Compiled by Simret Yasabu and Jonathan Odhong at the Africa RISING Program Learning Event in Malawi, 5-8 February 2019

1. Photo report on the Africa RISING Program
Learning Event in Malawi
5 - 8 February 2019

2. Background
The Africa RISING Program Learning Event was held from 5 - 8 February 2019 in Malawi.
The annual gathering of stakeholders has been held every year since 2013 (except in
2017) with the objective of synthesizing valuable lessons learnt in the previous year and
harnessing them for improved project implementation in the subsequent year.
This year’s Learning Event had three main themes: (i) Sharing experiences in
implementation of the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework, (ii) sharing
experiences about the implementation of systems research for agriculture in practice,
and (iii) gaining a common program-wide understanding of terminologies used within
the Africa RISING program.
The 2019 Learning Event was the first of a kind to combine a field visit and farmer
interactions as a part of the overal agenda which has in the past been typically held in a
regular workshop format. This mixed format gave participants an opportunity to querry,
evaluate and learn practically in addition to the theoretical discussions done in the
meeting room. This photo report captures some highlights of the four days event .

3. Africa RISING Program Learning Event participants. The meeting was attended by 60 participants
drawn from Africa RISING implementation countries - Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Mali
and Zambia.

4. Ice breakers and participant introductions made for a
great start to the meeting!

5. Highlights of Program Coordination Team (PCT)
Decisions 2018/2019 - Siboniso Moyo
• March 2018 – Move the role of Communications and Knowledge Management
Coordinator from ILRI to IITA. ILRI retains the technical backstopping functions for
online platforms.
• March 2018 – recruit embedded M&E specialists for each of the three regional
projects.
• July 2018 – IFPRI to revise the data management plan in order to streamline with:
donor requirements, projects needs, across the program.
• October 2018 – revisit the role of Science Advisory Group (SAG) and see how best to
engage them in this phase.
• October 2018 –Internally Commissioned External Review ( ICER) of the program to
be done for all 3 projects.
• October 2018 – need to fully operationalize the Sustainable Intensification
Assessment framework (SIAF).

6. Participants had various interesting, but important discussions about different topics within
Africa RISING. One of the items discussed by participants was systems research - what their
understanding of the term is? its key characteristics? And how systems research approaches can
add value to component research?

7. Vara Prasad, Director Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) shared
SIIL’s experiences with implementation of the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework
(SIAF). At the moment the SIA Framework has been adopted and is being applied by SIIL and the
Africa RISING Program. Discussions are underway for more projects and programs to start
applying the evaluation framework.

8. Participants went into group discussions focused on identifying critical actionable proposals for
stronger mainstreaming of the SIA Framework within Africa RISING. Key decisions emerging
from the discussion were: (i) Data has to be collected across all the 5 sustainable intensification
(SI) domains for the framework to be fully operationalized, (ii) collaboration and data sharing
amongst scientists implementing different activities within the same sites is key to ensure no
duplication of efforts and resource use efficiency, and (iii) continual capacity building on how to
apply the SIA Framework is necessary to ensure all partners are applying it uniformly.

9. The Learning Event agenda included field trips to project intervention sites in Malawi - Linthipe
EPA in Dedza District, Ntubwi EPA and Matandika EPA in Machinga District.
Machinga District
l Ntubwi EPA
l Nsanama EPA
Dedza District
l Linthipe EPA
Field visits to project sites

10. Stop 1: Linthipe EPA, Dedza District
➢ Activity: Rainfall-responsive nitrogen fertilization strategies: in search of increased
nitrogen use efficiency by smallholder farmers under rainfed conditions.

11. Stop 2: Linthipe EPA, Dedza District
➢ Activity: Assessing the effect of residue quantity and quality, and water
conservation on maize productivity and nitrogen dynamics.

12. Stop 3: Linthipe EPA, Dedza District
➢ Activity: Delivering climbing and drought tolerant bush beans in different soil health
conditions.

13. Stop 4: Linthipe EPA, Dedza District
➢ Activity: Reducing crop-livestock conflict and increasing goat productivity through
improved housing and husbandry.

14. Stop 5: Nsanama EPA, Machinga District
➢ Activity: Investigations on impacts of SI technologies (improved soil fertility
management, improved germplasm, crop combinations).

15. Stop 6: Ntubwi EPA, Machinga District
➢ Activity: Sustainable intensification of low-input agriculture systems through
conservation agriculture approaches.

16. Sharing lessons on effective partnerships between development and research organizations.

17. Light moments galore! Participants do a dance during the Learning Event.

18. Produced by Africa RISING Program
Compiled by Simret Yasabu & Jonathan Odhong
Photo credits: Bevin Bhoke, Jonathan Odhong , Simret Yasabu,
Wilhelmina Ofori-Duah and Regis Chikowo

19. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.