The year 2020 was devoted to the design of the evaluation methodology by the scientific consortium (composed of members of IRD, CIRAD and Montpellier SupAgro) and to the characterisation of some fifty agroecological initiatives in the seven partner countries. 2021 will be dedicated to the in-depth evaluation of two agroecological initiatives per country.
Four days, eight countries, three languages, 78 participants (28 women), including members of seven NGO partners, their associated scientists, funders, the CARI coordination team, four interpreters and one objective: to appropriate the evaluating agroecological initiatives approach developed within the framework of the Avaclim project. Here is the menu of the international scientific workshop that took place online from 2 to 5 February 2021.
The international scientific workshop was an opportunity to present, during the plenary sessions, the step-by-step evaluation prototype. During specific country sessions, the participants discussed the tools for characterising an initiative and its level of agroecological transition, they also pre-selected two initiatives to be evaluated, and made sure that the process of adapting the prototype to different contexts was well understood so that it could be continued by partner NGOs, associated researchers, trainees and actors of agroecological initiatives.
Presently, the initiatives that have been pre-identified for evaluation are as follows:
The significant time differences, the different languages used by the partners, the different qualities of connections and sounds, and the facilitation of a large number of participants remotly are all organisational challenges that the Avaclim coordination team had to face. In order to meet the challenges related to the common understanding on the content, two referees were assigned per country during the working groups, one from the consortium of scientists and one from the Avaclim coordination team. This facilitated the framing of the debates and the restitution of the exchanges. The animations proposed by the Avaclim team and the Brazilian partner CAATINGA, , such as the Lison tree, a dance tutorial or a debate on the decisions taken during the management of the health crisis, brought the participants closer together, integrated them into the group dynamics and allowed them to rest between two reflection sessions.
On the whole, the four days workshop went very well: the very rich exchanges allowed the partners to reach a better understanding of the general structure of the prototype. Satisfaction surveys show that the participants appreciated the organisation of this workshop. In terms of content, the workshop was rich: a lot of information was provided and specific additional time was taken to prepare the implementation of the evaluation
National meetings will be organised to facilitate the work of adapting the prototype to national specificities. At the same time, local partners and trainees will be trained in the use of the evaluation methodology and the final selection of the two initiatives to be evaluated will be made.
"This meeting met my expectations. Many of my concerns were taken into account during the plenary debates." Nessan Barro from Burkina Faso
"GBS express our gratitude to the AVACLIM team for your support extended to Indian team for successfully presenting our views, opinions and ideas. We look forward for the successful implementation." Kusum Lata Jain from India