How does innovation happen? Where do leaps of insight come from? We believe they often come from bringing together people from different walks of life and facilitating a dialogue. They could be people with different backgrounds in the same community, similar backgrounds from different communities and contexts, or some combination of those.

Africa Rising has built a community of innovators with different areas of expertise and from different communities through partnering with fourteen grassroots African organizations.  The organizations have grown to trust each other and are eager to learn from the successes and advice of their peers. Africa Rising facilitates dialogue among these organizations through annual meetings which bring all the partners together. But those brief meetings, as valuable as they are, are no substitute for lengthy conversations on a single topic and seeing the work of another organization first hand by visiting the site.

In response to the strong enthusiasm and request from our partners, Africa Rising is coordinating gatherings to bring together a few of our partners for what we are calling Innovation Meetings.  These visits will be hosted at one of the partner sites and facilitated by a leader in the Africa Rising network.  The gathering is a time to share challenges, program innovations, and discuss the future of each organization’s work. 

The first Innovation Meeting will be in February 2011.  The theme of the meetings is "Transforming Communities through Agriculture Innovations and Food Security."  It will be a highly interactive training and collaboration session at the Eden Center for Appropriate Technology in Tanzania.  The center is run by one of Africa Rising's partner organizations and the meeting will be led by its Director, Joseph Sekiku. 

Other Innovation Meetings planned for 2011 include the topics of Peace and Reconciliation, Education and Caring for Vulnerable Children, Good Business Practices in a Nonprofit Organization, and Women's Legal Rights.