WA rev planning May2019

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Africa RISING West Africa Project
Review and planning meeting
14 - 16 May 2019
Accra, Ghana

Objectives

  1. Review progress, operations and results for 2018/19 season.
  2. Plan for implementation of activities in 2019/20 season.
  3. Share updates with partners about project implementation and new directions.


AGENDA
14 May [Day 1]
08:00 Registration
08:30 Participants introduction, agenda overview
08:45 Opening/welcome remarks

  • IITA WA Hub Director/PSC Chair - M. Abberton

09:00 Updates from the project and program - I. Hoeschle-Zeledon
09:30 Review of progress with implementation of project logframe – F. Kizito
10:00 Break & group photo
10:30 Updates from USAID - J.Glover
11:00 Review presentations
[Systematic reporting from one activity to the next for Ghana and Mali. There will only be 3 mins. presentation + 2 mins. discussion per sub-activity. Presenters to use the PowerPoint template provided. Individuals indicated in the brackets to collate & assemble the activity ppt.]

13:00 Lunch
14:00 Review presentations cont’d…

15:30 Break
16:00 Review presentations cont’d…

16:30 Discussion of general issues arising from review presentations
17:00 End of day 1


15 May [Day 2]
08:00 Feedback and insights from ESA Project – M. Bekunda
08:30 Applicability of the results of AR typology work – M. Michalscheck
08:40 Integrating gender analysis into SIAF: Examples from recent research in West Africa – G. Fischer

08:50 Discussion of the two presentations – facilitated process

09:30 Resilience in smallholder agriculture - perspectives from USAID – J. Glover
10:00 Break
10:30 Applications of SIAF at community/landscape level – E. Thuijsman
11:00 Monitoring, Evaluation and Data Management in AR West Africa – B. Ebito
11:30 Presentation & feedback on draft work plans developed after the pre-planning meetings held in Ghana & Mali [to be done following the order of activities as presented in the logframe]
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Presentation & feedback on draft work plans cont’d…
15:00 Work planning break-out groups (to refine drafts based on feedback received)

  • Ghana
  • Mali

16:00 Break
16:30 Workplan refining cont’d…
17:30 End of day 2


16 May [Day 3]
08:00 Briefing back from sub-activity leaders about the adjustments done to their workplans
10:00 Break
10:30 Communications session - J.Odhong & W.Ofori-Duah
11:30 Discussion of next steps
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Team building games
15:30 Closing remarks
16:00 End of review & planning/ Any other adjunct meetings


19:00 Closing cocktail


17 May [Day 4]
08:30 West Africa Project Steering Committee


NOTES

Welcome remarks by Michael Abberton

  • Welcome to everybody to the review and planning meeting. It is going to be an engaging meeting and I do hope that we will be able to finish reviewing what we did last year and also develop workplans for the coming season.
  • I hope we are all going to be participating in the discussions.

Updates from the project and program [-Discussion and reactions] Q:Is there anything happening for scaling of technologies in Ghana, because from your presentation I could only see info. about Mali? A:Yes, there are some like the Peace Corps Volunteers collaboration, collaboration with World Cover and the Innovation Labs. Of course these aren't directly scaling, but they help us indirectly for scaling.

