muccl_dec2013

=Management Unit and Cross-Cutting Leaders Meeting= =17 December 2013= =Venue: Sierra Meeting Room, Mara House, ILRI Campus, Nairobi= =Time: 8.30am - 3.00pm=

__Minutes__
Present Tom Randolph (TR) Stuart Worsley (SW) Pat Rainey (PR) Iddo Dror (ID) Diana Brandes (DB) Keith Child (KC) Peter Ballatyne (PB) Esther Ndung’u (EN) Evelyn Katingi Katherine Colverson Alessandra Galie


 * **Agenda** || **Discussion** || **Action Points** ||
 * Annual reports || The schedule for annual reporting is documented in Pat's reporting schedule

In reporting, pay attention to 1) indicators. Refer to Pat's mail for guidance on this 2) Lessons learned from last year. The Annual Reports should focus on what was achieved and what was not achieved. All achievements stated should cite relevant evidence that can be accessible by the consortium.

Templates for the annual report will be out this week

Value Chain Coordinators and Centres will produce their reports. Cross cutting staff will be asked to contribute to these The management report will require a paragraph of each of partnership, communications and Capacity Development Clarification on the person responsible for developing the ILRI report to be made.

If there is budget carryover, it means that in principle, something was not achieved. Be clear on reporting this. || Tom to follow-up on the person responsible for preparing the ILRI annual reports.

EN to update the google calender for program activities, also need to be re-introduced to program staff

Tom to produce reporting template ||
 * Review of 2014 POWB || Deliverables stated are quite variable, and need to be well-defined. These will now be separated into general and theme specific deliverables.

Deliverables have two elements: a) description of the activity and b) what the deliverable will look like (i.e. a report, a manual, a journal article etc)

Tom and Pat will convene a series of meetings in the third week of January (15th and 16th) to rationalise the deliverable levels that are being stated. This will be one hour per theme, and will look at deliverables within each program. Tom and Pat here will review 2014 deliverables and any carry over of 2013 deliverables || TR and PR to have meetings with various themes to clarify the deliverables 17th January 2014. ||
 * 2014 planning cycle || Various dates were suggested for the planning cycle

Three days between **3rd-7th February (**leadership group meeting = Theme Leaders and VCCs): The aim of the meeting is to get everyone on board on what the objectives of the next cycle is for the year. Up until now, theme planning has been very variable. This is now a critical time to review where we are for each theme and VC.

We need to pull together a strategy paper for each theme and chain, which will cover a vision for 12 years, better defined milestones, articulation of the main approaches being used, the immediate tasks for the next 2-3 years (2015/16), and ideas for the next phase of Livestock and Fish. In the Value Chains, these plans need to reach lower levels. In addition, each theme and chain will conduct a write shop to define some key concept ideas for resource mobilisation purposes.

All of these meetings need to be facilitated in a harmonized way; there are 6 themes and 9 VC strategy documents to produce.

The Feb meeting will focus on establishing this planning and review process against the overall Livestock and Fish proposal.


 * 24-29th March**: Two clusters of planning meetings will be held back to back, in accordance with with the process approved at the Feb leadership group meeting;

Cluster 1: VCD, Targeting, MEL and Gender Cluster 2: Feeds, Genetics, Health

In planning, each theme will focus on value chains, and the extent to which these are giving life to our science. (This will be the focus of the CRP Commissioned External Evaluation CCEE - see below). Themes will, as part of planning, review progress made so far. We will take advantage of the CCEE in planning for its results will be central to shape the interim period (2015/16) and the next phase (2017 onwards).


 * Each cluster will meet alternately as theme groups and between groups within the cluster
 * Meetings will be held in Kenya
 * Value chain contributions to these meeting would be through attendance of the value chain coordinator.

The process for achieving a clear and harmonised planning approach needs to be defined. Peter B and Stuart will work on a process for review at the February || Meetings to be bundled up into 2 groups.

All themes to block out 3 days for planning meetings.

Tom to define agenda for Feb meeting

SW and PB to lead in organising the meeting and source for facilitators.

All the meetings need to be facilitated for a harmonized approach and deliverables

Value chain review to be integrated in the planning meetings to assess how the program's approach is working ||
 * Aligning Bilateral Projects || There is likely to be strong pressure to properly align all bilateral projects ascribed to the program. A light review of this has been done. Given that there is an e xternal review scheduled for the end of 2014, (where they will focus on the bilateral projects) we need to document alignment properly. This can be included as an exercise in the March planning meetings. || Bilateral projects review to be inserted in the themes planning meeting ||
 * Proposal Development || There are 2 proposals to be developed in 2014;

a) For the Interim Period (2015/16) b) For the next phase (2017 onwards)

__ Interim Period __ Proposal for 2015/16 needs to be prepared and submitted end of April 2014. This is a 10-15 page document that will define the principles that we will use to adjust the basic proposal. We can start making some adjustments on the the basis of experience and lessons learned so far. The proposal will lay out the basis of the plan of work and budget (POWB) for 2015/16. A core writing group consisting of PPMC members and some others, will first meet in Addis Ababa towards the end of January. (Dates will be determined next week). A further meeting of this group in Wageningen on 17th to 20th March will finalise and write this up for submission to the ILRI board of trustees

__ The Next Phase __ The discussion paper used at Montpelier remains the basis for this. Tom will revise this; For example, the environmental element does not constitute a flagship, and there was no statement on value chain assessment work. This will form the basis of discussion to gather team perspective on lessons learned, and to identify where the weight of our work lies. This needs to be completed by the end of the year. The concept will require more detail on bilateral funding that we are negotiating as part of this.

