African Highlands Initiative | Archives

AHI Phase 4: African Highlands Initiative—Strengthening Institutional Innovations for Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Highlands of East and Central Africa

RELATION TO COUNTRY/PROBLEM/SDC PROGRAMS

The African Highlands Initiative (AHI) is an ecoregional research program of ASARECA since 1995 that focuses on improving livelihoods and reversing natural resource degradation in the intensively cultivated highlands of East and Central Africa. To this end, AHI is developing and promoting an "integrated natural resource management approach" (INRM)¹, and institutionalizing it use in key partner organizations. To fulfill its ASARECA mandate, AHI program performs the multiple functions of: coordination of partnership inputs, facilitation and mentoring of national R&D implementation teams to improve their competence, carrying out regional syntheses and strategic research, and foster the broader sharing of information. Thus, AHI works nationally in 4 countries having different contexts in a collaborative mode with national research, extension and NGO R&D partners based in pilot learning sites (PLS); while working regionally to promote cross-country learning by practitioners. AHI work targets the poor in degraded highland watersheds where environmental and related livelihood problems are widely visible on farms and on landscapes. AHI work aims to build local initiative, participation in better governance, and improve income while maintaining and improving the natural resource base. AHI is using a participatory action research mode where local communities are integral to the process (participatory), where R&D teams facilitate local action as part of development process (action), and research products are provided to inform this process (research). Methods under test include finding better ways to: build local capacity to innovate, integrate and adapt technologies and practices to their local situations; improve social and institutional arrangements that foster collective action and improve local agreements over management of resources; influence local and higher level development philosophy and practice through local advocacy and timely research inputs; and improve practice and policy regionally on these issues.

EXAMPLES OF LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS

AHI's work in Phase 3 (2002-2005) has provided examples of this:

Development of socially optimal methods to capture needs of the poor, women and disadvantaged along with the more "active" poor;

Negotiation, conflict resolution and by-law making on NRM issues by local communities that is supported by local government;

Capacity building of biophysical scientists to use sociological methods so that local knowledge and social structures are recognized and built upon;

Work through an NGO coalition that is improving governance and "demand" mechanisms to determine extension needs and to monitor service provision;

Methods and strategies for national R&D organizations that aim for empowerment, inclusion of the poor, and are gender sensitive and build local social capital;

Blending of systems modeling and farm manager preferences to improve land allocation and decision making to optimize returns of food, income and NRM from farm systems.

Building farmer-to-farmer and service provider-to-farmer platforms that are supported by trained facilitators to promote grassroots innovations in "land care" and improving livelihoods.

Bringing in dimensions of INRM into larger fora, such as ASARECA, FARA, IDRC, EIAR, and NARO for strategy development and influencing implementation of the new research for development paradigm.

PHASE 4 RESULTS AND RELATED OUTPUTS AND OUTCOMES

In Phase 4, AHI has four main intermediate results (IRs):

IR 1: INRM innovations developed and utilized to advance community-based participation in watersheds
IR 2: Development strategies, policies, and practices for INRM are facilitated
IR 3: Supportive institutions and institutional arrangements for INRM are piloted
IR 4: INRM information that enhances knowledge base of R&D actors is provided

INSIGHTS LEADING TO PHASE 4 EMPHASIS

AHI undertook extensive stakeholder consultation to formulate the Phase 3 (2002-04) framework and strategy. This clearly defined AHI's comparative advantage and linked its results to the ASARECA CCF. During Phase 3, AHI made considerable progress which is widely recognized; however, the 3-year period of Phase 3 was too short at time to develop and institutionalize an INRM approach, which is an ambitious endeavor. AHI learned that its modality of working "locally," synthesizing and influencing "regionally" is sound. There was considerable progress in developing the integrated watershed approach in the pilot sites (PSs) but there is need to take it further. Institutionalization of the associated practices and methods of the INRM approach requires a "mind-set" change (a new way of doing research). This requires iterative development, testing and adjusting of new research methods plus training and mentoring in their use. It also requires working with a wider group of scientists including managers in the NARI institutions. Furthermore, once methods are proven, more can be done to influence the ASARECA family of networks and other institutions on applying these methods. In Phase 3, new partnership configurations emerged to link R with D that we can learn from, but this requires more research, analysis and synthesis. Our findings and experiences are posed for scaling up locally and more broadly, and this requires further investment. Therefore, a summary of the Phase 4 emphases would be:

To further develop the watershed approach focusing on enabling collective action and integrating biophysical, social and economic (market and trade-off) dimensions of farm and landscape management. This new work will also contribute to the development of "action research for development" methods and tools.
To use the experiences and methods from the PSs combined with information from more extensive surveys and syntheses of broader experiences to derive good practices and methods for development agencies. Areas covered would include: improving farmer institution development and collective action for NRM and market, local monitoring schemes, fostering local innovation to improve farm management, mechanisms to include disadvantaged groups in development, better governance and advocacy, and improved communication strategies for development.
To conduct research to understand links and dynamics between vulnerability, poverty, livelihood strategies, economic growth and NRM. This would include methods to better articulate tradeoffs from the vantage points of different stakeholders and scenarios so as to provide information for improved dialogue with levels of decision and policy makers;
To provide relevant and timely information to district and national development actors and decision makers by aiming research at: critical evaluation of R&D partnerships and linkages to enable better management; developing and testing analytical frameworks and performance monitoring schemes to improve quality and contributions of various actors to development processes; and learning from various scaling up and communication strategies. This work will also be an input into the INRM approach development.
To impart "how to" information, provide "real life" examples, and follow with mentoring for institutional change in some key research institutions that will eventually serve as "models" and provide lessons to others in the ASARECA region and beyond.

Our targeted beneficiaries and participants include national and international research organizations and networks, civil society organizations, service providers, policy makers, local authorities, community organizations and male and female farmers.

¹ INRM is an approach that aims at improving livelihoods, agro-ecosystem resilience, agricultural productivity and environmental services. Improved livelihoods strategy implies sustainably optimizing social, physical, human, natural and financial assets. INRM incorporates and builds upon participation of all those stakeholders having a "stake" in the resources, their activities in this respect, and their relationships linking across various scales (farm-landscape-watershed) and levels (households-community-district-national) depending upon commonly agreed need-based issues. INRM values and incorporates perspectives and expertise from various quarters, e.g. research disciplines, government decision makers, community members and leadership, and from the development actors including extension, NGOs, and CBOs.