A landscape Approach to Rainwater Management in Ethiopia:

Nile 5 – Coordination and Platforms

Tilahun Amede, CPWF Nile Basin Coordinator

Nile Basin Development Challenge Launch Workshop, Addis Ababa, 29 September 2010

Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC)

• Understanding the causes and its consequences of low rainwater productivity;

• Innovations for improving rainwater management systems; critically required for poverty alleviation, addressing vulnerability and reducing resources degradation in the Nile River basin.

• NBDC research will focus on the Ethiopian highlands and will examine the interrelated issues of rainwater management;

i) Crop and livestock production and productivity;ii) Managing rainfall variability, iii) Minimizing land degradation and downstream siltation of

water storage infrastructure;iv) Resilient communities and systems that will manage climatic

and market shocks

Improvement through well-targeted combinations of new technologies, policies and institutions, understanding of downstream & cross-scale consequences, facilitating learning, collective action, commitment to change

• Nile 1: On learning from the past;• Nile 2: On integrated rainwater management

strategies – technologies, institutions and policies;

• Nile 3: On targeting and scaling out• Nile 4: On assessing and anticipating

consequences of innovation• Nile 5: Nile Coordination and platfoms

Nile Basin Leaderi. Managing and leading the Coordination Project

ii. Oversees and coordinates the implementation of the four CPWF-supported research programs designed to help tackle pressing BDC; RMS

iii. Ensure coherence and integration of the overall BDC research;

iv. Linking, complementing and motivating a wider movement made up of people, initiatives and organizations who are also working towards addressing the BDC;

v. Together with the CPWF M&E team coordinating BDC M&E and impact assessment

vi. Enabling learning, partnerships and impact

vii.Facilitating cross-scale innovation and knowledge

Nile 2 outputs. (Landscape scale technologies, policies and institutions; innovations)

Nile 3. Targeting and up-scaling

Mapping, targeting, up-scaling of bio-physical and institutional interventions affecting RWM strategies

Blanket approaches

Evaluation of scenario’s of best-bet practices

Dissemination / adoption / modification / useof Best Practices for Improving Rainwater productivity in Ethiopian highlands

Nile 4: On assessing and anticipating consequences of innovation

Evidence Impact at various levels Downstream effects Upstream effects Policy and institutional shift Economic and social consequences

4. Innovation Capacity Building and Dissemination4.1 Capacity Building4.2 Dissemination

3. Analysis of water productivity savings3.1Green Blue Water Accounting3.2 Analysis of productivity savings3.2 Analysis of waterlogged savings

2. Analysis of best land use systems2.1 Crop and livestock productivity through RMS2.3 LLH analysis2.4 Economic analysis

1. Information on the likely cross-scale consequences1.1 Synthesis of existing knowledge1.2 Develop tools and methods for biophysical1.3 Policy and institutional consequences

Nile 5 objectives

1. Ensure that synergies, lessons and interactions between the other four Nile BDC projects are fully exploited so that the whole is greater than the sum;

2. Contributing to wider efforts to improve rural livelihoods and their resilience through facilitating rainwater management systems in the Blue Nile basin

Coordination project is organized around three outputs

I: Impact pathways and governance structures for effective management, monitoring and evaluation of the Nile BDC projects

a. Focuses on the development, use, monitoring and adaptation of IP to ensure projects have a forum for interaction and adjustment

II: Networks for Innovation for improved RWM in the Nile basin strengthened:

a. Use innovation approaches first to map networks of present and desired actors and their interactions, develop plans for engaging and influencing them;

III: Effective Communication, documentation and synthesis for RWM developed and used:

a. Ensuring that all partners within the five projects as well as other similar initiatives access and benefit from the information as it is generated. It also ensures higher level synthesis of lessons and processes relevant to the broader BDC and wider scaling up and out of RWM strategies.

