picoteam ltd

S p o t l i g h t H i s t o r y

27 April 2011
PICOTEAM supports task force to develop the Kenyan Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS)
PICOTEAM facilitates a high-level national task force to develop an Agribusiness strategy for Kenya. Building on the Vision 2030 and the Kenyan agricultural sector development strategy (ASDS), agribusiness is seen as one of the key strategies to develop the economy of the country. The task force comprises ca 20 members, half from the business community and half of ministerial staff of agric. sector ministries. The task force aims to produce the strategy, implementation framework and investment plan by August. It will comprise of analytical work, a range of consultations, a stakeholder strategic planning workshop. It is led by private sector and appointed by the interministerial coordination committee. PICOTEAM's role is to guide the process, support the task force in strategy development and conceptual development.

16 April 2011
Support of ‘Crop-Livestock Complex’ convened by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
PICOTEAM facilitated a brainstorming process on ‘Crop-Livestock Complex’ convened by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Nairobi, Kenya. The process aimed at identifying global trends that are relevant for the livestock sector, including challenges and opportunities present for R&D in the context of a ‘Green Revolution in Africa’. On the basis of identified opportunities and challenges, participants suggested a number of strategic intervention areas that will be further developed into projects and programs.

04 April 2011
On-going support to McKnight Foundation’s CCRP work in Eastern and Southern Africa
The McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program(CCRP) seeks to increase food security in developing countries. The program supports agricultural research aimed at improving food production and the nutritional content of crops important to the developing world through agricultural practices that are not compromise the agro-ecologies involved. PICOTEAM’s role (on an on-going basis since May 2009 is in facilitating conceptualization of the strategic interventions, and project implementation planning and review processes.

24 March 2011
Operational planning of the 'African Water Facility' (AWF)
PICOTEAM facilitated the strategic and operational planning of the 'African Water Facility' (AWF) which is hosted by the African Development Bank. AWF funds water projects in many African countries. The new strategic direction is aligned with the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and focuses on project development with a focus on leveraging resources, up-scaling successful ideas and knowledge management. The new strategy and implementation plan have a time frame of 5 years.

13 March 2011
PICOTEAM involved in 'Dairy Genetics in East Africa’ (DGEA)

‘Dairy Genetics in East Africa’ (DGEA) is a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) funded project which seeks to improve the livelihoods of over one milion smallholder farmers in East Africa, by supplying cattle breeds/genotypes that best suit the production levels and systems of individual farmers. PICOTEAM is working in partnership with the University of New England (UNE) in Australia, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and local and regional organizations involved in dairying to identify appropriate genetypes and to develop a private sector-driven partnership that will deliver the genotypes to farmers.

21 March 2011
FAO Conservation Agriculture Symposium
PICOTEAM facilitated the FAO Conservation Agriculture Symposium with 140 participants in Johannesburg / South Africa. The symposium showed the state of the art of Conservation Agriculture in the SADC region - an area in which PICOTEAM members have been involved since 1990. PICOTEAM was also instrumental in developing the African Conservation Tillage Network since 1998. The FAO symposium concluded that CA requires more integrated and broader approaches for scaling up of CA - in research and extension.

17 March 2011
Fifth Annual Community of Practice Meeting of McKnight Foundation
PICOTEAM member Thomas Schwedersky facilitated the fifth annual Community of Practice Meeting of the McKnight Foundation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from March 7-10. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for teams working in collaborative research projects in Burkina Faso, Mali und Niger to learn from their mutual experiences, to gain new insights and to plan jointly for making their projects reaching good impact.

07 March 2011
African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) conservation versus agriculture
PICOTEAM supported a strategy development process for the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) aimed at strengthening AWF’s engagement in the interface of conservation work with agriculture in AWF’s Heartlands. Through this strategy, AWF will focus on those interventions that have the potential of delivering significant conservation as well as livelihood outcomes linked to improved performance of agricultural commodity value chains – from production to market. This is a significant shift from the typical ‘conservation mindset‘ which views agriculture as a problem.

