Liste des commentaires ( J Pagès 12/02/2018)
p.9 lines 8 to 20 / this specific goal has been considered during the 2017 European Development Days when Platforms in partnership for research and training "dP", conceived and initiated by research institutions, have been presented. Partners from different origins ( University, Research Centre, farmers Organizations, Funding agency, FAO) took this opportunity to share their appreciation of these collaborative tools devoted to knowledge production and dissemination in the field of agricultural development.for more information on these plateforms see "http://www.cirad.fr/en/our-research/platforms-in-partnership-for-research-and-training"
Briefly, a dP is a group of partners and the desire to work together, with shared outlooks and objectives, a long-term commitment of human, material and financial resources to achieve the objectives, a shared governance based on the mutual acknowledgement of each other expertise and input, a regular external assessment to guide the platform evolution,
p.12 line 37 to 42 / In full agreement with this remark; moreover to tackle the challenge of FSN, it is necessary to gather in the same entity, stakeholders from the three spheres proposed, for their knowledge are complementary and provide more diverse and relevant solutions to the problems at stakes.
p.13 lines 1 to 9 / why solely "international agricultural research systems" ? and what is the clear meaning of “international” : the status, or the area of intervention ? an example of a community of platforms in partnership, present in Asia, South America and Africa, devoid of any international status, is given later, a community which provides sound knowledge, sometimes based upon comparative and complementary approaches between these regions.
p.22 figure 2 / a third function which is met within the platform in partnership (dP) is the exchange of expertise leading to reciprocal capacity building, both between southern countries, between them and northern ones, as well as between different stakeholders facing the same issue. In a world where fear and sometimes fight are the expression of ignorance of others, this function is a crucial one.
p.22 lines 27 to 34 / some of the platforms in partnership "dP" such as GovInn "Governance Innovation" hosted by the University of Pretoria, in RSA, or PP-AL "Public Policy in Latin America" are producing knowledge which can support policy decision making process. For example, PP-Al engaged in a survey within a bunch of Latin America countries in order to appreciate the different contexts surrounding the emergence, or dissemination, of agroecology practices. It thus provides to policy makers, at national, regional but also international scales, key insights on the factors promoting or inhibiting the adoption of this agricultural transformation.
p.22 lines 35 to 39 / in this same objective, some dP are tackling the issue of zoonotic diseases, in order to help vet sector to better apprehend vaccine efficiency as well as disease propagation. These dP which are located in south -east Asia ("GREASE : Emerging diseases in Southeast asia") in Indian ocean,("One Health - OI ") and in the Caribbean ("Caribvet: Caribbean Animal health Network), gathering a wide community from scientists to practitioners, breeders, public sector and regional organizations such as Caricom, IOE and even FAO, promote the exchange of expertise to increasing their mutual knowledge.
p.24 § 2.1.1 / dP are a good illustration of these different scales.
Thus a platform in partnership such as F&B, ((Forest and biodiversity) which is located in Madagascar or the dP AMAZONIE, centered on Brazil, are dealing respectively with the issue of the preservation of the diversity of Madagascar primary forest, and with the issue of reconciliation of environmental protection and support to rural Amazonian population.
On a regional scale, the dP SIRMA (Irrigated systems in North Africa) is a network devoted to support local irrigated systems and to contribute to the global debate on irrigation. It spreads over Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and pools together human resources derived from farmers’ organizations, research institutions and universities.
Finally, on an even broader scale, in Africa, the dP ISA- SISTO, is addressing the challenge of food insecurity in west Africa, and stakeholders from national research institutions from Burkina, Mali and Niger are working closely with universities, public services as well as with the permanent interstates committee for drought control in the Sahel (CILSS).
p.25 table 1 / As an example, this table could refer to communities such as the ones clustered within platforms in partnership (dP) for research and training. Even though these dP have been conceived and initiated by research institutions, which are still the leading stakeholders, they are more and more open to civil society and particularly farmers’ organizations, as well as to private foundations. They are anchored in national issues but they share knowledge gained, on a regional scale, and eventually on an international one.
p.26 lines 1 to 20 / as another example of such academic research -led platforms, the dP, which are not led by a given organism but consist in a community with a specific governing body for each of them, capable of exchanging with others in order to develop joint projects, to achieve results on a broader scale, or simply to improve each other expertise.
