As we embark on the NBDC project on Integrated Rainwater Management Strategies – Technologies, Institutions and Polices, one of our early activities will be to undertake a baseline survey to understand what is currently going on.

This project seeks change in the way in which rainwater management strategies are planned and implemented. We are also looking at ways of spurring local innovation through the use of innovation platforms. We hope this will lead to a more joined up approach to rainwater management that will connect different landscape elements such as livestock, crops and trees. We also look for better connections between technologies and the human factors surrounding them.

But before we look at ways of bringing about change, we need to know how things are currently done. This is where our baseline survey comes in. Back in November 2010, we held a workshop with a range of national partners to develop a survey tool to assess planning, implementation and innovation aspects of rainwater management. This led to a series of checklists for various key informants and focus groups (see related blog post).

We are now about to go to the field to conduct the survey and our national partners are ready to go. We plan around 20 days field work at each site – our research partners will be accompanied by scientists from the NBDC team. Following collection of qualitative field data we plan a further analysis workshop with national partners to help us synthesize the findings.

Alemayehu Belay will be co-ordinating this effort with backstopping from Katherine Snyder and Eva Ludi, both of whom plan to go to the field. Alan Duncan and Josie Tucker will keep a watching brief from their bases.

Outputs from this project

 

Advertisement