While planning interventions and action plans for Year 2, the regional and zonal teams, were also working on acquiring office space in the regional research institutes and the bureaus of agriculture/livestock agencies. Consequently, office space was allocated by regional research institutes/centers (such as TARI, SARI, Gonder research center), regional universities (namely Axum university), Bureaus of Agriculture (in East Shoa, West Shoa, and Jimma). The allocation of office spaces in partner institutions and organizations will ensure smooth and efficient collaboration and partnership to implement jointly selected interventions.
Based on experiences from IPMS, LIVES has encouraged participating project districts and zones to establish knowledge centers. All the zones and districts across the board have shown great interest towards the establishment of these knowledge centers (KCs). For instance, in Oromia, of the 12 rooms required for establishment of the KCs in the three zones and districts, 11 rooms were immediately made available. However, the rooms vary in size and level of maintenance required to make them operational. The responsibility to operationalize the knowledge centers lies upon the project and the organization where it will be established.
Establishment of new knowledge centers as well as strengthening of the already existing ones will be handled by the project including purchase of ICT equipment, furniture and publications; while logistical arrangements and management of the centers will be handled by the respective organizations including assigning a center manager, providing suitable rooms and any other logistical requirements.
Contributed by LIVES regional team
