IFAD social reporting blog

This afternoon we came together for the 2011 staff award ceremony.

IFAD staff awards is very special. What makes it different from other awards and recognitions is the fact that its an award for staff by staff.

Every year we have the opportunity to nominate and reward our colleagues and peer for their leadership, for being agents of change, for spearheading and contributing to an outstanding project and/or activity.

And this year, we had the opportunity to honour 27 extraordinary colleagues!


Our lovely colleague Shyam Khadka got the award in the leadership category. The award paid tribute to Shyam’s eloquent and consistent leadership, to his role as the “programme management department anchor” for all major corporate evaluations including direct supervision and country presence. Shyam was recognized for his strong negotiating skills, ability to constructively engagement with others, his tact, his relentless focus on achieve the best possible results. Shyam is not only a leader, but a mentor and a role model for many of us. This year's award for leadership could not have gone to anyone better than Shyam!


In a true team spirit and to celebrate cross-departmental and cross-divisional work - the embodiment of breaking down silos - two teams got the awards in the outstanding project/initiative category.

Shamela Brown, Victoria Chiartano, Paola de Leva and Amedeo Paglione were awarded for having conceived, planned, developed and implemented the Member States Interactive Platform. The award recognized the hard work that went into turning this initiative into reality. They were acknowledged for their vision, commitment, for coming together from different parts of the house, to provide IFAD with a better way to effectively communicate with our donors.

The other team is one known to the readers of IFAD Social Reporting blog - the team who worked behind the scenes to make the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair possible. This team that was instrumental in opening IFAD's doors to 700 participants from 60 countries in September 2011. Thanks to the exemplary teamwork of Alessio Accardi, Christian Assogba, Fabio Caruso, Jean Philippe Decraene, Christian De Santis, Roberto De Tora, Severino Manuel, Roberto Montalto, Dave Nolan, Birgit Plockinger, Roberto Rea, Beate Stalsett, Elisabetta Vaccari and Florence Yu,  IFAD was able to orchestrate an “out-of-the-box” and successful event. They are indeed a dream team, a true testament of "IFAD at its best" and  sterling example of team work within and between divisions, one that cuts through divisional and departmental silos, and gives true definition to the word team.

We finished by celebrating three extraordinary colleagues and our GoGreenGroup as agents of change.


Rahel Getachew was rewarded for consistently showing relentless commitment to excellence and for always going the extra mile. Rahel was recognized for enhancing IFAD’s image, both internally and externally, she was recognized as being the embodiment of the true professional, tirelessly gracious and tenaciously supportive even when under the most intense of pressure.  The award paid tribute to her many wonderful attributes which are appreciated by all levels of staff and stakeholders, and reinforces the recognition of all the hard work done by Rahel,  that is not always visible but that is the foundation of the organization's internal strength.


Hubert Boirard  was recognized for his outstanding performance in managing the challenging country portfolio of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Everyone recognized his efforts in transforming Sierra Leone portfolio into  high performing and disbursing one. He was commended for implementing an innovative project management unit as an integral part of the Ministry of Agriculture in Liberia.  Thanks to Hubert's work,  the World Bank and African Development Bank decided this year to  assign their programmes to be managed by this project management unit. The award recognized Hubert’s abilities and skills of innovator and change agent  delivering tangible results that turned around the performance of the country  portfolios in Sierra Leone and Liberia.


Dina Nabeel, who unfortunately was not present, was recognized for her initiatives to drive and support the changes that facilitated and allowed IFAD to successfully take over the responsibility of supervising  its projects. Her work was instrumental in building staff capacity at headquarters and in the field to handle fiduciary aspects associated with supervision and implementation support. This award recognized Dina’s ability as a change agent that supports and motivate peers to deliver important changes in the way we work which has led to tangible improvements  of project results on the ground.

We paid tribute to the IFAD Go Green Group, composed of  Moses Abukari, Hazel Bedford, Miriam Blanco, Steven Jonckheere and Sabine Pallas for their outstanding contribution in promoting a green and environmental friendly attitude at corporate level. The Go Green Group was established as small group of volunteers in August 2008, following the Secretary-General’s request to launch a UN initiative to reduce energy consumption and the carbon footprint of the United Nations Headquarters. The group has had its share of challenges, as initially it was met with some scepticism. However, their  passion and tenacity has inspired many colleagues to the point where IFAD is now working together with other UN agencies in the Sustainable UN network to become climate neutral by putting in place systems to reduce IFAD’s environmental impact (Greening the Blue Initiative).


