Towards a shared vision—joining hands on Lake Victoria

A five-day traveling workshop was held in September 2003 to map out ways for an integrated inter-institutional approach to research and development in the Lake Victoria basin.  Participants were drawn from several institutions and all five riparian (lake basin) States—Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The workshop was jointly convened by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Regional Land Management Unit (RELMA) and the East African Community (EAC), with active participation by ViAgroforestry, the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme (LVEMP) and support from the Swedish International Co-operation and Development Co-operation Agency (Sida).

Seated from left Barklund Ake,.......and Bashir Jama

The institutions will now work more closely together under the auspices of EAC’s Lake Victoria Development Programme, which co-ordinates an extensive—and growing—network of research and development institutions in the Lake Victoria basin.  This harmony will enhance effective synergies and avoid duplication.  To this end, ICRAF and EAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on agroforestry for development in the Lake Victoria basin.  EAC recognizes the lake basin as one of its Economic Growth Zones.

Common problems across the entire lake basin were, among others, grinding poverty, food and fuel shortage, HIV/AIDS, degraded natural environments, poor agricultural productivity and returns, water pollution, fragmented policies and legislation, weak extension services, lack of information and overall lack of long-term concerted planning, action and commitment.

The workshop opened with concurrent visits to parts of the lake basin in Uganda and Tanzania before all the participants convened in Kenya where they also visited some sites in the Nyando basin.  In Tanzania, participants were impressed by conservation tillage promoted by LVEMP, which also co-ordinates the Kayenze Beach Management Unit—a good example of a community-based multi-sectoral development initiative.  In Kenya, RELMA has assisted villagers in Kusa to self-organize for better livelihoods through activities such as fish farming, livestock rearing and water harvesting.  ICRAF’s work has mostly been in the Nyando basin, focusing on the biophysical and socio-economic analyses of land degradation, and more recently, on the implications of these research findings for policy. 

Participating institutions committed to work more closely together, especially in the policy arena and information sharing.  The timing of this workshop and commitment were especially opportune for ICRAF and NALEP: the two partners are now approaching the end of the first phase of their joint project and are currently designing the second phase which will start in mid-2004.

For more information, contact Chin Ong c.ong@cgiar.org