meeting+12

= NBDC Team Meeting = toc
 * 10 January 2013, 15:00 - 17:00 **


 * ILRI Addis Ababa (DG meeting room 26) **

Agenda

 * Review ** action point tracker **from last meeting
 * Update on work since the **reflection/planning meeting**(and reporting against outcomes)
 * Why do we have to focus on one NBDC and what does in entail in terms of reporting against outputs/outcomes per target audience?
 * What happened since the planning meeting (activities or reflections) about this new way of working?
 * How to go about it and finalize plans and OLM from the planning meeting?
 * Preparing the **stakeholder meeting**: review, brainstorm and suggest:
 * Aims of the meeting (e.g. Showcase past work, Focus for NBDC to consolidate what we have been doing, Get feedback on plans and relevant outcomes – discussion on how to make these more useful/relevant (further analysis, further engagement, what other forums to connect with)
 * Possible building blocks / sessions of that meeting?
 * Who to invite
 * Who will organize this? (small team consisting of Kees, Belay, Doug, Ewen...?)
 * **Round of short updates** **for comms and coordination** (from this meeting on, at every team meeting there will be this short round of updates on STEP: stories, travel, events, publications) and a round of what's up on the NBDC website and wiki.
 * Events and travel plans?
 * Publications?
 * Other stories?
 * New on the web & wiki:
 * **Website:**
 * [|The ‘happy strategies’ game: Matching land and water interventions with community and landscape needs]
 * [|Looking back before moving on: Catherine Pfeifer the NBDC targeting game master]
 * [|Nile Goblet open GIS tool focus for ‘technological innovation’ learning and training event]
 * **Wiki:**
 * **Please update the key contacts list!**
 * Meeting minutes from last team meeting
 * __How tools and process facilitate farmer researcher interaction in NBDC__ (document by Fergus)
 * **Thematic issue for the next meeting**?


 * Next team meeting: ** Thursday 14 February 2013: ** update on planning meeting and preparations of the stakeholder meeting. **

**Check the list of action points and find them in red in the minutes below.**

Action point tracker
Fergus, Alan, Simon and Kiros to discuss handover of ICRAF representation to Kiros. Fergus met with Thor and Lisa to firm up the transfer of data related to land cover. Lisa's happy with prevalence data. Expecting a publication on that in March with SEI. What's still required: 3 elements from the 500 meta resolution data (2000-2012): erosion, forest cover index, ... ? These outputs will be provided by the end of January. Then lower resolution... ??? ,3 meter spatial data, there will be values for areas, for cultivated land, blue water, bare land and forest and savanna and grass land

All this will be produced as one layer to be used for the comparative analysis... available by 31 January and combined with Simon/Mulugeta's socio-economic information to explain trajectories of land use change. Anticipating a (draft) paper on that in June. Fergus will send an email to all about this. Simon asking to get this to An, Lisa, Simon, Alan, Randall etc.

The local knowledge training kit is funded through food security funding project, some Ethiopian and Rwandan people use the knowledge base system method which will be an experience to consolidate the knowledge from Fogera, Jeldu and Tigray in the Africa rising project. Local knowledge systems methods to be integrated... an experienced researcher should contribute to this. If anyone is interested about the AKT methodology, there will be a training course in the first fortnight of February. It is two ways hands on training from the field. Fergus to share information about this on the wiki to be shared with NBDC/CPWF/AfricaRISING.

Email from Fergus for more information about this: //Tor, Lisa and I met today to clarify progress and set a schedule for completion. The results were as follows: //

// The classes will be derived by applying thresholds on probability indices for each class (e.g. >75% probability of forest is classed as forest) and for pixels where more than one class is present picking the dominant one (that with the highest probability). The composite layer produced will be used by Mulugeta, Simon and others for comparative analyses of land use change in relation to hydrology and interventions in different parts of the basin and by Lisa, combining with socio-economic data to explain development trajectories. A manuscript on the latter is expected by end of June 2013. //
 * 1) //Lisa is happy with the 500m resolution 2011 erosion prevalence data for the basin already provided by ICRAF. She has passed them on to colleagues in SEI (Stockholm Environment Institute) who will use them together with other data to model extrapolation domains for RWM strategies. The state-of-the-art methods used to generate erosion prevalence can be referenced to a published article (currently in review). A research report, that Lisa and An will lead the writing of, is expected by end of March (incl. ICRAF co-authors). We would expect this to then be converted into a journal article. //
 * 2) //Four other MODIS products will be provided at 500m resolution annually from 2000-2012 for the basin and will be used by Lisa to look at development trajectories and fire dynamics, likely in dialogue with Tor and Leigh. These will be available by 31st January 2013 and are as follows. //
 * 3) //Erosion prevalence //
 * 4) //Forest cover index //
 * 5) //EVI phenology //
 * 6) //Soil carbon //
 * 7) //In addition to the MODIS derived products, a composite Landsat derived product of a single layer summarizing land cover across the basin will be produced at 30m resolution for three time points; 1986-1991, 2000 and 2005 (Landsat function degrades from 2007). This will be produced by 31st January 2013 and will classify pixels as being either: //
 * 8) //Cultivated land //
 * 9) //Bare land //
 * 10) //Forest //
 * 11) //Woody savanna //
 * 12) //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Grassland, or //
 * 13) //<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Water //

