addis_stakeholder_day1

=Debating the Livestock Fish Mega Program=

On August 24-25, 2010, ILRI hosts a meeting of stakeholders to discuss the proposed ‘Livestock-Fish’ research Mega Program. Participants attending came from 4 CGIAR Centers - CIAT, ICARDA, ILRI, and WorldFish; others came from Africa and Asia. They represent governments, national research organizations, regional and sub-regional bodies (FARA, IBAR, ASARECA, CORAF), NGOs, the private sector, as well as international organizations (FAO, World Bank).

They came to Addis Ababa to share thinking on the Mega Program, test emerging conclusions,align the ideas of the various stakeholders, understand better how to make the partnerships work, and generally collectively refine thinking on how best to take the proposal forward.

Update on the CGIAR Change Process
The first day kicked off with a session on the CGIAR change process by Steve Hall, Director General of the WorldFish Center (view the presentation).He drew attention to several key messages:

That this is a radical shift in doing business, impacting the roles and culture of the CGIAR. The CGIAR is:

- Moving towards a programmatic commitment to deliver impact - "that will link science more profoundly to development."

- Adopting new 'BBC' roles for the CGIAR - as 'bridge' of best research to development; as 'broker' of partnerships; and as 'catalyst' for change.

- With a radically new approach to partnership in the centers: to “How can we help?” instead of “Here’s what we want”; to “Thinking with” from the outset; and towards aligned incentives and interests (commitment to win-win).

In his view, the emerging role for the future CGIAR is to help make development happen and learning how to do development better, with partners

In response to questions, Hall emphasized that this is still a 'work in progress' in terms of some of the necessary organizational changes. On the CGIAR's role in implementation, he emphasized that Centers envisage much stronger links through partnering, where needed, to bring Center research closer to development needs. On partnerships, he emphasized that the center of gravity needs to be closer to the needs of other partners and where the CGIAR can help, rather than the traditional CGIAR search for the partners it needs.

Introducing the Livestock-Fish Mega Program
After the general introduction to the CGIAR change process, ILRI's Tom Randolph introduced the proposed Mega Program in more detail (view the presentation)

The overarching goal of the Mega Program is to "//sustainably increase productivity// of small-scale livestock and fish systems so as to increase availability and affordability of ASFs for poor consumers and, in doing so, to reduce poverty through greater participation by the poor along Animal Source Food (ASF) value chains."

The proposed Mega Program has three main components:
 * A 'value chain development component' (the front end);
 * A 'technology generation component' (the back end);
 * A cross-cutting component on 'targeting and M&E', with activities on prioritization, impact assessment and learning, horizon scanning, improved mapping of systems, and gender analysis.

He introduced the notion of value chains that underpin much of the work of the Mega Program. This is the so-called 'front end' where the Mega Program partners engage in specific value chain development interventions, comprising assessment, implementation, and policy analysis phases.

Selecting the focus value chains generated much discussion among the Mega Program partners. The focus value chains were selected by identifying high-potential regional value chains and target countries with enabling environments and existing momentum.

The so-called 'back end' - the engine behind the Mega Program - will focus on technological development on high-priority cross cutting issues: feeds, breeds, and health - where the Mega Program expects to make biggest gains in productivity.

He highlighted an issue the Mega Program was been wrestling with: how to balance adaptive, real-time problem solving (for today's problems) with medium/longer-term basic research. Another challenge the proposal seeks to address is how to combine a local focus with local and global impact. Randolph argued that the focus on value chains will "serve as proof-of-concept of impact at scale …which can then be scaled out"; further "problem-solving in focus value chains informs cross-cutting research…so will continue to generate International Public Goods."

What's new in this proposal? According to Randolph, it is:
 * 1) Commitment to focus on a limited set of 6-8 value chains and generate measurable impact
 * 2) Creating synergies by pooling our collective resources across the 4 CG centers

He concluded by elaborating on the niche to be played by the Mega Program. According to Randolph: "we want to play a catalyst role that brings together research and development actors through effective partnerships." In this Mega Program, the CGIAR will become a knowledge partner for development organizations; and it will take on brokering roles that help bring development needs to our research colleagues."

His presentation generated a wide-ranging discussion on the proposal in general as well as many specific elements. Participants also identified a substantial list of strengths and weaknesses of the proposal. Many of these could be taken up in subsequent sessions discussing strategies on value chain development and scaling out in the proposal.

The second day will dive deeper into the technology generation aspects of the proposal, partnerships, and cross-cutting issues like gender and equity, capacity development, communications and advocacy, and M&E and learning.