Cross-Visits: Opportunities for Knowledge Sharing with Local Organizations

Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. The TOPS Program is a collaborative effort between the TOPS Program and FSN Network, with the goal of enhancing agricultural development and food security in target areas. The program focuses on knowledge sharing and capacity building among local organizations, government stakeholders, and USAID-funded programs. In June and August 2016, USAID Food for Peace (FFP)-funded programs in Zimbabwe and Malawi organized and attended cross-visits with local organizations. The cross-visits were knowledge sharing opportunities focused on learning agricultural best practices. Each cross-visit was to a local organization with a strong agricultural technical focus and a deep knowledge of the local environment. The objectives of the cross-visits were to continue the learning process from the TOPS Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems trainings, increase technical knowledge, develop relationships with local organizations, and share lessons and knowledge between programs. The cross-visits allowed staff to learn about different approaches to agricultural development, strengthen their capacity, and gain awareness of other agriculture activities being promoted in USAID target areas. The World Vision Enhancing Nutrition, Stepping Up Resilience and Enterprise (ENSURE) program organized and attended a cross-visit with The Muonde Trust in Zimbabwe. The Project Concern International (PCI) Njira and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations (UBALE) programs attended a cross-visit facilitated by The TOPS Program to Panthunzi in Malawi. The Muonde Trust Cross-Visit took place in June 2016, where the ENSURE program brought 35 staff members and key government stakeholders to Zvishavane to learn about the water harvesting techniques practiced by Muonde. The key takeaways from the cross-visit included adopting, adapting, and advancing the use of dead level contours with infiltration pits, supporting community initiatives through "on-farm trials," promoting the use of grey water and boomerang berms, and strengthening the use of stone walling at water points. The ENSURE program followed up their cross-visit by conducting a training on Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems for their agriculture and disaster risk reduction staff in mid-July. This was part of a plan to cascade the information from the TOPS training, The Muonde Trust cross-visit, and existing knowledge within the ENSURE organizations to field officers and program beneficiaries. The Panthunzi Cross-Visit took place on August 10th, where the TOPS Agriculture and Natural Resource Management team facilitated a cross-visit for the two USAID FFP Development Food Assistance Programs in Malawi. The CRS UBALE program and the PCI NJIRA program visited Panthunzi project sites in Chikwawa, Malawi. Panthunzi is a local agriculture organization focused on strengthening capacity around landscape design in order to maximize production in Malawi. Following the Panthunzi cross-visit, the UBALE consortium partners spent two days visiting project activities in the CARE target areas (NJIRA spent two days visiting project sites prior to the cross-visit). Staff continued the knowledge sharing within their consortium and discussed how lessons from the cross-visit could be integrated into different existing activities including conservation agriculture demonstration plots, livestock watering point rehabilitation, and watershed management.