1- Why this award?

The award is created under the aegis of the Integrated Rural Development Support Program in Africa, funded by Misereor. The Prize aims to raise awareness, encourage and motivate, as well as generate interest in farmer creativity and innovation that can leave measurable impacts in Africa’s sustainable agricultural and food systems. It is conceived and designed to respond to three (3) fundamental elements in the life of our organization. These include:

• To pay tribute to Philippe DUBIN (biography attached), a clergyman, engineer and first Managing Director of INADES-Formation, who has been working in Africa for over thirty years to improve the living conditions of farming communities and promote an agriculture that enables them to live in dignity and respects their values. He is one of the French Jesuits who have contributed to the development of Africa through the training of intellectuals and the formation of the rural world. He worked to set up and promote correspondence courses through his position as Director of Courses at the Institut Africain pour le Développement Economique et Social (INADES) (1968), and Director of the INADES African Training Centre (1962-1972). In recognition of his commitment to serving the rural world and developing the agricultural economy, he was awarded a distinction by President Félix Houphouët Boigny of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. He was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur and the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de Côte d’Ivoire.
• Promote innovation for African family farming, the only way to ensure the development of sustainable, localized food systems that respect biodiversity, the climate, human and animal health and, last but not least, the men and women who practise it. It contributes to the realization of the ” One Health ” concept, an integrated and unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems.
• To reward and publicize initiatives by African farmers’ organizations in the countries where INADES-Formation operates, in favor of innovation and recognition of their work for humanity.

2- Who can apply?

The organizations eligible for the Prize will be :

• Farmers’ organizations such as cooperatives, producers’ associations or producers’ groups;
• Umbrella organizations or cooperatives (second-tier) with close links to grassroots organizations.

To be eligible for the Prize, organizations must:

• Be located and legally recognized in one of the regions or countries covered by INADES-Formation in paragraph 5;
• Have been in existence for at least two years and be able to prove its legal status;
• Provide proof of membership and services actually rendered to members or the community.

3- Scope and covered by the award

In line with Philippe Dubin’s commitments and achievements in Africa, and in keeping with INADES-Formation’s values and objectives, innovation must primarily aim to produce sustainable change(s).

Change can be socio-economic and cultural. It can also be organizational, political and environmental. It can take place within the actors of change themselves, but must also lead to an improvement in people’s living conditions (impact).

The prize will be highly sensitive to innovations that have a strong potential for change. In addition, it is vital that this change should be sustainable and scalable, to increase the potential long-term impact of solutions.

Three types of innovation are accepted:

Level 1 “Adaptation of an existing innovative solution”: initiative to adapt an alreadỳ existing innovation in another country, or region, to a new environment or context.

Every field is unique, and implementing an innovation in another country, another culture, another geographical area or another social or political context requires a fundamental adaptation phase.

Level 2 “Improvement of an existing innovative solution”: an initiative that substantially improves an existing innovation.

From generation to generation, methods, techniques, human sciences and pure sciences, technologies, ways of thinking and social norms have all been cumulatively improved.

Level 3 “New solution”: initiative to create a solution that didn’t exist before.

Creating from the void is possible. Any solution with one or more significantly new elements is really necessary to build a better world. Think of elements of a solution that have never been used or developed elsewhere.

Eligible themes and types of action:

• Climate change resilience actions :

• • Raising awareness and training individuals in agroecology and adaptation to climate change, including political actors
  • Recognition and capitalization of the practices and knowledge of women, young people and local populations
  • Promoting local markets and short distribution channels
  • Women’s participation in the governance of natural resources

• Actions on Sustainable Food Systems

• • Development of sustainable techniques and practices (production, processing, marketing, consumption);
  • Technical training activities for individuals and partners on the circular economy and local consumption;
  • Organizational strengthening of communities, cooperatives and small businesses;
  • Development, dissemination and appropriation of food guides based on local practices, knowledge and customs;
  • Support for advocacy at local level for agricultural and nutritional policies that support agroecology;
  • Development of ecological entrepreneurship in the food and agricultural supply chain.

• Actions on organizational systems and services upstream and downstream of production, promoting sustainable agriculture/agroecology

A candidate farmers’ organization may present an initiative on one or more of the above-mentioned themes.

Initiatives finalized within the last three years (2022-2024) or currently underway are eligible. Initiatives still in progress must be at a sufficiently advanced stage of completion for initial results to be presented.

4- Innovation assessment criteria

The general criteria for evaluating the initiative carried out by the PO are as follows:

• General relevance of the proposed initiative to promote sustainable family farming with regard to (a) the local situation and (b) the three (3) proposed themes;
• Quality of actions undertaken (perceived relevance) ;
• Results and impact: benefits derived by members of the farmers’ organization from the proposed actions;
• Results and impact: benefits derived by other local players or stakeholders from the proposed actions;
• Results and impact: benefits derived by young people and women from the actions undertaken (positive changes noted and/or observed in these target groups);
• Sustainability of actions implemented ;
• Possibility of scaling up or replicating the initiative.

