WAT-A-GAME for participatory NRM planning: Fogera case study

WAT-A-GAME for participatory NRM planning:Fogera case study

Beth Cullen (ILRI)With Mulugeta Lemineh, Zelalem Lema & Emeline Hassenforder

Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) Science Workshop

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9–10 July 2013

• Introduction to WAT-A-GAME

• Game design- Game board- Role cards- Action cards

• Overview of NBDC baseline research findings

• Fogera case study- Objectives- Process

• Initial outcomes

• Ongoing activities

• Future efforts

Outline of presentation

Introduction • Innovation platforms (IPs) are increasingly popular as a

mechanism for enabling sustainable agricultural development • Agricultural change entails complex interactions between multiple

actors and must take into account a range of factors …

• The Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) established IPs for improved rainwater management at three sites in the Ethiopian…

• Why IPs? was based on the understanding that addressing NRM challenges often requires innovation in the institutions that structure patterns of interaction between resource users

• NBDC IPs aim to bring together a range of stakeholders to identify common issues and develop integrated NRM strategies to address

• By working together ….IP members will develop innovative, locally appropriate solutions, demonstrating an alternative approaches

Introduction • IP processes link actors with varying degrees of influence, different

knowledge and skills, and sometimes divergent needs and priorities and if it is harnessed well it can be a strong mechanism for change

• However, NBDC experiences indicate that careful attention needs to be paid to issues of power and representation, if not they my have significant impact

• In Fogera there was a lack of agreement regarding NRM issues between decision makers and community members leading to competing agendas and conflicting ideas about potential solutions

• A systematic facilitation or ‘innovation brokering’ is required to mediate between different interests, to allow all platform members to present their perspectives and help them reach consensus, or at least compromise

• Local level participatory planning approach, which sees smallholder associations and community leaders as key stakeholders is a key to successful interventions in NRM (MERET, PSNP and SLM)

• WAT-A-GAME, a new planning tool, was used by researchers as a starting point to look in to the rainwater management issues through multi-stakeholder approach

Introduction to WAT-A-GAME

WAT-A-GAME: open toolkit (www.watagame.info)

Developed by IRSTEA and CIRAD, research institutes based in France

WAT-A-GAME creates a dynamic model of a given landscape and represents relationships between resources and actors. The model can be used to simulate various strategies and the resulting impacts on households and surrounding ecosystem.

The tool can be adapted to individual cases, a range of land and water management issues and different scales. New policies can also be invented and tested. 

WAG has been designed to be used by a range of stakeholders, including farmers, scientists, experts, administrators and policy makers

Game Board

Land plot

Grazing area

Forest areaHighland

Midland

Lowland

Wetland area

Road

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Role Card

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Action Card

Cereals

Water & money requirements

Money return

1 soil unit output removes 1 money and 1 livestock

RULE : If water and money input is not met, return is 0 season location

Carrying capacity

Game design continued…• Participants play several ‘rounds’ of the game e.g. wet season,

dry season to portray the dynamic nature of resource use.

• Each round can be calibrated to represent certain length of time e.g. five years, one decade, etc.

• At end of each round participants collectively assess consequences of their actions e.g. sedimentation, water shortage for irrigation.

• This prompts discussion and reflection

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So how does WAT-A-GAME fit within the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC)

project?

Overview of NBDC...Nile Basin Development Challenge aims to improve resilience of rural livelihoods in the Ethiopian highlands through an integrated landscape approach to rainwater management.

Research is focused on three study sites: Fogera in Amhara region, Diga and Jeldu in Oromiya region.

Base-line research conducted at the start of the project identified the following issues, how to:

•Improve cross-sector collaboration and coordination•Tailor SWC interventions to socio-economic/ecological conditions•Foster bottom-up planning/community participation•Enhance follow-up and monitoring of SWC interventions

Could participatory tools like WAT-A-GAME assist NRM planning and implementation processes?

WAT-A-GAME was piloted with members of the NBDC initiated Innovation Platform (IP) in Fogera. Innovation platforms bring together different stakeholders to exchange knowledge and develop joint action to test solutions to common problems.

IP participants: Government line departments (Admin, Agriculture, Natural Resource, Water, Women, Cooperatives, Land Use, Livestock), Adet Agricultural Research Center, Andassa Livestock Research Center, Ethio-Wetlands and Natural Resources Association (NGO), community representatives

Fogera case study

NBDC researchers worked with WAT-A-GAME designers to model the Fogera catchment and simulate key RWM issues identified by stakeholders including: water availability, run-off, soil erosion and the impact of different land-use practices The aim was to use the model to:

• Improve stakeholder understanding about natural resource challenges and the needs/priorities of different social actors

• Nurture critical discussion, about linkages between upstream/midstream/downstream actors and potential conflicts associated with the use and management of natural resources,

• Facilitate collective exploration of alternative strategies which could lead to more sustainable and effective NRM interventions

• Consider critical issues of power dynamics and representation

Fogera case study continued…

WAT-A-GAME: not just about the tool,process is important too...

Presentation of WAT-A-GAME by facilitators

Participants play WAT-A-GAME in 2 groups

Farmers Decision makers

Groups identify and prioritize main NRM challenges

Groups identify practices required to address these challenges

Groups analyze feasibility of practices- e.g. resources required, timing, scale.

Groups merge practices to form strategies- spacial and temporal

Groups evaluate strategies- knowledge, labour and money

Groups present their strategies to one another

Joint reflection about process, lessons learned & ways forward

Second workshop to create a merged strategy

Analysis of potential challenges to implementation & solutions

Workshop Outcomes

Unrestricted grazing chosen as focal issue due to the impact on natural resources and SWC interventions in Fogera

Discussion led to increased understanding of different priorities and perspectives held by farmers and decision makers and the impact on interventions.

Relates to Innovation Platform activities.

IP interventions

Actors Main issue Related issue

IP members

Unrestricted grazing

Land degradation

Community

Restricting grazing

Shortage of grazing/fodder

Water scarcity

Seasonal water

shortages

Soil conservatio

n

Organization of campaign

work

Fodder development chosen for pilot interventions as a way of addressing the issues of unrestricted grazing, taking into account both farmer and decision maker concerns.

Agreement between IP members and community members about restricting free grazing, but different views about how this should be done.

Decision makers would like grazing to be restricted but farmers are concerned about a number of issues:

•HH without livestock unable to collect dung for fuel if livestock are restricted•Inability for livestock to breed without AI services•Insufficient fodder production to meet livestock needs, particularly for those with less land•Greater burden of labour on women with cut and carry system•Limited access to communal areas for funerals/wedding etc due to enclosures

Range of interventions needed over longer time frame to address these issues.

IP interventions

Workshop Outcomes •Decision makers acknowledged that they often struggle to address variations within the woreda.

•Use of WAT-A-GAME helped stakeholders to develop a joint strategy, addressing a common issue, tailored to different socio-economic and biophysical niches

•Recognition that NRM challenges are more severe in certain parts of the landscape so burden of implementation is heavier on some farmers than others

•Discussion about long term versus short term impacts and the incentives or support required to implement longer term interventions

•Dialogue about how the strategy developed during the workshop could potentially be implemented

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Ongoing activities

•1st workshop (Dec 2012) aimed to develop strategies which capture the priorities, knowledge and perspectives of farmers and decision makers, and analyze the commonalities and differences.

•2nd workshop (March 2013) reviewed the strategies developed during the first workshop and created a merged strategy. Potential challenges to implementation were discussed and ideas for solutions were generated

•3rd workshop (September 2013) will test the merged strategy using WAT-A-GAME to analyze the potential impact on the landscape and different types of farmers. Roles and responsibilities of actors will be discussed to take the strategies into action

Future efforts

•Link WAT-A-GAME to biophysical modeling processes e.g. SWAT to run potential scenarios for discussion with stakeholders

•Asses the use of WAT-A-GAME as a decision support tool with stakeholders and explore ways of making it more user friendly

•Link WAT-A-GAME with other piloted processes and tools as part of an integrated package that can be used to assist future NRM planning and implementation efforts

•Present the findings of WAT-A-GAME and other NBDC research outputs to policy makers