End Users (ultimate beneficiaries)
Smallholder farmers located in densely settled highlands of ECA will benefit from increased ability to optimize returns from diverse system components (soil, crops, water, livestock, trees), integrate technological with market and governance innovations, and generate income and food short-term while sustaining the natural resource base and minimizing vulnerability.

Expected Impacts
More integrated management of natural resources (soil, crops, water, livestock, trees), more sustainable production, more income and food, and reduced risk and vulnerability.

Target Ecoregions
The target ecoregion are the densely settled mountain areas of ECA with clear signs of natural resource degradation. This ecoregion covers parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, DR Congo, and Burundi. More humid densely populated highlands constitute about 23% of the total landmass in the region, yet house over 50% of the population given their suitability for human habitation. These highlands can be categorized as warm sub-humid tropics and cool tropics. They are generally characterized by high population density, small land size, land degradation, poor infrastructure, limited livelihood options and poverty. These areas provide critical environmental services to local, lowland and urban residents alike.

Research Approach to Develop IPGs
With a mandate to develop innovative methods and approaches for integrated natural resource management (INRM) at the local level and to catalyze the necessary changes in R&D practice and policies, AHI works in a series of benchmark sites which serve as the source of methodological innovation. It is within these pilot districts and watersheds that integrated technological, social, economic and institutional innovations are developed and tested through a combination of action and empirical research. AHI works in close partnership with national agricultural research institutes and district partners (agricultural extension, local government and civil society) to jointly plan, implement, adapt and evaluate new approaches under development. Cross-site analysis around "higher-order" research questions and themes enables synthesis of good practice and improved understanding of what works where, and why.

AHI's research and associated IPGs within Project 1 fall under four thematic areas:

1. Systems intensification and diversification, which emphasizes approaches for optimizing returns from limited resources at farm level;
2. Participatory integrated watershed management, which focuses on natural resource management and governance issues at landscape scale;
3. Collective action in natural resource management, which explores the added value of collective action and the conditions enabling collective investment in public goods;
4. Policy and institutional innovations, to understand the role of innovations within and among support institutions and improved natural resource governance in improving livelihoods and enabling more integrated, sustainable management of natural resources.

Collaboration
Collaboration and partnership are fundamental to the production of IPGs under this output area. AHI works in a series of benchmark sites in the highlands of ECA in close collaboration with national partners to design, test, monitor and synthesize methodological innovations and associated impacts. Interdisciplinary teams of research and development actors from National Agricultural Research Institutes and extension departments, as well as NGOs and local government partners, are the primary implementing bodies in benchmark sites. A small Regional Research Team with complementary disciplinary expertise (systems perspectives, social science) provides technical support to site teams in planning, field testing of approaches, review and synthesis.

Changes in MTP
Output AHI 1 synthesizes two outputs from previous years, namely AHI 1 and AHI 2, and consolidates some of its output areas. The number of total output areas has decreased from 3 to 2.

Comparative Advantage
Integrated natural resource management is a knowledge-intensive process requiring attention to the "process" as much as the "content" of development and sustainability. AHI has specialized methodologically in the form of social, action-based learning approaches for collaborative development and testing of new approaches for INRM in partnership with national partners and communities. This has enabled the generation of IPGs not only in the form of increased rates of adoption of NRM technologies and localized livelihood impact, but in the form of methods and approaches to enable such localized impacts to be scaled up and institutionalized within R&D institutions in the region.

