Three members of OSIEPE just completed a training course on governance for dairy cooperatives in Kisumu. The workshop which was organised by Heifer International, a partners in the ILRI coordinated AVCD project brought together 35 participants from different dairy cooperatives and CBOs like OSIEPE from Kisumu, Busia, Migori, Siaya and Homa Bay Counties. The three (Mr Bildad Ogala, Mrs Florence Owuor and Mr. Otogo) have since reported to the group executive. The main objective of the training (held in Kisumu: 12th -16th September 2016) was to enhance the principles of Good Governance in management of the cooperatives and to ensure transparency, accountability, risk management and control and also to enable the cooperatives operate as profitable and sustainable business hubs. The lessons learnt and new governance and leadership ideas will tapped for use in advancing OSIEPE course. They will debrief all members within their nucleus and a meeting is organised to generate actions plans for implementing relevant ideas in OSIEPE Governance Pillar through further training. OSIEPE is grateful to Heifer International for this partnership and remains committed to further collaboration.
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OSIEPE Dairy value chain development program, part of the “Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security Pillar” just got a boost. The construction of 13 crush pens distributed across the wider Muhoroni sub-County is complete according to plan. This is the first step in the implementation of the joint partnership between OSIEPE Practical Action and ILRI AVCD project, the County Government and other partners. The mapping of the crushes are as followings:
OSIEPE dairy value chain task team has, with the help of the youth wing (OSIEPE Yes!) mapped the location of the pens on a Google Map. This is part of the group’s strategy to involve the youth in making agriculture “cool”. The crushes are now ready for use in providing opportunities to smallholders by promoting accelerated breeding through fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI). The FTAI intervention is part of the Feed the Future Funded AVCD project aimed at overcoming barriers to farmers’ entry into the dairy value chain by providing them with a cheap way to upgrade their dairy animals. FTAI technology involves synchronizing the reproductive cycles of clusters of animals through hormone therapy followed by mass insemination. By targeting a large number of animals for oestrus synchronization, particularly cows of indigenous breeds, the technology ensures that large sets of households adopt improved dairy cows and enter the lucrative dairy value chain. This will certainly build a critical mass of animal insemination service providers
OSIEPE will use geostatistical tools to monitor the progress and outcomes of the project. With this project OSIEPE aims to be a pro-active player in the dairy development innovation platform for Kisumu County and lead the expansion of the dairy business hub in Muhoroni sub-County. As part of this partnership, a section of OSIEPE PA members have been nominated to attend a Peer Farmer Trainers (PFT) course in Kisumu starting 19th – 23rd September 2016 facilitated by Heifer International. Plans are underway to forge ahead with partnerships with major OSIEPE investments in an Agro-vet facility, milk distribution/marketing system (with strong youth involvement) and a mega milk chilling plant. OSIEPE Practical Action has declared the dividends to be paid to members based on individual member’s shares as of December 31st 2015. The dividends schedule was released by the executive at the September Monthly meeting. Members have a choice to capitalise their shares or donate a portion towards the on-going office construction work. At the last quarterly meeting members also resolved that each one should contribute a minimum KShs 2,000.00 from the dividends towards the upcoming fund-raising project for the development of the group headquarters (OSIEPE Legacy Hub at Awasi). The net distributable dividend is KShs 475,480. See below the distribution of the declared dividend by nucleus. Implementation of the partnership between OSIEPE Practical Action and ILRI’s AVCD project is on course. OSIEPE is proud to be part of the project which has opened more opportunities for other communities, governments and private sector actors to learn from “our unique model of transformation”. This project is already giving the organization prominence in Kenya and wide visibility globally.
At the Just Concluded African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Nairobi Officiated by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and attended by 5 other African presidents and heads of State and Government, a session on “transforming dairy value chains in Africa: Pathways to prosperity” was conducted on 8 September 2016. At the session the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners held a dialogue on progress and lessons. The model of working with local community based organizations such as OSIEPE was discussed and seen as a promising approach to reaching more smallholder dairy farmers with high-tech dairying approaches. OSIEPE, using its model of collective action for transformation is keen to further the promising approaches to help its members and thousands of other smallholder dairy farmers in Kisumu County and other value chain actors become more prosperous. Lessons that will be learned from dairy value chain transformation and productivity improvement that can be shared across Africa and beyond. On the ground work has begun on construction of crushes to be located at different strategic locations in Muhoroni sub-County of Kisumu County. Three members of OSIEPE are joining other farmers for a training workshop of Dairy Cooperatives committees and Producer organizations on good governance and business skills (Turning hubs into successful and sustainable business entities). The training is taking place at the Royal City Hotel Kisumu from 12Th to 16Th September, 2016. OSIEPE is joining other participants from diary cooperatives across the wider Nyanza region.
The workshop, organized by Heifer International, a partner in the ILRI coordinated AVCD project is intended to address governance issues hindering the development and operationalization of the cooperatives as business hubs. The main objective of the training is to enhance the principles of Good Governance in management of the cooperatives and to ensure transparency, accountability, risk management and control and also to enable the cooperatives operate as profitable and sustainable business hubs with several services such as A.I and agro input stores. The specific objectives are to:
While OSPIEPE has been undertaking internal capacity building including training and institutional strengthening led by the patron Dr Washington Ochola on a wide array of topics including transformative leadership, entrepreneurship, conflict management, governance, advanced leadership, strategic thinking, organizational health, risk management, monitoring and evaluation, value chain development and innovations, we value this training as it gives our members a unique opportunity to learn more and share our proven model for transformative development. The three members of OSIEPE Practical action attending the workshop have been identified, notified, briefed on logistics and given templates for capturing lessons and reporting back to the group. After training, the team will organize an organization-wide training to share the workshop lessons and to put into practice, a roadmap to implement key actions and decisions. A comparative analysis of the second quarterly share contribution by members of OSPIEPE practical action CBO once again surpassed targets. At the recently held (27th August 2016) 2nd quarterly meeting, the chairman’s report revealed a positive deviation from targets and 1st quarter results posted according to the audited financial reports.
The quarterly household level monitoring and technical support to OSIEPE Practical Action Members was conducted by the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Committee (MEAL). The report was shared to action planning at the 2nd Quarterly Meeting and is shared below in Photos.
The MEAL committee was formed with to oversee a participatory and learning based tracking and assessment of change that OSIEPE members are making as individuals, as a group, in their households and in society As part of quality of life improve and overall socio-economic transformation. The monitoring is based on OSIEPE Theory of Change (see link at: osiepepa.weebly.com/our-results.html) and is aligned to each pillar. The MEAL committee also works in liaison with various organs of the CBO and local County authorities so as to offer advice on how to better the various projects that members have initiated for more learning. All-in-all the exercise established that a lot of progress has been made on poultry farming, dairy, small livestock (shoats), horticulture and fish farming. Members are also investing in various agribusiness value chains, small enterprises and they continue to invest in education of their children. The outcomes of massive capacity building and economic empowerment are steadily growing and members are focused to realize sustainable change. |
AuthorOSIEPE Practical Action - CBO Archives
April 2019
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