Poster prepared by Shadi Azadegan, Wendy Godek, Falguni Guharay, Martin Mena, Pablo Silas, Diego Valbuena and Rein Van der Hoek for the Capacity Development Workshop of the CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April–2 May 2014

1. Overview of the Nicaragua research for
development platform
Shadi Azadegan, Wendy Godek, Falguni Guharay, Martin Mena, Pablo Silas, Diego Valbuena, and
Rein Van der Hoek
Context and platform
background
Action Area: CAC
Action Site: Northern Nicaragua (Nicanorte), a
small yet geographically and climatically
diverse area that includes part of the
departments of Jinotega and Matagalpa and
the North Atlantic Autonomous Region
(RAAN)
Opportunities and constraints
Opportunities:
• What’s going well…
> Convergence between the IDOs and
ToCs of stakeholders and Humidtropics
> Strategic alignment between CRPs
supports platforms
• Most innovative ideas to emerge…
> Platforms convened to carry out a
mandate, meaning ideas are generated
and implemented by the same orgs
> Role of CIAT is to support this process
through research and debate
• Key opportunity: All the platforms,
including R4D and IPs, already exist in
some form
Constraints:
• Issues obstructing the platform… too
many tools and a lack of clarity regarding
the practical steps of the process
• Capacity development, M&E, and critical
reflection aid in addressing constraints.
• Structural issues to be addressed…
> R4D must address interests of all CRPs
> R4D must be explicitly linked to IPs
Pictures
Conclusions and ways forward
• So far so good…
• Support is needed to sustain or enhance
the effectiveness of the platform:
1. Small funds for quick wins
2.Capacity to develop proposals for
systems integrated research (SIR) and
funding for the mid-term
Platform progress
• Nicanorte R4D initiated in 2013; IPs starting in 2014
• R4D meetings in May 2013, October 2013, and May 2014; IP meetings are more
frequent – one every two months.
• Activities completed to date:
1. Situational Analysis of Nicanorte
2. Two quick wins – creation of two tools:
a. Decision making for improving soil fertility
b. “Quesungual” system for promoting agroforestry
• Planned Activities for 2014: Entry point initiation, baseline studies/analyses, and
general synthesis of resulting data.
Platform facilitation and
learning
• Key bottlenecks:
1. Questioning of the relevance of
platforms
2. Small country with a limited
number of good organizations
working on the ground
• Situational Analysis has been
documented and M&E is being
initiated.
• Many participating stakeholders
have extensive experience and/ or
have been actively involved in
research, development, and policy
agenda-setting and advocacy.
Team Humidtropics Nicarnorte
r.vanderhoek@cgiar.org ● f.guharay@cigar.org ● wendygodek@gmail.com
Managua,Nicaragua.
Prepared for a capacity development workshop of the
CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April – 2 May 2014
http://humidtropics.cgiar.org/
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-
Share Alike 3.0 Unported License Aprl l2014
April- May 2014
Platform characteristics
• R4D Platform operates at the national level
with emphasis on Nicanorte. The R4D
platform includes 3 geographically situated
innovation platforms (IPs) based on existing
smallholder land-use systems:
1. Coffee-Banana-Timber
2. Cacao-Banana-Timber
3. Grain-Livestock System
• 33 participating organizations representing
a broad spectrum of stakeholders;
emphasis on female leaders
• Collective leadership of the platform by
stakeholders with support from CIAT
• CIAT is facilitating the platform with
activities funded by Humidtropics as well as
other CRPs