20 February 2011
IFAD’s Knowledge Management Initiative in Africa
PICOTEAM has continuously facilitated the different learning processes within the IFAD knowledge management initiative. In total there are 18 countries and more than 70 projects involved in learning and sharing their experience and developing their knowledge management and learning systems

03 February 2011
Supporting Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Food Agriculture and Natural Resources (FARNAR) Sustainable Forest Management and Conservation
PICOTEAM continued to support Southern Africa Development Community Food Agriculture and Natural Resources (SADC FARNAR)’s Sustainable Forest Management and Conservation activities by facilitating the third and fourth meetings of the SADC Stakeholder Forum (SF) on Forests and Forestry through the support of the GTZ/SADC Sustainable Forest Management and Conservation (AN) project.

13 January 2011
Development of a SADC regional climate change programme proposal
PICOTEAM supported the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate to develop a proposal for the development of a regional Climate Change programme. The proposal was submitted and accepted for funding by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The proposed project will facilitate the development of a Climate Change Programme (CCP) at the SADC secretariat.

18 Dezember 2010
Assessment of the Swaziland National Agricultural Extension System
PICOTEAM member Edward Chuma carried out an assessment of the Swaziland National Agricultural Extension system. The assessment was an activity of the second component of Swaziland Agricultural Development Programme (SADP) - a Government of Swaziland (GOS) programme implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) with technical support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

07 Dezember 2010
Facilitation of the IDRC CCA funded Knowledge Exchange Workshop on Participatory Action Research for urban vulnerability projects Accra, Ghana
PICOTEAM facilitated a knowledge exchange workshop on Participatory Action Research for urban vulnerability projects whose primary objective was to facilitate Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) grantees to share experiences on Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Action Research/Participatory Action Research (AR/PAR) key concepts. The rationale of the workshop was based on the recognized need to strengthen the project teams’ skills that can help them to engage communities and other stakeholders in the research process.

15 November 2010
FOOD AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES POLICY ANALYSIS NETWORK (FANRPAN) - Annual High Level Regional Policy Dialogue on Food Security
PICOTEAM members facilitated a policy dialogue workshop where 232 participants from 22 different countries assembled in Windhoek, Namibia for the 10th Annual Food Agricultural and Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) food security policy dialogue. The dialogue which was organized with the cooperation of the Namibian Economic and Policy Research Unit addressed the theme “Livestock and Fisheries Policies for Food Security and Trade in a Changing Climate”.

27 October 2010
CCAFS regional workshops in East and West Africa supported by PICOTEAM
The CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security) programme has organised multi stakeholder workshops in 2 of their 3 priority regions. Both workshops being designed and conducted by members of PICOTEAM marked important steps in setting regional agendas for research priorities and for launching a process of developing regional scenarios as a means to influence the climate change policy agenda.

12 October 2010
McKnight Foundation supported by PICOTEAM
PICOTEAM is supporting the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program in Eastern and Southern Africa through on-going review of projects and annual agenda setting processes.

28 September 2010
PICOTEAM conducting mid-term evaluation of health projects in Dominican Republic
On behalf of the Spanish NGO ANESVAD, the Dominican branch of PICOTEAM is conduction a mid-term review of health projects financed by ANESVAD. The projects focus on strengthening institutional and financial capacities of local counterpart NGOs which run health centers and hospitals providing low cost services to poor urban and rural populations in three towns of the Dominican Republic.

20 September 2010
Integration of knowledge management in IFAD-supported projects in Eastern and Southern Africa
Since July 2009, PICOTEAM together with IFAD has been designed and implemented a learning process approach to support IFAD project and programme staff to practically integrate knowledge management in their project cycle and the management systems. There are several learning workshops with groups of 4-5 countries and coaching sessions between the workshops to capacitate the country and project teams to operationalise knowledge management.

17 August 2010
PICOTEAM involved in food security initiative
PICOTEAM facilitated a FARNPAN Harmonized Seed Security Project (HASSP) common vision workshop in Benoni, South Africa on the 20-21st May 2010. HASSP is a project with an overall objective of improving food security of smallholder farmers in the SADC region by increasing their access to seeds. The purpose of this workshop was develop a shared vision of the proposed porject and to initiate planning for the implementation process in the four pilot countries, namely: Malawi, Zimbawe, Zambia and Swaziland.

