In this Newsletter
- News from the Agri-Hubs: Ethiopia, Mali, Kenya and Uganda
- Corporate news from the Netherlands
- Agenda
- Seasonal greetings
News from the Agri-Hubs
 Book launch
Proudly, Agri-ProFocus announces the launch of a new publication: Learning and earning: How a value chain learning alliance strengthens farmer entrepreneurship in Ethiopia. The book covers the life span of the Ethiopia Learning Alliance, a unique alliance between farmers, NGOs, businesses, banks and researchers meant to help farmers improve their entrepreneurial skills.
On our website, you can find a PDF version of the book, as well as a video and presentation of the launch event in Addis Ababa.
Multi-Stakeholder workshop Mali
The Agri-Hub in Mali, which started earlier this year, held a successful local Multi-Stakeholder Workshop to draft an agenda for the future. The workshop was attended by about 60 participants, including producer organisations, NGOs, private business and more.
An account of this very interesting meeting can be read here and do watch the video as well!
 Finance Fairs
In both the Uganda and Kenya Agri-Hubs, an Agri-Finance Fair took place, at which farmers and financial service providers could exchange ideas and do business. The events had respectively 400 and 800 visitors, and proved to be very useful to both the farmers, who realised they still needed to learn more about banking, and to the banks, for whom a new market potential opened up. Cherishing the success of these Finance Fairs, next year more will be organised, not just in Kenya or Uganda, but also in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Benin and possibly Mali.
More information on Finance Fairs? Link here for Kenya and here for Uganda!
Corporate news from the Netherlands
End of tenure for Agri-ProFocus Chairman Gerard Doornbos
During the last Board meeting on December 13, Mr. Gerard Doornbos stepped down statutorily as Chairman, after six years in office. He can be considered one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Agri-ProFocus. At a farewell dinner in his honour he was praised extensively, not only for his inspiring and committed chairmanship, but even more for bringing many actors together and putting agriculture back on the development agenda. A new Chair of the Board has not yet been elected – more information will follow soon.
Members
Since May of this year, quite a number of organisations have joined the Agri-ProFocus partnership! We would like to welcome ICRA, MDF, IFDC, The Hunger Project and Heineken International. You can read more about them in the members section of our website. Please also note that Forefinance has changed its name to SCOPEinsight.
Our latest addition has been Soil & More, a company working on soil fertility and composting, which has become a member in October of this year – while, on the other hand, ProFound terminated its membership per September 2011.
Upcoming events
Seasonal greetings
We would like to thank you for your support and interest in our work in 2011. Agri-ProFocus wishes you a happy holiday and a 2012 full of opportunities!
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