Africa RISING ESA review and planning meeting - organisers' page!![edit | edit source]

03 - 05 September 2013 Sunbird Capital Hotel, Lilongwe, Malawi Return to the event main page

General objectives:

Inform stakeholders on Africa RISING progress: share 2012/2013 research activities and results from across countries and sites
Present to the stakeholders next year’s ESA Project action plans and gather feedback on these.

Specific objectives for days 2 and 3 (4th and 5th September):

Revise and finalize action plans for each intervention site taking into consideration the feedback received on day 1
Present action plans for review to peers from other sites
Revise composition of research teams
Agree next steps to ensure timely implementation

Agenda

Tuesday 3 September	Time	Notes
Registration	08.00
Welcome (Victor Manyong, IITA), Jerry Glover (USAID) and workshop introduction (Ewen Le Borgne)	08.30
General review and update (Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon)	09.15
Review of progress (and possibly draft plans): Research output 1 * Baseline surveys (Beliyou Haile, IFPRI) - 10' only * Farming systems survey (Jeroen Groot, Wageningen University) 10' only Questions and answers (clarification) 15'	09.35
Coffee break	10.10
Review of progress and draft plans: Research output 2 * Review of Babati research (Mateete Bekunda, IITA) - 20' / Q&A 15' * Review of Kongwa Kiteto research (P. Okori, ICRISAT) - 20' / Q&A 15' * Review of Malawi research (Regis Chikowo, MSU) - 20' / Q&A 15' Questions and answers (for clarification only) after each presentation	10.40
Lunch	12.30
Commissioned research presentations: * Opportunities for adoption and institutional innovation (P. Hilbur) - 15' only * Plant disease and pest monitoring surveys in Africa RISING action areas in Tanzania (L. Kumar) - 15' only * Presentation on small mechanisation - 10' only Questions and answers (clarification) - 15'	13.45
Presentation of the HumidTropics program (Kwesi Atta-Krah) and its relation with Africa RISING	14.40
Group work: teasing out key insights, necessary outputs and implications for ways forward	14.55
Coffee break	15.15
Group work (continued)	15.45
Presenting back group work and clustering ideas/insights, outputs and implications	16.30
Close	17.15
Cocktails	18.00
Wednesday 4 September
Research team work In parallel: project steering committee meeting (09.00 - 12.45)	09.00
Coffee break	10.30
Research team work continued	11.00
Lunch break	12.45
Open support market place: where are issues, questions, clarifications needed, inputs required from other teams etc.	14.00
Research team work continued	14.45
Coffee break	15.30
Research team work continued	16.00
Taking stock of progress so far, and of needs for peer assist	17.00
Close (Optional) marketplace slot for peer support	17.15
Thursday 5 September
Marketplace slot for peer support	08.30
Parallel peer review	09.00
Research team work continued	10.00
Coffee break	10.30
Research team work continued	11.00
Lunch break	12.45
Research team work continued	14.00
Presentations of work on flipchart sheet (backed by more comprehensive plan on Word but not presented)	14.30
Coffee break	15.30
Presentations, continued	16.00
Evaluation, closing and thanks	17.00

Process notes for how the meeting will unfold:

Day 1: Stakeholder meeting

A0. 8.00: Registration - who's in charge of this?
A1. 8.30: Introduction

Welcome by Viktor Manyong, Jerry Glover - speech prepared? What will they talk about? Participants and workshop introduction: 15' to each table to introduce themselves and find a motto then 2' per table to introduce everyone. Ask participants to sit next to people they don't know. Around each table, 1 spokesperson to introduce them all, team to come up with a motto for this 2nd year) e.g. objectives, agenda etc.

A2. 9.15: Presentations

Presentation Kwesi about HumidTropics - can we ensure it lasts less than 15'? Presentation of progress until now (Irmgard / Mateete) + buzz around table and key shocking reactions (20’ presentation and 10’ buzz+feedback)

10.00: Coffee break
A3 10.30: Research output 1: (10’ + 10’ + 15’ Q&A) - can we ensure each preso lasts less than 10'?

