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October 20, 2014

Economic incentives and natural resource management among small-scale farmers: Addressing the missing link

Posted by Ewen Le Borgne under Article, CRP5, East Africa, Ethiopia, ILRI, IWMI, LSE, Nile, Nile 3, NRM | Tags: , |
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Farmer explaning his experience with Desho grass to field day visitors at Kolugelan, Jeldu (Photo credit - ILRI / Adie)

Farmer explaining his experience with Desho grass to field day visitors at Kolugelan, Jeldu (Photo credit – ILRI / Aberra Adie)

Small-scale farmers face numerous challenges to invest in natural resource management practices.

The problems are interlinked, with such perverse economic problems as high transaction costs and risk rooted in the lack of comprehensive institutional and organizational services to farmers for risk reduction and incentive creation. Failure to address such a missing link undermines success in natural resource management.

This paper ponders the importance of such a missing link and proposes an analytic framework that explicitly integrates the economics of natural resource management into institutional and organizational analysis. The framework features the instrumentality of integrated institutional and organizational innovation to create opportunities and incentives to small-scale farmers to encourage investment in natural resource management practices.

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October 17, 2014

Analyzing power dynamics in innovation platforms for natural resource management

Posted by Ewen Le Borgne under Article, ASSP, CRP5, East Africa, Ethiopia, ILRI, Innovation Systems, NBDC, Nile, Nile 2, NRM, Participation | Tags: , |
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Skilful facilitation is needed to overcome difficult power relationships (photo credit: ILRI/Alfred Ombati)

Skilful facilitation is needed to overcome difficult power relationships (photo credit: ILRI/Alfred Ombati)

Innovation systems thinking is increasingly influencing approaches to sustainable agricultural development in developing world contexts. This represents a shift away from technology transfer towards recognition that agricultural change entails complex interactions among multiple actors and a range of technical, social and institutional factors.

One option for practically applying innovation systems thinking involves the establishment of innovation platforms (IPs). Such platforms are designed to bring together a variety of different stakeholders to exchange knowledge and resources and take action to solve common problems. Yet relatively little is known about how IPs operate in practice, particularly how power dynamics influence platform processes.

This paper focuses on a research-for-development project in the Ethiopian highlands which established three IPs for improved natural resource management. The ‘power cube’ is used to retrospectively analyse the spaces, forms and levels of power within these platforms and the impact on platform processes and resulting interventions. The overall aim is to highlight the importance of power issues in order to better assess the strengths and limitations of IPs as a model for inclusive innovation.

Findings suggest that while IPs may achieve some short-term success in creating spaces for wider participation in decision-making processes, they may be significantly influenced by forms of power which may not always be visible or easily challenged.

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August 8, 2013

Managing rainwater, improving livelihoods: Assessing impacts using a Rainwater–Livelihoods–Poverty Index (RLPI)

Posted by Ewen Le Borgne under Article, CRP5, Ethiopia, Nile, Nile 4, Participation | Tags: , , , , |
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NBDC scientists Kindie Getnet and Geremew Kefyalew recently published a research article in the Environment and Development Economics journal to further assess the development impact of rainwater management innovations through the use of a Rainwater-livelihoods-poverty index (RLPI).

The article relates to research ongoing in Diga, one of the three NBDC action sites and proposes working through the comprehensive RLPI, which incorporate intermediate processes and impact pathways to understand the impact of innovations in rainwater management.

The RLPI methodology is further strengthened with participatory household surveys as a way to relate scientifically generated evidence with empirical evidence and eventually inform farmers’ decisions about adopting rainwater management innovations.

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January 16, 2013

Capacity building in progress: students’ theses for and through the Nile BDC

Posted by Ewen Le Borgne under Africa, Article, East Africa, Ethiopia, ILRI, IWMI, NBDC, Nile, Nile 2, Nile 3, Nile 4, Nile 5, NRM, Zoonotic Diseases | Tags: , |
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One of the objectives of the Nile Basin Development Challenge – registered as one of the outcomes that the program hopes to achieves – is to develop the capacities of various actors, including of future generations of decision-makers, planners and implementers of land and water management policies and interventions.

Over the past, the Nile BDC has hosted the work of various students to develop their theses. Here is a tour of some of these:

Most recently,

Other theses comprise:

For the final year of the Nile BDC, a few more theses and pieces of work can be expected.