On 19 April 2018, Dr Catherine Grasham of REACH shared insights on REACH Research into Action work in Ethiopia

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Research into action: Working with stakeholders
in interdisciplinary water research in Ethiopia
Dr Catherine Fallon Grasham
Oxford University
For: Making a Difference: Social Sciences & Impact Conference, April 2018

2. About REACH
• REACH is a 7 year (2015-2022) DfID-funded
(UKAID) project to improve water security for
5 million people in Africa and Asia, in
particular, Ethiopia, Kenya and Bangladesh
• Strong focus on ‘Research into Action’
• Oxford University, UNICEF, various in-country
academic, research, government, private
sector and NGO partners
• Interdisciplinary project to build science-
practitioner partnerships

3. Our case study in a nutshell
Increased
water
demand with
economic &
population
growth
Environmental pollution
from economic growth
Managing
water for
different
users
Irrigation
expansion
& changing
livelihoods
Pastoralist
livelihoods
Saline lake
overflowing
in river

4. MIXED CROP-LIVESTOCK LIVELIHOODS
PASTORALISM
LARGE COMMERCIAL FARMS
INDUSTRY
RURAL COMMUNITIES
URBAN ECONOMIES

5. Complex water governance arrangements
National
Basin Authority
Regional
Woreda

6. What did we decide?
Successes:
• To work with a mixture of stakeholders, mostly government, based
on perceptions of power relations, particularly at the federal,
regional and basin scale
• Strong relationship with Awash Basin Authority (AwBA)
• Close collaboration with our in-country partner,
the Water and Land Resource Centre (WLRC) at Addis Ababa University
• High-level stakeholder meetings in September 2017 attended by the
national Minister for Water – good awareness of REACH in the
national ministry
• Working with UNICEF to navigate relationships with local
stakeholders
Ongoing Challenges:
• Still, too many of our models and too much knowledge is produced
from Oxford
• How can we move towards co-production of knowledge between
stakeholders and stronger local ownership?

7. Social science in
interdisciplinary research
• Social science strongly viewed as ‘soft’ science and less
important than hydrology and climate science
• Awash River Basin Authority strong positivist epistemology
“What can be measured can be managed.”
• Climate scientist colleague remarked
“I can’t see the point of this research!”
• How to communicate the importance of social research to
stakeholders?

8. Finding an entry point with
government stakeholders
• Target of 5 million poor people strongly linked to United
Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which the
Ethiopian government are signed up to
• Ethiopian government conceptualisation of water as a ‘social
good’
“Water is life”
• In essence, all working towards a common
goal of, “Clean Water for All”
– REACH (all colleagues across disciplines)
– Ethiopian Government
– International development community

9. In Summary
• Research into Action
– Complex and unfamiliar governance arrangements
that require navigation
– Essential to build successful relationships with in-
country partners
– Strong high-level engagement and understanding of
local decision-making systems
• Interdisciplinarity
– Finding an entry point with stakeholders
– Everyone working towards a common goal
– Enabling environment for collaboration and co-
operation