meeting+11

= NBDC Team Meeting = toc
 * 14 December 2012, 15:00 - 17:00 **
 * ILRI Addis Ababa (Room 54) **

Agenda

 * Round of updates since last meeting: progress against outcomes? State of development of these outcomes? Reporting against these outcomes at each team meeting.
 * Important discussion points:
 * Introducing new members and identifying insights and publications to feature at upcoming stakeholder meeting / national platform meeting
 * Fergus's brief
 * The baseline study on planning/implementing
 * Round of comms updates (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:**
 * Update on planning meeting
 * Reflections on GIS Nile goblet tool training sessions
 * News item on modeling symposium
 * **Wiki:**
 * **Update key contacts list!**
 * Nile goblet tool pages updates
 * Learning event (on technological innovation)
 * ToR from Doug and Belay on key contacts list
 * Reflection meeting notes
 * n3 outputs page
 * Thematic issue for the next meeting?


 * Next team meeting:** Thursday 10 January 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.**

Introduction of new members: Doug Merrey and Belay Yazew
Since the departure of Tilahun we needed help with project coordination around CPWF - **Doug Merrey**will be taking care of this and he appeared at the reflection workshop. Doug was at IWMI for 20 years, had some involvement in establishing IWMI's office in Addis, and also is a co-author of the N1 report. Doug is happy to help peer-review publications coming out of NBDC.

The other area was to maximize our findings, outputs etc. with the Ministry and many stakeholders in the country. This is the role of **Belay Yazew**. Belay has been recruited at international consultant on policy issues. He's happy to join this team. Through his career, Belay has been heading the bureau of natural resources at Bahir Dar. Then senior policy advisor at USAID. He has recently been agri-advisor and is now a freelancer contributing to this project. We are using Belay's skills to maximize the production of outputs to influence people.

**Nile 2**
Since the reflection workshop, Fergus, Lisa and Simon worked further on plans. The discussion centred about the brief by Fergus and progress about misunderstandings around what data ICRAF will provide or not. Six-monthly report for N2: Everyone's contributed, Amanda gave a very good reply. Larry seemed happy with it. The NBDC report was submitted to Amanda after discussing with Doug, Alan and Amanda.

The Nile Basin overall report will be very brief. What was wanted: THE (one) MSC story. Instead, we submitted the 7 stories. Simon categorized them under outcomes, learning and research findings and submitted them. Simon will circulate the report. What's expected in the report: green / yellow / red lights to find out what's going on well or not.

For the next team meeting, we need to also focus on the stakeholder workshop (21 Feb).

**Nile 3**
Nobody here from N3 but the N3 project has come to a conclusion. Some N3 funds transferred to N5 (dissemination activities through 2013). C. Pfeifer has submitted a proposal to WLE considered by Simon Cook and Martin van Brakel. There isn't much money but it might work out.

**Nile 4**
Randall (new post-doc) is getting up to speed and has had very good discussions with the team here. Charlotte has resigned and is moving to Canada end of January. Simon discussed with IWMI theme leader for who should take over N4 for IWMI. The post is being advertised and 21 January 4 candidates will be interviewed. The person should take over by March. There will be a handover period in January - February. Hydrological modeling has been going on through the work of Charlotte and Solomon and other work on e.g. economic modeling. In 2013, the focus is on integrating across disciplines and scales. . Randall is beginning this work now and getting more familiar with Blue Nile context. Connections with Beth's and N2 work: lessons about decision-making process might be applicable at local level and larger scale. When back from Fogera Randall will connect with her again. Kindie is working on economic modeling for Jeldu and has submitted a report to Charlotte (pending on her feedback). Working with Randall on rainwater scenarios, randomizing them and inputting them in baseline model to assess socio-economic and bio-physical impacts.
 * Comment Kees: If looking at decision-making process at higher level it would be good to include Belay in these discussions.
 * C Simon: Belay to connect with Randall and Charlotte to connect with basin authorities . Charlotte has been approached by basin authorities for training. Charlotte/Randall/Solomon to update wiki with news about this when all gets clearer.