Linkages

Sub-regional

Landscape

Farm level

ImpactLearning

Innovationfacilitation

Communication

Nile 5.Coordinati

on, platforms

Nile 4. Consequences, impact, tradeoffs

Nile 2. Innovatio

ns, technologi

es , practices

Nile 3. Mapping, targeting

. Upscalin

g

Nile 1. Inventory

and synthesis

Linkages

Rationale for gender within the Nile Basin Research Agenda

• Women’s important roles in crop and livestock production

• Potential positive and negative impacts on RWM interventions on women’s labour and time allocation, roles and responsibilities

• Different priorities for water use between men and women, need to understand and integrate in the NBDC projects

• Understand different roles of men and women in order to more effectively target interventions / information

• Communication strategies to reach women;

• Indicators to monitor processes and impacts on households but also on men and women

Possible areas of gender integrationCharacterization Integrate gender questions e.g on management of water

resources, priority uses for rain water, gendered rolesWhen and where appropriate, carry out specific gender analysis studies

Implementation Use results of analysis of characterization to target activities, interventions, information

Research Msc/MA students to focus on specific gender research questions as identified by project teams

What are the gendered constraints to rain water management and adoption of rain water management technologies in the basin?What are the labour, cost, management issues around RWM technologies and how do these vary be gender?What is the impact of adoption of RWM technologies on women?

Monitoring and evaluation

Integrate gender indicators in monitoring and evaluationDisaggregate existing indicators, milestones by gender as appraises

Partnership

We will have two different types of partners:

1) those who will be directly engaged in the project and share the responsibilities and also the funds;

2) those who form the wider network, for whom partnership adds value to what they are already doing in addressing resources degradation and poverty, and will participate in consultations and as targets for influence

Those who will be directly engaged :

• ILRI and IWMI• Bureaus of Agriculture and Rural Development • EIAR, ARARI, OARI• Catholic Relief Services (CRS)• Ethiopian Economic Association (EEA).

Policy makers from the regions of Amhara, Tigray and Oromia will be also invited to specify key issues and policy scenarios to be investigated by the project.

Output 1. IP, M&E (With All) • Participatory M&E framework will be used to monitor and evaluate

progress and make adjustments across projects.

• Generic indicators against which the activities and expected results will be measured as well as guidance on sources of baseline information, monitoring tools, roles and responsibilities as well as on the frequency of monitoring;

• Development of common reporting formats allowing teams to better share lessons

• Schedules for project specific evaluations will be agreed and evaluation studies on cross cutting issues including gender, social preferences will be jointly carried out under the leadership of the coordination project.

• Capacity building (inc gender, M&E) will be built both into the whole

co-ordination and project implementation, individual activities based on a needs assessment.

Linkages with other NBDC projects

Output 2, Innovation research

• Identifying existing actors and networks in the basin. Characterize them according to competencies (providers of knowledge, resources, facilitation skills, political capital) and scale at which they operate (with Nile 2 & Nile 3);

• Partnership and networking to share information, and links with multiple partners who could significantly contribute to wider dissemination efforts (with Nile 2, Nile 3 and Nile 4);

• Building and strengthening networks, platforms and organizational skills (Nile 3 and Nile 4)

Output 3, Communication, synthesis

BDC level and individual project level communication and uptake strategies (Nile BDC all);

Inventory and analysis of the existing communication strategies, extension and scaling-up approaches and identifying success cases, where, how and which RWM interventions were effectively adopted and promoted (Nile 2 and Nile 3);

Develop tools and methods for up scaling RWM products, identify channels required and the mechanisms of delivery for specific stakeholder groups (Nile 3)

N2 – on Integrated rainwater management strategies –

technologies, institutions and policies (design and testing)

N3 – on targeting and

scaling out

N4 – On assessing and anticipating consequences of

innovation

•Site selection, site similarity analysis,

new prototypes from similarity

areas

•Information on why some approaches to rainwater management have failed while others have succeeded

•Conditions favoring success

•Information on the scale consequences of widespread use of innovation strategies

•Define innovation scenarios to be

modeled

N1 – on learning from

the past (consultancy)

•Redesign of and re-testing of integrated

rainwater management

strategies

•Information on important drivers of change

•Best-bet or optimal livelihood strategies for promotion/ advocacy/

informing policy

•Extrapolation domain analysis

N5 – stakeholder platforms;

informing policy; fostering change

Feedback demand / Options

Feedback on adoption-rejection

Feedback fears/ real consequences

Target groups

Changing practices Our strategy

NBDC R4D team

•Align and adjust activities to NBDC agenda and approaches

•Joint workplans and adjust•M&E framework for facilitation and adjustments

Development actors

(extension, NGOs)

•Employ evidence-based planning•Promote and use effective RWMs

•Participatory planning•Sharing good practices•Roundtable engagement•Capacity building•Platforms

Policy makers •Develop and institutionalize RWMs•Capacity to communicate and use

•Joint visioning of gaps•Institutional platforms•Discussion forums•Policy briefs / media

Regional partners

•Effective commitment to NBDC priorities

•Assessment tools •Reflection workshops•Jointly produced publications

Thank you !