ALL-IN & MRR News & Events
(1) The Project:
Building Resilience among Nigerian Smallholder Farmers by Promoting Greater Access to Insurance, Financing, and Advanced Agricultural Technologies is the research project embarked upon by this team. It is a USAID-funded project under Advancing Local Leadership, Innovation and Networks (ALL-IN) Research Programme; a collaborative research grant between Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Market, Risk, & Resilience (MRR) and the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED). It is intended to build resilience among smallholder farmers through inclusive innovations; ensure capacity building of researchers and relevant stakeholders; and positively impact lives for sustainable economic development.
(2) ALL-IN Research Grant Capacity Building Workshop
The team attended a capacity building workshop between Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd September, 2021 on research grant proposal development at the Valley View University, Oyibi, Accra, Ghana. The workshop was sponsored and organized by the international centre for evaluation and development in collaboration with UC Davis through the USAID and Feed the Future Innovation Lab. The workshop aimed to provide the opportunity for all applicants to review their ALL-IN proposal with a cohort of their peers and an expert facilitator. The workshop began with peers and facilitators matching on Tuesday morning after the opening session. In the group, the researchers developed a rapport within their assigned group and that was the foundation for all subsequent activities. The groups were also responsible for reviewing their individual proposal that was accepted for funding and those rejected. The rapport helped both the facilitator of each group and the group members to strengthen their proposals and also to build the broader capacity in proposal development through hands-on workshopping of their respective work. The key topics discussed and respective speakers during the workshop are as follows:
- Developing Research Grant Proposals: Theory & Theory of Change by Prof. Michael R. Carter
- Evaluation Design: Some Essentials by Robert Darko Osei
- Proposal Components: Targeting, Sample Size selection and Power Calculation by Fred Dzanku
- Proposal Component – Scalability and Cost Effectivenessby Prof. John Kuwornu
- Proposal Component – Policy Relevance and Result Disseminationby Dr. David S. Ameyaw
Some of the pictures taken during the workshop are as follows:
Team members with other workshop participants at Valley View University, Ghana
(Prof. Ayinde – 1st from right and Dr. Omotesho – 3rd from right)
Prof. Ayinde (1st from the right) with other workshop participants