Africa RISING WA Project – the history and where we are today I. Hoeschle-Zeledon Africa RISING Coordinator WA Annual Review and Planning meeting Bamako, Mali, 3-4 February 2014

 Oct. 2011: Brain storming meeting Bamako, Mali  3 projects on farming systems intensification  agreement on countries and regions: UER, UWR, NR (Ghana), Sikasso (Mali)  Jan. 2012: Inception workshop Tamale, Ghana  CN presentation  need for a clear research framework (approach and context, research hypotheses, trial design)  need for appropriate action and control site selection => fast track work plan building on existing work to produce results by September 2012 The Start

 Feb. 2012: decision on Program approach with 3 regional projects; name: Africa RISING Africa RISING = Africa Research In Sustainable I ntensification for the Next Generation  June - December: implementation of year 1 field activities in both countries  Sept.-December: draft work plans for 2013 Next steps

 Throughout 2012:  Site characterization and selection of future action and control sites (socio-economic and biophysical characteristics: length of growing period, market access)  Program research framework  M&E plan  Program communication strategy  Program and Project management structure  (Rules of engagement with farmers, gender strategy)

Africa RISING Program Bullet Africa RISING 5-year R4D program with 3 projects, M&E and comms components Cereal-legume-livestock based farming systems in the Guinea and Sudano Savanna of WA (Ghana, Mali, [IITA]) Cereal-legume-livestock based farming systems in ESA (Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, [IITA]) Crop-livestock systems of the Ethiopian Highlands (ILRI) GoalCreate pathways for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainable intensification (SI) Objectives Identify and evaluate demand-driven options for SI Evaluate/document/share experiences with approaches for delivering and integrating innovations beyond program sites Create opportunities for program participants to move out of poverty and improve the nutritional status Facilitate partner-led wider dissemination of SI innovations Hypotheses Integration, adoption, trade-off, sequencing, scalability

Research Framework

 January: Stakeholder meeting in Accra; first Steering Committee meeting  Approval of work plans deferred; issues of site and activity integration; scale of operations; proposed research too conventional, little innovative; need for farming systems approach  Mali, Ethiopia and Ghana identified the various experimentally relevant scales at which they work.  Differences in the terminology and divergent assumptions about what methodological approaches to take, and at what experimental scales to apply these approaches;  Source of miscommunication and misunderstanding across the program 2013

 March: program-wide research methodology meeting  Agreement on terminology and scales  Adoption of proposed farming systems analysis proposal (RO1) to inform RO2 activities  functional farm typologies, identification of entry points, ex- ante assessment of technology options, farm typology specific priority setting & planning for integrated systems improvement  April – May: Revision of draft work plans for 2013, development of a set of regional research hypotheses  June- December: Implementation of field activities  Branding guidelines for coherent identity across all projects and increased visibility rising.wikispaces.com/comms_tools 2013

WA: Where we work Research siteResearch team leaderPartner Institution Northern Region (Ghana)IITACIAT, ILRI, IWMI, ICRISAT, AVRDC, SRI, FRI, UDS, CRI, SARI, KNUST, ARI, UG, INSTI, WRI, ACDEP, GLDB, GUIFFA, NORGFA, PSC, SEEDPAG, HF, MoFA, MoH, WIAD, ADVANCE Upper East Region (Ghana)IITA Upper West Region (Ghana)IITA Sikasso Region (Mali)ICRISATAVRDC, ICRAF, ILRI, AMASSA, MOBIOM, AMEDD, IER, CMDT, UPTCK Cross-cutting: M&E Farming Systems Analysis IFPRI Wageningen University IITA, ICRISAT

Sub-agreements in 2013 InstitutionAmount 000US$ ICRISAT (sub-contracts with other partners in Mali) 748 CIAT100 IWMI100 ILRI170 AVRDC (Ghana, Mali) 243 SARI222 INSTI29 KNUST64 SRI25 CRI25 MoFA45 MoH45 FRI45 FARA20

 MoU with ACDI/VOCA ADVANCE project (Ghana, expired)  Discussions under way with ATT- Project (Ghana)  FARMSEM Project Mali ???  MoU with Heifer International in Ghana Collaboration with development projects

 AfricaRice withdrew in March 2013  Political situation in Mali: exclusion of government institutions from funding, travel restrictions  Lack of baseline surveys to guide research interventions  Late recruitment of regional M&E officer  Farming systems analysis not yet completed  Staff fluctuation in partner organizations  Key partners not present at research sites Implementation challenges

 August 2012: visit of US Congressional delegation to Ghana project sites  July 2013: donor visit to Ghana project sites  September 2013: Program-wide learning event  October 2013: exchange visit of Ghana researchers to Mali  Last week: USAID visit to Mali sites Special events

Programme Management Structure E&SA Project Steering Committee (IITA) Ethiopian Highlands Project Steering Committee (ILRI) West Africa Project Steering Committee (IITA) Communications Team (ILRI) Monitoring and Evaluation Team (IFPRI) Program Coordination Team (IITA, ILRI, IFPRI, USAID) Science Advisory Group

 Chair (R. Asiedu, IITA Regional Director West Africa)  Project Chief Scientist (A. Larbi, IITA)  Project M&E Lead (C. Azzarri, IFPRI)  Project Communications Lead (K. Lopez, IITA)  ICRISAT (F. Waliyar)  AfricaRice (O. Ayaji); rotating seat, vacant  CORAF (O. Ndoye)  CSIR (A. Salifu)  AGRA (K. Makinde)  Donor (J. Glover)  Secretary (I. Hoeschle-Zeledon, AR Coordinator) Steering Committee Membership

Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation africa-rising.net