We all look forward to 2012 edition of IFAD staff award, which will definitely pay tribute to many more colleagues. And before I sign-off, congratulations to Ron Hartman for receiving the Presidential award. We all thank Ron for his great work in re-engaging with Australia. And happy holidays to all our readers. May 2012 be a peaceful and prosperous year for you all.

Women fixing the squeezer to drain water from the grated cassava at the Milenovisi Gari Processing factory

by Philomena  Dovi Kuzoe

Eastern Region, Ghana- A team from the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD in Rome was in Ghana for a four day working visit to attend the Country Programme Evaluation round table and the start-up workshop for the new Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes.  The team, together with the CPM and Officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture made a field visit to IFAD’s project sites in the Eastern region of Ghana This is to enable them have first-hand information on projects.. In all, the team visited four project sites. First, the team met with the Fanteakwa District Chief Executive, the Coordinating Director of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and other project staff and clients. They discussed the implementation and activities of the Rural Enterprises Project as well as the district assembly’s effort to maintain and sustain the project.  The District Offices operate the Business Advisory Centers initiated by the Rural Enterprises Project and these centers have become a model for national MSE policy in the country.

From Fanteakwa, the team moved to a local soap-making factory at Otuater.   A small group made up of only 17 women and one man, the group has become the leading soap supplier in the district and beyond. At the factory the women were seen busily cutting, branding and packaging their soap.   The Rural Enterprise Project, REP spotted this group during an exhibition and trade fair.  According to the group, being in touch with REP has transformed their operations; they now make good sales, have created market linkages and also learnt new technologies and skills.  They also support their husbands and are able to send their children to school. The District Chief Executive Officer promised the women a car to enable  them transport their products to the market especially on market-days when the soap is in high demand.

The IOE team and officials of the South Akim Rural Bank

The team moved from this point to Nankese, a cocoa farming community where the 2009 best rural bank, the South Akyim Rural Bank is headquartered. The bank was ranked the 20th on the Ghana Club 100 list in 2010.  It enrolled as a participating Financial Institution of REP II in 2006 to deliver financial services to target micro and small enterprises in the district. According to the officials of the bank the establishment of the Business Advisory Centers, (BAC) has been very beneficial and the bank has collaborated effectively with the center to support project clients to establish their businesses. However it was noted that despite the bank’s large clientele, only three people applied for a matching grant which is provided by REP.  Rural banks in the country lend to the rural clients but usually not for agricultural activities and 73 per cent of staff of these banks perceived agricultural lending to be riskier than other lending types.   But at the South Akyim Rural Bank, 70 per cent of its clients are agro-processors making it agriculture-friendly.


The last point of call was the Milenovisi gari processing factory at Korkormu. The facility at the centre has been upgraded to a Good Practices Center. The group is also a good example of the value chain concept with 106 actors including farmers, traders, transporters and fabricators. We couldn’t have concluded the trip without visiting a gari processing factory.

Gari is one form of processed cassava and is eaten all over the country making it a marketable commodity. It is vital to reducing post-harvest food losses and increases food availability in Ghana. Gari, if stored properly can last for a year without going bad. Through REP//RTIMP the gari processing center has recorded tremendous success.

It was an exciting field trip seeing how much small scale business are improving the lives of the rural poor and contributing to the development of the country through project implementation. As we journeyed back to Accra, I was wondering whether these laudable projects could be sustained and maintained in view of the weak marketing opportunities.

by Willem Bettink

Weeks after the closing of the Sharefair a large group of organizers, facilitators, volunteers, and presenters came together to do an After Action review(AAR). The AAR is a excellent knowledge sharing method to assess how things went: an event , a mission or a meeting. It allows you to benefit from the collective perspectives , experiences and learning of organizing and participating in a particular event .

The AAR for the Global Share fair was centred around a number  of questions to collect people’s feedback. For example we asked:  “What worked  well and why?”; “What could have been done differently or better?”; “What surprised you ?”; and finally “What  advice do you have for future share fair organizers”.

