The workshop process was developed by the main organisers with the assistance of a professional facilitator. A ´Process Committee‘ consisting of the facilitator, the main organisers and some participants met every evening to discuss the course of the day and required adjustments in programme and focus. 

The desired objectives and outputs were to be reached through key inputs on the main topics from paper presentations and subsequent focused discussion of issues in working groups in an interactive way. 
 

The high number of participants (>80) limited the interaction between participants in plenary sessions. Most of the discussions, therefore, were held in up to five working groups moderated by voluntary facilitators nominated at the beginning of the workshop and briefed by the main facilitator. The workgroup results were shared and briefly synthesised in plenary. 

3.1 Workshop methodology 

Mobile visualisation 

All the discussions held in the workshop were visualised with cards, the Metaplan method. This mobile visualisation helps to structure group processes and discussions. 

Introduction of participants 

Participants were asked to form groups of about 8 people and introduce themselves in these small groups through questions related to personal and professional issues. Instead of a plenary session, posters with these details were made and put up on the walls so that this information was available to everyone. 

Paper presentations 

For each of the three themes, three invited papers were presented in plenary and briefly discussed. After the presentation of the three papers, participants were asked to brainstorm on the key issues within the main themes, which need to be addressed to enhance the spreading of conservation tillage. These issues were clustered under sub-topics which were then discussed in working groups. 

 Working groups 

Participants were split into working groups according to their interest in the sub-topics. The groups on technologies and approaches for dissemination explored constraints to the spread of contill, potential strategies to overcome the constraints, and practical activities or steps to introduce such strategies. For the third theme, policy issues were explored in regional groups (Eastern Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Latin America and North America). The favouring and hindering policy factors for contill were identified in these regions and suggestions for policy changes to facilitate the spread of contill made. Each group then prepared a presentation on their findings. 

Sharing of workgroup results through 'market stands' 

The group results were shared through presentations on ‘market stands’. Each group prepared a stand and presented it to other participants. In total 4 rounds of up to 30 minutes presentations and discussions, each time by different presenters of the working groups allowed the members of all 5 working groups to share with all groups. A lively interaction took place and comments from the discussions were added to the results. After the sharing a brief plenary session explored the commonalities and the main differences between the groups. 

Individual action plans and future networking 

Towards the end of the workshop participants were asked to meet in country groups to elaborate on individual and country-based action plans. Out of the list of activities which were generated in the workgroups participants chose certain activities which they wanted to commit themselves to strengthen the dissemination and adoption of contill in their countries. In the same workgroups participants analysed the need for future networking in order to add value to their own work. An inventory of and experiences with existing networks were explored. Suggestions on the mode of operation of a potential network were made and a country liaison person was nominated. The results were discussed in plenary. 

Next steps 

The next steps were discussed in plenary and a working group mandated by the workshop to work out the terms of reference etc. of a future network. 

Workshop evaluation 

A workshop evaluation was carried out by a ranking of different criteria (atmosphere, results/content, workshop process, facilitation, workshop organisation) with self-adhesive dots on a pre-structured board. 
 

Besides the main workshop programme, a variety of opportunities were used to exchange experiences. An ‘open space’ (mainly in the evenings) was created where people could make presentations, show videos, exhibit and discuss posters etc. A ‘tools bazaar’ allowed participants to display their materials. Meetings of the working group on the ‘Guidelines for ecologically sound tillage practices’ were carried out every evening in order to further develop these guidelines. An excursion to rural areas of Zimbabwe on the second day was supposed to harmonise the different perspectives on conservation tillage and the respective smallholder environment in the Southern African region.