‘Roadshow’ concept developed for sharing knowledge along the contamination pathway in IWMI-lead KSinR Pilot Project

As part of the efforts of the Knowledge Sharing in Research Pilot project “Safe Food despite wastewater irrigation: a knowledge sharing approach” lead by the International Water Management Institute(IWMI), an innovative knowledge sharing approach has been developed to help share appropriate knowledge generated by research projects working on wastewater with key stakeholders.

Described as a ‘roadshow’ this knowledge sharing approach is designed to bring relevant stakeholders together to follow the contamination pathway from farm to fork to understand how the contamination occurs, what the health risks are, and then to look at and learn what practices could be used to reduce the contamination and health risks. Key in all of this is that all stakeholders from farmers, to market vendors to caterers to extension officers and policy makers observe , discuss and learn together.

The overall objective is to improve the adoption potential by application of an knowledge sharing activity that brings together representatives of all involved groups along the contamination pathway in wastewater irrigated vegetable production.

Specific objectives include:

Bring together representatives of all stakeholder groups, researchers, farmers, vendors, market women, caterers and authorities to:

Ø discuss/ demonstrate identified health risk reduction options in a sequence along the contamination pathway.

Ø create a better understanding for each group of identified methods used at each level from the production, processing and up to the consumption what is involved and what is needed to jointly ensure the reduction of health risks

Ø show the correlations between the different levels of application of the health reducing methodologies, i.e. the accumulative effect or draw-backs in case of failure at individual stages.

Ø create a platform for exchange of related questions, challenges on the adoption potential of the identified option with all groups involved.

Ø see if the feeling of joint responsibility for the participating groups can be strengthened by knowledge sharing activities into research projects and thus the impact of our research.

Ø monitor and evaluate the benefits of knowledge sharing activities into research projects.

The KSinR pilot project has been developing and trying out various knowledge sharing approaches to:

• find better ways to interact with stakeholders during the research process
• increase learning throughout the process
• find better ways to share valuable research results with target groups

The roadshow is one of a variety of approaches that has been used.

The roadshow approach was first used in Accra, Ghana by the project in November 2008-with resounding success. The other cities in Ghana where wastewater work has been done also wanted such an approach to be done there. So in March 2009 a roadshow was organised in Kumasi and Tamale Cities in Ghana.

I had a chance to visit during the roadshow in Kumasi, so will be posting some updates, photos etc from this exciting event.

 

1,284 visits from 55 countries/territories

…. since we launched the AGCommons website a couple of months ago.

Quite amazing interest in how geospatial technology can help agriculture!

Visit the site to learn about our new program!

 

Find out what happened in the session on ‘Capturing good practice in agriculture and food security’

Sesssion summary report done by Andrea Pape-Christiansen (ICARDA)

Session: Capturing good practice in agriculture and food security

Date: 20 Jan, 13:45-15:00, Pakistan room

Facilitator: Andrea Pape-Christiansen

Attendance: 21 (9 FAO, 5 WFP, 5 IFAD, 2 other)

2 presentations:

1. Engendering agriculture censuses

2. Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

Process:

Presentation 1, 1 speaker, 10 ppt presentation and 20 min discussion

Presentation 2: 2 speakers, 10 min total, plus a 2 min video “Why women matter”, 20 min discussion.

Main issues from the discussion around session 1:

– agriculture census data have come a long way from the admission in the early 1990s that women’s role and contribution to agriculture production does not show in the statistics, to developing a methodology using data from Tanzania and Niger, to institutionalizing it into the FAO Statistical Development Series by 2010;

– challenges remain:

– in integrating agriculture and national census data

– in integrating national census data with subnational data, integrating a sub-holder concept, seasonal activities, etc

– in finding sample frames for the agriculture censuses that do not discriminate

against women (ie by using none-land based sampling)

– making use of the disaggregated data by policy makers, and for impact assessments

– by the end of 2009 a toolkit will be released, with examples for disaggregated agricultural data collection and analysis;

– as an outcome of the session, two participants plan to follow up with Diana on work in Afghanistan and Somalia, respectively

– the 2010 State of Food and Agriculture report by FAO intends to include examples of gender disaggregated data use;

Main issues from the discussion around the Gender in Ag Sourcebook:

