A
new leader in Sub-Saharan Africa
Diana
Lee Smith retired as Regional Coordinator for Urban Harvest
at the end of July 2005. When she joined Urban Harvest
in February 2002, she brought with her a wealth of experience
in urban agriculture, urban planning and policy and in
gender issues, which she has generously shared with local
partners in the implementation of Urban Harvest projects
in Nairobi, Kampala and Yaounde. Diana has also been
a great regional networker at multiple levels, ingeniously
capitalizing on her vast stock of existing contacts for
the benefit of urban agriculture, helping to link urban
policy makers and spread innovative policy practice across
national borders, improving linkages between NGO projects
at local level and bringing new actors into the policy
dialogue in different countries.
Diana
also shared her knowledge and skills in a more formal capacity-building
context, through coordinating the Anglophone Africa Training
Course on Urban Africa in 2004. This was a tough assignment
that Diana successfully undertook with her usual energy,
capability and personal warmth.
We
will miss her rare combination of incisive intelligence
and light heartedness. Fortunately, she will be staying
on for a further three months as Interim Regional Leader
of CIP in Sub-Saharan Africa, during which time she will
continue to advise and contribute to a number of Urban
Harvest issues.
We
are very fortunate to be able to name Dr. Nancy Karanja,
Professor of Soil Sciences in the University of Nairobi
as the new Regional Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nancy has been involved in Urban Harvest projects and training
events in Kenya for the past two years and since October
2004 has also worked closely with the Regional Coordinator
as a Special Consultant. She brings to Urban Harvest a
rich scientific and development experience in an area of
key concern to urban and peri-urban producers - the issue
of soil fertility and the opportunities for improved plant
nutrition through safe, improved use of liquid and solid
organic wastes and better integration with livestock production
systems.
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