p.26 table 2 / added to these sources of funding one cannot forget funds that originate from international donors such as European Community, World Bank, international Foundation,... in relationship with a project responding to a specific call. dP platforms in partnership are leading numerous projects of this type which, complementary of the own means brought into the community by every partners, whatever they can be human resources, fund, access to fields, experimental stations, students involved, allow the dP to carry on, on the long-term, its activities, and produce results expected.
p.28 lines 1 to 10 / example can also be withdrawn from dP, such as ASAP (Agro-silvo-pastoral systems in West Africa), spreading over Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast, pooling together scientists from CIRDES, INERA, IER, professors and students from UPGC, and researchers from CIRAD ( France). The objective of this dP is to design more productive and more sustainable crop-livestock systems based on the principles of ecological intensification.
Another dP dealing with food safety is MALICA (Markets and agriculture linkages for cities in Asia) centered on Vietnam and Laos, which analyzes agrifood supply chains, including quality approach, origin and quality labelling systems, in order to provide support to policy makers for reorganizing supply chain and stabilize incomes among the poorest farming populations.
p.29 lines 25 to 27 / not only "later" : farmers have a sound expertise which can be introduced within the knowledge production process from the very beginning to assess the stake, define the research protocol, carry on the research activity and assess observations and results. They will also, obviously be part of the innovation dissemination process.
This is what is being more and more developed within the dP platforms in partnership for research and training.
p.30 lines 1 to 3 / same thing for the dP : a MOU defines the common goal and the rules of operating. The commitment of every partner is due to last for many years. The functioning of the platform, and particularly its governance, and its results, are regularly reviewed by an external assessment committee.
p.36 lines 3 to 12 / typically, the dP belong to this type of clusters, taking into account the fact that "agricultural development" is a very wide concept, which also includes questions related to livestock and animal health, as well as the environment. In this context a good example could be the one of dP PPZS (Pastoralism and drylands in West Africa) which relies upon participatory design of management methods and land tenure policies suited to pastoralism. Another one is the dP GREASE (Emerging diseases in Southeast Asia) which develops a strong relationship with the private sector in the framework of a network assessing the surveillance, the control and the impact of animal diseases and zoonosis.
p.36 lines 15 to 19 / the major limitation at this stage of the community of dP platforms is the basic funding of the partnership allowing meeting, contacts between partners of a same regional dP, but also between dP from different regions worldwide.
p.41 lines 26 to 40 / in this same region and very close to the CBFP, must be cited the dP FAC (Forests of Central Africa) spreading over Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, RCA, DRC, in relationship with COMIFAC, and partnering also with CIFOR CG. This dP relies upon human resources from scientific institutions both from these southern countries and from northern one (like Cirad France and Gembloux Agro Bio-tech Belgium), public services and private organizations, with a goal of helping the public and private sector to managing productive forests.
p.42 lines 49 to 55 / typically what can be achieved by means of some dP like PP-AL(Public Policy in Latin America) and which has been edited in collaboration with FAO "http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1054018/", on the issue "Políticas públicas a favor de la agroecología en América Latina y el Caribes".
p.44 lines 27 to 39 / one of solutions which has been adopted within dP to reduce asymmetries, has been to locate the platform within the structure of one of the southern partners, even though some agents from northern institutions or from other countries and organizations, are engaged locally in the field. It means that there is no "imported knowledge isolated in a protected focal point, under the supervision of a foreign entity" but a place put at the disposal of a community of different stakeholders each of them holding the same share and the same responsibility in the operation of the whole.
The periodic assessment of the dP is also devoted to assert that this basic principle of functioning is well observed.
p.48 lines 1 to 12 / the periodic external assessment of the dP platforms in partnership includes both these aspects. It is based upon a preliminary self-assessment and then a review on the spot, and on documents provided by the steering committee of the dP.
the external team is composed usually de three experts, each of them having a complementary expertise in terms of scientific issue, regional or international challenges, multi-stakeholders entities.
Terms of reference of the assessment are jointly elaborated by all the partners of the dP and recommendations derived from the assessment review are discussed between partners in order for them to support the dP evolutions in a concerted way.
p.49 lines 14 to 17 / these objective are defined in the roadmap of the dP. Moreover some objectives, not always clearly precised, such as the volume of training performed both in quantity and quality (number of students and degree completed, for example) are nevertheless reported on a yearly basis.
