Noragric Electronic Bulletin - No.3/05 November 2005
Joanna Boddens-HosangWelcome to the third edition of the Noragric Electronic Bulletin. The Bulletin is produced three times a year and gives a summary of Noragric's activities during the intervals between each Bulletin, including new publications, seminars, and information on staff and visitors. The Bulletin is sent by e-mail to our networks and partners but is also available on the Noragric website, www.umb.no/noragric.
We hope you find the information in the Bulletin useful and we are always interested in suggestions for improvement or other comments. Please forward this Bulletin to contacts who may be interested in Noragric's activities. If you do not wish to receive the Bulletin by e-mail, or would prefer receiving notice by e-mail when a new issue is available on our website, please send an e-mail to the Editor.
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This issue of the Bulletin summarizes Noragric's activities since June 2005 and looks ahead until the end of this year.
Editor: Joanna Boddens-Hosang, Communication Advisor UMB/Noragric
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Contents
News
Publications, articles, presentations
Workshops, meetings, seminars
Staff
Visitors
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News
Bachelor's programme in Development Studies
On 15 August 39 Norwegian students started in Noragric's new Bachelor's programme in Development Studies. The 3-year programme includes a choice of interdisciplinary courses offered by other UMB departments such as economics, (agro)ecology, and general social science courses. This year the courses are taught in Norwegian but the programme may be offered in English next year. In addition to theoretical studies, the students will take their fourth semester at a university in a developing country. Contact: Knut Nustad.
MFA includes Noragric's Head of Department in evaluation committee
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), as follow-up to the White Paper Fighting Poverty Together - A Comprehensive Development Policy, has established a committee that will assess the merits of civil society organisations (mainly NGOs) as future partners in implementing Norwegian development cooperation under the framework of the White Paper. The committee consists of 7 individuals from renowned Norwegian institutions and includes Professor Ruth Haug, Noragric's Head of Department. Norway leads as the OECD country that channels the highest percentage of its development cooperation budget through NGOs (in 2004, this was approximately 23% of the total budget). The committee will assess NGOs according to, among others, their role and results in development cooperation, competence, cost effectiveness of the implementation of funds, and the organisation's efforts in respecting national ownership.
Evaluation of NORAD's Fellowship Programme
At a meeting with NORAD evaluating the implementation of the Fellowship Programme, Dr Mitiku Haile - on a sabbatical at Noragric from Mekelle University, Ethiopia - provided views on the Fellowship Programme from a southern perspective. Dr Haile suggested considering establishing joint degrees and placing some of the fellowships in the South. The Programme gives scholarships for students from the South to study Master's and Diploma programmes in Norway. Most of the courses in the programme are held in Norway and run over a period of two years.
Substantial funding from MFA for new South East Europe programme
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is funding a 4-year Norwegian South Eastern Europe (SEE) programme in agriculture "Competence transfer and institutional contact and co-operation between faculties of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine in South Eastern Europe". MFA has asked Noragric/UMB to facilitate and implement the project on behalf of several partners in SEE and in Norway. Institutional strengthening will be a main objective, i.e. to improve the organisation, content and quality of academic education, research and support services in faculties of agriculture, veterinary medicine and forestry in order to meet national needs in the ongoing reconstruction after the regional wars. The programme will be funded on an annual basis according to approved annual activity plans, estimated at almost NOK 5 million per year. Contact: Mensur Vegara.
Minister of the Environment visits UMB
On 6 September, the former Minister of the Environment, Knut Arild Hareide, visited UMB in order to become better acquainted with UMB's core thematic areas. From Noragric, Professor Pål Vedeld gave a presentation on the importance of environment to the livelihoods of the poor. One week later, parliamentary elections were held in Norway which resulted in a reshuffle of the government. The new Minister of the Environment is Mrs Helen Bjørnøy, former secretary general of the Church City Mission, an NGO working with Oslo's marginalized and poor.
Publications, articles, presentations at seminars (from June-November 2005)
Since the full list of publications and presentations produced by Noragric staff is too long to include in this Bulletin, we refer readers to the Noragric website, Publications, and further to All Publications, Forskdok 2005, http://www.umb.no/noragric/publications/default.htm The website also lists publications in the Noragric Reports and Working Papers series.
