Presented by Alan Duncan, Beth Cullen, Aster Gebrekristos and Stefan Shultz at the Africa RISING Ethiopia Project Implementation Meeting, Addis Ababa, 13-14 February 2013

1. Proposals for Africa RISING
Ethiopian Highlands Research
Component 1 -
Characterization
Alan Duncan, Beth Cullen, Aster Gebrekristos, Stefan Shultz
Africa RISING Ethiopia project implementation meeting, Addis
Ababa, 13-14 February 2013

2. Partners
 ILRI (lead): Expertise in the development and application of a wide
range of participatory methods (e.g. for characterisation of
resource availability and utilisation and stratification of households
within communities); Gender analysis (identification of gender-
disaggregated constraints and opportunities and identification of
gender-equitable solutions).
 CIP: Past experience of community situation analysis and action
research planning.
 ICRAF: Resource mapping and formalisation of indigenous
knowledge and practises.
 National Partners: Community engagement; past experience in the
use of diagnostic approaches and tools.

3. Endogenous  Driver of Innovation  Exogenous
Research component 1 Research component 4
Review of best
System characterisation and analysis technology / “Action research”
management
Community options
characterisation
and stratification Participatory Validate technologies /
problem Ex ante modelling / management practices
identification and impact assessment
Inventory of current gap analysis
technologies /
practices and their
Adaptation and
sources
integration of
technologies /
Research component 3 management practices
Research component 2
Community institutions Markets and wider
and knowledge stakeholders
exchange
Identified market
opportunities
Biophysical and Research component 5
socio-economic
benchmarks Outputs to outcomes
Characterisation of specific
value chains (actors and links)
Scaling: to be developed
Community
knowledge exchange Functioning multi-stakeholder
groups established platforms
Opportunities for
scaling innovation
(endogenous and
exogenous)

4. Key deliverables
 Socio-economic community characterization.
 Characterisation of bio-physical environment.
 Household stratification (against socio-economic and biophysical
factors)
 Gender analysis.
 Inventory of current practices / technologies and their sources.
 Participatory problem identification and gap analysis.

5. Some issues
 Household typologies

6. Household typologies
 Each household is different
 For intensification strategies – one size does not fit all
 Can we find ways of characterizing households that will lead to
better tailored interventions?
 What is the minimum dataset needed to do this?

7. Gender
 Women and men play different roles in the household economy
and reap different benefits
 How do we take account of this in designing sustainable
intensification strategies?

8. Research Questions
 What is the minimum dataset (biophysical and socio-economic,
quantitative and qualitative) required for effective household
characterisation and stratification and to meet the needs of
monitoring progress towards AR-EH / FtF development outcomes?
 What is the best approach to mainstreaming household gender
considerations so that they inform the selection of technologies
and practices for sustainable intensification?
 What is the best way of conducting gap analysis and problem
identification for a household based programme of action research
for SI?

9. Gap analysis/problem identification
 Different approaches to designing intervention strategies

10. Approach – socioeconomic characterization
 Participatory household characterisations.
 Basic socio-economic survey of quantitative indicators.
 SLATE
 AKT5
 baselines for future M&E

11. Approach – biophysical envt characterization
 Identification of a suite of biophysical indicators for M&E
 Household-level sampling frame across the AR-EH sites.
 GIS-based approaches for strengthening these data.
 Baselines for future M&E

12. Approach – Household stratification
 Livelihoods asset for household typologies
 Participatory approaches to interpreting and strengthening asset-
based strata.
 Needs assessment for more detailed, household survey based
stratifications.

13. Approach – Gender analysis
 Study of gender differentiation
 Identification of potential entry points based on strengthening
household management teams.

14. Approach – inventory of current technologies and
their source
 Participatory study of current practices and technologies including
mapping of uptake pathways

15. Approach – Participatory problem identification and
gap analysis
 Livestock production and management practises including the feed
resource base (FEAST / Techfit).
 Future visions, challenges and solutions.
 Trade-offs analysis.
 Criteria that might influence applicability, performance and
adoption of technologies and management practices.
 Feed into ex ante impact assessments conducted under RC5.

16. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net