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Scientists using the data will dialogue with ICRAF in the use of the data and offer opportunities for involvement as co-authors in derived outputs. All use of data will be fully acknowledged. //

//<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Tor and Lisa may wish to check that my summary is correct, but the upshot is that we are in a good position to complete the spatial data analysis and interpretation in the first half of the year with exciting and novel products coming on stream. //

About the planning/implementation baseline study from N2, the draft working paper is.

Round of updates since planning meeting?
At the planning meeting we looked at products, capacities and networks to mobilize. Fergus started the process of mapping all products etc. with Mulugeta, Simon, Beth etc. to think about what we're generating and to think about how to package them in bigger groupings. At the November meeting we had a strong focus on OLMs and discovered this common OLM. We worked in groups to think about the target groups.

What we did from November meeting up to now is:
 * There was lots of background discussion about the future NBDC
 * We discussed about basins,
 * 6 months report should be put in the wiki
 * Primary data and analysis to provide research further analysis
 * Next time we will look through stakeholder meetings
 * Mapping out the data, we are thinking about what we are generating and how we could package them
 * Who will use the data
 * How to change the data in different domains
 * We developed some ideas to influence the CPWF and NBDC actors, planners, policy makers, farmers, etc.
 * We need to focus on output that leads to outcome, to do that we need to assess the research has been done in different projects and how that can be linked in policy levels

After that meeting we had a lot of momentum but didn't capitalize on this. Rather than let this drift, we thought it'd be good to turn this reflection into concrete actions for 2013. We need a group to work on the OLMs and action plans we developed in November. There are actor groups and outcomes and then the outputs etc. Ewen and Doug will consolidate some of the products that NBDC has been generating and will help to think about this. We can then think about how these two perspectives connect. This also echoes the stakeholder workshop. It's about assessing what we have now and how we can turn this into convincing evidence and products, combining these different elements.

Who could be part of this group: Ewen, Belay, Simon, Katherine, Beth, Kees, Doug, Randall as an observer. Belay is interested in finding out what are the policy discussions in the Ethiopian political arena to find out what is relevant from NBDC for policy-makers etc. Ewen to organize meeting at end of next week.

Cathy Farnworth is involved in NBDC gender work. What are outcomes of work we have been doing and should we not have a gender lens onto it? What are the gender issues in this and possible implications? There is been a gender audit going on by Limpopo and Volata, Pamela was working on the ideas to be worked on Limpopo

Alan will forward the gender checklist from Cathy Farnworth to Pamela asap.

Preparing the stakeholder workshop
In November we said it was going to be a 2-day workshop on 20-21 February. On the back of this would be the national platform (either on 22 or on 21 if we need only 1 day for the stakeholder meeting.)

It's our final year, we have partners who are hopefully going to use our research. We hope to get their feedback on how to make our research and products more useful & relevant to them? What bits are useful or not - what can we pass on to research institutes, communities etc.?
 * What could be the aims of the workshop?**
 * There will be a dissemination workshop at the end of the project with most results ready. Some modeling requires integration and that is not yet ready. Do we have anything to present at all? We could present current plans and get feedback about this.
 * We have some research products and practices implemented + exemplary results from stakeholder groups. How to package those outputs to different target stakeholders at local / national / intermediary level? We have to synthesise and package for the workshop.
 * There are things we couldn't do and we should show this.
 * Make sure that all stakeholders understand what happened in the project so far - it may not be clear. e.g. synthesizing the outputs of different components.
 * Get a clear understanding about results but also process lessons etc.
 * Identify tools/processes that
 * Ensure relevance of our outputs
 * Engage policy makers around key results for policy
 * Share what we have done
 * Get feedback from stakeholders about what they can or can't use from our work for the rest of the year


 * Who to invite?**
 * All TWG members, line ministries and bureaus etc.
 * The ones that used to come + emerging participants?
 * IP members from local level to be part of the broader stakeholder group
 * Regional actors (the missing link) and local communities e.g. have them present the work they've done at IP level, Wat-A-Game etc.
 * IP / IP coordinators to be brought into this discussion. This will require translation in 3 different languages.
 * Policy makers and influencers
 * NGOs (international and Ethiopian ones) who are likely to take up the results
 * Key donors?
 * Focus on people who are the insiders / friends of NBDC or who have potential to bring this forward.
 * Observers from other basins? E.g. Funke and Amy? And/or Karen Greenough?
 * Invite C. Pfeifer to present some of her work?

