Pathways out of poverty for Burkina Faso's reservoir-dependent communities
Lead Research Organisation:
Bioversity International
Department Name: Research
Abstract
Effective community-based management of common pool resources (CPR) in contexts facing environmental degradation and social conflict is urgently required to sustainably move people worldwide towards a decent level of human well-being, as sought in the Sustainable Development Goals. In the seasonally dry tropics, water stored in reservoirs. co-managed by communities and state water management agencies, can transform the lives of people in areas of persistent poverty by providing dry season income and food security through fish, livestock and crop production. Yet the inequitable distribution of water and other agricultural resources leads to stark inequalities in costs and benefits of reservoirs among households and communities.
This project will convene stakeholders around two reservoirs in Boulgou province, Burkina Faso, through 'Innovation Platforms' (IPs) that provide spaces for face-to-face learning, exchange and negotiation. Through the IPs, differentiated stakeholders with conflicts of interests related to reservoirs will identify, compare and implement community-driven innovations to make management of and access to land, water and associated benefits more equitable and sustainable. In collaboration with local communities and water management institutes, we will co- design and test locally relevant indicators and novel data collection techniques to establish a reliable, locally owned reservoir resource monitoring system. Students, extension workers and government technicians will be trained on automatic weather stations, mobile phone based surveys, and easily measured indicators of soil and water quality. The project will fill gaps in knowledge regarding factors and approaches that enable the resolution of conflicts related to the management of CPR and the development of participatory monitoring systems. Academic beneficiaries include scientists working on participatory approaches, conflict resolution, social equity, and CPR management.
This project will convene stakeholders around two reservoirs in Boulgou province, Burkina Faso, through 'Innovation Platforms' (IPs) that provide spaces for face-to-face learning, exchange and negotiation. Through the IPs, differentiated stakeholders with conflicts of interests related to reservoirs will identify, compare and implement community-driven innovations to make management of and access to land, water and associated benefits more equitable and sustainable. In collaboration with local communities and water management institutes, we will co- design and test locally relevant indicators and novel data collection techniques to establish a reliable, locally owned reservoir resource monitoring system. Students, extension workers and government technicians will be trained on automatic weather stations, mobile phone based surveys, and easily measured indicators of soil and water quality. The project will fill gaps in knowledge regarding factors and approaches that enable the resolution of conflicts related to the management of CPR and the development of participatory monitoring systems. Academic beneficiaries include scientists working on participatory approaches, conflict resolution, social equity, and CPR management.
Planned Impact
Direct project beneficiaries are the stakeholders co-developing and using project outputs to improve common pool resource management, i.e. the farming communities, traders, local water management committees, agriculture, environment and livestock extension services and NGOs in Centre-Est, Burkina Faso, particularly those associated with Bidiga and Ladwenda reservoirs. Other beneficiaries include national institutes (Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources, Environment, Social Welfare, Employment, Labour and Social Security, Women and Family) particularly regional water agencies (e.g.Volta Basin Authority (VBA)) who will support knowledge production, and represent primary users of resource management and behaviour change monitoring tools designed through this project.
We expect three main impacts from this project:
i) An increase in knowledge and awareness among local stakeholders, policymakers and the research community regarding the conditions and factors that enable effective and inclusive decision-making for managing conflicts and environmental pressures linked to reservoir use and management in rural, low-income contexts.
ii) Improvements in the equitability and sustainability of net benefits of two small reservoirs in Boulgou province, through definition, evaluation and piloting of promising feasible solutions shared by multi-level reservoir stakeholders.
iii) Enhanced local capacities for participatory monitoring of environmental and social impacts of reservoir management at case study sites and elsewhere through co-design, construction, testing and implementation of a low-cost, scientifically robust social and environmental data collection system with local residents, high schools, and technical staff at government water and agricultural institutes (MAHA, DGRE, AEN, VBA).