– the Gender and Agriculture sourcebook is a collection of good practices and lessons learned pulled together by 3 partner organizations World Bank, FAO and IFAD;

– it is an online publication, a living document that will be expanded and updated

– in the process the 3 institutions learned to communicate, trust each other; bi-annual face to face meetings were essential to get to know each other as people and made it easy to then continue to communicate, knowing how to take each others comments

– including diverse ideas from the beginning was key to build ownership of all three partner institutions

– the three institutions had different audiences in mind, and the definition of good practice had to be jointly defined

– next step are expert consultation meetings and the development of gender in agriculture projects

Comment I received from the presenters: they felt that the time suggested for presenting their sessions was too short for the audience to understand enough about the subject to then ask in-depth questions.

 

ICT-KM and the KS project working with other Rome-based food and agriculture organisations to put on a Knowledge “Share Fair”

Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP are jointly organizing a 3-day event entitled Knowledge “Share Fair” for Agricultural Development and Food Security to be held at FAO Headquarters on 20 – 22 January 2009.

See the newly launched (but provisional) Knowledge “Share Fair” website

AIMS AND TOPICS

The Share Fair will provide an interactive experience, allowing staff and our Rome-based constituents to:

• share and learn from each others good practices;
• experiment with tools and methodologies for knowledge sharing;
• create linkages and networks for future collaboration between the organizations;
• develop ideas to support and enhance knowledge sharing within and across our organizations.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The purpose of the event is to showcase examples of good knowledge sharing practices in the field of agricultural development and food security. Specifically, we have structured the Fair to allow staff to learn from each other how knowledge sharing practices, methods and tools have enhanced their work and made their project(s) more successful and effective.

The Share Fair will showcase examples of knowledge sharing strategies, policies and operational practices using case studies, anecdotes, and face-to-face events.

We would like you to tell us a story about how you and/or your project dealt with one – or more – of the contexts (see Section 2 and 3 of the Call for Proposals).

Download Call for Proposals

SUBMISSIONS

All projects will be refereed through a peer review process. Potential contributors are strongly encouraged to submit their proposals no later than 15 October, 2008. You can submit your proposals via email to: share-fair@fao.org

Please note that this is a provisional Web page intended to advertise the Call for Proposals of the Knowledge Share Fair prior to the publication of the official Web site

 

Why Knowledge Sharing in Research?

The 15 Centers supported by the CGIAR and their many national partners are together creating a wealth of knowledge that can help rural communities in developing countries build sustainable livelihoods. Yet, formidable obstacles to uptake and use of generated knowledge as well as impact of CGIAR agricultural research remain. One of the missing elements which has reduced the effectiveness of our research and development (R&D) efforts, is appropriate and effective knowledge sharing, both within Centers and between them and their partners.

There is a longstanding tradition that separates researchers from those that take up their results. The traditional linear, transfer of technology approach has worked at different times for different purpose but does not offer the best solution for agricultural research to contribute to development outcomes. While this approach may have had some success in the past, the ever-changing nature of agricultural products, research development, actors and needs, this approach is no longer appropriate for all the whole of the agricultural research and development arena.

The CGIAR Centers and their partners need to shift to a more demand-driven, interactive approach, in which such methods are developed collaboratively through a shared process of learning and innovation. A key requirement for achieving this shift is that knowledge sharing should no longer be a mere afterthought in research. Instead, it must become an integral part of the whole research process, involving all stakeholders.

 

ILAC starts a new five-year phase

The Institutional Learning and Change Initiative of the CGIAR (ILAC) starts a new five-year phase, with support from DGIS. “This new phase of the ILAC Initiative will strive to enhance impacts through partnerships for innovation and to support pro-poor groups that are already employing innovative approaches but may lack adequate visibility, resources and credibility.” Among other important activities ILAC is also organizing with the PRGA Program, ILRI’s Innovation Works and the Sustainability Science Program, and the Center for International Development at Harvard University a workshop on “Rethinking Impact: Capturing the Complexity of Poverty and Change”. The workshop will be held at CIAT headquarters in Cali, Colombia from March 26-28, 2008. Prospective participants are requested to submit abstracts by November 9, 2007. Background information and a call for papers are at: http://www.prgaprogram.org/riw