Policy and Institutional Support. This sub- component’s activities will support efforts to create a conducive policy and institutional environment for private sector-led smallholder agriculture transformation in Zimbabwe. Based on the accumulated knowledge and information products from SACP implementation, policy dialogue and other discussion forums and events will be organised, aiming particularly at the development of action-oriented plans to support the diversification and commercialisation of smallholder agriculture.
Policy and Institutional Support. (i) Assisting MOH and RDA in policy and institutional capacity building;
Policy and Institutional Support. 1. Strengthening the policy, legal, and regulatory environment for the growth of ICT through : the carrying out of assessments of the policy, legal and regulatory constraints to the development of the ICT sector in the territory of the Borrower, including the determination of options available for the development of a sustainable infrastructure for data exchange in the context of the Borrower’s decentralization program of public administration activities to woredas; the elaboration of well defined locally adapted ICT standards and data security standards and procedures; and the organization of training programs in the use and management of new communication and data exchange technologies, including internet, internet protocol based networks and wireless communications.
Policy and Institutional Support. Following from reflections on excellence in support and facilitation, some partners noted that because the administrative demands from the EC are so high, the focus of the project meetings is dominated by them – coordination of partners to try to fulfil these demands. This has meant that limited focus was given to discussing important aspect of actually doing the project and what it means to do it successfully. It has also meant that partners are left feeling disconnected from each other and “undervalued and underappreciated” for the engagement work they have done. Specifically, partners note that using consortium meetings (both calls and face-to- face) to discuss administrative tasks and placing them as the first points on the agenda “drains any enthusiasm and inspiration that could be used to share experiences” amongst facilitators and learn from one another. A main lesson learnt on the side of institutional support – especially for coordinators and partners in EC projects is to separate discussions on administrative work from delivery work and to design projects with dedicated spaces for exchange and sharing between partners. This should be combined with workshops early on in the project on how to fulfil administrative paperwork such as interim reports and create a joint plan to not only gather the necessary information but also make it useful to discuss project delivery and avoid it becoming burdensome. A unique aspect of DITOs that partners highlight is that while several of them felt lonely and/or with limited support within their own organisations, they felt inspired and greatly supported by consortium partners: "I might have felt lonely at my organisation but found support and care in DITOs partners". With regard to policy support, partners note that they had limited impact and that their efforts were mostly “about raising awareness telling different policy makers about citizen science and what it is about”. For one particular partner, people who attended their workshop then became involved in city council. They note “we invited different kinds of people to our activities so it might be coincidence and I think we had many people attending who wanted to take action already – move toward being city councillors or vice mayors; they had motives already and maybe having come to our events was one of these”. Partners advice is to recognise that policy engagement is going to be a long process and that “it will not happen in a year or two or because you ha...
