N2+Discussion+on+Innovations+22+Sept+2010

Notes on meeting of 22 Sept 2010
Change 3. Innovations group Present: Alan, Zelalem, Seife, Eva, Bharat, Alemayehu

- Overall MoUs with each organization: Ambo Uni, Nekempte Uni, Bahir Dar University, ARARI, OARI, NGO’s, BoARD (??) - Specific research agreements on annual rolling basis to cover specific activities. Budgets depend on activities to be undertaken
 * Partners**: we need to develop mechanisms for engagement.

We already have a light assessment. Need to do something a bit more thorough on actor configuration/interaction. Will have training workshop with national partners followed by period of field work followed by analysis workshop. Training w/s 3 or 4 days. Nov 1-4 (note: subsequently agreed Nov 8-11th). Eva/Josie to take lead on developing training schedule. Would include a couple of days of training followed by some field work practice. ILRI, IWMI to feed in their training needs. Participants would be field partners: Would need to have identified the researchers by then. Need to work out how to identify quality people. Do we have two teams – one for Amhara and one for Oromiya. Or do we have one team from Addis Ababa University. Could also have a team leader from Addis Ababa University and have team members from the local universities. Or maybe better to use either Kebebe or Alemayehu. Kebebe and Alemayehu could do prior visit to Ambo, Nekemte, Bahir Dar Universities, ARARI, OARI, Holetta to assess their capacity to become involved. Field work to happen in Nov/Dec leading to preliminary baseline report by Dec 2010. Then arrange analysis workshop in Jan/Feb leading to final report by April 2011. Actor diagnosis. Interactions. Incentives. Policies. Resource flow. Political economy Need to develop checklist before the training workshop. First cut from ODI (by mid-October) with further inputs from other partners to arrive at final version by end of Oct. Could use visualizing software to map actors. Need to work out whether this is something we want to get into.
 * Baseline characterization**

Learning and practice alliances: could have one LPA but with different subgroups – e.g. NRM and market orientation sub-groups. LPA’s need to avoid starting a complete new adventure by aligning any new LPA with existing structures to increase likelihood that they will be sustained after the project. Identification of existing networks should be part of the diagnosis. ODI to join meeting on Tue 28th 9.30 – 10.30 – set up skype link (Tseday: could you arrange please?). Skypename: eva.ludi
 * LPA's**