Relying entirely on survey information and personal exchanges with over 70 scientists from within the CGIAR network, this working paper attempts to achieve a better understanding of the scope of social learning related efforts undertaken in CGIAR and main issues of relevance to more current efforts, such as that planned by the CGIAR program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). A wide range of methods was identified, where groups of people learn in order to jointly arrive at solutions to pressing food security problems. This methodological diversity is considered a strength given that they represent the different contexts that the research community is responding to. Relying on experiential evidence from professionals within the CGIAR network, the working paper further explores if the reformed CGIAR and the new structural and programmatic setup offer improved prospects for the inclusion of social learning approaches in CCAFS. A range of working definitions of social learning – from the literature – is proposed to meet the special needs/context of scientists. The stocktaking exercise also attempts to identify what is needed to foster an enabling environment for social learning. Key propositions are derived from the findings of the stocktaking exercise. Relying on secondary information provided by respondents, case overviews of exemplary and mature examples of social learning from within CGIAR were developed with the purpose of highlighting that CGIAR does already have a tradition to build upon in future work. Finally, an illustrative listing of current CGIAR projects provided to support the stocktaking objectives of this effort.
Getting a better understanding of how climate variability affects rural men and women differently, and in different regions, is challenging. Since their ability to respond to change and take action that will make them more resilient and able to adapt...
This paper sets out an analytical framework for doing research on the question of how to use agricultural research for innovation and impact. Its focus is the Research Into Use (RIU) Programme sponsored by the UK’s Department for International Development...
What can we learn from ongoing initiatives? There has been a lot of interest during the last two decades in employing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for achieving development. While many of these initiatives have benefited rural women by way...
This paper, part of the Social Sciences Working Paper Series, presents studies undertaken by nine community-based, natural resource management (CBNRM)-oriented organizations in China, Viet Nam, the Philippines and Mongolia. The partner organizations, representing three broad types: academic, regional network, and...
This paper reflects on the experience of the Research Into Use (RIU) projects in Asia. It reconfirms much of what has been known for many years about the way innovation takes place and finds that many of the shortcomings of...