Meeting+10

= NBDC Team Meeting = toc 8 November 2012 15:00 - 17:00 ILRI Addis Ababa (Room 54)

Agenda
15:00
 * Updates from each team
 * NBDC highlight?

See action points at bottom of this page.

Minutes
We have these meetings every month.

N2 update
Beth has been working on a photo film training for next week - partly for M&E purposes (participatory photography) and as a knowledge sharing tool. Aberra, Zelalem, Kindu and Gerba will be attending it. Working with Mulugeta on AfroMaison project to develop the 'wat-a-game' tool. Trying to organize a workshop in December to develop the game.Will take Fogera as a case study. Submitted the PV report to CPWF. This is done as part of an UNEP project. Photofilms can also be used as extension tools, linking local and national levels. PV has been very useful as a tool in Fogera but it's not necessarily right everywhere. We're struggling with time and PV is time-intensive. We're generating learning about methodologies we can use.
 * Q: Difference between photo films and PV?
 * A: The former are not video. They're less time/resource-intensive. PV is very costly and used for empowerment.
 * Q: When we organize field days, we invite media which also take videos etc. How different is this from media work?
 * A: It's not just a comms tool. It's not just to communicate our work to the press, it can be built as part of the research process. e.g. we hand cameras to DAs and they collect visual evidence of progress. We hope that with easily digestible information, our work with IPs will be easier to understand. It also puts a face to the farmers we work with. It can also help farmer-to-farmer interactions.

Comments: Try and get Haile to discuss with you and integrate activities from //Research into Use// project. IP action has started in 2012 with very minimal money and time. The aspiration to continue the experiment is there with farmers and other stakeholders. There's no awareness of budget shortage on their end. The level of facilitation by NBDC in IP processes was reduced and we're building capacity of local facilitators but it's not only about IP but about integrated action research. We need to see their capacity in that area so they can lead research in those areas.
 * Zelalem / Aberra**:
 * Working with Aberra on IPs in Diga (6th IP meeting). Coordinating with the CPWF RIU project on termites. Facilitating farmers to participate in field day.
 * Been to Fogera. Not seen fodder development on site. Working on bringing in key research partners e.g. Bahir Dar Uni, Regional Research Institutes etc. to provide more technical input into forage interventions. Also building relations with woreda staff.
 * Preparing facilitation of Jeldu site (coming Sunday field day) and IP meeting on Monday.
 * Working on Afro Maison project on Wat-a-Game.
 * Preparing training for local facilitators (Hundee, Mekane Yesus, Ethiowetlands) to be trained on facilitation and community participation.
 * Q: Anything we could learn from the recent field day?
 * A: I wasn't part of it. Kees: Inter-cropping trials and all bean trials failed. Haile went there and saw that termites didn't attack trials - perhaps attacks come at a different stage. Do we need to adapt our approach? This year's focused on reviewing trials, what went well or not, review data etc. and plan what we can do next year. We need to integrate our stakeholder collaboration in Diga a lot more. No security on funding for 2013. Then we'd have more money for stakeholder collaboration. The field day was successful, farmer groups were set up.

Kees: Laurens Klerkx (WUR) has a student who's interested in research on facilitating local platforms. He could come in Jan-Feb with a conceptual framework and support the work or evaluate our support in IPs. Laurens Klerkx and Ewen are leading the first issue of the KM4Dev journal in 2013 on facilitating multi-stakeholder processes. As part of CCAFS social learning work, IDS will be organizing an event in May 2013 looking among others at local capacity to facilitate multi-stakeholder processes.

We (NBDC) need to generate some credible evidence as to whether or not IPs are worthwhile and whether they bring any impact. Alan, Beth and Kees will participate to an event in December/January looking at the IP work across ILRI. We need to monitor/evaluate these processes. Laurens can help/support this work - let's wait for his answer.

ODI has been doing some of that work with Aklilu on this. Let's hear what Josie has to say about it. The assessment of platforms, political economy etc. are looked into by Aklilu.

N3 update

 * Gebre has results from hh survey
 * Catherine out in training
 * Working on feedback loops
 * Around for the planning meeting but in parallel with domain meeting (people have been doing some work on domain maps e.g. Mats, Jens, Lisa) - figuring out how to split/streamline.
 * Week after planning meeting, final meeting with partners on Tue.
 * One question about the learning event to discuss with Kees.

