Venue: State Ministry of Agriculture Meeting Hall-Rumbek

Draft Minutes of the Lakes State Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster Coordination Meeting.

Venue: State Ministry of Agriculture Meeting Hall-Rumbek

Date & Time: 20 /11/2015 at 10:00 a.m-01:00 p.m

Introduction and opening Prayer.
The meeting was opened by a word of prayer and the Chair requested the participants carry out self-introduction.
Opening remarks by cluster lead person.
The FAO representative who is the cluster leads person appreciated the attendance and stressed on the importance of the meeting as it fits into the Inter Cluster Coordination and State Partners meeting and reminded the partners to submit in the soft copies of their activities updates for easy compilation of the minutes of the meeting.
Opening remarks by Director General
The D/G State Ministry of Agriculture, Ezekiel Magok, welcomed and thanks the participants for coming to the meeting and especially the area cluster coordinator. He encouraged partners to visit his office and share challenges they faced.
A word by FSL Cluster Coordinator for the Greater Baher El-Ghazel Region
The FSL Cluster Coordinator highlighted that the cluster is currently preparing for the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan and urged all partners to cooperate by filling in the template for geographical mapping of partners as well as for human and logistical capacity analysis as part of preparedness for 2016 cluster response plan and to submit the weekly highlights in order to identify the partner’s capacities gaps and beneficiary’s needs. He also urges the partners to register for the Technical Training that FAO is planning to conduct in early 2016.
Review of Previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting was reviewed and passed for action and record.
Action Points Review
The key action points were discussed.
Attendance:
List of attendance attached.
Progress update:
Partners / Updates/challenges/plans / Issues and action points
Oxfam / FORTIFYING, EQUALITY AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION (FEED)
Oxfam, World Vision, and CARE formed a consortium to support communities outside of active conflict zones. The ultimate goal of FEED South Sudan is to see basic food security needs are met and vulnerability reduced amongst empowered communities and households in Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Lakes, Warrap, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Western Bahr el Ghazal.
As part of the implementation plan, Oxfam (Rumbek Field Office) has agreed to work in partnership with DRDA (Diar for Rehabilitation and Development Association) who will be implementing the following activities in Wulu County.
-  Farmer Field School
-  Income generation Activities (IGAs)
-  Fishing
-  One Stop center
-  Disaster Preparedness
-  school Gardens
-  Environmental Protection (Fruit Tree Nursery).
The following are the plan for next Month (November 2015):
-  Registration of beneficiaries in the other payams for all the projects
-  Group formation
-  Sites identification
-  Formation of the peace structure committee at county level
-  Training of beneficiaries of the Honey Production Association in Group Dynamics (100 beneficiaries)
SAADO / -  Implementing Emergency Program on vet project with FAO and has ended in sept 2015.
JAM Intl / -  Implementing FFE
-  Has issues with distribution of food incentives for girls school
-  Challenges includes -Insecurity
ACROSS / - 
Plan International / -  All the Projects under FSL have ended and new proposals have been developed and submitted for the year 2016.
-  Monitoring of the ELKD and FFA projects is going on in areas of operation.
WFP / -  Has agreed to conduct training on GPS/GIS on the request of partners to use GPS for determination of area under cultivation
-  WFP representative highlighted that FFA is the most relevant activity to be reported in the FSL Cluster forum
-  FFA proposals for 2016 were submitted for clearances and feedback
-  Impact assessment on FFA project was not done due to lack of cars/vehicle be done in Nov/Dec / Organize training on GPS/ GIS.
DRDA / Activities /issues
-  DRDA in partnership with OXFAM is helping farmers organized themselves into Farmer Field School (FFS) – Platforms for farmers to learn farming technics, and come up with innovations and joint solutions to address their common problems
-  The farmer field schools to address specific enterprises. E.g. fish farming, beekeeping etc.
