1.3.1. Organisation of quarterly stakeholder meetings

Quarterly stakeholder meetings have been organised in the four project countries. The lead expert of Output 1 and the local communicators placed a special accent on inclusiveness and diversity and encouraged a broad participation of all types of national stakeholders. The meetings were in general very well attended, with over 40 participants per meeting. In Ghana, the meetings offered an invaluable framework for the development of the stakeholder analysis that was produced following a participatory process that involved numerous organic actors in all regions of Ghana. The same process was then implemented in Burkina Faso, Togo and STP. The meetings also gave the project team the opportunity to present the project and its objectives, especially in relation to the National Action Plans that will start being developed in the same framework offered by the quarterly stakeholder meetings. In Sao Tome and Principe, the particular political situation and the slight delay in recruiting the local communicators didn’t allow for the periodic organisation of the stakeholder meetings. In Year 2 of the project, the stakeholders meetings will provide the framework for the discussions of the NAPs, but will also allow the local stakeholders to use the space in order to discuss their own needs and development plans. Space will also be given to Output 2 - the development of internal markets - and the O2 local advisors will be invited to regularly present the development of PGS systems in the project countries. In Burkina Faso the stakeholder meetings will be also implemented at regional and local level . The rationale behind this is that the actors in the region will be able to make their voices heard and to connect to each other at local level, while CNABio will develop its umbrella role through the inclusion of the regions.