Beside CIRAD has elaborated an impact assessment methodology (ImpresS) which is progressively discussed with partners within dP, and that can be very useful to assess both direct and indirect impact of this type of community.
p.53 lines 44 to 52 / this question of access to information is a very relevant one, that is becoming tackled within dP. Data are produced derived from expertise and activities of the many different stakeholders, members of the dP, and the use and, very often, the exploitation of the results achieved, must be clearly defined. As part of public goods these results should be in free access to all, and publications produced by scientists and the numerous students involved in the dP contribute to this public diffusion. But the presence of private stakeholders often raises the question of commercial exploitation of the results and the competition ahead. Intellectual property rights are becoming a key issue and specialists are working on it.
p.56 line 19 / as far as alignment is concerned within the community of dP platforms in partnership, different actions have been undertaken in order to strengthen interactions between dP and their overall visibility.
Thus, training in the matter of web-based communication, exchanges inter-dP of methodologies for diseases risk cartography, impact assessment,… and soon intellectual property rights, are on the way.
p.57 lines 9 to 11 / communication is a key issue and within dP system, a strategy is being implemented in order for every dP to be in capacity to communicate through web-based system either inside the dP community or outside, targeting different types of public and events.
p.58 lines 34 to 40 / different means can be implemented within dP systems such as farmers’ field school ( dP ASAP develop farmers’ ability to run motorization), the training of project elaboration and management (Cirad expertise put at disposal of partnering institutions within different dP), or even more academic training as those insured by the dP partners belonging to universities, leading to master and pH D degrees (as the master InterRisk in relation with the dP GREASE in Thailand).
p.61 lines 50 to 54 / This is clearly the focus and aim of the dP community. Apart from this types of banks, the community is also thinking about a data and knowledge bank in order to consolidate and facilitate the collection and access to dP productions.
p.63 lines 13 to 19 / many dP are addressing these issues such as :
Malica for price volatility;
ASAP and PPZS, Amazonie, Pp-AL, GovInn for land tenure system
FAC, AFS-PC, Agroforesterie Cameroun, HRPP, F&B, RP-PCP, for biodiversity and ecosystem
Divecosys, ISA, Cansea, ASAP, for climate change
F&B for biofuel
IAVAO for smallholder agriculture
SIRMA for water management
Caribvet, Grease and One-Health - OI for sustaining agricultural development and, more widely speaking, the issue of One Health.
Appendix / Some data are given regarding an example of MSP , the dP GREASE. But this MSP is only one out of a community of 22 dP, each of them operating along the same principles. Originally these platforms have been set up on CIRAD – southern countries national agricultural research system existing cooperation. They have progressively evolved towards wider assembly, including universities, members of civil society, public and private sectors at a different pace depending on situation around the world. But they are all built following the same objectives: to produce and diffuse knowledge to any stakeholder, from farmers or breeders to policy makers, going through training and education systems. They rely upon a common set of values: a shared confidence and the respect of each other expertise, often as a result of a long-term collaboration in research and knowledge transfer, the willingness to pool together on the long-term a wide spectrum of competences susceptible to address development challenges at different scales from local to global, the commitment to mobilize their own resources ( human, finance, logistic) and to seek together the support of funding agencies to manage the platform and carry on the activities. They all have the ambition to actively contribute to capacities strengthening, as a pillar for development, aiming at making available for trainers, policy makers, development agencies, sound and relevant knowledge. They commit themselves in seeking and producing knowledge following quality standards, so as to produce results that could serve as references for the international community. This quality is thus asserted by mean of a regular external assessment review.
Today the whole dP system worldwide represents a community of more than 180 institutions form northern and southern countries, mobilizing in the field around 1.000 people, These dP are settled over the three continents (12 in Africa, Madagascar and Indian ocean; 4 in southeast Asia; 5 in Latin America and the Caribs; 1 in Mediterranean area). They are addressing a wide range of issues such as “ecologically intensive agriculture”, “biomass valorization”, “sustainable food”, “plants and animal health”, “public policy for development”, “societies, nature and territories”.
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