Harnessing research for development to tackle wicked problems - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 71

Box 3.8 Tools used in the PIPA process
• Problem/opportunity tree.

• Visioning.

• Time lining.

• Project outputs.

• Linking outputs to the vision and change that needs to happen.

• Social-network analysis now and in the future.

Conclusions
The CPWF R4D approach evolved over ten years to understand how research
could more effectively lead to development outcomes. The experiment was
notable for its scope of work (six river basins), extent of partnerships and its
independence to explore new modes of working. As Hall (2013) states, CPWF
represented an important institutional innovation in the way international
agricultural research is used as a tool in the development process.
The CPWF R4D approach explained in this chapter has three distinguishing
characteristics that set it apart from conventional research approaches. These
characteristics were suited to tackling wicked problems that were identified as
the BDCs at different scales within the given basin program.
First was the highly decentralized nature of the basin programs. While they
were guided by some over-arching principles described in this chapter, they
were allowed to explore and identify entry points as they went along. This was
based on the understanding that change is an interactive process, which cannot
be planned or controlled as events play out within the basin.
Second was that if research led to development outcomes it had to engage
with the development process in a given area. The engagement required invest-
ments in time, partnerships and understanding the development environment,
and meant reorienting research to be more demand driven, opportunistic and
strategic. It meant bringing stakeholders into the research process from the
outset so that they helped design the research and felt ownership of the results.
It also meant aligning with organizations that had “convening power” or could
reach policy-level discussions.
The final characteristic was the need to develop a learning system to enable
those involved in the research process the ability to reflect and plan to do better
science and development. Here, KM systems such as communication, infor-
mation management and M&E played key roles in helping different actors
within the research frame make decisions based on the best available infor-
mation.