Nile Basin Development Challenge:

Brief overview

Tilahun Amede, CPWF Nile Basin Coordinator

Nile Basin Development Challenge Launch Workshop, Addis Ababa, 29 September

2010

Well come to NBDC!

Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC)

• NBDC research will focus on the Ethiopian highlands and will examine the interrelated issues of rainwater management;

• The Blue Nile Basin is suffering from economic water scarcity;• Understanding causes and its consequences of low rainwater

productivity; • Innovations for improving rainwater management systems;

addressing poverty, vulnerability and resources degradation in the basin.

i) Crop and livestock water productivity;ii) Managing rainfall variability, iii) Minimizing land degradation and downstream siltation of water

storage infrastructure;iv) Resilient communities and systems that will manage climatic and

market shocks

Improvement through well-targeted combinations of technologies, up-scaling ‘best bets’, policies and institutions, understanding of downstream & cross-scale consequences, facilitating learning, collective action, commitment to change

• Nile 1: On learning from the past;• Nile 2: On integrated rainwater management

strategies – technologies, institutions and policies;

• Nile 3: On targeting and scaling out• Nile 4: On assessing and anticipating

consequences of innovation• Nile 5: Nile Coordination and platforms

Nile Basin Leaderi. Managing and leading the Coordination Project

ii. Oversees and coordinates the implementation of the four CPWF-supported research programs designed to tackle pressing BDC; RMS

iii. Ensure coherence and integration of the overall BDC research;

iv. Linking, complementing with and motivating a wider movement, initiatives and organizations who are also working towards addressing the BDC agenda;

v. Together with CPWF M&E team managing M&E and impact assessment of NBDC;

vi. Enabling learning, partnerships and impact;

vii.Facilitating cross-scale innovation and knowledge

Nile 1

• Review and Synthesis of historical perspectives of land, water, NRM research in Ethiopia and progress to date; experiences of programs and projects on rainwater management (RWM) in Ethiopia

Nile 2. (Landscape scale technologies, policies and institutions; innovations)

Nile 3. Targeting and up-scaling

Mapping, targeting, up-scaling of bio-physical and institutional interventions affecting RWM strategies

Blanket approaches

Evaluation of scenario’s of best-bet practices

Dissemination / adoption / modification / useof Best Practices for Improved Rainwater systems in

Ethiopian highlands

Nile 4: On assessing and anticipating consequences of innovation

Evidence Impact at various levels Downstream effects Upstream effects Policy and institutional shift Economic and social consequences

4. Innovation Capacity Building and Dissemination4.1 Capacity Building4.2 Dissemination

3. Analysis of water productivity savings3.1Green Blue Water Accounting3.2 Analysis of productivity savings3.2 Analysis of waterlogged savings

2. Analysis of best land use systems2.1 Crop and livestock productivity through RMS2.3 LLH analysis2.4 Economic analysis

1. Information on the likely cross-scale consequences1.1 Synthesis of existing knowledge1.2 Develop tools and methods for biophysical1.3 Policy and institutional consequences

Nile 5 objectives

1. Ensure that synergies, lessons and interactions between the other four Nile BDC projects are fully exploited so that the whole is greater than the sum;

2. Contributing to wider efforts to improve rural livelihoods and their resilience through facilitating rainwater management systems in the Blue Nile basin

Linkages

Sub-regional

Landscape

Farm level

ImpactLearning

Communication

Nile 5.Coordinati

on, platforms

Nile 4. Consequences, impact, tradeoffs

Nile 2. Innovatio

ns, technologi

es , practices

Nile 3. Mapping, targeting. Up-scaling

Nile 1. Inventory

and synthesis

Linkages

Link

ages

i. Participatory M&E framework will be used to monitor and evaluate progress and make adjustments;

ii. Generic indicators against which the activities and expected results will be measured;

iii. Development of common reporting formats allowing teams to better share lessons;

iv. Schedules for project specific evaluations will be agreed and evaluation studies on cross cutting issues including gender, social preferences will be jointly carried out;

v. Capacity building (inc gender, M&E) will be built both into the whole co-ordination and project implementation, individual activities based on a needs assessment.

Strongly interlinked NBDC projects

NBDC working principles

• Strong partnership; range of partners, larger network and linkages

• Interdisciplinary research; disciplines and institutions

• Capacity building; mentoring, facilitating • Gender and diversity; ability to participate in and

derive benefit from water • Learning, documentation and communication

Coordination project is organized around three outputs

I: Impact pathways and governance structures for effective management, monitoring and evaluation of the Nile BDC projects

a. Focuses on the development, use, monitoring and adaptation of IP to ensure projects have a forum for interaction and adjustment

II: Networks for Innovation for improved RWM in the Nile basin strengthened:

a. Use innovation approaches first to map networks of present and desired actors and their interactions, develop plans for engaging and influencing them;

III: Effective Communication, documentation and synthesis for RWM developed and used:

a. Ensuring that all partners within the five projects as well as other similar initiatives access and benefit from the information as it is generated. It also ensures higher level synthesis of lessons and processes relevant to the broader BDC and wider scaling up and out of RWM strategies.

Effective communication• Continual engagement of the NBDC team, through

monthly meetings, electronic media, project interaction• Inclusive planning of workshops; Nile pre-inception,

Inception workshops, Nile Launching• Communication tools are in place; wikis, yammers,

teleconferences..• Generic communication strategy is under development;

reflection• Key presentations made in various forums; ASARECA,

UNEP, Ethiopian Soil Science Society; Climate change forum Ethiopia; Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) , MP5 consortium meeting,

• Briefs, reports, journals are already emerging • (Special issue on water productivity in print)• Field visits to one of the research areas (jedu) organized

and report shared

Impact pathways and governance structures

• OLMs are in place with the support of the M&E team;

• MOUs with partners signed, except one;• M&E draft strategy has been developing;

indicators for Nile 5 available for comments;• Baseline is undergoing;• Support to projects when required;• Functional team established; back stopping

Innovation platforms

• Inventory of institutions / actors / taskforces / Platforms underway

• Mapping of joint ventures / manadates / products and location underway

• Analysis of incentives , arrangements, interest groups is underway

Topics from Nile Inception

• Clustering of similar activities as a way of better understanding and aligning what we are doing.

• For each category it would be good to have more description of what is being done and being produced

• Would be good to match this to a time frame• We should look clustering of activities by scale

Cross-project overlaps

Site selection criteria

• Socio-economic status

• RWM challenges

• Agro-ecologies

• Production systems

• Market access

• Diversity of actors (type, numbers, etc.)

Recommendation for action:• Field campaign to select sites together, all teams****• MT considers a longer time frame for N3• Have a participatory scenario workshop to provide

indicative preliminary options for RMS within 6 months• Ensure joint field visits • Incorporate this all into workplans /activities • create a scenario working group• need to define boundaries of scenarios

– N2 Scenarios will be participatory to capture plans and aspiration of communities

– N3 can also do MEA type scenarios capture larger scale process and imbed our analysis into that context

– N4 Scenarios incorporate our RMS into larger water development plans of Ethiopia