How would we want to present the NBDC to different actor groups? Integrate feedback throughout the meeting.
 * Agenda / possible building blocks or sessions?**
 * Framing session about the history of the project and what each component developed
 * Look at tools, methods, processes to get their feedback on / how we can tailor those things
 * Explore initial ideas about sustainability issues...
 * Distil out lessons at different levels
 * Discussion between the different levels
 * We are going to merge in to the national platform and stakeholder meeting in to an event ?
 * Possible sessions:
 * Local IPs / collective action and institutional change, based on conclusions about this
 * Tools such as PV, Wat-A-Game, Happy Strategies
 * Planning and implementation processes (linking scales)
 * Modeling
 * Validation of different scenarios and scaling
 * Suitability maps?
 * Influencing practice at local level and policy at national level (consider power and interest)
 * Influencing decision making
 * Building local capacities of researchers etc.
 * Future engagement over the final months of the project
 * Experience of the NP in the NBDC...
 * Students' work / poster session?
 * Tools

2 days probably, depending on the agenda. 2 days and we merge the 2 (stakeholder + NP meeting together, as a mega national platform meeting with focus on NBDC).
 * Do we need 1 or 2 days?**

Belay could be involved in organizing this in relation with the bigger picture. The team could consist of: Alan, Belay and Simon to review list of possible participants and to share it with all. All to identify possible showcasing products/outputs/approaches/lessons to showcase those and share with **Ewen** by 13 Jan. Small organizing group to share agenda in 2 weeks' time.
 * Who to organize this?**
 * Kees
 * Ewen

__Comments about suggestions made__:
 * Use this forum to get our RWM scenarios validated by the stakeholders for N4.
 * About the different audiences and actors to influence. It would be important to mix up these actors too and get these levels to interact.
 * In October-November we will need to have a wider crowd to run with the results.
 * We may have different objectives in Oct-Nov. e.g. separate platform meetings? Basin-wide space to share results?