**Nile 5**
Regarding the //Sunrise strategy:// What will be carried forward, what will be handed over to partners. Universities, MoW&E will be approached to find out what will be organized for the sunrise strategy.

Contract in preparation for Belay: 47 days and depending on funding this can be reviewed at a certain time if there is any option and need for more time. Belay will familiarize himself with the project, discuss with project leaders to find out what's happening, what has happened etc. to develop a strategy by mid January. Based on that a work plan will be developed.

Next national platform meeting (21 Feb) connected/combined with stakeholder meeting (20 Feb). This needs to be discussed: how to design it, communicate it etc.? Kees is planning to have a steering group meeting 21-25 Jan, with Simon/Alan, Belay etc. Beyond this date, Kees and Belay will see who will lead further steering committee activities.

About (national platform) thematic working groups: Learning event organized last week with 15 participants around technological innovation. This was about introducing the Nile Goblet tool to a wider community of practice. It would be great to write a brief about this. It would be great to have other learning events for e.g. institutional innovation. For policy support group, we need to think further about this.

**Update on workshop in Penang**
Basin leader (BL) workshop to look at relationships between CPWF management team and BLs. What do we want to take beyond 2013. What emerged:
 * There has been some discontent among basin leaders about what management has done in different basins. Each basin is different, has their priorities and BLs want management to support and to focus on learning - what can we learn etc. from progress/basin reports etc. Each basin will chase their own priorities.
 * Project completion report - besides that we have basin completion reports planned. Each basin will make a basin story based on lessons learned, experiences etc. this is down to each basin. E.g. institutional history, conference, book etc. to be developed. This needs to be discussed.
 * Opportunities for cross-cutting issues - especially for African basins: Funke is keen on this. Amy a little more hesitant. It's down to Limpopo to connect. Possible topics: local platforms, modeling, partnerships etc. M. Victor has been supportive to find money to organize writeshops around these issues.
 * Reflection meeting by BLs planned in May 2013 in Peru. This needs to be penciled in. This meeting will be a peer assist to look at Annual Reports - MT + BLs together - would be the 3rd Peer Assist

**Update on WLE / IWMI ARM**

 * Jeremy Bird (new IWMI DG) is interested in research into action / CPWF legacy.
 * IWMI is going through a change process looking into roles and responsibilities etc. of different staff. This will change the emphasis from theme-based to regional-based approach. What's unclear: how IWMI's current structure links with WLE structure. WLE accounts for 35% of direct income for IWMI - that's a minimum amount but it could represent up to 50-70%. WLE will have a big influence on IWMI. The climate change research program (CCAFS) represents 2.2 Mio for IWMI. Humid tropics and Drylands also contribute to this. AAS CRP contributes to this too. Nile is however not on the list of their intervention areas.
 * In terms of possible consequences of WLE for NBDC: Quite unclear. Financial issues unclear too. Not much 'new' money coming in unless raised through windows 2 & 3. Innovation Fund under WLE will be quite small but researchers could apply for it to build upon some NBDC work. NBDC work has been largely under WLE basin work but some other work could be pulled under rainfed (e.g. VBDC, Limpopo). Some agreement that it's possible. It's not business as usual - there is an effort to be more cooperative but in terms of funding it's more of 'business as usual'.
 * WLE strategic plan available which talks about underpinning strategic relations with other CRPs, partners etc.
 * 5 strategic research portfolios and under these, (16) activity clusters. Staff at the ARM were asked to stand where they thought they would be working in WLE. Very few were standing around rainfed systems.
 * Simon talked with Funke about the African forum and they need to prepare a discussion document . Funke has been approached by AMCOW and the EU around a capacity-building meeting on African river basins.

Fergus's brief and ICRAF data discussion update
We've looked at available data... (//missed a lot of information here - too technical for me//). Fergus to connect with Lisa and Randall about this data. Fergus will send an email to Randall to continue progressing towards second stage output.


 * The [[file:How tools and process facilitate farmer researcher interaction in NBDC - Fergus.docx|brief by Fergus]]** will be discussed after a discussion with Beth and Josie. No feedback except from Alan. This will be postponed to January team meeting (**10 January**). Fergus will circulate the current state of the draft report for feedback, as well as a paper in press about landscapes and urban planning, introducing the Polyscapes output, giving finer scale field data.


