Presented by Beth Cullen (ILRI), Mulugeta Lemineh, Zelalem Lema & Emeline Hassenforder at the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) Science Workshop, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9–10 July 2013

1. WAT-A-GAME for participatory NRM planning:
Fogera case study
Beth Cullen (ILRI)
With Mulugeta Lemineh, Zelalem Lema & Emeline Hassenforder
Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) Science Workshop
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9–10 July 2013

2. • Introduction to WAT-A-GAME
• Game design
- Game board
- Role cards
- Action cards
• Overview of NBDC baseline research findings
• Fogera case study
- Objectives
- Process
• Initial outcomes
• Ongoing activities
• Future efforts
Outline of presentation

3. Introduction
• Innovation platforms (IPs) are increasingly popular as a mechanism for
enabling sustainable agricultural development
• Agricultural change entails complex interactions between multiple actors
and must take into account a range of factors …
• The Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) established IPs for
improved rainwater management at three sites in the Ethiopian…
• Why IPs? was based on the understanding that addressing NRM challenges
often requires innovation in the institutions that structure patterns of
interaction between resource users
• NBDC IPs aim to bring together a range of stakeholders to identify
common issues and develop integrated NRM strategies to address
• By working together ….IP members will develop innovative, locally
appropriate solutions, demonstrating an alternative approaches

4. Introduction
• IP processes link actors with varying degrees of influence, different knowledge and
skills, and sometimes divergent needs and priorities and if it is harnessed well it can be
a strong mechanism for change
• However, NBDC experiences indicate that careful attention needs to be paid to issues
of power and representation, if not they my have significant impact
• In Fogera there was a lack of agreement regarding NRM issues between decision
makers and community members leading to competing agendas and conflicting ideas
about potential solutions
• A systematic facilitation or ‘innovation brokering’ is required to mediate between
different interests, to allow all platform members to present their perspectives and
help them reach consensus, or at least compromise
• Local level participatory planning approach, which sees smallholder associations and
community leaders as key stakeholders is a key to successful interventions in NRM
(MERET, PSNP and SLM)
• WAT-A-GAME, a new planning tool, was used by researchers as a starting point to
look in to the rainwater management issues through multi-stakeholder approach

5. Introduction to WAT-A-GAME
WAT-A-GAME: open toolkit (www.watagame.info)
Developed by IRSTEA and CIRAD, research institutes based in France
WAT-A-GAME creates a dynamic model of a given landscape and represents
relationships between resources and actors. The model can be used to
simulate various strategies and the resulting impacts on households and
surrounding ecosystem.
The tool can be adapted to individual cases, a range of land and water
management issues and different scales. New policies can also be invented and
tested.
WAG has been designed to be used by a range of stakeholders, including
farmers, scientists, experts, administrators and policy makers

6. Game Board
Land plot
Grazing area
Forest area
Highland
Midland
Lowland
Wetland area
Road

7. 7
Role Card

8. 8
Action Card
Cereals
Water & money
requirements
Money return
1 soil unit output
removes 1 money
and 1 livestock
RULE : If water and money input is not met, return is 0
season location
Carrying capacity

9. Game design continued…
• Participants play several ‘rounds’ of the game e.g. wet season, dry
season to portray the dynamic nature of resource use.
• Each round can be calibrated to represent certain length of time e.g.
five years, one decade, etc.
• At end of each round
participants collectively
assess consequences of
their actions e.g.
sedimentation, water
shortage for irrigation.
• This prompts discussion
and reflection

10. 10
So how does WAT-A-GAME fit within the
Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) project?

11. Overview of NBDC...
Nile Basin Development Challenge aims to improve resilience of rural
livelihoods in the Ethiopian highlands through an integrated landscape
approach to rainwater management.
Research is focused on three study sites: Fogera in Amhara region, Diga
and Jeldu in Oromiya region.
Base-line research conducted at the start of the project identified the
following issues, how to:
•Improve cross-sector collaboration and coordination
•Tailor SWC interventions to socio-economic/ecological conditions
•Foster bottom-up planning/community participation
•Enhance follow-up and monitoring of SWC interventions
Could participatory tools like WAT-A-GAME assist NRM planning
and implementation processes?