__Full discussion of the 'skype group' about this__

 * Wondering about how we could use the MSc to generate
 * [15:58:43] Amanda Harding: Agree with Simon - chance to get focus on emerging results and ensuer their relevance
 * [15:58:43] Pamela Pali: information on how useful the research has been
 * [15:59:13] Josephine Tucker: aims that come to my mind: (i) engage policy makers around key results that have policy implications - discussion of what they mean and what could be done in response
 * [15:59:21] Amanda Harding: So - presence of partners really important - but need right one
 * [15:59:36] Josephine Tucker: (ii) share what we have done with partners who may wish to take up aspects of the work after end of the project
 * [15:59:47] Pamela Pali: So do we engage the partners whom we habe been working with??
 * [15:59:54] Josephine Tucker: also agree with pamela - good to reflect on what has changed so far
 * [16:00:00] Amanda Harding: Worth keeping in mind that we had planned another bigger meeting end of the year
 * [16:00:18] Josephine Tucker: yes... so this one helps get people interested in that one??
 * [16:00:23] Amanda Harding: exactly
 * [16:00:38] Amanda Harding: could organise thinking about actor groups
 * [16:00:50] Amanda Harding: and our emerging results in those terms
 * [16:00:59] Amanda Harding: plus invitation list in those terms
 * [16:01:04] Pamela Pali: if we plan another meeting at the end of the year then there is a need to e very systematics in whom we invite now and then yes actor groups - yes
 * [16:01:23] Amanda Harding: but would suggest bringing in people with some knowledge of NBDC at this point - not total outsiders
 * [16:01:46] Josephine Tucker: consider inviting regional people as we are interested in kickstarting more engagement regional level (not sure to what extent they have already been involved though)?
 * [16:02:10] Josephine Tucker: bring some people from IPs/communities to share their experiences?
 * [16:02:10] Amanda Harding: agree - especially as recognition that regional level is missing link so far
 * [16:02:22] Amanda Harding: and this is where 'utility' - relevance question comes in
 * [16:02:57] Amanda Harding: what would happen if we modeled a local IP meeting in Addis - demonstrated to wider audience how an IP meeting works
 * [16:03:03] Amanda Harding: just thinking outloud
 * [16:03:09] Pamela Pali: It would also be good to have an assessment of the partners about what they perceive has been the usefulness of the project research results.
 * [16:03:12] Amanda Harding: bring local reality to addis
 * [16:03:36] Fergus Sinclair: for some reason peoples chat is flashing up but the dissappearing for me - trying to change settings so that I can follow what's gooing on better
 * [16:03:42] Josephine Tucker: we could maybe demonstrate something like the wat-a-game which is being used by IPs and communities
 * [16:04:10] Amanda Harding: with local voices - if this would not be tokenistic
 * [16:04:38] Amanda Harding: demonstrate shift in informed decision making approches
 * [16:04:46] Pamela Pali: Bringing in communities and community members would present language challenges rather have a n IP facilitator being invited to the meeting and then he or she will provide feedback during the next local IP meetings
 * [16:04:55] Amanda Harding: which then gets mirrored in national IP following day
 * [16:04:56] Josephine Tucker: for the final event we would definitely like to bring in local voices substantively to discuss how change may follow this work and what needs to happen at different scales. question is how far we do it during this event
 * [16:05:35] Josephine Tucker: we could rather have just facilitators and model the game with other stakeholders so they put themselves in the shoes of local actors
 * [16:05:45] Amanda Harding: yup - that would also be good
 * [16:05:56] Pamela Pali: yes i agree
 * [16:06:15] Amanda Harding: also - how far could we organise results along actor groups
 * [16:09:41] Amanda Harding: Workshop aims: (i) engage policy makers around key results that have policy implications - discussion of what they mean and what could be done in response ii) share what we have done with partners who may wish to take up aspects of the work after end of the project iii) validate with group that NBDC is "on target" based on what is emerging and where we hope to get
 * [16:10:15] Josephine Tucker: could one of you summarise to the group? my mic is not working :(
 * [16:10:29] Amanda Harding: Pamela?
 * [16:14:54] Pamela Pali: ya
 * [16:14:57] Pamela Pali: yes
 * [16:15:12] Fergus Sinclair: I think we need to consider scale and audiences carefully - if there is a regional focus then a video of wat-a-game being used - and presentation of what its impact has been - what perspectives changed, what new information was exchanged etc might be better than mounting what would be a strange use of the game - a little bit like the participants being an exhibit at the zoo ?
 * [16:15:42] Josephine Tucker: video is a good idea, yes
 * [16:16:05] Amanda Harding: yes agree
 * [16:17:19] Josephine Tucker: would need subtitles i guess!
 * [16:29:43] Amanda Harding: Agree with Katherine - spaces for them to mix and spaces for them to be together - also mix scales
 * [16:30:12] Amanda Harding: Ewen getting excited :)
 * [16:50:45] Amanda Harding: Would like to add - gender session with Cathy giving initial conclusions and asking for feedback
 * [16:51:16] Pamela Pali: I do agree with that but with a focus on
 * [16:51:20] Amanda Harding: Plus - all session are clear what they are pointing to, e.g. tools session because … contribution to specific outcomes
 * [16:51:56] Pamela Pali: how we could take gender forward int he future
 * [16:52:15] Amanda Harding: exactly - so analysis from interviews plus pointing to future
 * [16:53:28] Pamela Pali: i wonder if we should also check the OLM against our showcases

Round of updates
Don Peden's contract to renew.
 * **S**tories to share on the web or wiki?
 * (Kees) Confirmation of A. Vidal that RIU will be financed this year. 90% of funding. Don Peden developed a brief about this. Kees keen to see how to integrate this more with NBDC.
 * (Teklu) 4 of 6 MSc students have defended their thesis. 2 got excellent results, 2 didn't yet submit + modeling work on systems productivity (Amare & Charlotte - abstract accepted for workshop presentation in engineering workshop in Feb.).
 * Simon on Wat-A-Game: December workshop in Fogera to look at landscape-wide strategies. 2nd workshop in February to use it to test these strategies and look into free grazing. Learning event could be organised around this in early Feb. Kees, Beth and Zelalem to discuss this.
 * Kebebe working with Kindie and Randall on integrated modeling + Innovation diagnosis paper and livestock water productivity - results are ready.
 * **T**ravel plans and events to attend?
 * Simon: Basin leader meeting in Pretoria 24-27 Jan.
 * Teklu mid-Feb to Muscat
 * **E**vents and seminars anyone might want to give/organize?
 * N/A
 * **P**ublications in the pipeline?
 * WWWeek publications - Ewen to check with Simon
 * Possible publication emerging from Fergus et al.'s work on spatial data analysis
 * __New on the web & wiki__: **see above.**

Other updates
No thematic issue for next meeting, it's too close to the stakeholder meeting.