Strong partner relationships push capacity building activities forward
Starting its second year, the CLED Project in Colombia already organized a number of activities. First, all partners worked together from 10 until 12 February crossing the results of the political map for Caldono and the Economic and Entrepreneurship map. The Market linkages studies in coffee, fishery, and tourism value chain, in Caldono, Silvia and Totoro were revised and priorities were discussed as the planning for 2021.
The mappings are an important tool reviewing the current situation and pointing more accurately to the interventions that can support the achievement of the Project goals better. The work and collaboration within the partners: Maastricht School of Management, Fundacion Unviersitaria de Popayan (FUP), University of Utrecht, Universidad de Medellin, CREPIC, SENA and ESAP has become strong, and we are all looking forward to the continuation of the capacity building activities during this year.
To start this year’s project activities, from 23 until 25 February, the first module from a series of four took place in the Agricultural Training Center from SENA in Popayan, Colombia. The modules, will be divided throughout the year with local activities in between and remote accompaniment. The modules focus on methodologies for participative rural innovation and cover a variety of relevant topics for the local rural organizations and for the teachers and researchers working with them. Some of these topics are: Teamwork and conflict resolution, participative project proposals and management, legal conformation of organizations, identification of technological constrains and alternative solutions, entrepreneurial and negotiation skills, diversification of production and business expansion. The methodology implies working together and collaborating with the goal to multiply the results in other local organizations applying a “train the trainer” approach.
The process to select the participants was done with attention to their commitment and will to multiply the lessons learned and to devote time and energy in the process. The participants are representatives of local organizations from the three municipalities: members of the coffee associations of Caldono, fish farming federation of Cauca (ACUIPES) and representatives of the organized Cooperative of former members from FARC (COMEEP).
Since February Ms. Nele Frieg, student from the School of Business and Economics (SBE) from the University of Maastricht has been supporting the activity projects in Popayan as part of her internship for the Bachelor of International Business with specialization in Emerging Markets.
Additional to the partners of the CLED project in Colombia, also representatives from the regional Coffee Committee of Cauca and from the Municipality of Caldono are participating in this training. The first sessions proved to be an excellent platform to get to know each other, to start a dialogue and to build up a base for trust and effective cooperation.
Nuffic Orange Knowledge Programme
This project is part of the Orange Knowledge Programme. Nuffic OKP contributes to a society’s sustainable and inclusive development by providing access to education and training for professionals and organisations in technical vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education. It is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of its development cooperation policy. The subsidy programme is managed by Nuffic, a Dutch non-profit organisation for internationalisation in education. It offers funding for long-term, demand-driven partnerships between Dutch knowledge institutions and organisations in 19 participating countries, as well as individual scholarships and Tailor-Made Trainings in all 53 selected countries. The € 195-m, five-year programme ends mid-2022, enabling tens of thousands to change their future. From the Dutch development cooperation policy, 4 priority themes have been selected on which to focus in the programme: Food and Nutrition Security; Water, Energy and Climate; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights; and Security and Rule of Law. Cross-cutting themes in this programme are inclusion, employability and environmental sustainability.
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