On 20th June 2022, the Biovision Africa Trust BvAT Board, the Management and some of its strategic partners were hosted by the Swiss Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Valentin Zellweger, for a luncheon in honour of Biovision Africa Trust’s Leadership.
It is over 14 years since the Kenyan non-governmental organization has been supported by its Swiss strategic partner, Biovision Foundation for ecological development. The main purpose of the luncheon was therefore to celebrate the milestones achieved by BvAT under the governance leadership of Mr. Andreas Schriber as the Chair of the Board of Trustees since 2009. Mr. Schriber is a co-founding member of the two strategic partner organizations (Biovision Foundation and Biovision Africa Trust). Mr. Schriber has been succeeded by Ms Anne Onyango a development practitioner with a vast experience, having also worked as the Agriculture Secretary for the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Irrigation in the State Department of Crop Development.
In his opening remarks, the Ambassador appreciated all the guests for accepting the invitation to attend the BvAT luncheon. He congratulated BvAT for the milestones made so far in the agroecology sector. He also appreciated BvAT’s strategic donors and particularly BMZ/GIZ for the Knowledge Center for Organic Agriculture in Africa in which BvAT is taking a leading role in coordinating the Knowledge Hub for Eastern Africa, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) in Africa implemented under BvAT’s coordination and hosting of the Continental Secretariat on behalf of the African Union, Sida through the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) for supporting EOA-I and Biovision Foundation for BvAT’s Farmer Communication Programme (FCP) in Eastern Africa and urged them to continue supporting BvAT.
Prof. Hans Herren in his opening remarks gave the chronology of the establishment of BvAT. He mentioned that BvAT was formed to scale up dissemination of research work in Kenya and the rest of Africa. The research work is based on the 4Hs (Human health, Animal health, Plant health, and Environmental health) driven by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) and other global and regional centres adding that BvAT took up dissemination of agroecology research work through the 4Hs.
Mr. Schriber as well gave the history of BvAT’s growth since its inception. He noted the tremendous growth of the organization to what it is today having the current 3 key programmes of Farmer Communication Programme (FCP), Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) and the Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture (KCOA) in eastern Africa. He appreciated the key strategic donors, GIZ, SDC, SSNC and BF for supporting BvAT and contributing to the agroecology development agenda.
Madam Anne Onyango the incoming chair in her remarks promised to keep supporting BvAT to achieve its strategic vision and goals. She mentioned her first time encounter with BvAT was through the Organic Farmer Magazine which she used to read while in the Ministry of Agriculture and later consecutively interacting with Dr. Amudavi the BvAT Executive Director.
Dr. Amudavi in his remarks gave an overview of the history and scope of BvAT’s 3 key programmes and remarked how far BvAT had grown since he joined to steer the organization in 2011 when Mr. Schriber and Prof. Herren approached him while at Egerton University to take up the position. He appreciated the donors and development partners including the African Union Commission and icipe (the hosting institution) for making BvAT attain status of regional and global recognition in agroecology based initiatives. He also appreciated the outgoing Chair and the rest of the Board members for their support and commitment to the growth of BvAT. He also appreciated the teamwork in BvAT.
Among key strategic partners who attended the luncheon included Dr. Kelemu Segenet the Director General of icipe, Dr. Evelin Jansen Regional Program Manager – FoodFlow of Enviu, Dr. Benson Okita, Director, Hub East Africa of Wyss Academy, Mr. Armin Kloeckner, Programme Director, GIZ, Mr. David Bagunda, Country Head Kenya, Master Card Foundation, Mr. Frank Bertelsbeck, Deputy Regional Head of International Cooperation, Horn of Africa, Embassy of Switzerland, Mr. Helge Flärd, Deputy Head of Mission Embassy of Sweden among others. The BvAT Board members of Prof. Onesmo K. ole-MoiYoi, Ms. Anne Onyango, and Prof. Christian Borgemeister were also present. BvAT management was represented by the Executive Director Dr. Amudavi, Mr. Fredrick Ochieng (FCP), Mr. Alex Mutungi (EOA-I Continental Secretariat), Ms. Erica Rugabandana (FCP- Arusha), Mr. Francis Nsanga (KCOA) and Ms. Venancia Wambua (EOA-I). Mr. Charles Mawia, organic farmer champion represented farmers.
