Meeting+17

**Agenda**toc

**Next team meeting**: Friday 19 July 2013 Check the list of action points and find them in red in the minutes below. = Minutes = Attending: Alan Duncan, Simon Langan, Belay Yazew, Kebebe Ergano, Tracy Baker, Wolde Bori, Zelalem Lema, Ewen Le Borgne + via Skype: Amanda Harding, Doug Merrey.
 * 1) Review action point tracker from last meeting
 * 2) NBDC science meeting (Wolde Bori)
 * 3) Series of side meetings (Simon)
 * 4) Update on Bahir Dar stakeholder meeting (Simon)
 * 5) Update from Lima peer assist meeting (Alan)
 * 6) Update on final workshop November and possible clash with cross-basin learning event (Simon / Amanda - //addressed under 2/3//)
 * 7) Involving Terry Clayton in NBDC activities for end of project (//addressed under 2/3//)\
 * 8) Update on NERC

2. NBDC science meeting
Simon would like to turn this into a whole Nile week. The objective of the science meeting is to support the development of outputs. 60 participants expected from Ethiopia and abroad, including reps from different ministries. 24 oral presentations (19 received) and 15 posters (12 received). Wolde compiling them and editing them and will share this tomorrow with the committee. All logistics going well and hopefully will be ok. Remaining issues: printing posters to get them over to Peter B. Too late to do some text editing. We are working on the logos. There were predictable problems with the posters e.g. they're conversation starters, not dumps from papers. We didn't prepare templates and guidelines. On the mini-papers, great that we've got so many inputs. Data sticks should include all papers and be distributed to participants. Chair person: right now we don't profile our national partners enough. Ato Assefa should take the lead on this. The chairs will have to keep presentations to time and avoid that one organisation doesn't dominate. In terms of note-taking, we hope KMIS can assist (Meron Mulatu) but she's away at the moment. Ewen and Valentine will be taking care of pictures. The innovation angle seems to be missing. Beth is not with us but is driving this and Kathy Snyder is passing over to Liza D. This is going forward but not featured strongly. Zelalem will give a presentation on power dynamics and representation and how they're dealt with through IPs. Our work has given us much feedback on these issues of power and representation. Wat-a-game was one of the tools to close this gap and Zelalem will present this experience. **ACTIONS:**
 * 1st half-day (overview + irrigation and livestock): Alan & Assefa are chairs.
 * 2nd half-day (water productivity): Tracy & Adane.
 * 3rd half-day (rainwater and land/water management): Teklu and Seifu.
 * 4th half-day (institutions, adoption and marketing): Belay and Kinde.
 * Set up guidelines for posters (ELB?) for next event.
 * Wolde to coordinate with Nigist to prepare 6-printed copies of the 120 pages + load up all papers on USB memory sticks.
 * Wolde to put agenda on the wiki.
 * Simon will contact session chairs to be.

3. Side sessions for the Nile week
Some time on Monday + Thursday and Friday to organise side meetings:
 * Screening posters and papers: Reviewing papers and posters and pre-cocktail session to explain what makes a good poster/what doesn't. ==> Screening papers is sthg to be organised by the science meeting organisation group on Monday afternoon (Wolde, Simon, Alan, Doug and Don). Reviewing posters (Alan + Ewen) with participants on Tuesday late afternoon.
 * Tasks for consultants (Belay, Don, Doug, Cornell Uni etc.): same group as paper reviewing + Kees and Tracy, Monday 4-5pm.
 * SWAT modeling: Tracy's background is on SWAT so we propose an hour's facilitated discussion on SWAT (what it can do, what you need to do with it and how it can be used) to create common understanding, on Thursday. ==> Lunchtime Wednesday 13.15 (Tracy). Focus on partners and priority lunch for participants. For CG- staff / Addis-based people, Thursday 9am. Tracy to contact IWMI staff about this
 * What's coming out of CPWF and moving forward into WLE (Doug, Simon, Alan, Belay, Ewen + whoever else) ==> WLE proposals, concept notes etc. Thursday from 10am to 12pm.
 * Final NBDC workshop discussion (combined with 'Progressing rainwater management strategies'): Simon, Alan, Doug, Belay, Ewen + open ==> Thursday 1.30-4 pm. About where this science meeting took us and what we need to do to get there.
 * What's on the wiki, web etc.: broken links, outdated links etc. concerted efforts to keep the website updated. ==> Thursday 4-5 pm. Wiki update on the spot, collaboratively. Alan, Simon, Ewen, Doug, Zelalem, Yemisrach (to sort out email list).
 * Any other issue: Friday 9.30am-12.30pm. Including institutional history.

