FOREWORD

As this book goes to press, the Horn of Africa is experiencing one of the worst food crises and droughts in five decades, with millions of lives in danger. In times of such crises, attention is naturally focused on the urgent short-term responses needed to keep people alive. Well-intentioned efforts often fail to recognize the complex, multidimensional, and long-term causes of hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. Experience and lessons from over 40 years of international development and research suggest that there are no easy solutions to avoiding such crises. Rather, it requires integrated, multilevel and multidimensional approaches that have the support of the people affected, and a sustained commitment by society at large to build resilience for rural Africans and their food systems in the face of increasing uncertainty.

Since its establishment in 1970, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has supported networks and partnerships of researchers in developing countries to contribute to the operationalization of participatory action research and institutional innovation for community-based natural resources management, in “hot spots” of poverty and environmental degradation. The highlands of eastern and central Africa are home to several millions of people whose livelihoods depend on natural resources and agriculture. The African Highlands Initiative is one of the networks and innovative programs that has received consistent and continued support from IDRC and other donors, since 1992, to advance the conceptualization and the practice of integrated natural resources management (INRM) as a modest but effective approach to support inclusive decision making, access to resources, rehabilitation of degraded natural resources, and the development of agriculture in a sustainable manner.

This book describes a compelling success story of an ambitious program with an inspiring narrative. Early work of the African Highlands Initiative focused on developing and facilitating the uptake of techniques and practices to intensify and diversify farming systems. AHI then embarked on innovative but untested concepts of participatory integrated watershed management, collective action, integrated agricultural research for development, and institutional change processes, under the umbrella of Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM). This marked a significant departure from most agricultural research initiatives in the region that concentrated on commoditybased and uni-disciplinary research. While AHI experienced several challenges in its organizational structures, capacities, leadership, and institutional mandates, as this book demonstrates, it has remained focused, nimble, flexible, and willing to experiment with new approaches at the forefront of INRM in eastern Africa.

After over a decade of support to AHI, IDRC commissioned an external review and impact assessment of the whole initiative. The findings of this evaluation were summarized by the evaluators in a simple phrase: “AHI has achieved unique success in implementing INRM that works.” A crucial feature of this success is the production of an impressive number of peer reviewed articles in mainstream international journals, edited books, method guides, and briefs, vital contributions to international and national public goods. This book consolidates those contributions to the science and practice of INRM in an easy-to-read volume. As the six chapters demonstrate, AHI has developed innovative tools and approaches and practical methods for putting INRM principles into action, with tangible results that have bettered the lives of resource-poor farmers in five eastern African countries. Examples of impacts are discussed in the book with honesty, recognizing challenges and limitations and, more importantly, reflecting on the lessons learned to provide some practical “how to” tips for practitioners.

However, as the different chapters of the book demonstrate, INRM remains a work in progress. The challenging conjunction of poverty, environmental degradation, and food and personal insecurity remains daunting. A vital next step, conceptual and practical, strategic and tactical, methodological and outcomes-oriented, is to “learn our way” toward innovating on a much broader scale. We need to bring together people, institutions, and ideas, to experiment in a very explicit and systematic manner, and on a society-wide scale, with the concepts of social learning, adaptive management, and socio-ecological resilience that are emerging from the work of AHI and others.

This book and the evolution of AHI illustrate a key principle of IDRC's mission: long-term strategic investment in building the capacity of thinkers, innovators, and practitioners in the global South. It is clear from the experiences of AHI that long-term support and commitment are needed for INRM; natural resources management research requires patience and a significant commitment to investment in resources and people, over periods of ten years or longer. At IDRC we have been privileged to see the fruits of consistent support, intellectual mentoring, practical advice, and a willingness to take risks in uncertain ventures. IDRC staff placed great emphasis on engaging with AHI researchers and their partners, helping to open spaces for intellectual leadership in a spirit of mutual learning. It is a rare opportunity and privilege to be involved with an organization such as AHI from inception and program establishment to “closing the loop.” We have been privileged to be involved in this initiative, and have learned much ourselves.

As much as this book is an institutional memory of over a decade of “muddling through complexity” of INRM research and development, it is also a strong tribute to the late Luis Navarro, an IDRC colleague and friend. Luis championed and channeled IDRC's support to AHI from its inception to its maturity in 2006 when he fell ill. Luis was instrumental in the conceptualization of INRM and in its practical application with farming communities and other stakeholders. This book represents a scientific and professional testimony to Luis’ pioneering efforts to further the application of participatory approaches and systems thinking in integrated natural resources management in eastern Africa. The application of these principles, which he spent his career thinking about, in farming-systems intensification and diversification, in landscape innovations, in district-level initiatives linking local communities to decentralized government structures and institutions, and in support of institutional change in research and development organizations, has inspired scientists in this region and elsewhere, and makes compelling reading. I think he would feel gratified that the lessons are now being shared.

Simon Carter

Director, Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)