GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES DESCRIPTION · Groups (this SIF). As detailed below, social innovation combines four dimensions: technological, governance, capacity deve - lopment and business

afrialliancesocialinnovationInnovation delivered byAfriAlliance Actions Groups

The overall objective of the AfriAlliance Social In-novation Factsheets (SIF) is to highlight innovation op-portunities that scientists, NGOs, managers and SMEs can act upon, in order to foster short-term improve-ments in the preparedness of African stakeholders for water and climate change challenges.

Over the duration of AfriAlliance (2016-2021), four sets of SIFs will be delivered. Each set will cover one main theme and explore it across several Social In-novation Factsheets. Experience from the AfriAlliance Actions Groups is the main theme of this third series of SIFs, covering the following two sub-themes:

Reducing knowledge fragmentation by setting up Communities of Practice across Africa and EU.

Innovation delivered by AfriAlliance Actions Groups (this SIF).

As detailed below, social innovation combines four dimensions: technological, governance, capacity deve-lopment and business road map. Each is described in a specific section of this thematic SIF.

DESCRIPTION

This third series of Social Innovation Factsheet (SIF) delivered by AfriAlliance aims at presenting some of the innovation produced by the 5 Actions Groups (AG) that took place from 2016 to 2019. The bottom-up demand driven AfriAlliance AG are one of the vehicle created by AfriAlliance to expand and share local knowledge on water, climate

challenges and solutions.

The objective of these AG was to reduce fragmentation in the water and climate ac-tions within Africa and between Africa and European Union by bringing together and facilitating uptake of relevant knowledge, expertise and solutions [a]. The 5 AG seed funded were:

(i) Upscaling potential of water harvesting across Africa, led by Wageningen Univer-sity (Netherlands);

(ii) Integrated Water Resource Management and Ethics (IWRM and Ethics), led by Rhodes University (South Africa);

(iii) Efficient and Innovative Small Scale Irrigation (EISSI), led by the Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources (EIWR), Addis (Ethiopia);

(iv) Arid African Alluvial Aquifers for Agriculture (A4A), led by Mekelle University (Ethio-pia) and

(v) Sustainable Intensification for Resilience and Food Security (SIRAF) led by IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development) (United Kingdom)

The transversal societal challenges of the AG are water and food security. The information presented in this SIF mainly comes from the AG’s report [a] and the reports produced by the Action groups. More information is available on https://afrialliance.org/action-group [b].

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SOCIETAL CHALLENGESIN AFRICA DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

• Given the manifestations of Climate Change and the constraints of ecosystems as well as socio-economic systems, the societal challenges in Africa are to:

– ensure food security, water security and energy security and the balance among them (short term),

– transform into a low carbon, resilient and sustainable society (long term).

SOCIAL INNOVATION• In AfriAlliance, social innovation means tackling societal, water-related challenges arising from Climate Change by combining the technological & non-technological dimensions of innovation.

• Social innovation refers to those processes and outcomes focussed on addressing societal goals, unsatisfied collective needs or societal – as opposed to mere economic – returns. It is particularly salient in the context of the complex and cross-cutting challenges that need to be addressed in the field of water and Climate Change – and which will not be met by relying on market signals alone.

• Social innovation consists of new combina-tions (or hybrids of existing and new) products, pro-cesses and services. In order to succeed, social innovation needs to pay attention to technolo-gical as well as non-technological dimensions: 1) technology, 2) capacity development, 3) governance structures and 4) business road map. As such, these four dimensions of the social innovation process cut across organisa-tional, sectoral and disciplinary boundaries and imply new patterns of stakeholder involvement and learning.

• The success of social innovation is reliant on the accountability of diverse stakeholders and across all government levels.

Social Innovation Factsheet

#3 •EXPERIENCE

FROM THEAFRIALLIANCE

ACTION GROUPS

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AfriAlliance

AfriAlliance is a five year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. AfriAlliance faci-litates the collaboration of African and European stakeholders in the areas of water and climate innovation, research, policy and capacity development by supporting knowledge sharing and technology trans-fer.

Rather than creating new networks, the 16 European and African partners in this project consolidate existing ones. The ultimate objec-tive is to strengthen African preparedness for future climate change challenges. AfriAlliance is led by the IHE Delft Institute for Water Edu-cation (Project Director: Dr. Uta Wehn) and runs from 2016 to 2021.