-  “Wulu road” (Rumbek to Wulu) has become very risky to use as there is increased revenge killings among the communities. Citizens travelling on a motorbike are unanimously killed along the way and their goods stolen. This has scared away some participants from attending their groups meetings regularly especially men. ( three people including the brother of one of the Lake States Minister were shot dead)
-  During the reporting period, DRDA continued to register Famer Field School beneficiaries in the four Payams of Wulu County; Domotoloto, Bargel, Wulu and Agergum. A total of 475 beneficiaries were registered (395 female & 80 male)
-  Online registration of 125 beneficiaries for bee keeping (30 male & 95 female) was also conducted using the smartphones
-  As part of building the capacity of FEED project staff in running and managing the project; OXFAM/DRDA organized a one week workshop at OXFAM compound. Key areas of the training entailed; the concept of Farmer Field School, steps involved in its formation and operation, FEED logical framework/targets, gender mainstreaming, women rights, and use of Smart phone in registration of participants and data capture tools. The staff were also trained on various reporting templates that included; Monthly, bi-annual and annual. The month culminated in the mapping out of all the registered Community Based Organizations (CBO) in the county. The CBOs were mobilized by DRDA staff with support from the County Director for Agriculture (CDA) and County Director for Education (CDE). Regular weekly planning, reviewing and reporting staff meetings formed part and parcel of project implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation
-  The funds from FAO to facilitate the process delayed however, DRDA was communicated to by FAO that they will receive the funds by the end of the third week of November. One the funds are received, DRDA will move with speed to distribute the funds to the beneficiaries / DRDA needs to visit the DG and discuss the way forward regarding the recruitment of their staff in Wulu after the elapse of the 3 months grace period given for replacement of the current staff.
NPA / A.  SORUDEVE Project (Development)
-  18 community oxen trainers trained at Matangai animal training center for greater Rumbek Counties
-  12 local blacksmith trained at Mabui OPU for greater Yirol Counties
-  Crop yield assessment conducted in 8 Counties/32 Payam but data not yet analyzed
-  Monitoring of VSLA groups is continuing in greater
B.  Conflict Transformation through Livelihood Project (CTL)
-  Stakeholders’ sensitization workshop conducted at Thon Aduel. 63 (52 men/11 women) participated
-  Baseline survey completed for 200 households in Rumbek East
-  6 (5 men/1 women) community based extension workers recruited for the project in Rumbek East
C.  Protracted Relief Response Operation(PRRO)
-  Rumbek east and Cueibet farmers group have produced 553 sucks of 90 Kgs of Groundnut
-  Tree planting is ongoing activities now in Rumbek east & Cueibet
-  New proposals have been submitted to WFP partner for 2016 plan
D.  Emergency vaccination LoA- NPA/FAO
-  20 (1 woman /19 men) CAHWs training is carried out for Yirol, West/East Counties.
-  13555 cattle, 5481 shoats, 110 dogs vaccinated and 1577 cattle, 1568 shoats treated in Yirol West
-  4179 cattle, 2200 shoats, 24 dogs vaccinated and 2124 cattle, 323 shoats, treated in Yirol East
-  220 cattle, 74 shoats vaccinated and 2174 cattle, 1465 shoats treated in Rumbek East
-  1962 cattle, 3096 shoats, and 03 dogs treated in Wulu
-  15 CAHWs trained (10 Rumbek East /5 Wulu) on disease diagnosis, vaccination and treatment
Challenges
-  Insecurity along the road impaired movement to project sites. This is a serious issue that needs attention of not only the government but also local authorities, chiefs.
-  The project (CTL) not yet launch due to insecurity
November Activities Plan
-  Training of 10 CAHWs for Rumbek North
-  Training of 12 local blacksmith at Mabui OPU for Wulu, Yirol West and Cueibet
-  Training of 308 stallholder farmer groups in Rumbek North
-  Deliveries of remaining food for the farmers in the two counties
-  Monitoring and evaluation of FFA activities in Cueibet and Rumbek east / -  The DG strongly encouraging partners to contact local authorities, local chiefs and using media to advocate for safe access to carry out animal vaccination activities in the area.
FAO / A.  EMERGENCY LIVELIHOODS RESPONSE PROGRAM
-  Monitoring and support to partners with LOAs: ARUDA in implementing Livestock Emergency in Awerial County; NPA and SMARF in Training of CAHWs is on-going
RESELIENCE/DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
B.  Agriculture Information System (AFIS) Project