ESA Project Baseline Evaluation Survey Report and future plans(C. Azarri, IFPRI) Fast-tracked Farming System Analysis Report and future plans (J. Groot, WUR)

A4 11.05: Research output 2: (3x20’ + 25’ discussing with each of these in a corner around a flipchart [with own PC if need to go back to some slides] + 15’ plenary reporting back from each set of interactions with groups. Make sure that each table has markers and cards to put comments down - each presenter to have a dedicated documenter to take notes as they come)

Research on Sustainable Intensification in the sub-humid maize-based cropping systems of Babati (M. Bekunda, Research Team Leader) Agro-ecological intensification in Malawi through action research with smallholder farmers (S. Snapp, Research Team Leader) Intensification of maize-legume based systems in the semi-arid areas of Tanzania (Kongwa and Kiteto districts) (P.Okori, Research Team Leader)

12.45: LUNCH
A5 14.00: Commissioned research (presentations 2x15’ + 10' plenary clarifications)

Plant Disease and Pest Monitoring Surveys in Africa RISING Action Areas in Tanzania (L. Kumar, IITA) Opportunities for adoption and institutional innovation (P. Hilbur, IITA)

14.40 Presentation of the planning template (Mateete)
A6 14.45: Group work:

Participants split up in 'site' groups: Malawi (1), Tanzania, (2), Zambia ? In the groups, the external participants are also split equally and they ask questions / discuss with the research team to get more feedback. Both the site research team and the external participants have to take notes in each group (preferably digitally). After coffee break they reconvene as one external group and discuss their findings (while the site teams also process the feedback they receive and prepare a 5' summary) to come up with key recommendations (either generally or site-specific) for the research teams to take into account the next day.

15.30: Coffee break
16.00: Group work continued
A7a 16.30: Presenting back what each group has discussed

Each site group presents their feedback for 5' each Then the external group presents their consolidated feedback for 15' in total. Closing by Irmgard/Mateete?

17.30: Close
17.30: Cocktail

Day 2: More limited group

B1 8.30: Reminder per research team about status of ideas (%) and what remain the main challenges + what help they might need from other teams or who they might have to cooperate strongly with…
B2 (normally done the day before) 9.00: Introducing research planning template and how to fill it out (to prepare beforehand, based on lessons learnt from last year’s work) – insisting on degree of details necessary and on importance of cross-cutting + introducing the process to peer-review this.
B3 9.30: Research team work. Research teams organise themselves, agree on chair and presenter + questions they have for other groups, identify overlaps and gaps with other research groups.
10.30: Break
11.00: Research team work continued
12.30: Lunch
B4 13.45: Open support marketplace: where are issues, clarifications needed, inputs required from other teams – to slot on a sort of Open Space marketplace overview. We open a marketplace where people share their concerns and the things they want to clarify / agree on with others etc. and we match resource persons for each of these issues coming up. 45' (- instruction time) to crack these issues and report back in plenary at the end, briefly before break.
B5 14.30: Research team work continued
15.30: Break
16.00: Research team work continued
B6 17.00: Taking stock of where we are and need for peer assist. Checking with each group % of completion, needs for help and overlaps with other research groups + what they did differently compared with last year's planning process.
B7 17.15: Marketplace slot for peer support

Day 3: More limited group

8.30: Marketplace slot for peer support
9.00: If needed, parallel peer review with 10’ presentations and feedback from each research team to another one. (for 1h max)
10.00: Research team work continued
10.30: Break
11.00: Research team work continued
12.30: Lunch
13.45: Research team work continued OR presentations started
14.30: Presentations of flipchart sheet program (synthetic, in support of PPT presentation/Word doc or XLs that is not shown but contains all additional details) with dedicated panel of 3 reviewers – one from each other research team (volunteers to find: 3 people and one is bad cop other good cop and last either). After each presentation they get 3' to deliberate and then share their feedback). In total 10’ presentation and 20’ panel + audience review - if we need more details for the review we could actually have the reviewers come before give their instructions and make detailed annotations then the team continues their work and presents back a synthetic version of it in plenary
15.30: Break
16.00: Presentations, continued - with dedicated reviewers from other groups to go through the presentation -
17.00: Closing, evaluation, reflections, thank you's etc.

Closing: In semi-circle, talk to your neighbour and come up with either message of confidence or curiosity about the planning (e.g. I think this looks very well planned, I'm curious to see how that aspect will pan out etc.). In front of the semi-circle, we have the AR plans 2014 and beyond. Evaluation: form to be prepared, printed out and distributed while everyone is in the semi circle. Reflections by one rep from USAid, one from CG partners and one from national partners. Thank you's by Irmgard, Kwesi etc.