Website: http://afrialliance.org/

AfriAlliance activities Africa-EU cooperation is taken to a practical level by identifying (non-)

technological innovation and solutions for local needs and challenges. AfriAlliance also identifies constraints and develops strategic advice for improving collaboration within Africa and between Africa and the EU.

To help improve water and climate Monitoring & Forecasting in Africa, AfriAlliance is developping a triple sensor approach, whereby water and climate data from three independent sources are geo-spa-tially collocated: space-based (satellites), in-situ hydro-meteorological station observation networks and data collected by citizens.

Sharing of knowledge is facilitated through a series of events and through an innovative online platform. Demand-driven AfriAlliance ‘Ac-tion Groups’ bring together African and European peers with relevant knowledge and expertise to work jointly towards solutions.

Realisation Author: David Smith (WE&B), Natacha Amorsi (OIEau)

Contributors: Action Groups: Upscaling potential of water harves-ting across Africa, led by Wageningen University (Netherlands); Inte-grated Water Resource Management and Ethics (IWRM and Ethics), Efficient and Innovative Small Scale Irrigation (EISSI), Arid African Alluvial Aquifers for Agriculture (A4A), Sustainable Intensification for Resilience and Food Security (SIRAF) led by IIED (International Insti-tute for Environment and Development) (United Kingdom)

Graphic Design: OIEau Version: May 2019

References

DESCRIPTION

[a] Smith D., Medina B. (2019), Deliverable 1.8 Action Group report –Year 3, 39p

[b] https://afrialliance.org/action-group

[c] AWASLA. The Africa Water and Sanitation Local Authorities Network case studies profile locally-based projects and actions supporting sus-tainability in the water and sanitation sector in Africa. Available online at http://www.awasla.org/publications-casestudies

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

[d] https://rsr.akvo.org/fr/project/5279/update/21866/

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES

[e] Lautze J., de Silva S., Giordano M., Sanford L., (2011), Putting the cart before the horse: Water governance and IWRM, Natural Resources Forum, 35, 1-8

[f] Vallejo, B. and Wehn, U. (2015) Capacity Development Evaluation: The Challenge of the Results Agenda and Measuring Return on Invest-ment in Capacity Development in the Global South, World Develop-ment, Vol. 79, pp.1-13, doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.044

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT[g] Vallejo, B. and Wehn, U. (2015) Capacity Development Evaluation: The Challenge of the Results Agenda and Measuring Return on Invest-ment in Capacity Development in the Global South, World Develop-ment, Vol. 79, pp.1-13, doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.044

[h] https://rsr.akvo.org/fr/project/5277/#report[i] Wehn, U. (2015) The Global Context: National Capacity Develop-ment Strategies, Tailor Made Training for contact points of Uganda’s National Water and Environment Capacity Development Strategy, in collaboration with the Ministry for Water and Environment (Uganda), Kampala, Uganda, 10-11 November

LIST OF ACRONYMS

• A4A: Arid African Alluvial Aquifers for Agriculture

• AG: Action Group • CC: Climate Change • CD : Capacity development

• EISSI: Efficient and Innovative Small Scale Irrigation • FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization • IWRM: Integrated Water Resources Management

• SAIRLA: Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa • SIF : Social Innovation Factsheet

• SR: Systemic-Relational

• SIRAF: Sustainable Intensifications for Resilience and Food Security

Further reading Presentation of

AFRIALLIANCE HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO 689162

In addition, agriculture in Africa is less developed, dominated by poor farming practices and is largely rainfed [d] . Climate shocks mainly characterized by insufficient rainfall, droughts and dry spells have been critical challenges to food security and socio-economic de-velopment of African farming communities. Four AG have proposed solutions from a different perspective.

To contribute to resilient livelihoods in arid Africa through nature-based water storage in seasonal rivers, “Best practices and prospects” one out-come of A4A AG focuses on creating opportunities for learning on (i) Un-derstanding the sand river, (ii) How best to abstract alluvial water, and (iii) How best to use it [d]. This AG apporach is that transform ideas, skills and knowledge into actions that make a difference on the ground, and then to scale-up proven practices. “Best practices and prospects” can allow access and manage water storage from dry river beds and create a reliable and sustainable source of water for agriculture in arid to semi-arid regions of Sub-Sahara Africa.

