Pct45
Africa RISING PCT #45
10 February 2021
Zoom Meetings
Present
- Bernard Vanlauwe (BV) - Chair
- Siboniso Moyo (SM)
- Jerry Glover (JG)
- Zachary Stewart (ZS)
- Erin Menzies Pluer (EMP)
- Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon (IHZ)
- Carlo Azzari (CA)
- Peter Thorne (PT)
- Jonathan Odhong' (JO) – Secretary
Agenda
- Brief intros
- New USAID staff supporting Africa RISING
- Follow up on action points from PCT 44. See minutes here: http://africa-rising-wiki.net/Pct44
- AR program learning event 2021
- Any Other Business
BV: Welcome to the meeting, everyone, and belated happy new year. For the benefit of new members of the PCT, please let us introduce ourselves briefly.
Brief intros
- JO: Africa RISING Program Communication and Knowledge Sharing Coordinator; IITA staff based in Nigeria.
- IHZ: Africa RISING East and Southern Africa and West Africa Projects Manager; IITA staff based in Nigeria but currently in Germany.
- PT: Africa RISING Ethiopia Project Lead; ILRI staff based in the UK.
- CA: Africa RISING M&E Lead; IFPRI staff based in Rome.
- SM: Africa RISING PCT Co-Chair; ILRI staff based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- EMP: AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow; USAID BRFS staff based in Washington DC, USA.
- ZS: Production Systems Specialist; USAID BRFS staff based in Washington DC, USA.
- JG: Deputy Director, Center for Agriculture-Led Growth; USAID BRFS staff based in Washington DC, USA.
- BV: Africa RISING PCT Co-Chair; IITA Staff based in Nairobi, Kenya.
New USAID staff supporting Africa RISING - JG
- Good afternoon everybody, thanks for convening this morning and afternoon. I wanted to give Zach and Erin just a brief introduction to the PCT and what we do. I have recently missed two of the last four meetings. So, I am delighted to bring on Zach and Erin to provide a back-up.
- Zach, especially for Africa RISING and Erin, is helping support our cereal systems initiatives in South Asia. But we are taking a team approach to these very related activities, particularly given the transitioning to One CGIAR reforms, which is currently in the "February sprint phase." We are working on a very accelerated timeline. So, I wanted to bring Zach and Erin to make sure that they are introduced to you all.
- By the way, Zach and Erin, these wonderful group of folks we come together across the four projects of Africa RISING to try and share some consistency across the projects, maintain solid lines of communication, and of course, the team consists of the leads for each of the projects as well as extended leadership depth from IITA and ILRI. We meet roughly quarterly and make critical decisions all the time in a very wise manner.
- Anyway, just to let the PCT members know, I think having Zach and Erin's support will ensure that we get coverage. As you all know, we are going through another political transition, so some of us are consumed with responding to quite an adjustment in direction, emphasis, and list of priorities now. So, thanks for your patience, and I apologize for missing some of the recent meetings, but I think we'll be more consistent from our side going forward.
Follow up on action points from PCT 44
Publication of a paper about systems research conceptual framework
Progress update [PT]: An outline for the paper has been developed. Drafting is ongoing. Expect to circulate to PCT members and Chief Scientists for input by the end of February 2021. The target is to have a ready draft for submission to a journal in early April 2021.
Conversation:
- JG: Shared a link for a nature editorial - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02849-6.
- BV: Thanks JG. I know that paper, but I don't see the framing/justification for that paper. Many of the things we are doing are already in the "new way of doing research" that they are promoting.
- JG: I agree with you BV. What they seem to be describing appeared to me like exactly what AR is doing. One thing to note is that some colleagues here at USAID, when they saw that paper, said, "wow! This could be a 'new way'". So, I think that points out something important – that so far, we haven't reached them effectively enough with what we are doing so that they can see that what this paper says is already being done. We had a discussion recently at USAID with some other partners who felt that we should be following the 'new way'; I pointed out that some of our programs are already doing this. We could use this paper a bit to guide our thinking and end up with a condensed version almost in response to this. You can see getting into nature helps garner a broad audience. These are the papers that get passed around.
- PT: Without unduly beating ourselves up, we can constructively ask ourselves why we (Africa RISING) have been doing this for so long, but then somebody has all of a sudden been able to garner wider attention? Have we failed to get our messages across?
- BV: One of the reasons is probably because we don't publish in nature.
- JG: I do encourage aiming at a policy forum in science or this editorial style in nature.
- BV: The original idea was to write a paper to make a statement that systems research should not get lost in these One CGIAR reforms underway.
- JG: I think that would be a great point to make if not only to the one CGIAR reforms but more generally. One of the reasons this type of systems work is not widely communicated is that it is a bit more challenging to communicate than getting an improved variety out or particular agronomic practices. Systems research helps us to look at the whole system and identify what would get us the biggest bang for the buck and what are our entry points? Sometimes it is straightforward – an improved bean variety, sometimes it is much more complicated – household decision-making.
Way forward:
Instead of an in-depth journal article, convert this output into a rich policy piece giving the global community some direction on systems research topic. Target to finalize the opinion piece within the next three weeks.
Action points:
- BV to approach Global Food Security Journal editors to check early interest in this kind of article. Share an update with PCT members at the next meeting.
- JG to approach the Science Journal editors to check for early interest in this type of article. Share an update with PCT members at the next meeting.
Action points from PCT 44
AR program learning event 2021
Any Other Business