All expressed with enthusiasm that the Share fair was  a great event given  its spread, depth and diversity offered in the 9  themes resulting in more than 130 sessions. As one participant said: “The buzz in and around the IFAD building was very inspiring –I wish it could be like this always !!”

There was some very exciting and interesting stuff presented ranging from the numerous training sessions on knowledge methods, to more substantive topics such as “ how to  extract fertilizer from marble dust”, how to improve  working of a Community of Practice to  three very inspiring and out of the box key note  addresses  by Etienne Wenger, Rob Burnett and Mark Davies

People liked the market fair lay out with the tent and the bigger and smaller meeting rooms –best if they were emptied of meeting tables. The graphics and communication gave a very colourful and exciting ‘feel ‘ and transformed the IFAD building into a big open and creative and stimulating place.

Alas only 4 daily issues were possible of the Daily Corriere- after which it had to close ….. and the Chief Editor is looking for a new challenge…  

The social media coverage of the Global Share fair was very good: from the thousands of tweets to introducing the live twitter wall , live webcasting of key note addresses and thematic sessions, over 50 blogs of sessions and multiple video interviews and tons of pictures. All of this social reporting material helped and added value to the event for those who could not attend it in person and enabled writing of parts this publication.

In short it seems that the Second Global Agriknowledge Share fair was a big success. But was there anything that did not go well or could have been done differently or better? Yes  …there  was  quite a lot that AAR participants came up with as could have been better or could be improved:

• The format and lay out of call for proposal, to be filled out and submitted by those who wished to present /share their story, was not done very well. It obliged the organizers to send out a second form to obtain a better focus by asking participants what would be the three take away messages ; and how they wished to organize their  session and if they had any special requirements. In all this need to be changed for a future global share fair.

• The registration process resulted in more than 700 participants over the 4 days. Doing the registration felt like a steep learning curve- from no previous experience, finding and losing our ways through the hundreds of emails, to becoming registration experts by the end of the fair. A lot to be improved here – from earlier responses needed to whom requested financing, to the visa registration process. A software application may help in making it less burdensome on the eyes and sleep of the human actor….

• While people enjoyed the luxury choice from 130 sessions, it was felt there were far too many  parallel sessions- consider quality versus quantity. Often one could not attend 1st choice due to the parallel nature. As one consequence several sessions  had very few participants due to competing sessions. In future organizers should aim at a reduced number of sessions, thus allowing participants to go to more session and their preferred choices. Second one could try to  join into one session similar topics e.g.  a chat show as was done with social media , private sector and agricultural research.

• The  social reporting team should have been led by dedicated person(s) and set –up earlier e.g.  a month before the event in conjunction with draft programme. This would enable better planning of full coverage of session, seeking out needed skills in the social reporting team and build-up momentum and sharing of ideas amongst the team members. Do not ask facilitators to be at the same time social reporters-it proofed to be hard to focus on facilitation and collecting information for a blog afterwards- quality of one or both may suffer!

• Quality of content, presentation and chosen interaction during of sessions could be improved. First of all the facilitators of each session were identified and informed far too late, not allowing them enough time to interact and prepare with session presenters. Lack of clarity on  knowledge sharing methods by presenters hampered inter-active nature of  sessions. Finally consider better approach to determine the quality and richness of content at an early stage of submission for programme.

• The training day was hugely successful and did not build further through the program. Next time have training opportunities woven across the four days.

• An experiment tested at the KM4Dev face-to face meeting is that during the last day of a future Share fair, you ask people to spend 15 minutes to write a commitment to action. These commitment are then shared at the marketplace of commitments , so that people may find out what they can do together, harvest commitment to actions , and follow up 3-6 months to asseds what happened.

The above reflections, feedback and suggestions are just a selection of the wealth of insights harvested during the AAR sessions. We are going to solicit feedback from all 700 participants through a short electronic survey in early 2012. The aim is to assess what has been the impact of the Global Share fair on people’s  behaviour, old and new work practices, and  personal and professional networks.  And in looking ahead we will ask you for new  ideas, suggestions, or wishes you may have for any future share fair.

Prizes allocated for winners name the many benefits for farmers and wider communities if agriculture is included: Improved Food Security, Lasting Poverty Reduction, Enhanced Biodiversity, Reduced GHG Emissions, More trees, More Resilient Livelihoods.