Improving lives through
sustainable bioinnovations

Message from the Program Manager (Newsletter 02)

Message from the Program Manager (Newsletter 02)

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We are delighted to share with you our esteemed reader the second issue of the Bio-Innovate Program newsletter. In this issue, we are sharing the progress in the Program implementation and the achievements made by our innovation partners in eastern Africa.

Bio-Innovate has invested heavily on partnership as its strategy to deliver bioscience innovations to the end-users. Each of the consortium projects is designed carefully to include key partners that span the innovation value chain from the laboratory or experimental field to the farmers or industrial partners. We are also delighted to share our success stories and achievements from the consortium projects in partnerships with the private sector in the region.

We have featured one of our flagship project on ‘integrated process for sustainable agro-process waste treatment and climate change mitigation in eastern Africa’ which is producing unique innovations while providing solutions to environmental pollution and securing fresh water sources in partnership with industrial sector in the region. The outcome from this intervention will be the transfer and adoption of the innovations to similar agro-processing industries in the region leading to a significant reduction in environmental pollution levels and mitigation of greenhouse gas emission.

The Program also recognizes the strengths of the different actors along the innovation pathway and is working to leverage on these strengths to deliver innovations to the market place. Through its innovation policy project, the Program is providing policy support, which is necessary to move research ideas and products to the market, and ultimately lead to a vibrant bio-economy in eastern Africa.

To increase efficiency and relevance of the Program implementation, Bio-Innovate has in place an effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) strategy, based on the results-based management; that is participatory and involves all the partners in a consortium right from the beginning in developing an effective M&E system. This approach has helped the teams and the Program to think deeper and beyond outputs and design outcome indicators as a means of tracking progress.

The regional scientific conference scheduled for 25-27 February 2013 at the United Nations Conference Centre-Economic Commission for Africa (UNCC-ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will provide Bio-Innovate project implementing partners and collaborators an opportunity to share their innovation activities and achievements to date and foster closer regional cooperation among biosciences innovations actors through information and experience sharing. This will strengthen regional biosciences networks within and beyond the eastern Africa region