Objectives of the Regional Project Component

The regional component will facilitate the attainment of the national project aims through three immediate objectives:

Regional integration of nationally- executed activities

The nationally-executed project components will benefit from the integration of activities and the sharing of experiences, through regional planning, standardizing of methodologies, and the harmonization of survey data collection and use to allow for comparative analysis and exchange of experiences. The regional component will also have an outward-looking emphasis to raise awareness of the collective activities of the national components, both in the region and internationally, through media coverage, a web site, and links to existing relevant networks. This proactive approach to encourage the replication of the project's best practices will provide interested parties, including other national programs, international development agencies, and international agricultural research centers, with access to emerging best practices for in situ conservation.

Capacity building to promote the integration of sustainable use and conservation of agrobiodiversity in agriculture

The immediate objective will increase national access to the expertise found in ICARDA, IPGRI and ACSAD, and provide necessary capacity for the implementation of project activities, by the national components. Technical courses and on-the-job training will be provided in eco-geographic and socio-economic survey methods and the collection, documentation and analysis of information on genetic diversity and the distribution of target species, socio-economic factors, land use and indigenous knowledge.
          Regional training will also be provided on geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS) and database management, principles of sustainable water and soil manage-

ment and landscape modeling and in situ conservation and field gene-bank management.
        Upon request by governments, ICARDA, IPGRI and ACSAD will assist in placing national candidates at international centers of excellence to study project-related subjects.

Project progress and impact monitoring

A fundamental element of project intervention will be to introduce practices for the sustainable use and conservation of agrobiodiversity, with acceptable costs to local beneficiaries. As such, the project will monitor the impact of intervention, both on the welfare of beneficiaries and agrobiodiversity. Project staff from the national components will be provided with training for monitoring the impacts of the project on agrobiodiversity and the economic impact on local beneficiaries. Collated results will be fed back to the national project components for adaptive planning of project activities. Impact monitoring will also provide the source of information to identify project best practices. Series notes on lessons learned will document project successes and failures in the context of their implementation, providing essential information for the replication of project activities.

Implementation Arrangements

As the executing agency of the regional component of the program, ICARDA will be responsible for planning and coordination of the regional activities, notably networking and training. Coherence across activities and partners will be achieved through the following:
• A Regional Steering Committee
• Annual Regional Technical Co-ordination and Planning
  Meetings
• National Project Steering Committee meetings will be held
  once a year
• Project site technical meetings/ District Committee meetings