International PRA Training Workshop

The Ninth International PRA Training Workshop was held at Hydrabad, in Andhra Pradesh State in India from September 18-29, 2005. A total of 109 participants from 20 countries attended in the workshop. GNAEP's Aquaculture Officers Mahbubul Islam, A.K.M Nasir Uddin and Mizanur Rahman were also nominated for the program. PRAXIS Institute for Participatory Practices, based in Delhi, organized the course. The course objective was to explore the principles, approaches and tools of participatory methodologies, discover the latest innovations developed by the practitioners worldwide and to provide invaluable hands-on opportunities through   field   work   in   villages  and  urban  slums.

The whole programme was divided into four modules. GNAEP's Aquaculture Officers received training on three different modules. Upon returning they shared their experience through a workshop and expressed their hope that they will be able to use these learning in CBO development, fish farming   group   formation,   field   workers   training, participatory programme design, poverty identification, programme implementation and effective evaluation.

RDM Received Danida Fellowship

GNAEP's Resource Development Manager Masud Rana participated in a Danida fellowship-training course on Institutional and Human Resource Development (IHRD) at Copenhagen, Denmark from August 29 to November 18, 2005.

The Danish consulting company Copenhagen Development Consulting A/S organized  and  managed the course for senior project  managers  of  developing countries. A total of 20 development managers from 8 countries participated  in  the  course of  when  6  were from Bangladesh. The main objectives  of  the  course were to enable the participants to plan, implement and evaluate institutional and human resource development activities considering the strategy of the organization, the relations between organizational structure and job tasks and the relations between job profiles and personnel profiles. The course comprised five sections:  Context Analysis; Organizational Analysis; HRD Analysis; ID/HRD Intervention Design; and Application of the Course Content. In order to  ensure  the relevance of the course to their projects, participants prepared and presented an Individual Implementation Assignment relevant to their organization. In this respect Rana prepared a project on "Strengthening Community-based Organizations (CBO) for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Greater Noakhali Region".

Study Tour on Agribusiness Development and Management

Tarique Akbar and Nazrul Islam, Aquaculture Coordinators of GNAEP, attended an International study visit cum seminar on Rural Agribusiness Development and Management, organized by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand from November 21 to December 2, 2005. A total of 12 participants from 3 countries took part in the visit.

The program was designed to expose the participants to various types of agribusiness that can be develop in rural communities and make critical analysis on their development and management thus gaining a wider perspective for initiating similar programs in their own countries. During the tour participants learned strategies and approaches adopted by the Thai government and private sector to initiate and promote small and medium scale agribusinesses. The participants visited and observed central markets and various types   of  small  and  medium  agribusinesses managed by individuals and farmer groups, discussed how they started the business, the problems encountered and how they had been solved; they also learned how they organized themselves and created bargaining power in agribusiness transaction. The participants also met with the government officials, traders and farmers to  discuss  and  exchange views on agribusiness initiation, marketing, management and support from the government to serve farmers needs. On return Messrs. Akbar and Nazrul hope to enhance the dimension of GNAEP's private sector development initiatives using their new experiences.

Assistant Director completes Fellowship

During the period October 3 to November 25, 2005, the Assistant Director of GNAEP, Kazi Iqbal Azam, attended an International Training course on Conflict Management with the assistance of a Danida fellowship. The course  was  held  at  the  Danish  Red Cross Center in Copenhagen. The purpose of the course was to build the competence of the participants to address the challenges  of  dealing  with  conflict  within and among organizations and promoting constructive conflict management in local communities.

Major topics elaborately discussed in the course were the causes of different types of   conflict and methods of effective conflict resolution. After returning to the project, Mr. Iqbal shared his key learning with the colleagues and mentioned that i) unclarity of roles is the main cause of conflict all over the world, ii) conflict should not be suppressed or solved under the table and iii) sharing among the parties is the best way of conflict resolution.