These two processes combine to help us grow what we are doing. || Wageningen roundtable meeting on 17th to 19th March, 2014

CRP extension proposal to be drafted on 20th March,2014

Tom to revise and circulate CRP phase 2 discussion paper and circulate ||
 * SPAC members profile || Focus on SPAC members should be on research expertise. Ideas on a new replacement for Jemimah Njuki to be suggested by program staff. || Tom to prepare and share out the profile for the SPAC candidate ||
 * External Reviews || There two reviews this year.

1) The CCEE (CRP Commissioned External Evaluation) 2) The Independent External Review

__The CCEE__

The CCEE is a needed input for the external review, so needs to be done by the middle of 2014. It involves a review by 3 experts on one major mission that includes a couple of visits and a review. We need to establish a reference group and prepare Terms of Reference. Keith Child will be the Evaluation Manager. The TORs must be reviewed by the IEA. This needs to be prepared quickly. Guidelines have been set out by the Independent Evaluation (IEA). Keith will work with the IEA for the review of TORs for the consultancy which should be ready 14th January, 2014.

PB suggests that the evaluators could attend the March theme meetings. TR: the review of the investment in the value chains should be included in the evaluation.

A document bundle will have to be compiled for easy review.

__Independent External Review__

This will start at the end of 2014, and is a more pragmatic review to cover questions such as are bilateral donors contributing? are we meeting the needs of the themes? The experience of CRP FTA indicates that this is a desk based review of documentation, and seeks to assess science quality, effectiveness, efficiency etc. || Keith and Pat to map out the entire evaluation review process.

Esther to lead a process of preparing a complete document inventory for all the bilateral for the CCEE. || Peter to follow-up on the facilitators for the writeshop || - TORs of value chain coordinators || Stuart summarized a proposed documents on the purpose, responsibilities and tasks of the value chain coordinators.
 * Modules on how well program staff understand the value chains || A module has been developed by ILRI's Iddo Dror, Jo Cadilhon and Epi Katjiuongua to assess how the program staff understands the value chains. The module can also be adjusted to partners assessment as well. || Iddo and team to consider testing the meeting at the March meeting. ||
 * Resource Mobilization (RM) || Only cross center, cross theme and cross country RM done by the Livestock and Fish management team. Local level RM is to be done by centres and VCs. Theme RM is done by themes. Focus is on securing bilateral projects. || Write shop will be facilitated to help in resource mobilization
 * Structural discussion

Some concerns were expressed that this might be enough to impel the change we need. There was debate around the role being assigned to more than one person, that this could weaken the imperative. Yet is was recognised that the document needed to fit a range of country life stages and contexts.

TOR will be given to the country representative who has the autonomy Situation needs to be assessed country per country in order to get the value chains work more effectively. Need to be clear on whether the document is a role or a person, what are the general guiding principles or does one size fit all?

Stuart will revise the document to identify the challenges being faced in VC management, where we are now, and how the arrangement might evolve. This will be prepared for the February Value Chain Meeting || Stuart to continue working on the documents and get more inputs from the value chain leaders. All to send feedback on the documents to Stuart. ||
 * Cross cutting and Thematic Work || Debate focused on rationalizing work across cross cutting themes.

In each value chain, the value chain coordinator (VCC) is responsible for for leading, coordinating and setting the agenda. The cross cutting themes strategically support and backstop VCCs in this role, by helping to scope what and who is there, how to mobilize and engage these, and at critical moments in the value chain, directly engage at the request of VCCs. Some tension is created when similar actions are done at the same time. We have some divergence here in approach, and it needs to be understood that cross cutting themes are support action on value chains, not implementing action here. If we are too strong in the beginning, we will lose momentum in the Value Chain.

Current tensions relate to the nascent stage of the program and are structurally temporal. They will improve with time. However, work being done is similar and processes can be improved through joint planning. However, 'learning' is one area that will require more in-depth discussion. There are differences in understanding and view point as to the right mix and approach to (and between) program learning, instructional learning, experiential learning, and communications in learning.

In the cross cutting themes, there is wider work to be tackled within Innovation Systems, both as a research area, and as an approach for deployment,

The cross cutting themes could coalesce under a "super theme" around supporting engagement in value chains that would incorporate innovation systems, learning, and integration mechanisms for cross sector support, with a purpose of building and supporting processes that enables change in the value chains (and beyond). Stuart will take a first attempt to draft a cross cutting theme outline, that defines purpose, vision, strategic aims and a first articulation of products and services

Suggest names for the theme: Research Based Services ; Gender, Engagement, Learning and Innovation || Stuart to draft short integration paper for review by team, and ultimately PPMC

Share the overall idea at the February meeting Suggested to meet around 17th Jan 2014. ||