Coaching and Co-creation with Africa Agriculture Extension Network

In response to an AIRTEA  (EU) competitive call for proposals, Ag-connectors provided technical support and facilitated a proposal development process for AFAAS . The AIRTEA grant’s goal was to improve incomes and livelihoods through multistakeholder platforms. 

The grant targeted East Africa and was designed to increase the involvement of women and youth in research and innovation. 

AFAAS’ country forums from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda were engaged in the proposal development. The process had four phases, i.e. initiation, ideation, writeup and submission. The initiation process generated the interests of key actors within AFAAS’ Secretariat and country forums.  This was followed by sessions to recognize the call’s objectives. To insure proposal viability and project sustainability, shared objectives of AFAAS and its country forums were matched with the call’s goals. 

The second phase was ideation: sessions devoted to sharing knowledge and experiences relevant to the call as well as identifying gaps in AFAAS’ collective agricultural advisory services for farming communities. 

Phase three gathered evidence and provided context on the potental impact for target beneficiaries as well as the overall project value to communities. Phase 3 also included deriving budgets and confirming that costs and timeframes were realistic. To ensure accountability and finalize the proposal consortiu, the final submission phase entailed a review of administration capacity and legal status of each partner. 

The final winning proposal was designed to coach women and youth by strengthening their capacities to utilize digital platforms and tools and build businesses in providing agricultural extension and advisory services.