We expect three main impacts from this project:
i) An increase in knowledge and awareness among local stakeholders, policymakers and the research community regarding the conditions and factors that enable effective and inclusive decision-making for managing conflicts and environmental pressures linked to reservoir use and management in rural, low-income contexts.
ii) Improvements in the equitability and sustainability of net benefits of two small reservoirs in Boulgou province, through definition, evaluation and piloting of promising feasible solutions shared by multi-level reservoir stakeholders.
iii) Enhanced local capacities for participatory monitoring of environmental and social impacts of reservoir management at case study sites and elsewhere through co-design, construction, testing and implementation of a low-cost, scientifically robust social and environmental data collection system with local residents, high schools, and technical staff at government water and agricultural institutes (MAHA, DGRE, AEN, VBA).
Publications
Jones S
(2019)
Insights into the importance of ecosystem services to human well-being in reservoir landscapes
in Ecosystem Services
Mulligan M
(2020)
Mapping nature's contribution to SDG 6 and implications for other SDGs at policy relevant scales
in Remote Sensing of Environment
| Description | Key findings from this project include an improved understanding of the social conditions that can be facilitated to enhance the equitable and collaborative management of common property resources. The research draws on 'Contact theory' (Allport 1954, 1958), which stipulates that in situations of discrimination (or conflict) intergroup relations can be improved through increased inter-group contact under predefined conditions. 'Contact zones' are spaces where different groups come together and through 'meaningful encounters' (Pratt 1992, Barad 2007), level inequitable power relations, work through differences, strengthen social relations, and enhance group unity. In our project, 'innovation platforms', which focused on inclusive and sustainable management of small reservoirs, acted as contact zones. Our findings show that aside from the conditions already identified for enhancing social reconciliation through contact zones (Allport 1954; Dovidio et al. 2003), a set of processual conditions foster socially inclusive change in resource management. These include: - an interactive and locally owned participatory approach; - sustained and recurrent interactions, with interactions building on each other (allowing rapport building; ideas to be assimilated, discussions and adjustments to take place as new elements emerge over time); - A clear understanding of problems and potential solutions through deep dialogue (untangling proximate and more distant drivers of degradation, that are at the root of problems); - Clear and collective understanding of each actor's roles and responsibilities (positioned with respect to problems and solutions), including one's own, and knowing that this understanding is shared, with social pressure to follow through with these once they have been openly discussed; - Representation of diverse user groups, which can mobilize and motivate members of their own group when they leave the contact situation and go back to their community; selection of the right participants within those groups (based on the socio-historical context) to have influence within their own community; - Local leadership with strong analytical and communication capacities to move the process forward. The project also includes a modeling component. Specially, a WaterWorld hydrological model was run to assess impacts on reservoir sedimentation of planting buffer strips of widths between 10m and 100m, containing solely trees or a grass-tree mix. A key finding from this work was that buffer strips could only ever result in a very small (<12%) reduction in reservoir sedimentation. Nonetheless, when presented with this result, innovation platform participants opted to implement tree buffer strips because of the co-benefits these provide, notably helping contain livestock, preventing children nearing the water's edge, and providing a source of firewood. Some participants were surprised that the buffers would result in only a small reduction in sediment, as this measure is advocated as a key tool for controlling sedimentation. This findings demonstrates: 1) the complexity and multi-dimensional nature of decision-making on natural resource management; 2) the questionable nature of the information local residents have access to, to inform the decision-making on natural resource management. |
| Exploitation Route | These findings can be taken forward by other researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the field of common property resource (CPR) management, who can replicate processes for enhancing equity in CPR management through innovation platforms. State actors can use these findings to replicate modeling of water flows prior to selecting interventions to reduce sedimentation in reservoirs; by state and NGO actors who should adopt a multi-dimensional approach to supporting community decision-making in resource management. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Other |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/view/pop-bf |