-  Assessment on impact of conflicts on Livestock was conducted by FAO in Rumbek Centre and Cueibet Counties from 4th -11th November 2015;
-  Continued collection of information on general livelihoods, livestock, fisheries, markets, Agro-meteorology, nutrition/health and security situation in the state was on-going;
-  FAO supported the conduct of 3 days FSNMS training in Lakes from 16th -17th November 2015.
-  FAO in collaboration with WFP Juba has carried out a Rapid Market Assessment in Rumbek market on 19th November 2015.
C.  Lakes state Agro-pastoral Resilience Project
-  An LOA was signed between FAO and SMARF for Refresher Training, Treatment and Vaccination of livestock for 6 months.
D.  Resilient Pastoral Livelihood and Education Project
-  Facilitated a Technical Working Group meeting in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology , in Juba on 16th November 2015;
-  Carried out Validation Workshop of identified Communities/cattle camps in the Greater in Rumbek Center and Wulu Counties;
E.  ZEAT BEAD (Sustainable Agriculture, inputs supply )
-  Conducted a Validation Workshop for the Baseline Survey in Wau and the participants from Lakes State failed to attend due to inadequate travel arrangements.
Challenges
-  Insecurity due inter clan fighting, revenge killing, cattle rustling and attack on the roads along the Rumbek Yirol and Rumbek Mundri-Juba impedes implementation and monitoring of projects in the counties, UN recommends armed escorts on Rumbek-Yirol Road;
Plan for Nov/Dec 2015
-  Livestock Officer will attend a Cold Chain training in Juba from 24th -03rd Dec 2015
-  Conduct a project induction workshop for Technical Staff (PLEFS Facilitators) from the State Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Education on the Resilient Project;
-  FAO in collaboration with WFP will take part in FSNMS Round 17 Assessment from 20th -30th November 2015 in Lakes State;
-  APFS Assistant Facilitators under Lakes State agro-pastoral resilient project will attend one week refresher workshop in Rumbek from 26th Nov -03 Dec 2015.
-  Organize a 3 weeks training of PLEFs Facilitators on integrated Livelihoods and numeracy approach in Rumbek. / -Ministry of Agriculture (SMAF) request Seeds and Tools. Request will be submitted to the state Coordinator for approval.
-All partners who have not shared the information for partners mapping and capacity analysis are again requested to fill in and submit to the FSL Cluster Coordinator for Greater Baher El-Ghazel.
Directorate of Veterinary Services / -  The livestock situation in the state is normal, but there are rumors of outbreak of East Cost Fever (ECF) disease in Awerial and Yirol West county.
-  Training of 70 CAHWs was conducted by NPA in four counties, Y.E.C, Y.W.C, R.E.C and Wuliu County. The training was on basic veterinary clinical skills, and business management.
-  Distribution of kits of Vet drugs to 70 CAHWs in four counties.
-  Two staffs attended training on Meat Hygiene and Food Safety for five days in Torit.
-  S/MARF singed an LOA with FAO to carry out activities of Animal Health vaccination and CAHWs training under Agro-pastoral Resilience Program.
Future plan
-  Identification and selection of existing CAHWs for training.
-  Two staffs will attend training on cold chain in Juba for five days.
-  The Directorate will continue on to deliver vaccines and treatment as part of Animal health activities in the state.
Directorate of Training and Research / -  Developing plans and will coordinate with partners in trainings, plan to establish demonstrations farm, Laboratory for soil analysis and seed testing
-  Request support from partners for tools and seeds for the above
Directorate of Mechanization / -  Thanks the Partners in responding to the request of the department with regards to training on GPS to estimate production
Directorate of Forestry / -  Inquired the roles of partners in supporting the Forest activities and
AOB / Cluster sub-Technical Working groups
The area cluster coordinator suggested establishing sub-technical working groups at state level including Crop, Livestock and Cash transfers and Market sub working groups. Draft TORs will be circulated to cluster partners to register their names in the sub working group they interested in.
Next meeting is proposed on Tuesday 15 Dec. 2015 / Area cluster coordinator to share the TORs with cluster partners and partners to register membership accordingly.
Closing / Director General closing remarks.
The D/G thanked all the participants and applauds the achievements of partners and urge all to work together to address the cluster challenges. The Meeting was declared closed by the DG.

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