Project News

The organizational strengthening of farmer groups is another important, central activity of our Project and we have been strengthening the groups through OJT activities and other training sessions. The C/P are able to plan and implement training sessions and workshops by themselves. However, there has not been a clear long-term perspective to these activities for group strengthening and the selection of training issues has not been done systematically. Therefore, we decided that now, after two and a half years of Project implementation and the accumulation of experience in many activities, was the right moment for providing technical transfer in this area.

To begin, a 3-day workshop was held with the C/P in charge of group strengthening where a focused discussion was held on this issue and the accumulated information was organized. The Project’s Chief Advisor, Mr. Sakai, served as the workshop facilitator.

In the workshop, the issues for group strengthening were reviewed and organized using the information from the “Extension Guidebook” and the “results of the activities of Alhajuela Project” as a basis. Later, the results of the Project activities were classified (by time sequence) under each issue. (Photos 1 and 2)

Assuming that the groups targeted for strengthening would be “new groups in rural communities of Panama that have almost no experience in group work”, discussions were held on how to strengthen such groups, what type of activities (training, educational visits, workshops, OJT) they would need and in what order. A model of group strengthening activities was established. I would like to point out that besides organizing the activities under each theme, the interconnection of activities with those of other themes was also studied. (Photos 3, 4 and 5)

The tentative model created in this workshop was improved upon through discussing with the C/P, and in the end a “Model for Developing Activities for Organizational Strengthening” was established. There are still areas that could be improved in this Model, but we will begin to incorporate it in future activity plans with an eye on continuing to improve the Model (Photo 6).

We also hope that the Model would contribute to the efficient execution of activities of other watershed management projects and therefore will include it in the second edition of the Extension Guidebook.

(Photo 1, left) Based on the collected material, issues that need to be strengthened are being identified. (May 13, 2009: Held in the conference room of Chagres National Park administrative office.)
(Photo 2, right) Project personnel are placing cards with the results of the Project activities according to the group strengthening issue. Since we are always holding this type of workshop with community inhabitants, we are quite practiced at it. (May 13, 2009: Same as above)

(Photo 3, left) Third day of the workshop, finished organizing the activities needed for group strengthening. (June 11, 2009: Held in the computer room of the Nuevo Vigia elementary school.)
(Photo 4, right) The interconnection of activities among different issues is being reconfirmed. (June 11, 2009: Same as above)

(Photo 5, left) Part of the results of the workshop. The interconnection between each training issue is shown by arrows. (June 11, 2009)
(Photo 6, right) Mr. Kajifusa discusses with a C/P the next training issue using the Model for Developing Activities. The activities that were carried out and the groups’’ level of achievement are shown in different colors. (October 13, 2009: Held in the Project office.)

(Mr. Isao SAKAI, Chief Advisor / Rural Development)