| Description | PLEASE NOTE: This text was developed with the Impact Initiative, for an impact story published on 22 March 2019 for World Water Day. The project 'Pathways out of poverty for Burkina Faso's reservoir-dependent communities' focuses on creating Innovation Platforms to support communities, state and non-state actors (NGOs) in collectively managing their reservoir. The platforms include participants from the 16 villages to enhance management of water and make it more equitable. The platforms came together at several intervals in 2018 to discuss the problems that water users faced, come up with solutions around managing small water reservoirs, and prioritise those. During each meeting, participants worked within peer groups, i.e. elder men, younger men, women, and state and NGO actors, and then came together in plenary. This process showed many of the root causes for the drop in water quality and quantity and tensions among users, which included the application of fertilisers by some, overfishing, and herders trampling the crops of farmers when bringing their animals to drink. Based on the discussions, they set out a clear action plan to create an inclusive community governance committee that would manage the reservoir, to increase the height of the dykes and rehabilitate the channels bringing water to the reservoir, and to share and train the communities around the action plan. Due to the Platforms, at the community level, women are much more involved in the reservoir management process than they had been before. For example, as a mainstay of women's livelihoods, growing vegetables adjacent to the reservoir was very contentious as there was not enough land for everyone and residents were concerned that it caused a drop in the reservoir's water level. Despite the high stake vegetable growers had in managing the reservoir, women were not included in discussions regarding its management or in decision-making committees. Through the platforms, the importance of women's participation in reservoir management has been recognised, and they have created a sub-group to advise a newly established local water users' committee. It has also been recognised that young people have an important role to play too, and young men have taken up roles as president and vice president in one of the committees. A Fishermen's Association has been created and 2018 was the first year that they have respected 'fishing blackout' periods and not using small meshed nets that capture young fish. Herders are now using livestock corridors to avoid damaging the crops of farmers and are placing rocks to make clearer pathways. The communities are now taking it upon themselves to raise funds to realise some of the solutions they identified. They hired professionals to unblock a main channel to improve flow into the reservoir and invited state water technicians to observe and provide guidance throughout the process. As a regional agricultural extension agent, Kyelem Richard indicates, "There is a good collaboration with communities. We understand each other better and they are coming to me to involve me in their activities and ask for advice". This is a change from communities viewing state actors in an antagonistic, police sanctioning role to a guiding and supportive voice. As the global community strives to achieve the sustainable development goal on clean water and sanitation, it is underpinned by the need to 'support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management'. This project personifies the positive impact that can happen if communities are put at the center of managing their own local water resources. Further details: State actors are not used to working together across sectors. Regional actors have been collaborating within this project, and have indicated that they will thereafter adopt a more integrated and participatory approach to their work. Greater social harmony and inclusion among community members has also been reported. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Training on low-cost sensor construction and use |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Title | Crop combinations matrix |
| Description | (None of the tool types correspond to what we have produced, which is "Database facilitating knowledge access"). Crops can be grown in isolation or in combination, yet until now the combinations of crops that work well together (for specific or multiple reasons) has not been documented in any repository that we know of. As part of the POP project, to faciliate farmer-selection of crop combinations to trial for improved agronomic, nutritional and water consumption outcomes, we compiled data on agronomically feasible crop combinations for our study sites in Burkina Faso into a single matrix (spreadsheet) that also shows corresponding nutritional and water use requirements of those combinations. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This database is valuable to the project team as it forms the basis for future work to provide a comprehensive crop combination matrix to farmers worldwide. It has been enthusiastically received by local extension workers in Burkina Faso who are currently working with volunteer farmers to select promising combinations to be field-trialed in the next rainy season. The database will be presented to the national agricultural ministry at a workshop before the project end with a view to it informing future policies promoting certain agricultural practices. |
| Title | FreeStation training materials |
| Description | (Research tool or method: "Training materials for local construction of research tools"). Comprehensive collection of training materials on how to construct and use FreeStations translated into French as part of the POP project, for use by local students and practitioners in Burkina Faso and other French-speaking countries. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Training materials will be used in a training course delivered to students and local practitioners in February 2019 (???) on constructing and using FreeStations. |
| Title | Water quality bioindicator field guide |