Workshops, meetings and seminars
To give due attention to the Pakistan earthquake and its aftermath, UMB/Noragric organised a seminar for staff and students on 16 November. The seminar included a geological explanation on the severity of the earthquake, and the effects of the quake on poor local communities having lost their home and sources of income. Four staff from UMB (2 from Noragric) were in Pakistan during the quake. The outcome of the seminar is to further explore the possibilities of an "academic disaster response team", mobilizing UMB's knowledge and experience and making it accessible to e.g. policymakers in Norway and/or educational and development institutions in affected areas. By using UMB's institutional collaboration with universities in areas stricken by a natural disaster, relevant expertise could be exchanged immediately following a catastrophe. UMB also faces a challenge in assisting its staff that may be in the field at the time of such disasters, including areas of political unrest. Contact: Ingrid Nyborg.
Head of Department, Professor Ruth Haug, gave a presentation on 2 September at a NORAD-coordinated seminar on Formalisation of User- and Ownership Rights of the Poor. The title of the presentation was "Formalistion and African Farmers". A similar presentation will be given at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 2 December during a seminar on user- and ownership rights of the poor. The objective of this seminar is to establish a Norwegian forum on technical expertise related to formalisation.
The University of Oslo organized a series of 7 seminars on international development and developing countries during September and October. From Noragric, Associate Professor Tor Arve Benjaminsen, Associate Professor Trygve Berg and Professor Ruth Haug participated in 2 of the seminars.
Head of Department, Professor Ruth Haug, traveled to Nepal together with Associate Professor Bishal Sitaula (13-21 September) to attend a workshop on Managing Mountain Watershed for Rural Development in Nepal, a collaborative project under NUFU. Ruth gave a keynote presentation on poverty alleviation through rural development and chaired a session on the complementary role of research and teaching in courses dealing with integrated watershed management.
From 21-24 September, Professor Haug attended the 11th Directors Meeting of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) in Bonn, and the EADI General Assembly. At the conference, Ruth presented a paper on "Living with War - Preparing for Peace" during the Working Group on "Regionalism and Development". Also at the conference, Noragric's Head of Research, Professor N. Shanmugaratnam, was elected as representative for Norway on the Executive Committee.
The annual meeting with the Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia, the Ministries of Finance and Education and Mekelle and Debub Universities was held from 25 September-1 October, and was attended by Professor Haug, Associate Professor Stein Moe, and Noragric's institutional advisor for Ethiopia, Associate Professor Aregay Waktola.
On 26-27 October, the Norwegian Forum for Development Cooperation in Fisheries organised a 2-day seminar, hosted by Noragric, on fisheries developments in Sri Lanka, with special focus on the post-tsunami and post-conflict situations. Approximately 55 speakers and participants from Sri Lanka and Norway attended. Contact: Ian Bryceson.
A meeting of the International Foundation for Science was held in the nearby town of Droebak on 11-14 November to consider and award postgraduate and post-doctoral research grants to scientists in developing countries. Contact: Ian Bryceson.
A 7-person delegation from NORAD, representing the departments of social development, environment and private sector development, information, and evaluation visited UMB on 25 November for an institutional visit to exchange information on expertise relevant to NORAD's development cooperation activities. Noragric played a key role in organising the visit and presentations were given by Ruth Haug, Pål Vedeld and Knut Nustad.
Head of Education, Kjell Esser, will present a report on implementing the Norwegian government's "Action Plan for Agriculture in Development Cooperation" in Malawi at a consultative meeting organised by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NORAD.
Staff
Noragric mourned the loss of staff member Øyrunn Hankø Wang in July following a long illness. Øyrunn worked in Reception and had been with Noragric from the very start. She was a familiar face (and voice) to many visiting or phoning us.
PhD candidate Cassandra Bergstrøm (USA) successfully defended her thesis on 15 August. The title of her dissertation was "Claiming reindeer in Norway: Toward a theory of the dynamics of property regime formation and change". The study was funded by UMB.
PhD candidate Darley Jose Kjosavik (India) will defend her thesis on 3 December. The title of her thesis is "In the Intersection of Class and Indigeneity: The Political Economy of Indigenous People's Development in Kerala, India". The study was self-funded.
PhD candidate Dismas Mwaseba (Tanzania) is scheduled to defend his thesis on 16 December. The title of the thesis is "Impact of Agricultural Research: A Study of On-Farm Development Effects of Agricultural Research in the Southern Highlands and Eastern Zones of Tanzania". Dismas' study was funded by the Norwegian Sate Educational Loan Fund and by the TARP II project.