Log Frame
Project AHI 1: INRM Innovations in Pilot Sites To develop and promote demand-driven INRM innovations at watershed and district levels
Output AHI 1.1: Pilot Implementation of Integrated Watershed R&D Interventions AHI partners develop and use an integrated, participatory NRM approach and associated methods to develop and adapt practical technologies and practices that improve land use, increase returns to land and labour, arrest land and biodiversity degradation in the highlands and empower local communities to sustain these efforts
Output Targets		Intended Users		Outcomes		Impacts
2007 Materials: Lessons and impacts consolidated and published on: (i) Phase 2 and Phase 3 work; (ii) collective action processes; and (iii) systems intensification work in the perennial-based systems of Ethiopia 2008 Strategies: New strategies for addressing "intractable" challenges in benchmark sites and inducing change in decision-makers designed and undergoing implementation as a result of impact assessments and "watershed phase" evaluation 2009 Strategies: New practices for advancing AHI research into new areas identified in the AHI Priority-Setting Exercise (compensation for environmental services; resilience and risk management) are undergoing implementation in pilot sites and institutions		Government ministries; NGOs; research institutes; CBOs		Communities in highland areas have increased income and optimized yields from diverse farm components while conserving system nutrients, water and biodiversity		(i) More integrated management of natural resources (soil, crops, livestock, water, trees); (ii) More sustainable production; (iii) More income and food and reduced vulnerability of rural households; (iv) Stabilized or increased provision of environmental services
Output AHI 1.2: Pilot Implementation of District Institutional Innovations for INRM Support is provided by AHI partners to local policy makers and R&D stakeholders to analyze, formulate and test novel institutional (market, policy, organizational) innovations to reverse land and biodiversity degradation and improve livelihoods
Output Targets		Intended Users		Outcomes		Impacts
2007 Capacity: In-field mentoring of trainees in new sites / countries fosters more coordinated efforts by district-level actors; enhances synergies among system components and land users; enables improved use of limited on-farm resources through identification of "win-win" land management practices; improves environmental governance; facilitates community-based NRM; and enhances integration of AHI project portfolio 2008 Strategies: New strategies for inducing change in district institutional arrangements, policies and key decision-makers designed and undergoing implementation as a result of impact assessments and "watershed phase" evaluation. 2009 Materials: Knowledge gained through CGS-supported research, follow-up to capacity building events and preliminary lessons from emerging research themes is consolidated, published and developed into training materials for district actors		NARIs, NGOs, extension personnel and local government, who are targeted for increased cooperation and use of INRM approaches to support income generation, improved natural resource management and governance, and local adaptive capacity		(i) NARIs, NGOs, extension and local government are more capable of cooperating with one another and empowering communities to enable more optimal outcomes to diverse system goals and users; (ii) Community members are more able to monitor and evaluate, to negotiate and link with outside actors to advocate for their interests, and to govern development processes and natural resource management		(i) More integrated management of natural resources for optimal returns from land and investments (income, food, water, fuel and marketable products); (ii) Improved capacity of and coordination among district R&D institutions; (iii) Better targeted technologies and higher rates of adoption of NRM technologies; (iv) Reduced conflict and vulnerability through improved governance of development processes and the environment; (v) More effective institutional arrangements for INRM, scaling up and community mobilization.

PROJECT AHI 2: SCALING UP AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION

Rationale
While a host of historical and contextual factors have contributed to the current decline in agricultural productivity and natural resources in the target ecoregion, the methods and practices employed by research and development organizations with a mandate to support rural livelihoods are ill-suited to the task. Strategies used by agricultural R&D institutions in the region:

• Tend to be reductionist in their orientation Ð emphasizing maximizing gains to a single system component rather than systems problems, and failing to integrate biophysical, social, economic and institutional concerns;
• Emphasize short-term economic returns at the expense of sustainability;
• Utilize blanket recommendations where technologies are developed with little input from farmers, limiting adoption in areas characterized by high levels of heterogeneity;
• Neglect social dimensions, such as local institutions and knowledge, gender and equity;
• Emphasize individual over collective decision-making, private over common property and farm over landscape-level processes; and
• Lead to the isolation of research from development, duplication of activities and lost opportunities for collaboration.

Project 2 seeks to build on research findings and lessons from Project 1 and institutionalize related principles, methods and practices within research and development institutions in the region. This is achieved through a combination of facilitated institutional change processes, formal trainings, competitive grant systems, publication and knowledge sharing, and networking.

