Ms. Abegel A. Joson, Assistant Focal Person of RAFEN, presenting the overview of the activity on March 28, 2019 at North Stellar Hotel, Batac City, Ilocos Norte.
BATAC CITY, Ilocos Norte- With the general aim to plan for the assessment of the program “Timpuyog idiay Away, Dur-as inna Iburay”, the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Network (RAFEN), through the leadership of the Agricultural Training Institute- Regional Training Center 1 (ATI-RTC 1), conducted the Calendar Year (CY) 2019-RAFEN 1st Quarterly Meeting on March 28-29, 2019 at North Stellar Hotel and Events Place, Batac City, Ilocos Norte.
The two-day activity also aimed to review updates on 2018 agreements, present 2018 accomplishments, discuss 2019 projects and activities including the schedule of monitoring, and device monitoring and evaluation tool for RAFEN projects and interventions.
The activity employed learning methods such as presentation, discussion, and workshops. Highlight of the meeting was the formulation of monitoring and evaluation tool which will be used for the RAFEN 1 projects and interventions in the Timpuyog Program.
Since the program started, several interventions have been delivered to the pilot sites. Hence, it is necessary to assess the projects if these were effective or created an immediate impact to the beneficiaries. The result of the assessment will serve as a springboard to expand the project in other sites.
Other agreements made were the schedule of monitoring and evaluation to each of the pilot sites, schedule of 2019 capacity building for RAFEN focal persons, and the agencies assigned to lead each of the planned activities. These projects and activities include the Training on Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation (RBME) and the 6th RAFEN 1 Symposium, among others.
“Let’s do it! The RAFEN Uno way!”- A tagline which Ms. Abegel Joson, Assistant Focal Person of RAFEN, said as she presented the overview of the activity to encourage the RAFEN focal persons to be of continued effort of improving the services of the network.
On its three years of existence, RAFEN 1 has been initiatively sustaining its desire of improving the lives of the people in the community especially in rural areas. Furthermore, the network responds to the needs of its clients and is focused on creating tangible outputs in the community specifically to the marginalized sectors.
The activity was facilitated by ATI-RTC 1 staff, spearheaded by Dr. Rogelio C. Evangelista, Center Director of ATI-RTC 1, and Dr. Melinda F. Mangabat, Asssistant Center Director of ATI-RTC 1.
The second quarter meeting of RAFEN is agreed to be conducted on June 25-27, 2019 at DA-RFO 1, San Fernando City, La Union.