Project Title
"African Highlands Initiative: 2003 Plan of Work"

Project Goal
To contribute to increased sustainable agricultural productivity and to improved nutrition, environmental management and income in the ECA region.

Project Purpose
To assist AHI in financing the implementation of its 2003 Work Program as approved by the CGIAR at its Annual Meeting in 2002.

Project Background/Rationale
The rationale for this project is the same rationale guiding the AHI Regional Program in Phase 3. Food security and economic growth receive consistent attention by governments, development and research organizations; however, attention to environmental degradation and sustaining environmental services stays in the background. The attention to increasing agricultural outputs is often at the expense of sustainability of important agroecosystems, such as the intensively cultivated highlands in East and Central Africa. Major driving forces leading to unsustainable use of resources are increased human population levels, limitations of policies and institutional strategies, and continuing restricted livelihood options. These drivers are causing a heightened level of agricultural intensification through a process of expansion into marginal lands; increasing competition for scarce water, grazing and forest resources; displacing biodiversity assets, and discouraging investment to maintain or replenish natural resources. Poor farmers, in particular, rely more on the inherent quality of the resource base and can least compensate for land degradation, loss of wild sources of food and income, and natural sources of fuel, tools and building supplies. If these sustainability issues are not tackled, we will see continued hunger and decline in the future regardless of short-term gains in production.

Large numbers of people and governments depend upon the produce and exports originating in the intensively cultivated highlands of East and Central Africa. Despite the importance of highlands' contribution to agriculture production and food security in the region, agriculture research and development (R&D) efforts have not made a sufficient impact. The highlands have generally not been recognised as niches at risk requiring urgent and specialised attention. Research efforts have been highly fragmented and discontinuous, technical recommendations are not widely spread and, given their general nature, are often not applicable to the highly heterogeneous environments, niches and residents found in mountain areas. Social, economic and policy dimensions inherent in the issues as major constraining factors have largely been ignored. R&D actors have not able to provide an integrated front to solve land degradation and related poverty issues.

Phase 3 of AHI supported research and development inputs to pursue these concerns: (i) improved watershed management using participatory, integrated approaches in pilot sites; (ii) scaling up of INRM approaches to the pilot districts (or appropriate administrative units) and beyond; (iii) promotion of institutional and policy change in favour of INRM; and, (iv) enhanced networking and use of best practices among practitioners. The work supported researcher and research institutions' capacity to promote and use INRM approaches so as to better achieve impact through the integration of technical, economic, policy, institutional and social dimensions. The work was structured around selected methodological ingredients required to solve NRM and productivity issues: ways to achieve integration, partnerships and working arrangements, collective action and farmer innovation, and institutional change. Phase 3 also promoted action research as a way of working that simultaneously builds researcher capacity, is used to invent and explore new approaches and methods, and can ultimately help to institutionalize INRM.

The following results and objectives guided Phase 3 work:

Key Result 1: Supporting sustainable INRM in practice
Objective 1.1: Developing the integrated watershed approach
Objective 1.2: Developing and implementing district-based strategies to improve the orientation of development, policy interventions and practices of INRM approaches

Key Result 2: Scaling up watershed-based INRM approaches through increased institutionalization and public investment
Objective 2.1: Induce change in research institutional policy and practice for enhanced use of INRM approaches
Objective 2.2: INRM lessons and experiences widely shared and skills enhanced in partner institutions

Project Nature
Non-CGS Project

Participating Countries and Institutions
Ethiopia: EIAR and partner organizations (Areka and Ginchi benchmark sites)
Kenya: KARI and partner organizations (W. Kenya benchmark site)
Tanzania: DRD and partner organizations (Lushoto benchmark site)
Uganda: NARO and partner organizations (Kabale benchmark site)

Duration and Status
One year (2003)

Source of Funding
World Bank/CGIAR