Alignment with CGIAR Science Priorities
Project 2 is similarly aligned with CGIAR science priorities as Project 1, given the direct flow of public goods from pilot sites to institutions within the ecoregion. However, the emphasis on scaling up and institutionalization align Project 2 with two additional CGIAR science priorities—namely, "science and technology policies and institutions" and "improving R&D options to reduce rural poverty and vulnerability."

Outputs
AHI 2.1 Institutional Change in Support of INRM. Institutional change in support of integrated, participatory NRM is strengthened among research and development organizations across the ecoregion through advocacy, self-led organizational change, capacity building and mentoring.

AHI 2.2 Knowledge Management. Increased knowledge base of R&D actors at national, regional and global levels on INRM principles, methods and impacts through improved information capture, packaging and sharing.

Beneficiaries (expected users of outputs)
National agricultural research and extension systems, local government and NGOs, targeted for application of better methods for strengthening communities' capacity to achieve multiple system objectives while enhancing their adaptive capacity; managers of research, development and educational institutions targeted for institutionalizing INRM methods and practices in their own organizations.

Expected Outcomes

• Improved capacity of NARIs, NGOs, extension personnel and government employees to integrate INRM methods into everyday practice
• Staff from research, development and educational institutions supported through organizational structures, processes and technical support services in the application of INRM principles and methods
• Increased awareness and application of the principles and practice of INRM among R&D organizations and professionals in the ECA region and beyond

End Users (ultimate beneficiaries)
Smallholder farmers located in densely settled highlands of ECA will benefit from increased institutional coordination, capacity and support in assisting them in managing the complex trade-offs they face in allocating limited resources among diverse enterprises; balancing short-term economic gains with longer-term NRM investments and reductions in risks and vulnerability, and investing in individual vs. public goods. They will also benefit from more widespread application of proven technological, social, economic and governance innovations to reverse land and biodiversity degradation and improve livelihoods.

Expected Impacts
More integrated management of natural resources (soil, crops, water, livestock, trees), more sustainable production, more income and food, and reduced risk and vulnerability.

Target Ecoregions
The target ecoregion are the densely settled mountain areas of ECA with clear signs of natural resource degradation. However, many of the methods and approaches are applicable to other ecoregions with densely settled agricultural landscapes, high levels of natural resource degradation, and/or tightly coupled interactions among adjacent landscape units and land users.

Research Approach to Develop IPGs
While Project 2 is in large part focused on the delivery of IPGs from Project 1 to the end users (policy makers, local government and research, development and educational institutions) to expand impacts among the beneficiary groups, IPGs are also generated in Project 2. Research conducted on institutional change and scaling up processes, and the impact of these processes, is designed to capture lessons for more widespread application. Processes for scaling up different types of technologies, scaling up methods and institutionalizing new paradigms within organizations have unique requirements. This calls for careful planning, as well as research to capture lessons about the strengths and shortcomings of different approaches. This research may be embedded within a single institutional change process, synthesize lessons across a set of cases or be conducted as a retrospective analysis. IPGs from Projects 1 and 2 are delivered to end users through a knowledge management strategy consisting of improved information capture in the implementation phase (participatory monitoring and evaluation, process documentation and impact assessment), and information packaging and dissemination.

AHI's research and associated IPGs within Project 2 fall under two thematic areas:

1. Scaling up and institutionalization, which emphasizes approaches to scale up both technologies and methods as well as means of catalyzing change within organizations to increase impact; and
2. Improving research-development linkages, which explores institutional arrangements and practices to strengthen both the contributions of diverse types of research to development and the role of the end user in defining research priorities.

Collaboration
The AHI Regional Research team collaborates closely with its national partners both in the scaling up and institutionalization work and in knowledge management. Site teams in AHI benchmark sites work to synthesize lessons from methodological innovations applied in their respective sites, and will be increasingly involved in sharing these lessons with other regional stakeholders through their involvement in capacity building. National agricultural research institutes that have hosted AHI have also been intimately involved in leading their own institutional change processes with AHI support.

Changes in MTP
Output AHI 2 is directly aligned with AHI 3 of previous years, but consolidates some of its output areas.