12. WAT-A-GAME was piloted with members of the NBDC initiated
Innovation Platform (IP) in Fogera.
Innovation platforms bring together different stakeholders to exchange
knowledge and develop joint action to test solutions to common
problems.
IP participants: Government line departments (Admin, Agriculture,
Natural Resource, Water, Women, Cooperatives, Land Use, Livestock),
Adet Agricultural Research Center, Andassa Livestock Research Center,
Ethio-Wetlands and Natural Resources Association (NGO), community
representatives
Fogera case study

13. NBDC researchers worked with WAT-A-GAME designers to model the
Fogera catchment and simulate key RWM issues identified by stakeholders
including: water availability, run-off, soil erosion and the impact of different
land-use practices
The aim was to use the model to:
• Improve stakeholder understanding about natural resource challenges
and the needs/priorities of different social actors
• Nurture critical discussion, about linkages between
upstream/midstream/downstream actors and potential conflicts
associated with the use and management of natural resources,
• Facilitate collective exploration of alternative strategies which could
lead to more sustainable and effective NRM interventions
• Consider critical issues of power dynamics and representation
Fogera case study continued…

14. WAT-A-GAME: not just about the tool,
process is important too...

15. Presentation of WAT-A-GAME by facilitators

16. Participants play WAT-A-GAME in 2 groups
Farmers Decision makers

17. Groups identify and prioritize main NRM challenges

18. Groups identify practices required to address these challenges

19. Groups analyze feasibility of practices-
e.g. resources required, timing, scale.

20. Groups merge practices to form strategies-
spacial and temporal

21. Groups evaluate strategies-
knowledge, labour and money

22. Groups present their strategies to one another

23. Joint reflection about process, lessons learned & ways forward

24. Second workshop to create a merged strategy

25. Analysis of potential challenges to implementation & solutions

26. Workshop Outcomes
Unrestricted grazing chosen as focal issue due to the impact on natural
resources and SWC interventions in Fogera
Discussion led to increased understanding of different priorities and perspectives
held by farmers and decision makers and the impact on interventions.
Relates to Innovation Platform activities.

27. IP interventions
Actors Main issue Related issue
IP members
Unrestricted
grazing
Land degradation
Community
Restricting
grazing
Shortage of
grazing/fodder
Water
scarcity
Seasonal water
shortages
Soil
conservation
Organization of
campaign work
Fodder development chosen for pilot interventions as
a way of addressing the issues of unrestricted grazing,
taking into account both farmer and decision maker
concerns.

28. Agreement between IP members and community members about restricting free
grazing, but different views about how this should be done.
Decision makers would like grazing to be restricted but farmers are concerned about a
number of issues:
•HH without livestock unable to collect dung for fuel if livestock are restricted
•Inability for livestock to breed without AI services
•Insufficient fodder production to meet livestock needs, particularly for those with less
land
•Greater burden of labour on women with cut and carry system
•Limited access to communal areas for funerals/wedding etc due to enclosures
Range of interventions needed over longer time frame to address these issues.
IP interventions

29. Workshop Outcomes
•Decision makers acknowledged that they often struggle to address variations
within the woreda.
•Use of WAT-A-GAME helped stakeholders to develop a joint strategy,
addressing a common issue, tailored to different socio-economic and biophysical
niches
•Recognition that NRM challenges are more severe in certain parts of the
landscape so burden of implementation is heavier on some farmers than others
•Discussion about long term versus short term impacts and the incentives or
support required to implement longer term interventions
•Dialogue about how the strategy developed during the workshop could
potentially be implemented

30. 15
Ongoing activities
•1st workshop (Dec 2012) aimed to develop strategies which capture the
priorities, knowledge and perspectives of farmers and decision makers, and
analyze the commonalities and differences.
•2nd workshop (March 2013) reviewed the strategies developed during the
first workshop and created a merged strategy. Potential challenges to
implementation were discussed and ideas for solutions were generated
•3rd workshop (September 2013) will test the merged strategy using WAT-
A-GAME to analyze the potential impact on the landscape and different types
of farmers. Roles and responsibilities of actors will be discussed to take the
strategies into action

31. Future efforts
•Link WAT-A-GAME to biophysical modeling processes e.g. SWAT to run
potential scenarios for discussion with stakeholders
•Asses the use of WAT-A-GAME as a decision support tool with stakeholders
and explore ways of making it more user friendly
•Link WAT-A-GAME with other piloted processes and tools as part of an
integrated package that can be used to assist future NRM planning and
implementation efforts
•Present the findings of WAT-A-GAME and other NBDC research outputs to
policy makers