All side meetings are open and should be timed carefully + put on the wiki. WLE had a workshop looking into transition from VBDC to WLE and it didn't go very smoothly. The next workshop of this kind will be for East Africa 15-16 October. A briefing paper has to be prepared on this with hopefully contributions from Doug, Alan, An, Simon. We have to work more actively on messaging into these regional workshops, bringing in CPWF experience. Doug prepared a draft institutional history paper to which Simon responded yesterday. We might take the decision to circulate it now to internal people and use it as a backbone to feed into WLE. In correspondence with Jeremy Bird and Andrew Noble, they said they'd be interested in the paper. Alan: We need to take this forward - but we are still in the process of collecting inputs. 3 more interviews to go. By 18 July we should have all interviews and by end July the paper should be finalised. The institutional history is not a positioning paper re: WLE, it's more about lessons from the past. We have to take bits and pieces from Beth, An, Randall etc. to introduce our approach towards WLE. WLE needs to understand the process of engagement so the forward look should build on the past. The NBDC team has to discuss and agree on what the pitch should look like and connect with the messaging. **ACTIONS:**
 * Alan to share pitch document to WLE prepared for Montpellier meeting on the wiki and NBDC Yammer.
 * Tracy to contact Yemisrach to book IWMI meeting room for all meetings.
 * Prepare overview of wiki sections and what is out of date and what doesn't work + Doug to update Ewen on this
 * Zelalem to ask IWMI interns about gaps in web and wiki.
 * Wolde to send papers over the weekend.

4. Update on Lima peer assist meeting
Core item was to look at institutional histories across the basins. The IHs were approached in very different ways and difficult to synthesise across basins. A lot of conversations around R4D approaches CPWF-style and what about CPWF is distinctive and how we can use it to influence other efforts/initiatives. Changes in NBDC leadership means that there's been some discontinuity. Some of the early basin peer-assists were not really shared back much with all of us but it's understandable: they're quite diffuse. There's a report from Ilse that should be shared with all NBDC people. No real action emerging from it. Amanda: Lots on balance between basin-focused, cross-basin focused and programme learning. This peer assist was very different because other peer assists were focused on reviewing annual basin reports to bring them forward. This one was very focused (and was the last one) on how CPWF created a niche for itself through R4D and getting better about learning etc. In NBDC the focus was on the communication on RWM strategy and the paradigm shift. It was a think-shop but helped us to think about how to communicate about this. We didn't think much about how to connect with WLE etc. We tried to coordinate cross-basin learning, sharing, advocating and influencing in relation with NBDC and other basins. Very good discussions about where the CProgramme positions itself re: engagement and partnership approaches... The notes were conversational so the workshop report would probably focus on these conversations (i.e. more internal document)... Action points will be about specific events and timelines and see how NBDC fits in this. Alan made 2 presentations (one at Water Authority) which is public and another one more internal as a reflection on the Nile BDC institutional history. **ACTIONS:**
 * Ewen to look at availability (on Mahider/Slideshare) of Alan's presentation.
 * Amanda to share timeline with all of us and put it on the wiki.
 * Update on Bahir Dar regional stakeholder meeting

23-24 July. Meeting with Alan on major directions, invite list etc. with Kees and Belay + Kees have listed 60 participants, of which. Amhara, Oromia and federal all 15 people, BSG 4 participants + ILRI/IWMI. Invite letter being prepared virtually and on paper... will be shared with donors (GIZ, CIDA). Belay discussed with Dr. Fantahun and BoA head and they agree with the programme and will organise a workshop in BD jointly with NB Authority, BD Uni etc. The agenda is already developed and shared. WFP-MERET project presenting some work + regional presentations. Simon attending. Doug: To what extent are we using our messages to get them internalised? --> This is central. We are using our messages to create awareness at regional policy-maker level etc. But in that meeting we also want to share other project experiences. These papers will bring us experiences from the field. NBDC follow up offered to WLE should be much more led by Ethiopians and supported by CGIAR rather than the other way around. So we should make sure regional policy-makers are on board and we prepare that work with them... We will discuss this on Thursday from 10am to 12pm. **ACTIONS:**
 * Belay and Kees to follow up on this.
 * Doug to bring back discussion on WLE and involving regional stakeholders in discussion on Thursday.

6. Final NBDC workshop
Final NBDC workshop Is supposed to be in the week of 18-22 November, which clashes with Kim Geheb's idea to have a Mekong Forum with cross-basin learning. The water-energy nexus is at the core of Mekong work. Andrew Noble, Alan Duncan, Jeremy Bird etc. are interested in attending. Options for the group: run the workshop without Simon - not a good idea. Week 25-29 Nov. IWMI's annual research meeting. We suggest moving to week 11-15 Nov. with 14-15 November 2013 as best dates, and workshop to take place in a tent (since Lalibela auditorium is occupied then) We will discuss this further next week during one of our side meetings. **ACTION:**
 * Ewen to plan / book tent tentatively.

7. One NBDC
Not much happened on One NBDC in the past 8 weeks except that interns filled out the template (//and other points missed in my notes//).

AOB: Natural environment research centre (NERC)
Simon took part to a meeting from NERC last week. 6 projects funded, of which one on participatory monitoring (Wouter). He's working on citizen science and will work with Thamo and Seifu to study NBDC sites. We want to be part of that.

** Next team meetings **
Friday 19 July and then Thursday 29 August 2013 ( ** Thematic conversation: ** sustainability of local IPs ) http://nilebdc.wikispaces.com/