Meeting+1

MINUTES OF CPWF MONTHLY MEETING

Date: June 25, 2010 Venue: DG Conference Room, ILRI Ethiopia Campus Time: 10:30-12:30pm

Participants:
 * Alan Duncan
 * Amare H/Selassie
 * An Notenbaert
 * Askale Worku
 * Deborah Bossio
 * Jemimah Njuki
 * Lisa Maria Rebelo
 * Mathew McCartney
 * Nadia Manning
 * Pamela Pali
 * Peter Ballantyne
 * Ranjitha Puskur
 * Seife Ayele
 * Seleshi Bekele
 * Shirley Tarawali
 * Tsedey Ayalew (Rapporter)
 * Tilahun Amede (Chairperson)

Agenda:
 * 1) Update on the status of contracts and planned activities across projects.
 * 2) The September Nile Launching workshop: what should it look like?
 * 3) Complementarities among projects (within CPWF and with other ongoing projects) and how to ensure good synergy all along
 * 4) Update on recruitments
 * 5) Anything on budgets (as part of the contracting)
 * 6) Update on NBDC communication
 * 7) Field Visit to CPWF sites

Tilahun started the meeting introducing all participants from the Ethiopian side while Seife made that of the Nairobi side. The Nairobi team joined the meeting with a teleconference. In the following introductory remarks made, it was said that the meeting is the first of the planned continuous monthly meetings and that the presence of all proposed participants at the start is an encouraging one.

Suggestion was given that a mailing list should be developed to share all information necessary to all individuals concerned. In addition a 7th item in the agenda was proposed and accepted.

Discussion was held on whether it will be necessary to invite other participants from partner organizations. It was agreed that while the core group shall be limited to the participants involved in this particular meeting, all local and implementing partners, ODI, ICRA, SEI are welcome to attend although the meetings are not meant to create additional burden in all aspect. Minutes of every meeting will be shared to all concerned. Besides all parties involved are to be included in the group using the wiki space. It was also agreed the meeting should be kept as low profile as possible without incurring any additional cost like travelling particularly for this monthly meeting and etc.

1. Update on the Status of Contracts and Planned Activities Across Projects

It was reported that N2 is already contracted and that the MoU and work plans are soon to be finalized. Similarly N5 is contracted expecting for transfer of the first trench of budget with the MoU soon to be finalized. Similar status is reported from Nairobi on N3 as well. Issue was raised regarding formats of subcontracts. It was agreed that similar formats should be used on the MoU and sub-contracting with partners while the deliverable part could differ depending on what they are expected to produce. However it was noted that there could still be some arguable points that would be obstacles to create smooth uniformity. Among those were mentioned the situation where a single partner could be contracted by different projects, the difference between the administration of ILRI and IWMI as N2 & N4 are under the former while N3 & N5 are under the later. Therefore it was decided that Tilahun shall develop a table to fill out and share the list of partners and other necessary information to further sort out ways of designing uniform formats.

2. The September Nile launching Workshop: what should it look like?

The essence of the workshop is said to be introducing the project to the wider public, introducing the CPWF NBDC approaches to the policy makers, share insights emerging from Nile 1 project that was led by Doug Merry with participants, and take time for reflection on what has been done so far by CPWF team. Important personalities like Vice Minister and Ministers of Water and Agriculture Ministries, Advisors to the Prime Minster and the Deputy Prime Minister, Director Generals from the National Research Institutes, CPWF Director, and other national and regional authorities in the agriculture-water sector will be invited.

Suggestion was given that time should be allocated for individual projects meeting that the 28th is agreed to be allocated. The workshop will then run from the 29th when the launching event will take place followed by a reflection workshop on the 30th. Discussion was made on the idea of the essence of reflection session which was said to rather focus on synergies, creating partnerships and ways of working together as there would not be much to reflect on. Moreover it was suggested that in addition to the synthesized knowledge sharing from the N1 project, space should be given to presentations by the four projects for stakeholders and partners to receive feedback, see their reaction on the stated objectives and take inputs. A separate market place type arrangement to introduce each project is also suggested for further consideration.

The remark made from the communication experts has emphasized that the objective of the meeting and the interaction style has to be clearly known. The message to be transmitted on this particular event for partners and stakeholders is supposed to be well designed that unnecessary expectations or over estimations of incidences will not be created. In addition Impact Pathway Mapping by which partners and stakeholders will voice out their thinking on the project and give feedbacks/comments is said to be very important.

Suggestion is made that Tilahun shall design the program and share with the participants of the meeting for comments and amendments. The workshop is assured to take place in Addis Ababa, ILRI Ethiopia Campus.

Note was made that it is important to identify the list of invitees as there will be the AWM solutions and FAO workshop on livelihood mapping in the week of 20-24 that overlapping of participants might be created. This might result in loss of some crucial participants who might come for one of the workshops mentioned but be unable to come back for the CPWF one. Effort shall be made to coordinate with these workshops to work on this issue. Potential list of participants were listed to be from ASARECA, UNEP, Lake Victoria project, CPWF and local ones from Bureaus of Agriculture, influential personalities from regions, Individuals from Ministry of Water and Agriculture, Heads of Offices of Natural Resource, GTZ, CRS, OXFAM USA, SOS Sahel and etc.