| Description | (Type of research tool: "Bioindicators for environmental monitoring") Research on and prior to the POP project indicates simple bioindicators can be used to monitor reservoir water quality. We have produced a field guide explaining which aquatic plant, fish and mollusc species indicate water contamination or clean water, and how to find and identify these species. The field guide has been shared with regional and local water managers and community leaders in the POP case study sites aimed at improving their capacity for low-cost, robust water resource monitoring. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Local and regional water management institutes have capacity to reliably monitor reservoir water quality based on fish species presence-absence. This removes barriers to water quality monitoring where sensors and pollutant processing equipment are prohibitively expensive or technically complex to use. |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SsvinpYQta4aprPvdPPiPpAivYTexiJ3/view |
| Title | Crop combinations matrix |
| Description | Crops can be grown in isolation or in combination, yet until now the combinations of crops that work well together (for specific or multiple reasons) has not been documented in any repository that we know of. As part of the POP project, to faciliate farmer-selection of crop combinations to trial for improved agronomic, nutritional and water consumption outcomes, we compiled data on agronomically feasible crop combinations for our study sites in Burkina Faso into a single matrix (spreadsheet) that also shows corresponding nutritional and water use requirements of those combinations. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This database is valuable to the project team as it forms the basis for future work to provide a comprehensive crop combination matrix to farmers worldwide. It has been enthusiastically received by local extension workers in Burkina Faso who are currently working with volunteer farmers to select promising combinations to be field-trialled. The database will be presented to the national agricultural ministry at a workshop before the project end with a view to it informing future policies on sustainable agricultural practices. |
| Title | Household survey database |
| Description | The project has a database from household data (200 households) on reservoir use and management. Data were collected on tablets using ODK. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The data collected were used to inform discussions during innovation platforms where key problems and proposed solutions for enhanced reservoir management were developed. The data will form the basis of a research article currently being developed on the socio-economic benefits and challenges of small reservoirs. |
| Title | Innovation Platform database |
| Description | Data collected during innovation platforms show the progression of discussions and relationships among platform participants, and the processes they followed to develop a common vision for reservoir management. The data show how different groups (older men, younger men, women, and state actors and NGOs) ranked problems and prioritized solutions for equitable management of their reservoirs. The data will form the basis of an article on approaches for improving the collective management of common pool resources. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The data will provide empirical evidence to state actors of what a successful process for supporting collective action around common pool resource management can consist of, so as to integrate lessons learned in current state approaches. |
| Description | Collaboration with University Ouagadougou |
| Organisation | University of Ouagadougou |
| Country | Burkina Faso |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Through training and deployment of FreeStations we aim to continue to collect real time data for this important area and project, post the award |
| Collaborator Contribution | By maintaining the installed equipment, the univerrsity will benefit from and contribute to the project legacy |
| Impact | Ongoing monitoring system. Collaboration still active in Feb 2023 |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Title | Continued expansion and development of FreeStation platform and tools |
| Description | The FreeStation and FreeSensor initiatives use open source hardware, open source software and open source 3-D printing technology to build and deploy reliable environmental data loggers and sensors with the lowest cost and easiest DIY build possible. These are designed to make reliable, detailed and local environmental data more accessible in areas that may have little local financial and technical capacity for the collection of such data. As the names imply, the designs are freely available and open source so anyone can build them. The designs are mature and we have built more than 700 dataloggers. |
| Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | There are currently 440 FreeStations in 44 clusters across 14 countries collecting some 11,615,820 data points so far in 2023. Many of these have benefitted from the design developments made during these UKRI projects |
| URL | https://www.freestation.org/ |
| Description | Blog on innovations developed in the PoP project as a legacy product, linking to several PoP resources |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A blog summarizing some of the Pathways to Poverty outputs and outcomes was published as a legacy product for the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), which co-funded the project. WLE legacy products have been widely disseminated and viewed as the program has amassed thousands of followers over the decade of its existence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://wle.cgiar.org/solutions-and-tools/science-driven-solutions/putting-farmers-first-in-sustaina... |
