Presentation by Philip Thornton, CCAFS Priorities and Policies for CSA Flagship Leader, at the GCRF Networking Workshop on 29 October 2018 at SRUC, Edinburgh.
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What makes an effective agricultural research for development project?
1. Philip Thornton
Flagship leader, CCAFS, Nairobi
What makes an effective
agricultural research for
development project?
Photo: G. Smith (CIAT)
2. Why I’m standing here
The international agricultural research system
A few principles for effective ag research for development programs
▪ The need to deliver down the impact pathway
▪ Navigate towards specific points of leverage
▪ Utilize the “three-thirds” principle
▪ A plausible theory of change and impact pathway are key
▪ Innovate in partnerships
▪ Innovate in communications
▪ Innovate in learning
Outline
3. • Worked in agricultural research for development for nearly 35 years,
mostly in the CGIAR as a researcher and research leader
• Working as a research area leader (Priorities & Policies for Climate
Smart Agriculture) for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate
Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) since 2010
• Based in Edinburgh, hosted by the International Research Institute
(ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya
• Honorary research affiliations with the School of Geosciences,
University of Edinburgh and CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia
Why I’m standing here
4. CGIAR: a global network of 15 agricultural research centres aiming to reduce poverty,
improve food and nutrition security, and improve natural resources and ecosystem services
5. … plus 8 agri-food system programs, 4 global integrating programs,
3 research support platforms
• Annual budget USD 950 million
• 10,000 staff in about 75 countries
• Centres work with multiple programs
• Programs work with multiple Centres (some
with all)
• Links to one CRP a “portal” to the rest of the
system (and to hundreds of partners)
7. … delivering great science as well as outcomes
Some recent CGIAR / CCAFS outcomes
• 7 million farmers getting climate-
informed advisories in Senegal
• New insurance indices being used to
protect crops of millions of farmers in
India
• USD 500 million of investments by
IFAD and the World Bank “climate-
proofed”
8. Principle 2: navigate towards specific points of leverage
Example: Agriculture in NDC mitigation priorities (nationally determined
contributions) as of March 2018
98 countries
13 countries
https://ccafs.cgiar.org/agricultures-prominence-indcs-data-and-maps
9. • Participatory scenario-guided NDC process involving decision makers across all
sectors
• Future scenarios of Costa Rica in 2030 developed to assess emissions reduction
in agriculture, energy, transport, waste and forests
• Recommendations made taking into account the major uncertainties and
sectoral synergies / trade-offs
• Formed the basis for the mitigation measures in the NDC in 2017
Veeger et al., 2015
10. Allocation of:
• Thought
• Time
• Effort
• Resources?
Principle 3: utilize the “three-thirds” principle
Vermeulen & Campbell, 2015
11. • To focus on people and
outcomes (behavioral changes)
• How are research outputs to be
used? Co-development,
learning, incentives
• Plan to revisit them, to address
unanticipated changes and
failure of key assumptions
• Sometimes, can use
assumptions as research
hypotheses
Principle 4: a plausible theory of change and impact pathway are key
13. How else to reach >500 million smallholders by 2030?
Up to 40% gender disparity
in agricultural productivity
in some countries
420 million youth in Africa
- two-thirds unemployed/vulnerably employed
- one in six in wage employment
Age group will nearly double by 2050
1 GT GHG reduction target (2030)
Current technologies can only do 20-40%
Principle 5: innovate in partnerships
14. Different skills,
partnerships
• Research partners:
national, international,
regional
• Public sector, inter-
governmental and policy
partners
• Non-governmental
development partners
• Private sector partners
(inputs, finance)
15. Principle 6: innovate in communications
• Make use of the growing literature on global change
communications: framing, psychology, values, attitudes,
beliefs, political ideologies, …
• Tap in to new skills in discourse analysis and understanding
gender norms (how can they be modified?), behavioural
science, marketing science
• Power of rapidly evolving info and comms technology
16. Principle 7: innovate in learning
Project (self) learning
▪ Meaningful performance
expectations (outputs,
outcomes)
▪ Measurable indicators
▪ Evaluating what is being
achieved against expectations
▪ Pragmatism: a mix of formal /
informal, quantitative /
qualitative
▪ Big research agenda: new
methods (cost & effort vs
rigour)
Monitoring,
evaluation &
learning
modules
17. Principle 7: innovate in learning
Building capacities
Link in to existing national science-policy dialogue
platforms, networks of scientists, farmers and policy
makers who regularly exchange knowledge on
adaptation to climate change
South-south exchanges: farmers from
one place visiting other farmers to learn
from and teach each other
ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/when-colombia-met-
senegal-photostory