3. Complementarities among Projects

Deborah Bossio has made remarks on the potential synergies among the different IWMI projects engaged on the same issue. As was said, there are three major types of stakeholder engagement where activities overlap with CPWF BDC, namely; the National Policy Dialogue where IMAWESA and AWM solutions are involved, the IFAD project phase where result implementation focus is taken and IMAWESA will also be involved and Gender learning Alliance which is said to be an important element with the engagement of AWM Water Solutions. Therefore the general idea is how to integrate the different and scattered activities each of the projects take part both within CPWF and with other on going projects for a better use of resources and coordinated research and implementation. In addition, AWM solutions is doing livelihood mapping, lead by FAO which will be important for N3 team members to closely follow.

Therefore in response to this concern, a solution is suggested to upgrade the National Irrigation Steering Committee to the level of platform to serve as a common integration forum. The committee is said to constitute ministries & NGOs, with IWMI serving at the position of Secretary.

The committee holds symposia every two years to show on its activities. Remark was made that one of the tasks for N5 is to work on coordination and that the September workshop could be a chance to get the framework started. The platform issue was further elaborated that it should be a multi scale one where the first will be at local level consisting of Woreda people, cabinet members etc that would enable reflection and collection of inputs on the ground work. The second one is said to a high level platform engaging concerned officials and policy makers.

4. Update on Recruitment

It was reported that offers are already made for the post doc fellow positions of Hydrologist, Research Economist, and GIS and five local staff members while re advertisement is decided for the post doc fellow position of Agro Ecologist. The interview session for the post doc position of Innovation was held on the 29th of June and decision will be made soon. Kathryn Snyder will be up taking the Social Scientist position and Dr. Sharma Bharat will be the Project Leader for N2.

5. Anything on budgets (as part of the contracting)

One concern mentioned was the management of NRS subcontracts as it will be hard to divide between IWMI & ILRI. Therefore suggestion was given to put/transfer budgeted for NRS to the ILRI system for processing.

6. Update on NBDC Communication

Peter Ballantyne, head of knowledge management and communication at ILRI and Nadia Manning presented draft strategies for 2010 developed to facilitate communication along with the N5 project. The draft for the communication strategy for NBDC is said to be presented on the September workshop. The team has also recognized the importance to work with the CPWF communication team that would be ready and willing to lend support in the ongoing activities. A generic brochure is said to be designed already by the CPWF team. Note was made that although Nadia Manning has now left IWMI, the project would like to deal with her at least until the end of 2010 for these purposes. She will also be handling the facilitation duty for the September workshop.

Focus was given on internal communication that the ILRI communication team has suggested that they will decide and introduce a tool to serve the purpose the soonest possible. This tool is expected to support the core team to interact with each other continually, help the September workshop planning, share minutes or any other important information easily and also help to integrate the idea of document depository. In addition the idea of designing a website with a link to important sites like that of CPWF and IWMI was raised. However a complex and well established site could not be made within such a short time but it was suggested that a start could be made with a blog which shall expand and grow with time. It was decided that a two-pager summary should be produced by each project in the shortest time span to facilitate introduction of the projects.

7. Field Visit

It was reported that two of the three sites are already decided. One is the Fogera site around lake Tana with a mixed crop-livestock systems, predominantly rice-livestock, with high rainfall, multiple institutions are engaged in various activities and has good access to markets and institutional support. Besides the government major actors like NBI, WB, IFAD are also having multiple projects. Second site is the Jeldu site which is characterized by high rainfall, degraded, very few institutions working in the site. GTZ will soon be launching a brand new program for which the Jeldu area is already chosen. Therefore it is hoped that partnering with GTZ will help to fill the need for a show case. Other areas were also considered like that of Nekemte area (Dedessa) where most interest is surfaced in its hydrological aspect and it is a maize –based cropping. It was noted that the third site has to be selected the soonest possible. Options were given that either the team approves one of the alternatives or it could be ruled out for the time being. Therefore the team has decided to take Deddisa as the third site.

The decision will be revised if there happens to be problems faced. Concern was also raised if the sites selected would give fair image of the Nile and that it is not a too narrow angle for the mapping work of N3. It was briefed that the project is directed to strictly stick to the Blue Nile issues and surfaces that the site selection should be in accordance. The level of engagement with each site will be at different level that the size and area of each site is planned to fit. A field visit to the Jeldu site will take place on the 29th of June. Positive responses are reported on collaboration efforts from the Wereda Cabinet, Ambo and Bahirdar Universities. It was noted that much preferable would be to bring the Nairobi team as well for the other site visit trips. Accordingly suggestion is made for Tilahun to design a proposed program and share with the group for confirmation to encompass the majority of the team in the next visit.

While the meeting ended with this, final comments from Nairobi were given that the teleconference was not much effective on their side as it was hard to listen to what is being said from the Addis side. A better communication style, if possible, video supported is suggested for the next time.

Tilahun thanked everyone for the active participation and the meeting was adjourned at 12:30pm.