Final APR session held!

This is a very exciting landmark. We still have a lot of work to do... but the final APR workshop was held yesterday. 

We have been working on the Annual Partnership Reviews since November and I am starting to get very tired of them. If you look at Abdoulie you can see that he is feeling the pain as well. The stress is written all over his face! But with some team work we are getting there, and yesterday all three of us - Abdoulie, Ebou and I - pulled together to get the final one done. 

We went to the Department of Agriculture to see Martin (Munya should also have been there but was away on training). It was an interesting session; if you speak to Martin he feels frustrated that he hasn't been able to do more, and doesn't feel he has achieved as much as he could have done. It is fair to say that, unfortunately, the partners are just realising his potential as he is about to leave, which I think is a challenge for many volunteers. They work so hard to find a way in, break down barriers, reduce suspicion that they are there to take over everyone else's job or mess things up, while learning the culture and dynamics of the organisation, and just as they get it sorted it's time to leave. However, to hear the partners speak you realise that his work has had an impact, and even if it is just that catalyst for further work, and perhaps another VSO placement, he has achieved something and he will leave results behind. As an agricultural specialist I don't think he expected to leave a database as his legacy, but he has built one that will be expanded upon and tied into more central Monitoring and Evaluation Systems. And he will leave behind a manual on crop husbandry, pests and diseases, and best agricultural practice (complete with colour pictures) which will be used by farmers and extension workers, and used to train others in the future.  

The session was quite a long one, and ended up with one of the longest 'closing ceremonies' one of my workshops has ever seen! As Martin goes in a few weeks everyone had a few words to say, and thanks to give, and 5/10/15 minute speeches were given, and then further recapped and summarised by the chair after each one had finished! But it's probably fitting that our final APR had such a formal end. 

This year we conducted 22 sessions and I facilitated and co-facilitated 18 of them. Last year I did 25/25 - co-facilitating the later ones with Ebou who gained more confidence as the process went on. This year Ebou co-facilitated many of the sessions with me right from the beginning, and even facilitated some of them by himself.  

So, now we just need to complete the write ups and meet the deadline... 28 February looms large.