Updates from USAID - Jerry Glover

  • As many of you may know, we have been facing some challenging times in the US. However, I am slightly confident that it is likely that we'll here this week when funds will be released. I expect that this should be within the next 2-3 weeks. Ideally, what I am pushing for are funding levels of the 2017 levels. Please take note that most of the delays are beyond the control of anybody at USAID, so I will ask that you bear with us. Africa RISING gets a tremendous amount of vocal support with USAID in Washington DC across the whole program. So thank you all for bearing with us on the budgeting issues that are quite difficult to plan around.
  • As Irmgard pointed out, the bureau for food security is undergoing a reorganization and will soon become the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. This is because we are really now emphasizing resilience as we go forward. What we see in many countries is the condition of smallholder farmers in our target communities usually improve and then something happens and they fall back into poverty. That is a recurring issue across the many regions that we work in. So this new increased focus on resilience is aimed at finding ways to prevent that backsliding. So it is not just pure focus on improvements that achieve short-terms gains, but also put in place practices that achieve the overall political landscape that helps in times of shocks and crises. For Africa RISING, one thing that we are already working on (Fred & Mateete) are probably involved in this, is trying to quantify the risk to crop production. We are starting with crop production because in many of the mixed crop-livestock systems, the crop is a foundation for success with the livestock as well. We of course appreciate that livestock are a critical assets for smallholders that can be used in times of crisis/shocks, but really we are trying to focus on the cropping systems itself to ensure reliable harvests each year I think is a first step towards improved resilience. That works with Africa RISING is in a wider partnership with the Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) and so I think there is not a lot of changes that will occur for Africa RISING , but rather it will be information sharing between the two in a collaborative spirit with these other partners.
  • In terms of wider partnerships that I think are very important, I am very pleased that in a recent trip to Senegal and we met with CORAF - and Dr. Jalloh. We are developing a research coordination hub for West Africa. Initially focused on 5 countries - Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana. I am confident that the benefits of this will allow Africa RISING innovations to be available more widely (at regional levels) and vice versa for innovations from the national systems etc. So with this coordination hub we will amplify and extend the reach of program like Africa RISING. one area of this that I am really happy with is the potential for creation of technology parks in critical agro-ecological zone in these 5 countries, working off some of those developed by Africa RISING here and that will include a network of automated weather stations. So this will pull Africa RISING more into the regional space/community of partners.
  • Another important partnership that we've recently launched is called the soils consortium. This initiative will be led by IFDC in partnership with a group of US Universities. The soils consortium is USAID's attempt to pull together our various investments in soils health and fertility. Ofocurse Africa RISING has many soils related activities in all the 3 project regions. So we are also pulling in the scientists and expertise in Africa RISING as critical partners on the soils consortium. The week before last we had a summit in Niger, where we are trying to use the soils consortium to meet some objectives of the Words Bank, MCC, USAID and others in a broad partnership. We are going to Ethiopia next week to have a similar summit there and address some of the needs of the Ethiopian Government and others. This is one of the first steps for engaging in the higher level with other development partners such as the BMGF,ACIAR,DFID and others. So we are trying pull together our investments in these areas and come up with a common Ag. Systems innovations agenda to provide a more sustainable and secure funding for the region. So we are really working to lift up Africa RISING as one of our foundational programs. Some of these initiatives will take a couple of years to play out, but the existence of Africa RISING created the foundations for this work.
  • I have a meeting on Thursday with colleagues from Ghana mission where we will explore the opportunities for engaging with the mission off the work implemented by Africa RISING.
Questions and clarifications to Jerry Glover's submission
Q: Why is there no focus on livestock on the resilience building for communities?
A: I believe that the efforts are leading more towards identifying management practices/crop varieties/soil management practices that reduce crop failure. For example tied ridging can help manage crops better, save water, improve infiltration that may reduce the risk of crop failure by 10% for example. So trying to quantify that based on weather records, experiments in the field, soil fertility management practices as well. This is sort of indirect response to a question like "does Africa RISING develop technologies that reduce the risk to farmers?". The answer is "yes", there is quite a range of technologies like tied ridges, contour bonding etc. But then when the follow up question of "by hope much?" comes, then this work will enable us to have the exact answer.We have not yet developed good targets and indicators for reduced risks.Increasing crop productivity is a part of the equation (but just), this is more broadly about ensure reliable /sustainable harvest overtime.
Q: Where does climate change fall now in the scheme of USAID focus?
A: Its very large, the climate changes that we are experiencing are the key considerations of this resilience equation that we're looking at.


Feedback to review presentations

Activity 1.1.1 – Nurudeen Abdul Rahman and Addah Wesseh
The potential of this technology is that as you strip the leaves, you do not lose them.

Q: How possible is labour for 42 days/hectare by one (1) person?
Response: More than one (1) person is required
Q: Does it involve all the other activities?
Response: Yes

Q:Is that the only criteria?

Response: They are the ones which have the highest contribution
Q: Is there a way we can defer the feeding?
Response: If the animals feed freshly from the feed, the animals grow better. If they are tethered, they lose their productivity in the raining season.
Q: What happens to the droppings? Has it been considered for the use on the farms?
Response: to be collected for vegetable farming.
Q: If there is abundance of feed, why maize stripping?
Response: it has more to do with the management of the animals and not the feeding
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