Professor Shanmugaratnam became Head of Research in August after Professor Cary Fowler took a leave of absence from Noragric for a 5 year period to coordinate the Global Crop Diversity Trust at FAO in Rome.
Kjell Esser, Associate Professor, took over as Head of Education in August after Faye Benedict returned to the Department of Academic Affairs in UMB's main administration.
Noragric's Senior Advisor, Leif Christoffersen, has been awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. The medal is conferred on Norwegian citizens as "a reward for distinguished services rendered to the country and mankind".
Professor Lars Sjøflot retired from Noragric after 40 years at the university. Lars' background is in Agricultural and Human Engineering and he coordinated UMB's activities in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Baltic - mostly Latvia - and Balkan area) since 1990.
Fred H. Johnsen, Associate Professor, is spending a one-year sabbatical at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (Brighton, U.K.).
Tor Arve Benjaminsen, Associate Professor, started a one-year sabbatical at the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia in August.
Josie Teurlings, PhD programme coordinator, left Noragric at the end of September on a 3-year leave of absence.
Marte Qvenild joined as a 6-month trainee under the NORAD frame agreement and assists in the coordination of the education programmes.
Visitors
Under the Peace Corps Volunteers for Sustainable Development programme, Dr Mukadasi Buyinza from Makerere University in Uganda, is visiting Noragric for 16 months where he will teach the Master's course in Rural Development and spend time writing papers. Contact: Marte Qvenild.
Fanny Chimwemwe Chilera from Bunda College of Agriculture, Malawi, is visiting UMB's Department of Animal and Aquaculture Sciences as part of the Noragric Peace Corps Volunteers for Sustainable Development programme. She will participate in teaching, research and writing of papers. Contact: Marte Qvenild.
On 23 August, the Malawian Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (MEPD) and the Vice Chancellor of Bunda College, University of Malawi, visited Noragric. The objective of the visit was to discuss Noragric projects in Malawi, agricultural development, poverty reduction, formalisation of land property rights, women's rights, social forestry, and agriculture-nutrition-health. Contact: Poul Wisborg.
From 27 August-1 September, UMB/Noragric received an Ethiopian/Swedish delegation consisting of the Ethiopian Vice-Minister of Education, the President of Debub University, the Dean of Wondo Genet College of Forestry, and programme coordinator at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Discussions were held on collaboration and coordination of the Swedish-Norwegian collaboration with Debub University. Contact: Trygve Berg.
Professor Senaratne, rector at Ruhua University of Sri Lanka, paid a visit to Noragric from 31 August-2 September to discuss academic collaboration between the two universities. Contact: Kjell Esser.
The Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Dr David Kaimowitz, and Assistant Director General Dr Yemi Katerere, visited Noragric on 12 October. A lecture was given on "The Role of Forests in Poverty Reduction Strategies".
Professor Kjell Havnevik of the Nordic Africa Institute came to Noragric on 14 November to explore collaboration possibilities in "Linking livelihoods, natural resource governance and environmental sustainability in rural East Africa, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe - towards understanding and contributing to resolving the African rural crisis". Contact: Ian Bryceson.
The two earlier announced researchers from Mali have now arrived and are staying at UMB for 2 months. Dr. Mamadou Doumbia, Head of Soil and Plant Laboratory, and Dr Abou Berthé, Head of Farming System Research, from the Institut d'Economie Rural will be writing papers in connection to a research project on Integrated Plant Nutrition Management that has been carried out under the umbrella of the Drylands Coordination Group (DCG) in Mali. They will also be giving lectures to students and staff. The research is funded by UMB's Research Committee. Contact: Jens Aune.
Updated: 29.11.05
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Department of International Environment and Development Studies
- Noragric
Phone: +47 64 96 52 00
Fax: +47 64 96 52 01
E-mail: noragric@umb.no
Postal address:
Noragric, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
P.O. Box 5003
NO-1432 Aas
Norway
Visiting/delivery address:
Universitetstunet 1 (Tivoli)
NO-1432 Ås
Phone: +47 64 96 52 00
Fax: +47 64 96 52 01
E-mail: noragric@umb.no
Postal address:
Noragric, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
P.O. Box 5003
NO-1432 Aas
Norway
Visiting/delivery address:
Universitetstunet 1 (Tivoli)
NO-1432 Ås