| Description | Brief from ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative on Pathways out of Poverty project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This brief was produced with the ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative to shine a light on project outcomes, so as to support the scaling up of successful project approaches. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/14415/ResearchImpact_WaterBurkina_... |
| Description | Closing workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The closing workshop, which was meant to discuss project findings with regional practitioners and study participants, was held over 2 days. Day 1 involved local communities, whereas Day 2 focused on technical service providers and practitioners. Presentations by project team members outlined main project activities and findings, and rich discussions ensued. Practitioners reported interest in gaining more knowledge in the subject area and in working together to implement findings; local people committed to pursuing their efforts to achieve sustainable reservoir management following the approaches they learned through the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/view/pop-bf |
| Description | Communication through website and blogs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The project team established a project website (www.pop-bf.com) to which state actors, practitioners, and researchers who participated in project workshops were directed for continued and updated access to project information and partners. Following fieldwork and workshops in Burkina Faso, the project team produced blogs to share information on the project and its main activities to practitioners, researchers, and policymakers working in the field of water management. The blogs were posted on the website of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems and of King's College London. One of the blogs (http://blog.policysupport.org/2018/02/using-waterworld-and-coting-nature-to.html) disseminated information on a technical application (or tool) used within the project that can be used by government actors, researchers and practitioners to model the effects of specific interventions on water resources -- and in this way can support the uptake of the tool. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://wle.cgiar.org/thrive/2018/02/28/searching-pathways-towards-equitable-and-sustainable-reservo... |
| Description | Contribution to UKRI International Women's Day Outreach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A member of the project team shared her experiences from the project for a UKRI blog on International Women's Day. The blog focused on: "From all-woman solar panel teams to empowering women to overcome gender-based violence, here are four inspiring stories of research projects led by women across the world." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://medium.com/@UKRI/four-women-led-projects-improving-lives-around-the-world-cda3b67af89 |
| Description | Dissemination of information with ESRC/DFID's Impact Iniative for World Water Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A policy brief was developed with the ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative on project activities for World Water Day. We do not know how it was received but the Impact Initiative may have statistics on the number of reads, etc.. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/14678/R4PP_WaterSecurity_4pp_FINAL... |
| Description | Ecosystem service modelling training |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A training workshop on the WaterWorld and Co$tingNature tools was delivered on 14 February 2018 at SNV World office in Ouagadougou. A total of 16 participants included representatives from the agricultural research institute, the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, the Volta basin authority as well as a number of students from the University of Ouaga I. Several participants thought they would be interested in using the models in their work after the training. A blog post on the training was written for the policysupport.org website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://blog.policysupport.org/2018/02/using-waterworld-and-coting-nature-to.html |
| Description | FarmDesign results presentation (Ouagadougou) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The FarmDesign whole farm-household model was run to identify trade-offs between water consumption, nutritional outcomes, and agronomic outcomes (labour required, income) of maize-dominated versus diversified farms in the POP case study sites. In February 2019 at the Innovation Platform 4 workshop, results will be presented to the national agricultural ministry, and regional and local farmer representatives. Along with the crop combinations matrix, the purpose of presenting the FarmDesign results is to inform decisions by volunteer farmers on combinations of crops to be field-trialled in order to find combinations that work for the farmer and reduce water use from the local reservoir (therefore sustaining water longer through the dry season). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Inception workshop discussions with state actors |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | An inception workshop brought together state actors and practitioners involved in management of small reservoirs in Burkina Faso. These actors came from several ministries and departments, and were not used to working together or dialoguing to identify holistic approaches to integrated water management in small reservoirs. The workshop was an opportunity to inform these actors about the project, gauge their interests in the research and actions planned and integrate their input into the planned work. Participants expressed high interest in project results and identified ways they would like to be engaged in project activities. They expressed that the dialogue had given them new ways of thinking about reservoir management, and demonstrated the importance of working across sectors for sustainable solutions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Innovation Platform 1, Tenkodogo |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | An innovation platform brought together diverse members of 16 villages surrounding two reservoirs as well as local NGOs and state actors (extension agents from several departments and ministries). Participants discussed problems facing their reservoirs and possible solutions. They prioritized solutions together and developed a collective action plan. The aim was to have all sides develop a common vision and increase the resources they collectively have to realize their action plan. All participants noted a greater understanding of how their reservoir could be managed more equitably and how they could collaborate to make that happen. Continued interactions through such innovation platform meetings improved inter-personal relationships among state actors, state and non-state actors, and diverse reservoir user groups. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Innovation platform meeting -- planning of interventions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The innovation platform, which brought together local water users, government agents, NGOs and CSOs, led to the local planning of interventions to enhance management of small reservoirs in the province of Boulgou, Burkina Faso. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/view/pop-bf |
| Description | Low-cost sensor training workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Project staff from the University of Ouagadougou (University Joseph Ki-Zerbo) carried out a training workshop on 13 May 2019 with a field component on sourcing materials, building, and using low cost environmental monitoring sensors. The training was delivered to 20 individuals including local students, academics, NGO and ministry staff. The agenda of the day started with the welcoming and installation of participants. At the same time we looped the video on "FreeStation weather station" produced by King's College London (KCL). Then the head of the Laboratory of Biology and Animal Ecology, Professor Gustave B. Kabré opened the workshop. The training session began with a presentation of FreeStation by Dr. Idrissa OUEDRAOGO. The material used for this first presentation was titled Introduction to Low-Cost Measurement Tools: Programming an Arduino provided by King's College and translated into French by Dr. Idrissa OUEDRAOGO to facilitate understanding by participants. The objective of this first presentation was to present the FreeStation project and to demonstrate the various monitoring tools that are being developed. So, the monitoring tools such as multiprobe, FreeStation Meso, and hydrologic stations were presented to the participants. For each material, we explained how it is built and how it works. After this presentation we discussed the challenges and opportunities related to FreeStations development in Burkina Faso. From these exchanges, interesting elements emerged and can be summarize as follow: ? This initiative could interest agro-businessmen to have local climate information in they farm. It may also interest the insured and insurers of Agricultural Insurance in our country. ? It was proposed to send correspondence to the National Meteorological Agency which could install a station next to other stations to conduct a comparative study. ? The representative of SP/CONEDD (Secrétariat Permanent du Conseil National pour l'Environnement et le Développement Durable) also proposed to register LBEA laboratory on their database for the sharing of environmental data. ? Several researchers say they are interested in this equipment to better conduct their research, especially in the field of fish farming, irrigated agriculture. The Centre Muraz (https://www.centre-muraz.bf/index.php/fr/) which is also working in the fight against malaria is interested to have stations to collect these climatic data which will allow them to better understand the ecology of the vector. ? We were also contacted by the INERA (Institut de l'Environnement et Recherches Agricoles) to give them a short presentation on FreeStation In the afternoon, we proceeded to building of a meso station and do a practical exercise on soldering. This phase of the workshop was done primarily with the students, given the number of the training materials available. For this the second presentation entitled Building and deploying low-cost loggers and instruments with FreeStation (English) and here (French) and documents on Building the FreeStation Micro_Meso Automatic Weather Station (v5.x, Arduino) and Installing and troubleshooting the FREESTATION V5.x provided by Dr Mark Mulligan (KCL) and translated into French by Dr Idrissa Ouédraogo were used. The main outcomes it that 20 individuals from research, government and NGO sector have the technical skills to build their own low-cost weather stations (FreeStations), helping remove barriers to weather data collection and access in Burkina Faso. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzShtdmjxts |
