Reflection and Learning Workshop

27-30 April 2015

Imperial Botanical Garden Hotel, Entebbe

THE BIG FIVE

OBJECTIVES• Tell, analyse and document the PAEPARD story• Identify and analyse the breakthroughs, what the challenges in implementing the project• Introduce and use knowledge and learning tools and methodologies• Develop a documentation framework for future tracking• Chart a way forward for PAEPARD

Reflection and Learning Workshop

AR4D

Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

Essential elements of AR4D• Develop partnerships (around common themes/issues) and to manage change with other

stakeholders in agriculture and wider society;

• Incorporate different sources of knowledge and perspectives involving stakeholders in the

process;

• Research is put into a systems context

• Research integrates contribution of different/ other disciplines and sectors beyond technical and

biophysical research;

• Research must be accountable for development outcomes;

• Recognising development as an iterative process

• Create conditions to enable contribution and sustain interest of multiple stakeholders

• Building individual competencies, organisational and institutional capacity to deal with a

changing context.

The Shift in mind-set

• From knowledge generation as a final objective, to a means to achieve change; from research to innovation; • From a focus on technology to a focus on people;• From mainly reductionist understanding of the parts to systemic

understanding of the relationships between the parts;• From mainly ‘hard systems analysis’ (improving the mechanics

of the system) to also ‘soft systems analysis’ (negotiating the meaning of the system and desirable transformations);• From seeing participation as a matter of consulting beneficiaries

to one of facilitating engagement for interactive learning between stakeholders, resulting in joint analysis, planning, and collective action;

• From working individually to working with others, in ever-changing ad-hoc teams and partnerships;• From teaching to learning; from being taught to learning

how to learn; from individual learning to social learning;• From an exclusive focus on individual merit and

competition to one that also favours collaboration and teamwork within and between organisations;• From agricultural research systems to agricultural

innovation systems

What is an Agricultural Innovation?

• “Agricultural innovation is the process whereby individuals or organizations bring existing or new products, processes and forms of organization into social and economic use to increase effectiveness, competitiveness, resilience to shocks or environmental sustainability, thereby contributing to food and nutritional security, economic development and sustainable natural resource management”

• It must be new and useful in a given context and demonstrate practical application at scale.

• It covers technological, social, economic, organisational and institutional dimensions of change.

• “Institutional dimension” refers to the formal and informal rules as well as beliefs, values and frameworks for understanding that create stability and order of the system. This is often referred to as the “enabling environment”.

Knowledge and Learning

The Adult Learning Cycle

Adult Learning Cycle

Activist doing and experiencing

Reflector observes and thinks

Theorist understands underlying concepts

Trying out new things

Theory of ChangeA learning framework

Theory of Change – Basic Components

• Big picture analysis of how change happens in relation to specific thematic area; • An articulation of an organisation or programme pathway in relation to this;• Articulation of underlying assumptions• An impact assessment framework designed to test both the pathway and the assumptions made about how change happens.