 * (Comment Simon) Re: the data brief, Belay should be brought in to connect outputs and outcomes and integrate the different Nile components. Belay could ask non-technical questions about this, which would be useful feedback.
 * (Comment Josie) We all agreed about this process which will be very important to identify synergies etc. The brief is very useful. Main reaction is that we need urgent next steps from people who are familiar with the tools mentioned in the diagram to understand the parameters of these tools/approaches etc. Perhaps this requires expert inputs rather than Fergus, Josie and Beth. Perhaps something for January? Perhaps some of these elements could be integrated with Wat-a-game etc.
 * Early February (before stakeholder platform) could be a good moment to do this expert consultation. Fergus to share this brief to be uploaded on the wiki (done).
 * A session on each tool could be more productive rather than bringing all people in the room.

Political economy work by Josie et al.
Looking at interviews in each site... Looking at inclusion, pilot interventions (where IPs are delivering). Impact of power dynamics in the platforms. Pilots are still early stage. New by-laws in development etc. so impact difficult to assess but considering potential impact of these pilots on different stakeholder groups. Possible journal article on power and innovation platforms, looking at what's happening in other basins etc. Josie and Beth discussing this.
 * Comment Simon: For March we need to know what publications are planned.

N2 baseline study
To be discussed properly at an upcoming dedicated seminar. Not everyone's aware of the findings and the report will be shared soon. Feedback from Larry about this: What doesn't come out clearly enough is the implication of these findings for NBDC but also for soil-water conservation/management practices. How much time should we invest in each output to reach the best audience? Which products will go for which audience? Internal learning seminar great; presenting findings at national platform meeting/stakeholder meeting could be good but might have sensitive implications. We need to discuss outreach and where best to invest time, pulling out key findings and deciding what outputs to develop and what outcome-focused activities to undertake etc.

Beth & Josie discussed local level strategies and barriers to influence strategies on the ground. This could inform how to engage regional / local level stakeholders in concrete ways. Josie / Eva to discuss this with Belay (to find the right tone and find the best way to communicate this), share the summary of the report + the full report on the wiki + update the presentation about this. A briefing paper could be teased out about this.
 * Comment Kees: Presenting this at the stakeholder meeting could be very useful. Belay needs to think about this.

Planning stakeholder meeting
This will happen at the next team meeting

Round of updates

 * Events and travel plans?
 * Simon to join CPWF management team 24-26 Jan in South Africa;
 * World Water Day 22 March (theme: collaboration) - to think about;
 * Steering committee meeting week 20-24 Jan. Belay to attend?
 * Peer assist on annual report May (to check later again)
 * Training with Basin authorities likely in March (IWRM tools);
 * Possible seminars?
 * Josie about the findings of the N2 - Ewen to contact Josie about this.
 * Publications?
 * Plan publications in view of stakeholder meeting.
 * Baseline report under final review for Journal of Dev Studies.
 * Participatory monitoring + 3-4 others (Simon to update);
 * Beth, Emily and Katherine on land degradation, livelihoods over space and time in Ethiopian Highlands.
 * 1-2 briefs to be ready (Kees)
 * Other stories?
 * Beth back from Wat-a-Game training
 * Simon and Katherine to speak to Berhanu about contract related to weather stations (SIM cards to get data daily etc.).
 * Running experiments on various termite management approaches - interesting process which might be useful to tell involving unis, farmers etc. (Kees). We can integrate this with IPs. There are good hopes that we will get 90% of planned budget for next year.
 * __New on the web & wiki__:
 * **Website:**
 * Update on planning meeting
 * Reflections on GIS Nile goblet tool training sessions
 * News item on modeling symposium
 * **Wiki:**
 * **Update key contacts list!**
 * Nile goblet tool pages updates
 * Learning event
 * ToR from Doug and Belay on key contacts list
 * Reflection meeting notes
 * n3 outputs page
 * Thematic issue for the next meeting

Other updates
Thematic issue for next meeting?
 * Update from reflection meeting
 * Planning stakeholder meeting