21 July 2010
The Alliance for the Seed Industry in East and Southern Africa (ASIESA) is a new initiative being led by the African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA) in collaboration with COMESA. PICOTEAM facilitated a meeting with stakeholders (donors and potential implementing partners) to help AFSTA/COMESA clarify what the initiative is about - what ASIESA is, and how it proposes to tackle the challenges and harness opportunities for the seed industry - and for stakeholders to provide input in the refinement of the objectives, design and overall implementation framework for the initiative.

18 June 2010
PICOTEAM strengthens research leadership and management competencies in the National Agricultural Research Institute in Burundi
On behalf of ASARECA (Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa) PICOTEAM Ltd. has facilitated the second learning workshop on research management and leadership which took place in ISABU (Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi) from April 12-16. It followed the first learning workshop taking place in December 2009 as part of the SCARDA programm which aims to strengthen the institutional and human capacity of African agricultural research and development systems to be able to deliver effectively on their mandates – i.e. to generate research outputs that meet the needs of poor people.

24 May 2010
PICOTEAM has facilitated the SADC Regional consultation meeting on the development of a Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP). Through RAP, SADC intends to develop a legally binding instrument to stimulate sustainable agricultural development and food security in the SADC region. This RAP will also define common agreed objectives and measures to guide, promote and support actions at regional and national levels in the agricultural sector in support of regional integration and in contribution to the attainment of the SADC Customs Union and Common Market

15 May 2010
ASARECA was supported by PICOTEAM in developing leadership and management capacities
The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) has, in the last two years, moved from an implementation modality based on regional networks managed from multiple locations in the Eastern and Central Africa region to one based on technical programs facilitated from a central Secretariat in Entebbe, Uganda. This change has seen the recruitment of a number of new senior members of the management team and an overall increase in number of staff. Other change areas have included new funding modalities and partnership arrangements. These changes call for new ways of working. PICOTEAM facilitated a learning workshop on leadership and management for the ASARECA Management Team held in Jinja, Uganda, aimed at addressing leadership and management challenges that they face. PICOTEAM’s systemic approach which included the application of interactive learning methodologies, experiential learning, and self-reflection on organizational and personal situation in the work environment helped to identify leadership and management challenges and began to develop an intervention plan.

06 May 2010
PICOTEAM strengthening research leadership and management capacities in NARIs
As part of its contract to implement leadership and management capacity development in the program for Strengthening Capacity of Agricultural Research and Development in Africa (SCARDA), PICOTEAM has, during the months of January to April 2010, worked with National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) in three post-war countries – Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan – to develop and start the implementation of mentoring and coaching (M & C) program for early career professionals. The initial stages of this work involved understanding the institutional contexts of the NARIs based on material gathered from learning workshops with staff, design of the M & C framework, conduct of an M & C orientation workshop in each country and the launch of the program. The program involves developing M & C skills and facilitating senior professionals in the countries in helping early career professionals to develop in their careers – based on strategic individual development plans - in order to improve both personal and organizational capacity.

04 May 2010
PICOTEAM facilitates strategy development on plant health management
On behalf the System Wide Program on Integrated Pest Management of the CGIAR PICOTEAM facilitated an international workshop on “Plant Health Management (PHM) in a changing world – innovative pathways towards food security and food safety” taking place in Bonn, Germany from 3 to 5 March 2010. It brought together specialists from research, donor organisations, private sector and civil society from all over the world.

02 May 2010
PICOTEAM has presented two papers in the conference on ‘Adaptation to climate change’ of the Regional Agric. Innovation Network in Johannesburg in April 2010. We shared experience in adaptation work at community, service provider and policy maker level.

23 April 2010
PICOTEAM has supported the facilitation of the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD). This conference brought together more than 1,000 professionals in the research for development scene in Montpellier in April 2010.

