensitive approaches within extension service delivery;
2. To strengthen and widen the current gender and nutrition community of practice to facilitate networking, information and knowledge exchange among the AEAS
3. To build capacities of AEAS actors (individual and organizations) to better respond to male and female farmers needs for food, nutrition and income security.
4. To sensitize participants about professionalizing of AEAS for better performance and image of the sector.

Key Sub-Themes

Innovative and effective technologies, tools and approaches to strengthen AEAS that improve women’s agricultural productivity and enhance household relations and nutrition.

Focus: Research, ICT tools and models, Local Based good practices, Community of Practices, e-Platforms

2. Building Capacities of AEAS actors (individual and organizations) to better respond to male and female ( young and old) farmers needs for food, nutrition and income security
Focus: Gender and Nutrition, Rolling out the New Extensionist Tool, Youths and Agripreneurship, Fellowships.
3. Professionalizing the AEAS system in Uganda for better performance and image
Focus: Sensitization on professionalism guidelines, standards and tools, Launch of the national registration process, Rewarding AEAS actors for performance,

Expected Outputs

Successes, challenges, and lessons learned in integrating gender and nutrition in extension service delivery shared
Stronger and wider Community of practice
Good local practices extension practices exhibited
Better understanding of AEAS professionalism
AEAS Actors registration and recognition tools launched
AEAS actors recognized
Methodology

The symposium will be in a highly interactive format, designed to promote better sharing of ideas and learning. Some of the approaches that will be used are: Plenary speakers; Group discussions; Panel discussions; World Café style presentations; Lighting Talks (for FBO winners); Poster sessions (for Fellows; Parallel Skills building workshop sessions)

Participants
Delegates/ Participants shall primarily be Extension Service Providers from the Public, NGO and Private sectors working together to improve Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services in Uganda. This will include public, private and civil society, Farmer Based Organizations, Community Based Organizations, Research and Educational Institutions, COP Members, National/ Regional / Continental Network members (UFAAS, AFAAS) media, USAID and other development partners.

Registration: is by submitting a the completed registration form, either online at Eventbrite form at: https://ingenaes-uganda-symposium.eventbrite.com or a printed form from the UFAAS Focal Desk, AFAAS Secretariat, Plot 22A, Nakasero Rd, Kampala. For clarification on this contact Esther Michaala via emichaala@afaas-africa.org) or Mr. Siya Aggrey via siyaggrey@gmail.com

Input from Participants: A call for proposals together with selection criteria is available at http://http://bit.ly/2DbdnpG. Interested professionals in agricultural development are encouraged to submit proposals (Papers, stories, videos, posters etc.) completed forms by January 31, 2018 to mjones10@Illinois.edu

Side Events: These will include Group work, Share fair, Skill building workshops and an evening cocktail or Gala Dinner. Partners, participants are invited to organize side events and the outcomes of various side events shall feed into Symposium Week. Organizers of the side events will be fully responsible of the organization of their event. The side event theme/Topic should be completed and shared with the organizers prior the symposium week.

Organization and Coordination

A Local Organizing Committee (OC) has been constituted in consultation with the main partners. It will take leadership at the national level in organizing the event, supported and coordinated by UFAAS Focal Desk and INGENAES.