N4 update

 * Teklu busy with students on soil erosion and sedimentation and on crop-water productivity in Jeldu and Diga. Impressive results.
 * Almost completing a draft paper on productivity of vertisols. Hoping to share with Charlotte/Amare by end of this week.
 * We have a bulk of soil data from the Abay basin. It's 10-12 years old but we don't have that in a digital or mapping format. It's scattered and not easy to refer to. We recruited an intern to develop each important soil parameter for the whole basin. Should have this ready by January. Identifying determinants is critical to guide interventions.
 * Amare's livestock students have been defending their theses. A draft of ?? is in circulation.
 * Charlotte**:
 * Abyu (new N4 PhD student) going to Blacklands ARS to do some work on Apex models for a month and set up the model for Fogera.
 * He's been in Fogera collecting data to set up the models. Apex is the same family as Swat but more like a family-modeling tool. Trialling it here with BMGF funding. Hoping to get results in December.
 * On Monday, modeling meeting to inform everyone about modeling. It would be great to have N2 folks involved in this. Lots of partners from the MoW&E, 3 research institutions (Addis Uni etc.) - discussing priorities for modeling in Ethiopia for agricultural water management. Kebebe and Josie should attend. One of the objectives is to share some of that work with the NBDC meeting. Also students coming over to the meeting.
 * Kindie**:
 * Socio-economic aspects of water management interventions: using a model called Ecosaut. 1st we characterize interventions before any intervention, then optimizing situation for Jeldu (for Diga and Fogera, waiting for crop-specific information). Couldn't find that data from any source. For Jeldu, we used data from ?? sites. Preparing draft report to deliver tomorrow or next week.
 * Hoping to have intervention scenarios with rough intervention strategies. Then seeing what impact will be.
 * Starting scenario analysis in January 2013.
 * We have a post-doc (Randall) to integrate bio-physical with socio-economical factors.
 * Q**: Haile would do the study on the institutional aspects. What are we going to do with this? Are we waiting for planning meeting?
 * A**: Charlotte decided about that activity and doesn't want to change the plan, it fits well with the structure and completes Africa RISING work. He will focus on policies.

N5 update
Alan trying to organize reports from the NBDC. Simon has been completing N2 report. Charlotte had already reported and An too. Alan and Simon have to do some internal review with Amanda. MSC stories: Thanks to all that produced some nice stories at short notice. 7 stories now. Zelalem to share edited IP story with Ewen.
 * Alan**:

Busy with field days (organized by EMDTI and ILRI) on forage seed production. Been there and meeting held at Ataye. Private enterprise using seed production. UNEP-ILRI field day on climate for documentation and meetings.
 * Mulugeta**:

We will split tasks to facilitate the national platform to e.g. have a national consultant that can influence national stakeholders. But we need to think about what role the consultant can come and play and what role we see for the national platform. Either before or right after planning meeting we need to look at this. Thematic working groups: we need to push them if we want to see them move forward. We need people to steer these through e.g. N3 (in early December, following up on next week). We need to find out what budget is available for this. How much money can N5 give around each learning event. Progress report might give clarity on the budget. Estimate 5-10.000 USD. Do we integrate the national platform with the stakeholder meetings? Kees to develop budget and quickly decide about steps forward beyond this. Activities in January would be good and could focus on local IPs. No action yet on policy support and on resilience. Kees to sit down with Mulugeta Lemenih to discuss concrete results to expect.
 * Kees**:

Institutional histories: CPWF interested in how we implemented R4D in NBDC and what were successes/constraints etc. There is some conflict between CPWF and basin leaders. The purpose of the November workshop on institutional histories seems to be much looser. Tomorrow, starting to develop a timeline with a small group and working further on in the planning meeting and then follow up with interviews etc.

Action points

 * Zelalem to share IP MSC story with Ewen or upload it directly on this page.
 * Kees to follow up with Laurens Klerkx on potential interest to work around facilitation of local IPs and support work with student.
 * Alan and Simon to review reports with Amanda
 * Kees to develop budget for TWGs and quickly decide with Alan and Simon about steps forward beyond this.
 * Kees to sit down with Mulugeta Lemenih to discuss concrete results to expect around resilience TWG.

__ From previous meeting: __
 * Simon to get back to missing participants to find out why they did not participate (An, Josie, );
 * Ewen to collect Skype ID from all virtual participants;
 * Alan/Simon to work on financial report NBDC 15 October and technical report 19 October for N2-N5 with help by Charlotte (N4) and An (N3) and to develop an overall NBDC report (summary + additional take about programmatic change - there is a template that Pamela can dig out for Alan/Simon);
 * Pamela to share monitoring template with Alan/Simon and to introduce them to the M&E site;
 * Everyone to pencil in 20-21 Feb. for the external stakeholder meeting + National platform meeting.
 * Fergus to brief and involve Kiros in NBDC meetings.
 * Charlotte, Catherine and Alan to discuss what to do about integrating policy review with modelling work.
 * Charlotte to plan a seminar for January-Feb 2013.
 * Simon, An and Amanda to discuss N3 budget issues and extension.
 * Ewen to discuss thematic meetings with Simon/Alan.
 * Kebebe to arrange to put last week's presentation on Slideshare
 * All N-project leaders to come up with tentative list of outputs/publications by 25 October 2012 to feed into the CPWF learning and documentation project (3 online meetings to take stock of plans and develop plans across basins).