18 April 2010
PICOTEAM, in collaboration with Milango, facilitated the Staff Retreat of the Secretariat of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Regions (ICGLRs) held in Giteka, Burundi, in January 2010. The main purpose of the meeting was to review and reflect on role, strategy, and structure of the Secretariat as informed by the external environment and the needs of relevant actors. Some of the key outputs are a global strategy defined jointly with the national coordinators, the roadmap for 2010 as well as capacity development areas and joint learning of the Secretariat and the national coordination mechanism of the ICGLRs.

15 April 2010
PICOTEAM facilitates REDD readiness
PICOTEAM facilitated a SDAC regional workshop on Climate Change / REDD Readiness in Arusha in April 2010. A regional programme on REDD Readiness was developed which should enable the SADC countries to develop their capacity to utilize the REDD opportunities. This was the second REDD meeting in SADC which PICOTEAM supported.

12 April 2010
PICOTEAM supports Knowledge Management in IFAD projects and programmes
PICOTEAM has been involved in a leading role in INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN IFAD-SUPPORTED PROJECTS since October 2009. IFAD developed a KM strategy in 2007 and has now started a process to support projects in operationalising KM in practice in Eastern and Southern Africa. PICOTEAM has designed a learning process approach where groups of countries/projects engage in several learning workshops over a year and are supported through coaching and mentoring between the workshops to put KM into their practice. The key outputs of this action learning / research process is the KM capacity and processes within the projects and country programmes and a ‘Guide to integrate KM into IFAD-supported Projects’ which will be developed in an experiential concept development mode, based on the practical experiences. So far, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Madagascar, Zambia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda are part of the initiative but all the remaining countries in ESA region will be participating

7 April 2010
The NEPAD-CAADP (Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme) has recently published the ‘Guide to Implement CAADP Country Processes’ (www.caadp.net) of which PICOTEAM was a key facilitator, architect and author in developing the conceptual base and operational details to manage the policy processes at country level.

17 March 2010
PICOTEAM has supported ASARECA (Assoc. for strengthening Agric Research in East and Central Africa) in developing the strategy of their Partnership and Capacity Development Unit. The strategy was endorsed by the board in November 2009 and will now be operationalised.

12 March 2010
PICOTEAM has been involved in the operationalisation of the CGIAR Challenge Programme on Climate Change and Food Security. This programme is an interesting partnership between CGIAR and the global change research community. We have been supporting the development and operationalisation process since March 2010.

01 March 2010
PICOTEAM supportes NEPAD's Change Process
PICOTEAM has been involved in facilitating and guiding NEPAD’s CHANGE PROCESS since July 2009. Besides a new strategy, the process focused on a new structure and organisational systems. NEPAD was now accepted as an agency of AU: the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Authority.

25 February 2010
PICOTEAM has guided the STRATEGIC PLANNING OF ICRISAT
PICOTEAM facilitated a process design in July 2009 which was now implemented with PICO’s facilitation through 3 regional workshops and an expert consultation in January/ February 2010. The write up is on the way.

11 February 2010
The NEPAD ‘Capacity Development Strategic Framework’ (CDSF) in whose development from 2006-2008 PICOTEAM has been a co-architect and co-author, has been adopted by the African Heads of States as a framework for capacity development in Africa in a recent meeting of the African Union in February 2010. The CDSF focuses strongly on African transformation – from the leadership side and the citizenship side.

02 February 2010
PICOTEAM has been involved in facilitation of the CGIAR CHANGE PROCESS - in a major meeting of all the Director Generals of the CGIAR Centers which aimed at coming up with the MEGA-PROGRAMME portfolio in February 2010.

16 December 2009
PICOTEAM has been involved in supporting the management and organisational development of the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique in OD and strategy development since October 2008. Recently we had another review and learning workshop in Maputo (Dec 2009).

05 December 2009
PICOTEAM supported the UN-REDD Programme (Climate Change) in developing their strategy in Rome in November 2009. The UN-REDD programme is a joint effort of FAO, UNEP and UNDP.