5- Eligible countries

For the first edition, the eligible countries selected will be those covered by INADES-Formation, namely: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Chad and Togo.

6- Nature of prices

A panel of judges will select a first prize of €5,000 and a trophy . two other winners, each with a prize of €2,500. These prizes will enable the winners to pursue their innovation.

In addition to these financial endowments, ad-hoc communication will be provided in the country of origin of the winning farmers’ organizations and in the country where the prize is awarded, to give visibility to these organizations and their initiatives (dedicated page on the INADES-Formation and partner websites, publications on social networks). The awards will be presented at the International General Meetings.

7- Price management steps

The following 6 steps must be followed to manage the price:

• Step 1: Call for applications
• Stage 2: Selection of applications
• Step 3: Evaluation of applications
• Step 4: Committee meeting (selection of winners)
• Stage 5: The awards ceremony
• Step 6: Dissemination and scaling.

8- Composition of the evaluation panel

The jury will be responsible for ranking the entries to determine the 3 prizewinners. It will be made up of 5 members, with recognized experience in promoting the work of POs and improving their living conditions, and chaired by a well-known figure in these fields. It will be made up of men and women.

Jury members are appointed by the Awards Secretariat, on the basis of proposals submitted by members of the Support Committee and relay partners. Each member undertakes to have no personal links with the candidate organizations. Jury members will not rate projects from their country of origin. The composition of the jury may change from time to time.

If a conflict of interest is detected, the Jury will cancel the application. This formal mechanism makes it possible to declare any potential conflict of interest to ensure transparency.

Areas of expertise

• Type
• Agroecology and the environment
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Innovation/technology
• Project/admin/finance management

Institutions

• Misereor/CCFD (monitoring and evaluation)
• FAO/BAD/ARAA (Innovation/technology)
• Ministry of Agriculture (Presidency – Agroecology and Environment)
• INADES-Formation alumni (Project management/admin/finance)
• Networks and platforms (gender)

NB: 30% women to be observed

9- Prize organization and management bodies

9.1. The Prize Support Committee This committee brings together INADES-Formation and a number of partners committed to working with INADES-Formation to support the organization, financing and communication of the Award. Volunteer partners may be asked by the Awards secretariat to join the jury.

9.2. The Prize Secretariat is provided by the INADES-Formation General Secretariat. It will be responsible for the overall organization of the award and relations with all partners. In conjunction with these partners, he or she will help to publicize the prizewinning initiatives and those nominated by the jury, at events showcasing farmers’ organizations in each country and internationally.

9.3 Award relay partners: are the INADES-Formation national offices. They provide the link between the Prize secretariat and the candidates in the country. The relay partner will be responsible for publicizing the Prize, collecting applications from farmers’ organizations and forwarding the applications to the Prize secretariat. Working in conjunction with the Prize secretariat, they will help to ensure that the Prize is widely publicized, and to promote the winning and nominated farmers’ organizations.

10- How to apply

For this first edition of the award, the call for candidates will be issued by the General Secretariat (GS) and the National Offices, in each of the countries of intervention, in January 2025. Farmers’ organizations wishing to submit an application should contact these 2 entities (SG and/or national offices), which will provide them with the information they need to compile a file. National offices may also invite applications from farmers’ organizations.

The application file must include :

• a document attesting to the legal recognition of the applicant organization;
• a file including:
  • i/ a presentation of the organization (1 page maximum) and
  • ii/ a presentation of their initiative (5 pages maximum) – according to the format set out in Appendix 3 of these rules and downloadable from the INADES-Formation website;
• one or more photos illustrating the initiative (high quality, in jpeg format), video links ;
• a document concerning image rights.

Applications must be sent before July 15, 2025 at 5:30 pm GMT to the following e-mail address: prixphilippedubin@inadesfo.net. In the subject line, please indicate ” Prix Philippe Dubin “, the country of application and the name of the PO.

Abidjan (Ivory Coast), May 06, 2025

INADES-Formation General Secretariat

Appendix: Short biography of Philippe DUBIN

Father Philippe DUBIN, son of Charles Dubin and Colette Persin, was born in Paris on August 13, 1934, and was a renowned clergyman and engineer. After prestigious studies at École Polytechnique, Collège des Carmes and École Sainte-Geneviève, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1958. Ordained a priest in 1966, he devoted over 20 years to INADES-Formation, guiding this institution towards major development projects in Africa. His commitment goes beyond the institutional framework: he is an inspiring teacher at the Catholic University of Central Africa, renowned for his passion and commitment to his students. Knight of the Legion of Honor, his legacy continues to resonate in the lives he touched. Father DUBIN passed away on September 18, 2009 at the age of 75, but his spirit lives on in the values he passed on and the projects he initiated.