Presented by Polly Ericksen, Mohamed Manssouri and Katie Downie at the Global Alliance on Drought Resilience and Growth visit to Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 5 November 2012

1. Introducing the Technical Consortium (TC)
for Building Resilience to Drought in the
Horn of Africa
Global Alliance
on Drought Resilience and Growth visit to
Ethiopia
5 November, 2012
Polly Ericksen, Mohamed Manssouri, Katie Downie

2. What is the Technical
Consortium?
• A joint CGIAR/FAO initiative, with ILRI representing the
CGIAR Centres and the FAO Investment Centre representing
FAO
• ILRI hosts the Coordinator on behalf of the CGIAR
• Funded initially by USAID for 18 months – this is envisioned
as a longer term initiative, complementing the
implementation of investment plans in the region and
harnessing, developing and applying innovation and
research to enhance resilience

3. An innovative partnership linking
demand-driven
research
sustainable
action for
development

4. What is the purpose of the
Technical Consortium?
• To provide technical and analytical support to IGAD and its
member countries to design and implement the CPPs and
the RPF, within the scope of the IGAD Drought Disaster
Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI)
• To provide support to IGAD and its member countries to
develop regional and national resilience-enhancing
investment programmes for the long term development of
ASALs
• To harness CGIAR research, FAO and others’ knowledge on
drought resilience and bring it to bear on investments and
policies
4

5. What has the Technical
Consortium done to date?
• Produced a series of Technical Briefs on 6 key thematic areas (NRM,
market access and trade, livelihoods support and safety nets, DRR,
Conflict resolution and peace building, research and knowledge
management)
• Assisted regional (IGAD) government in the development of Country
Programming Papers along a common framework involving quality
reviews and peer learning between countries
• Supporting IGAD in the development of the IGAD Regional
Programming Framework
• Involved the research community and other actors (NGOs, NSAs,
governments) in the development of Concept Notes designed to
bring innovative research (both refining existing appropriately and
new) to the investment agenda
5

6. Next Steps (next 8 months)
• Assist countries and DPs translating their CPPs into investment
programmes/projects
• Develop an M&E framework for resilience enhancement in the
drylands
• Develop a framework for evaluating returns to investments in
resilience
• Initiate a knowledge /research agenda for the drylands
• Map contributions from CGIAR CRPs
• Document the learning emanating from TC mechanism
6

7. Longer term perspective
• Acting as a flexible R&D facility for supporting drought resilience
• Develop a knowledge agenda to be rolled out along the CPPs and the RPF
during implementation including research, innovation, scaling up and
learning:
– M&E, learning and impact assessment to inform action and measure results
– Guidance for (responsible) investments in drylands and pastoral development
– Scouting for innovations, good practice for scaling up, policy change and
investment
– Learning from failures
– Strengthening the nascent Research-Action and learning network (see
following slide)
• Strengthen the regional dimension through the Regional Platform by
promoting peer-learning between across countries, regions, etc.
• Develop specific knowledge sharing and learning practices for knowledge
to bear more on action (joint missions between researchers and
developers, structured learning, valuing local knowledge)
• Provide Technical Assistance to support effective policies and investments
throughout the implementation of the CPPs and RPF, in order to provide
for focus, consistency and learning

8. * FAO Ethiopia *WFP * Ministry of GOVERNMENT &
DEVELOPMENT * UNICEF – ESARO * FAO Uganda Agriculture - IGOS
PARTNERS * FAO TCI * UNDP Republic of Sudan
* European Union (Kenya) * ASAL Secretariat – * KARI
Government of * Adami Tulu
* Makere University (Uganda) Kenya Agricultural
* Masinde Muliro University of Science & * Drought research Centre
Technology (Kenya) Management (Ethiopia)
* Feinstein International Centre – Tufts Initiative – Kenya * Serere
* Centre for studies & scientific research – Ministry of Agricultural
University of Djibouti Agriculture (Uganda) Research Institute
* Pwani University College (Kenya) ACADEMIA * IGAD (Uganda)
* Johns Hopkins School of Public Health * NARO - Uganda
National
RESEARCH
* Save the Children UK * REGLAP International
* ACTED * VSF (Belgium)
* Bioversity * IUCN
* Care International * World Vision
* ICRAF *ASARECA
* Mercy Corps * ACC
* USAID * ICRISAT
NON-STATE * COOPI * CNFA (Kenya)
* ILRI * TANGO
ACTORS * Food for the Hungry * EcoServe Solutions
* EcoServe Solutions
* RECONCILE * ADRA Somalia
* Futures Agricultural
*Pastoralist Policy Research, Advocacy and
Consortium
Resource Tenure