Workshop Helps Projects Envision Agroecological Transitioning

A workshop this spring sought to strengthen ESAf projects’ understanding of agroecological (AE) transitions and AE intensification by identifying entry points, plausible transition pathways, and blockages or opportunities that projects need to address to progress toward their visions. Workshop sessions involved more than 30 participants, including representatives from 10 projects: Botanicals, Cereals FRN, FRN NGO, Malawi hub, Tanzania hub (Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania), Multipurpose legumes, P’KWI, Seed systems Malawi, Sorghum Kenya, Sorghum Uganda. Two additional projects—Drylands and Best Bets—shared their experience since the July 2020 workshop.

A team made up of regional team members, research methods support (RMS), FAO, and ESAf CoP members designed the workshop, sharing their plans with the AES team. After the workshop took place online late March, project teams developed their AE visions offline and gathered online again early April to share and critique visions, participate in structured discussions, and plan next steps. Zoom proved useful for the discussions, as did Miro whiteboarding for exchanging group information. Sessions were recorded, with all materials shared on Dropbox.

Participants appreciated the AE transitions visioning tool, which stimulated a more holistic reflection within research teams as well as within the FRN per the example below.