| Description | Monitoring and follow-up with communities on project activities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The activity consisted of two annual meetings (in 2021 and 2022) with the communities involved in the project to assess progress in terms of sustaining the social and technical innovations implemented throughout the project lifetime, including tree nurseries, wells and polymers, governance arrangements for sustainable reservoir management, and more. The activity also aimed to examine and address challenges experienced in the communities linked to these innovations post-project implementation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | Multi-stakeholder forums to discuss reservoir management in Bidiga |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The multi-stakeholder forums focused on reservoir management were initiated in the context of the project, and there has been agreement to continue holding them bi-annually after the project closure. The forums bring together community members who have participated in community dialogues, CSOs, local authorities and local government representatives, and government agents (e.g. extension agents). The purpose of the forums is to come to solutions and management plans for the reservoirs agreed upon by all stakeholders at the local level. The forums have offered a space for lively exchange, where critical issues and challenges with reservoir management have been raised and remedial actions collectively developed and endorsed. The forums raised local awareness about key reservoir management issues and discussions resolved certain conflicts among stakeholders with different interests in the reservoir. It encouraged a more participatory management of reservoirs, that reflects the priorities of a greater number of local users. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://cgiar-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/marlene_elias_cgiar_org/EdGBR_MJHaRKuycEflkBovABofNBO... |
| Description | Participation in Power of Partnership conference and subsequent engagement with Impact Initiative |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the cohort of ESRC-DFID Development Frontiers grantees, project team members participated in the Power of Partnership Conference that brought together other ESRC-DFID-funded research teams. This was an opportunity to make new connections and identify synergies with other researcher projects and teams to possibly collaborate to produce common outputs that carry greater clout among policymakers, practitioners, and the research community. In addition to presenting the project in a session and as a poster (https://www.slideshare.net/theimpactinitiative/power-of-partnership-conference-poster-pathways-out-of-poverty), we contributed two short videos to the Impact Initiative's collection on ESRC-DFID funded research (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2AznkrCQS4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2uhHTWGADA). The aim is to stimulate interest among other researchers in our results to push thinking fowrad on collective management of common pool resources. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.slideshare.net/theimpactinitiative/power-of-partnership-conference-presentation-pathways... |
| Description | Presenting FarmDesign trade-off analyses at the ESP conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A member of the research team presented results of the FarmDesign modelling at the Ecosystem Services Partnership European region conference which was held from 15 to 19 October 2018. The presentation focused on nutrition and water use trade-offs of different crop combinations that are or could feasibly be used at Bidiga and Ladwenda case study sites, Centre-Est Burkina Faso. Approximately 30 researchers attended. Researchers were from institutions across Europe. This led to a thought-provoking debate on how best to communicate scientific research to farmers and policymakers in order to turn science into practice. The discussions informed our approach to communicating FarmDesign results through a poster and presentation at a subsequent project workshop in Burkina Faso, attended by local and regional stakeholders, e.g. by focusing on two or three simple messages and not overloading the participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/view/pop-bf/outputs |
| Description | WaterWorld results presentation (Tenkodogo) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over the summer of 2018, the WaterWorld hydrological model was run to assess impacts on reservoir sedimentation of planting buffer strips of widths between 10m and 100m, containing solely trees or a grass-tree mix. In October 2018, results were presented to local farmers, local and regional government representatives (agriculture, hydrology, forest sectors) and locally active environmental/development NGOs. This formed part of the Innovation Platform 3 workshop held for the POP project, where participants ranked and agreed which interventions to take forward to improve the sustainability of their community-managed reservoir. The purpose of presenting the WaterWorld results was to i) provide communities with technical information on the erosion control efficiency of different buffer strip design options, and ii) test the effect of access to this technical information on the decision-making process. Despite the results showing that buffer strips could only ever result in a very small (<12%) reduction in reservoir sedimentation, participants opted to implement tree buffer strips because of the co-benefits these provide, notably helping contain livestock, preventing children nearing the water's edge, and providing a source of firewood. Some participants were surprised that the buffers would result in only a small reduction in sediment, as this measure is advocated as a key tool for controlling sedimentation. The technical information provided therefore helped manage expectations of sedimentation reduction impacts but did not alter the final decision outcome. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |