Leading Question for Group Work II

Criteria for selecting future research problems (which require integration)

Results of Working Group 1 (Rapporteur: Hans Greggrsen )

Priority NRM problems requiring an integrative approach should:

1. integrate productivity enhancing and resource conserving elements
2. be such that their complexity can be untangled into subproblems that can be tackled adequately within an ecosystem approach
3. be defined broadly enough so they are relevant to all the NR components that relate to the problem, as well as to the interactions within and between components over time (the dynamics of sustainability considerations)
4. be relevant to transnational problems (including in given ecoregions), i.e., meet the IPG requirement, in the case of the CGIAR
5. be directly relevant to the NARS and their constituents in the relevant regions, i.e., be need or demand focused
6. make optimum use of existing knowledge (including indigenous) and help fill critical gaps in existing knowledge.

The group agreed unanimously that assigning ranks and priorities to these criteria in a generic sense went against the spirit of integration and the need for flexibility in taking into account the individual contexts within which the criteria would be applied and the problems and the modes of operation chosen.

CRITERIA FOR JUDGING INRM

APPROACHES TO PRIORITY PROBLEMS

The INRM mode of operation chosen to address the priority problems must:

1. be able to help improve (implementable) decisions related to poverty alleviation, food security and environmental enhancement
2. be effective in terms of active collaboration with various research partners
3. be participatory and involve all stakeholders right from the beginning
4. have reasonable assurance of continuity of support - (long term nature of most INRM research)
5. be able to establish acceptable lines of accountability to investors and other stakeholders
6. involve clear communication of the importance and relevance of the research
7. have value added and be efficient for the participants (the transactions cost problem)
8. incorporate mechanisms that ensure flexibility in operation needed in complex projects with multi-institutional involvement.

Results of Working Group 2 (Rapporteur: Paul Egger )

Under INRM research emphasis is on:

Integration: the process of research must integrative

Management: the research outputs include management options
strategies, policies and instruments

• Problem must be collaboratively identified by key stakeholders, including users, policy makers, managers, as a priority problem.
• Research shall have long-term positive and measurable effects on local income, equity, and natural resources.
• Problem must be significant for the rural poor and must have a significant extrapolation domain
• Results can be implemented in a sustainable manner (human and institutional capacity) and within a medium time perspective
• Research should address rights of clients to resource and knowledge (be institutionally innovative
• Integrate productivity enhancing and resource conserving elements
• Be such that their complexity can be tackled adequately within an ecosystem approach
• Be relevant to transnational problems meet the IPG requirement in the case of CGIAR
• Make optimum use of existing knowledge (including indigenous) and help critical gaps to be covered
• Be able to establish acceptable lines of accountability to investors and other stakeholders
• Have value added and be efficient for the participants

• Key decision makers be associated with problem identification and subsequent research steps
• Have on site and off site dimension
• Integrate existing component research
• Results shall be socially, economic and environmental sustainable
• Problem must be analysed from social, economic ecological perspective
• Options be socially and institutionally sustainable, integrate social mobilisation
• Research should address management problems, strategies, instruments, institutions
• Include analysis of principles, cross-cutting issues of international public good character
• Integrating policy instruments
• Research and suggested solutions must encompass sustainability issues

Results of Working Group 3 (Rapporteur: )

Results of Working Group 4(Rapporteur: )

Results of Working Group 5 (Rapporteur: )

Results of Working Group 6 (Rapporteur: )

• collaboratively identified by all stakeholders
• long-term positive effects on income equity and nat. Resources
• Significant for rural poor and significant extrapolation domain (i.e. not watersheds)
• must be implementable sustainably within a medium time frame 10 yrs

• CG system goals food security/pov &equity/env
• work on problems which have measurable impact and indicators of biophysical impacts
• innovation, new knowledge
• impact - not just writing books - have impact and management
• interest to stakeholders - demand driven research can meet conflicting interests - global, country, communities, farmers
• inst strengthening, increase awareness of problems
• select for the poor and to empower them as well as raise income
• internat public goods
• diagnose integration needs - not all research requires a systems approach

• multifunc system
• soc econ and biophys at once as a criterion
• stakeholders
• onsite and offsite linkages
• should have time and intergenerational perspective
• require a focus on processes, mechanisms, flows
• env benign options, low cost and indig knowledge
• right of clients to resources and knowledge, IPR

• do both productivity enhancement and resource conservation
• complexity can be dealt with subproblems
• be defined broadly enough that all the NR components are in there
• relevant to transnational problems - IPR
• relevant to NARs
• demand focus
• optimum use of existing knowledge

principles
improve decisions re pov/food/env
active collab
be participatory
continued support
accountability and responsibility
importance and relevance of research - problem orientation
value added and be efficient for participants
flexible operation in complex projects w. Multi institutional involvement
no ranking

CG criteria:
has to be a problem that needs research and that new knowledge can help to solve

criteria
demand driven
adoptable
invoke users
urgent?
Achievable?
Are skills available
large impact?

1 productivity and environment services at same time
2 meets poverty reduction and environment concerns at same time
3 integ across scales required to do the research

off-site on-site consequences
resource\e flows and linkages

4 needs several disciplines
5 insts and stakeholders to work together in research

6 process orientation and systems approach
6 integration through research of actual sites
6 applicable to and show impact in specific cases

Last
integrated approach
poor farmers must benefit
partnerships
scale of effect
conservation v production balance
strategic and applied
replicability
short v long term
center v system wide
global agenda
impact
cost benefit
policy impact
resources
funding

Consolidated List of Criteria for INRM Research - 1.Draft

We take it for granted that all CGIAR research should meet certain fundamental criteria, including:

• Being rigorously defined in a collaborative manner with all the relevant stakeholders,
• Producing measurable positive long-term impacts in terms of at least one of the goals of the CGIAR related to poverty eradication, food security and environmental enhancement;
• Generating new knowledge and innovations that take into account both the contributions of indigenous knowledge and modern science;
• Incorporating the inputs of all relevant disciplines, scientific partners and other stakeholders needed to reach solutions;
• Taking into account to the extent possible the externalities from the research;
• Focusing on the root causes of problems, the processes and the knowledge derived from comparative analysis that permit extrapolation of results and methods beyond specific sites and countries (the International Public Goods requirement for CGIAR research);
• Strengthening institutions from local to policy levels to ensure future capacity for local research and effective mechanisms for adaption and adoption of the results of research;

Given these general criteria, what are the criteria beyond the general ones that apply specifically to INRM projects? The Group sees the following as a basic list of such criteria:

• Problems should be defined across the relevant range of scales, from site to landscape levels, and sometimes including consideration of the global scale, e.g., in the case of global change implications;
• The research also should consider temporal scales, recognizing that changes in natural resources use today can have impacts on future options for using resources;
• The research should strive to address natural resources related causes of impoverishment and the links between natural resources degradation and poverty;
• The research should lead to benefits gained from developing multifunctional agroecosystems which simultaneously provide goods and ecosystem services;
• The approach should integrate different ecosystem components through management of the interactions between biological, human and capital inputs;
• The research should take on-site and off-site effects into account to the extent possible and relevant, as well as environmental functions services across a range of scales from local to global;
• The research should focus on understanding the processes underpinning ecosystem functioning so results and methods can be extrapolated beyond specific sites and countries where the research takes place;
• The research should strengthen institutions working on natural resources management research to ensure the buildup of local capacity for dealing with such problems;

INRM research:

1. Targets problems that have been rigorously diagnosed across a range of scales and defined in a collaborative manner with all relevant stakeholders
2. Produces measurable positive long-term impacts in terms of the poverty, food security and environmental goals of the CGIAR
3. Addresses natural resources related causes of impoverishment and respects and strengthens the rights of the poor to resources and knowledge
4. Generates new knowledge and innovations developed on the basis of indigenous and existing scientific knowledge
5. Requires interdisciplinary and participatory research at specific sites which involves substantial input from:

• several disciplines (e.g. social and biophysical sciences)
• scientists and farmers (and other stakeholders)
• several institutions (e.g. IARC, NARS, NGO)

1. Leads to economic and social benefits gained from developing multifunctional agroeco-systems which simultaneously provide goods and ecosystem services
2. Utilises approaches integrating different ecosystem components through management of the interactions between biological, human and manufactured inputs
3. Takes on-site / off-site effects into account, as well as environmental functions and services across a range of scales from local to global
4. Focuses on understanding the processes underpinning ecosystem integrity so extrapolation of results and methods can take place beyond specific sites and conditions
5. Strengthens institutions from local to policy levels to ensure sustainable solutions to natural resource management problems