All the AG implemented their actions in a way to engage with stakeholders sharing a community of interests to tackle water challenges related to cli-mate issues. To strengthen the capacity to plan and implement projects for the reuse of (waste) water and the use of non-traditional water re-sources, the key aspects are:

As stated by EISSI AG [h], innovative irrigation technologies are strate-gic solutions when piloted under local conditions and communicated to stakeholders at various levels for support and up scaling. EISSI AG eva-luated these technologies according to the simplicity of their installation, easiness of operation and maintenance, cost effectiveness, water saving potentials (efficiency) and farmer’s preference. The Small Scale irrigation Technologies have been communicated to various stakeholders through workshops and meetings. Then next step would be to test these techno-logies through pilots.

Most of the population in Sub Africa relies on agriculture as the main source of livelihood endangered by water scarcity and climate change. Shal-low alluvial aquifer represents an untouched potential. Based on the Arid

African Aquifers labs initiative securing water for development, A4A AG started to co-develop, test, share and compare with farmers and

other relevant stakeholders a set of methodologies to create a reliable and sustainable source of water for agriculture in

three arid to semi-arid regions of Sub-Sahara Africa.

To support smallholder famers to better allocate their assets (land, labor, capital, knowledge, etc.) and achieve multiple household objectives, SIRAF considered the intensification of their production in a sustainable ways to help them to produce more with less. SIRAF ended up with Sustainable intensification of Agriculture (SIA) indicators that were selected and agreed with local farmers during workshops. This led to the creation of a farming households’ typology.

To tackle climate adaptation and water scarcity challenges, the AG “Up-scaling the Potentiel of Water Harvesting across Africa” considered water harvesting technologies as highly adapted, flexible, easy to unders-tand and implement, low-cost solutions to the productivity. This AG aimed at co-developed with stakeholders an inventory and mapped the diversity of water harvesting potential.

In order to strengthen water resources management, “IWRM and ethics” AG emphasized the need for quick ways to monitor water qua-lity. This AG approved the applicability of a low-cost hydrogen sulphide test kits to quickly assess fecal coliform counts in grey water at the household level. It appeared that these S2H test kits could indeed be a quick and viable solution.

One AG was more specifically dedicated to Integrated Water Resource Management with the special emphasis on ethics. “IWRM and Ethics” AG addressed water resources management and practice at the scale of the catchment and transboundary (transnational level) by creating new knowledge by specifically developing processes and methodologies that can be used to operationalize an ethically grounded Systemic-Relational (SR). Specifically with regards to water allocation and decision making, the SR ap-proach and methodology should explicitly guide the development of criteria for balancing and trading off values in terms of water use allocation, partici-pation and democratization of decision making processes”. The SR ethically grounded was discussed during a workshop conveying members of the AG and academia, government and civil society from South Africa. Key drivers were identified for the practice to become operational such as the interface between the different political levels, the need for setting common goals, agendas and the alignment of policies, the legal framework, etc.

Sustainable Intensification for Resilience and Food Security, SIRAF AG, fo-cused on the following research question: “How do smallholder farmers ma-nage the trade-offs between production, sustainability and other socio-eco-nomics and environmental factors?” SIRAF AG acknowledged that decision makers and other actors at local and national level enhance their knowledge, awareness, attitudes and capacity to support of proven pro-poor approaches for scaling up sustainable international for resilience that recognize farmers perception of synergies and trade-offs.

The scheme highlights the key business opportunities that exist at the different stages, indicating key activities and their socio-environ-mental values for co-creators.

TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES BUSINESS ROAD MAP

30% of Africa’s land are semi-arid to arid. These lands are often considered marginal and lost to socio-economic development due to water scarcity [c]

« Governance is essentially the processes and institutions through which decisions are made » [e].

«Capacity Development (CD) is conceived as the inherent responsibility of people,organisations and societies themselves in which support by external parties

can play an important role» [g].

Social innovation relies on means other than market mechanismsin order to link the demand and supply sides.

Stakeholders from both sides (solution providers and potential users) need to interact during the different stages of the innovation process to create a common ground for the co-production of the re-quired knowledge: from the comprehension of the need to the design, implementation and use of innovative solutions.

source: [f]

source: [i]

SIRAF advocated that effective engagement with decision makers and other stakeholders via the learning alliance throughout the research process. As a preliminary impact, its results will feed number of policy and develop-ment dialogues in the three countries involved (Malawi, Ghana and Burkina), using tailored knowledge product.