On February 16th, 2023, DeSIRA LIFT carried out the webinar ´Innovating in unpredictable situations: constraints and opportunities for DeSIRA projects´. 

The webinar objectives were to review the challenges faced by DeSIRA projects operating in unpredictable situations and/or insecure environments; to identify and discuss the adjustments in their innovation strategy as well as the opportunities for innovating that these constraints might generate. This topic had been identified as a cross-cutting issue of the DeSIRA projects, and how to navigate these complex situations is a challenge for any project manager and team.

Key takeaways

Among the responses and strategies for overcoming these conflicting scenarios, the projects reported having successfully intensified and adapted their interactions with their many stakeholders, from farmers to donors, and improved the level and quality of the communications. One thing that was sure for all projects: they have evolved their action-research methodologies and adjusted the timing of the activities, as well as their capacities to use digital tools and carry out events online, which allowed the continuation of activities during the worse of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local procuring for some field activities was done on several occasions to compensate for the lack of mobility by project staff. Budget relocation, changes in the projects’ human resources, and agile project management, all contributed to success in the adaptation of project activities during unforeseen events.

The panel discussions helped to identify specific managerial challenges, tips and tops related to the different types of adaptive strategies across the six projects who shared their experience:

• Others already planned contingencies for some projects: while some projects experienced disruptions due to unforeseen donor or partner requirements, others navigated more easily thanks to anticipation and agile capacities of the lead organization based on previous experience,
• Quick reaction to disruptive events meant shorter research timeframes, new ad hoc research practices, such as the use of digital technologies to access the field without being there, empowering local organisation, or relying on key local informants, which in turn question both the “quality” of the research, researcher’s skills and the research profession itself.
• Greater structural changes in the project partnership strategy required specific communication skills to bring the partners closer together, and transformed direct partners into indirect partners;
• The Project’s innovation agendas appeared as adjustment variables either to better meet the basic needs of affected populations or to take advantage of the disruptive event that affected project implementation.

For an overview of the Powerpoint presentations given, please see the bottom of this blog.

Setting the scene

Aurélie Toillier, Chloé Lecompte and Renaud Guillonnet, from DeSIRA LIFT, set the scene by discussing what unpredictable situations are. They reminded the audience of the DeSIRA Framework, which comprises five core capacities to manage for impact (see figure below), and that the adaptive responses selected must be implemented to avoid failure of the projects. 

Experiences from the field

The Asian and the Eastern and Southern African regions were represented by three DeSIRA Projects: Chris Hurt from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), presented the Livestock Production Systems in Zimbabwe (LIPS-ZIM); Jerome Quest from CIRAD discussed the challenges of MAKIS in Madagascar, and Muhammad Meezanar Rahman from World Fish presented the project Artemia4Bangladesh. 

For West Africa and Latin America, the speakers were Aristide Wendyan Sempore from CIRAD speaking about the ACCESS project in Burkina Faso, Precillia Ijang from the African Initiative for Relief and Development (AIRD) who discussed Resi-Noc in Cameroon, and Carlos Rodríguez from SINCHI presenting ABRIGUE in Colombia.

Engaging discussions

Sixty-five professionals from many DeSIRA projects engaged in a dynamic discussion posing many questions to the panelists, such as how to deal with staff shortages due to COVID-19, how to deal with changes in policies that affect the project’s objectives and how to co-design and strengthen networks under uncertain conditions. Therefore, this was an excellent opportunity for peer-to-peer learning. 

Many of the projects faced the same uncertainties such as those posed by the COVID pandemic, though there were also more specific challenges. For example, we learned from projects in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Colombia which all operate under armed conflict, that this poses a risk to project implementation and the safety of the people involved. Similarly, project management within a context of land-use conflicts, such as in Cameroon and Colombia,  and the cultivation and trade of illicit crops in the latter, were part of the selection of stories of success. Another angle was the strategies that the discussed projects in Bangladesh and Cameroon have come up with to deal with environmental degradation and strong climatic events, such as cyclones that destroyed field experiments. Among the responses and strategies for overcoming these conflicting scenarios, the projects reported having successfully intensified and adapted their interactions with their many stakeholders, from farmers to donors, and improved the level and quality of the communications. 

Implementing changes to adapt

Some projects mentioned they implemented changes at the field level, such as MAKIS in Madagascar. They had to implement new project sites and change and align thesis research topics to more accessible subjects given the unforeseen circumstances. 

One thing that was sure for all projects discussed: they have improved methodologies and the timing of the activities, as well as their capacities to use virtual tools and carry out events online, which allowed the continuation of activities during the worst of the COVID pandemic. Local procuring for some field activities was done on several occasions to compensate for the lack of mobility by project staff.  Budget relocation, changes in the projects’ human resources and agile project management, all contributed to success in the implementation of project activities during unforeseen events.

A topic to be continued…

As with good science, there were many more good questions than answers, but surely, this is a topic that will continue to be discussed in the Community of Practice of DeSIRA LIFT and will inform the preparation of a brief to highlight how to manage innovation projects successfully under conflicting scenarios. So stay tuned for more to come!

For more information: community@desiralift.org

To see the presentations given:

• Opening presentation by Aurelie Toillier and Renaud Guillonnet (English) (French)
• Setting the scene, by Aurelie Toillier and Chloé Lecomte from DeSIRA-LIFT
• Presentation ´Food system resilience in conflict-affected areas´ in Burkina Faso
• Presentation by Makis, Madagascar
• Presentation by LIP-ZIM, Zimbabwe
• Presentation by ABRIGUE, Colombia
• Presentation by ACCES project, Burkina Faso
• Presentation by Artemia4Bangladesh
• RESI-NOC in Cameroon

Three DeSIRA projects were invited to present these new patterns:

• the FO-RI project, implemented by AGRICORD and its partners, working in 16 countries with farmers’ organizations leading research activities to codevelop agro-ecological innovations;
• the Santés & Territoires project, implemented by CIRAD and its partners, conducting research for innovation using living labs in Africa and Asia;
• the TAP-AIS project, implemented by FAO in 9 countries, with the broader scope of using research and innovation to develop policy frameworks for AIS strengthening.

There were also important interventions from invited panelists (CIRAD, FARA, DG-INTPA and DeSIRA-LIFT), emphasizing key challenges and lessons learned on making research partnerships work for AIS strengthening:

• AIS strengthening requires more long-term research partnerships with farmers’ organizations, civil society, the private sector and policymakers, beyond traditional project duration, in order to align their innovation agendas and collaborate further;
• The risk to invest in technological innovation leaving behind social innovation;
• The importance of engaging farmers early in the research projects as drivers of R&I agendas, then reversing the research processes for transforming agrifood systems, through on-demand research approaches led by civil society and farmers ‘organizations;
• The need to shift learning models from science-based approaches to experience-based approaches where scientists co-learn and co-develop knowledge with their partners and AIS actors while developing innovations;
• The need to accelerate knowledge sharing on multistakeholder innovation experiences in order to make national and international communities move together at the same pace for boosting agricultural innovation;
• The need to develop innovation policies as capacity development policies, targeting three levels of the AIS (innovation niche partnerships, innovation support service providers, and policy actors), creating more enabling environments for innovators and enabling new accredited job profiles to facilitate multi-actor collaboration and innovation processes.