22 November 2009
PICOTEAM facilitated a lesson learning and synthesis workshop of the Global Water Partnership in Johannesburg in November 2009. The workshop drew exciting lessons from 5 years of experience of the GWP in trying to change national water laws and approaches to Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).

03 November 2009
PICOTEAM supported the CGIAR Institutional Learning & Change (ILAC) Project in facilitating their Learning Laboratory. The topic of the meeting in October 2009 was on Partnerships.

21 October 2009
PICOTEAM facilitating AU-IBAR Strategic Planning Process
The African Union – Inter-African Bureau on Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) has contracted PICOTEAM to lead its five-year (2010-2015) Strategic Planning process. In this role PICOTEAM is providing both organizational development expertise critical for visioning, goal-setting and development of systems for effective implementation, as well as technical skills in animal sciences. The key approaches being applied in identifying strategic priorities are:
•    Deductive approaches (based on analysis of trends);
•    Historical approaches (based on IBAR’s current and evolving portfolio as well as priories of key stakeholders, including donors) and
•    Inductive approaches (based on AU-IBAR staff supply-side priorities and opinions of strategically selected experts).
The process is entirely owned by IBAR staff and the organization’s key stakeholders, PICO staff is playing the role supporting role on process and strategic content areas. In-house mini-workshops and meetings with stakeholders facilitated by PICOTEAM have underpinned the data/information gathering and consolidation process. The Strategic Planning process is currently being concluded, with implementation of the resulting Plan expected to start in earnest in January 2010.

13 October 2009
PICOTEAM strengthens research leadership and management competencies of NARIs in East and Central Africa
PICOTEAM Ltd. has been contracted by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA) to implement a project (SCARDA) which aims to strengthen the institutional and human capacity of African agricultural research and development systems to be able to deliver effectively on their mandates – i.e. to generate research outputs that meet the needs of poor people.
PICO is facilitating leadership and management competence development processes, including the development of mentorship in three focal institutions, i.e. Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) in Sudan, Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU) and Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR).

01 October 2009
New flyer on PICO Key Concept
The new flyer on PICO's key concept 'Systemic Competence Development' is available on our webiste as pdf file. The flyer describes an innovative approach on how to develop the facilitation capacity to manage systemic change and performance enhancement of R&D professionals http://www.picoteam.org/pdf1/SCDfinal.pdf.

23 September 2009
Mid-Term Evaluation of GEF/UNDP Project
PICOTEAM member Henning Peter has carried out as team leader the mid-term evaluation of the GEF/UNDP project 'Demonstrating Sustainable Land Use Practices in the Upper Sabana Yegua Watershed System' in the Dominican Republic.
The project aims at changing land-use patterns of smallholder farmers and ranchers and provide new and additional income opportunities. A strong focus is also on developing and applying of innovative mechanisms of payment schemes for environmental services.

17 September 2009
PICOTEAM supports the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) Programme in Participatory Action Research
PICO is currently engaged by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to support Researchers on the application of Participatory Action Research / Action Research (PAR/AR) on the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) programme as part of a mentoring team composed of experienced PAR/AR practitioners from Zimbabwe, Senegal, Cameroon, Algeria and Indonesia. The mentoring team has put together a PAR/AR reference guide that focuses on the application of PAR/AR on climate change adaptation in Africa. The reference guide borrowed heavily on PICOTEAM members’ experiences in the development of PAR/AR concepts under the African Highlands Initiative (AHI).

28 August 2009
PICOTEAM supports Organizational Development and strategic planning of Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) Housing partners in Zimbabwe
PICOTEAM members Edward Chuma and Dr. Jürgen Hagmann has been supporting the Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) Housing partners in Zimbabwe through a process of Organizational Development and strategic planning. SCC `s housing partners - The Housing People of Zimbabwe (HPZ) and Zimbabwe Association of Housing Cooperatives ZINAHCO were facilitated through a process of self-assessment, identification of vision, mission, core products and values. Each of the two organizations managed to develop a strategic plan and business plans for a three year period, reviewed their constitutions and reorganized their governing bodies to be more democratic and responsive to the members needs.