Outcome of the Call for Concept notes of PAEPARD

PAEPARD launched on 8^th of December 2010 a call for applications for support to the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships that promote demand-driven agricultural innovation and research (deadline 28/01/2011).  PAEPARD partners were asked to disseminate as much as possible the call through their respective channels.

82 concept notes were received by 28 January 2011. 3 concept notes were rejected which came after the deadline.

Selected concept notes:

African Applicant Country	Title of the proposal
Uganda	Enhancing capacity and developing networks between North-South Universities in Research Methods training at PhD level
Togo	l’Agribusiness au tour du soja
Togo	Caractérisation de deux variétés du piment rouge pour améliorer la mise en marché et transformation semi-industrielle
Senegal	Un partenariat Europe Afrique pour la création d’un outil de suivi de l’agriculture familiale
South Africa	Use of  Geographic Information Systems, GMPBasic and existing related information systems to benchmark and plan the development of the emerging livestock sector of South Africa
Ghana	Improving food security and income for smallholder farmers through improved post harvest technology.
Kenya	Aflatoxin contamination management along the maize value chain in Kenya
Malawi	Partnership for Enhanced Aquaculture Innovation in Sub Saharan Africa (PEAISSA)
Kenya	Re-vamping pyrethrum sector through improved policy environment to address pest problems anticipated due to climate change and improve farmers livelihoods
Zimbabwe	Improving the incomes of smallholder farmers through increased access to livestock markets and through the engagement of the stakeholders in the livestock production to marketing value chain

The support that PAEPARD offers to new partnerships whose application to the PAEPARD call of December 2010 was successful consists of:

1. [A] sponsored participation of key partners in Partnership Inception (PI ) workshops
2. [B] subsidized participation of some of the key partners together with administrative staff of their organizations in Write-shops.
3. [C] Follow up with the funding opportunities

A) Partnership Inception workshop: 
A workshop of about 7 days involving the participation of 20-25 people who are key partners of three to four (maximum) new partnerships selected in response to PAEPARD calls for applications to support to partnership formation.

• The PI-workshops give the partners of new partnerships an opportunity to meet face-to-face (often for the first time), develop a shared and in-depth understanding of each other’s perspective of and interest in the common theme, clarify what each of them expects from the others and from the partnership as a whole (in terms of, e.g., contributions in kind and cash, types of benefits and their distribution between partners),agree on the broad development actions needed to address the theme, on the roles and responsibilities of each partner and on the principles to be respected by the different partners to ensure continued focus on the demands of non-research stakeholders and balance in governance.
• PI-workshops also help participating partnerships to agree on the research questions to be addressed, the concrete results expected from the research and the consultation process between research and non-research partners needed to ensure that results meet the latter’s expectations, e.g., in terms of accessibility and applicability.
• The PI-workshops will be facilitated by the Agricultural Innovation-facilitators proposed by the successful partnerships and trained by the Capacity building organizations and partners of PAEPARD, In this way, PAEPARD helps strengthen the capacities of the partners to effectively work as a demand-driven, balanced multi-stakeholder team.

The decision which partnerships to combine in each PI-workshop will be based on the potential for mutual learning between the partnerships, complementarities in competencies, commonality of language (English, French), similarities in themes and in capacity strengthening needs, as well as on logistical and other pragmatic considerations.

• The PI-workshops are preferably organised on the intended research location of one of the participating partnerships (that could probably also host the workshops) to be able to include some field visits for interaction with local actors of the hosting partnership who are not able to participate in the PI-workshop.
• The other participating partnerships will be stimulated to organise similar interactions on their own research locations after their return from the PI-workshop.

Expected results of the Partnership Inception workshop:

• Result 1: Demand-driven, balanced ARD consortia are consolidated with clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the non-research and research partners and African and European partners and with a clear agreement on the principles of African-led joint governance. Where relevant, missing actors and their required contributions have been identified.
• Result 2: Each ARD consortium has developed an action plan defining the complementary development activities to address the common challenge/ theme around which each consortium is mobilized and the main elements of a research proposal to be further elaborated at a write-shop.
• Result 3: Memoranda of Agreement have been signed between the partners in each partnership, between each partnership and its AI-facilitator and between each AI-facilitator and the PAEPARD Work Package 4 [Capacity Building] leaders.
• Result 4: The collective and individual capacities of all consortium members to function as a team, taking stock of specific needs of non-research partners and mobilising their specific complementary contributions to the innovation process, have been strengthened.

Between the Partnership Inception workshop and write-shops, the AI-facilitators, with help from PAEPARD, assist their partnerships to formulate a first rough draft of a research proposal based on the main elements defined during the PI-workshop.

B) Write shops. 
All ARD consortia established through PI-workshops are expected to qualify for and participate in a write-shop approximately 4 weeks after the PI-workshop. The purpose of the write-shops is to:

• finalise the research proposals of the participating ARD consortia (already drafted between steps 2 and 3 by the consortium and its AI-facilitator);
• provide training to key representatives of the consortia on the format/ procedures or requirements of the funding source targeted.

The participants in write-shops are a subset of the key partners who participated in the PI-workshop (as not all partners will be involved in proposal writing), as well as administrative staff that have not been involved in the PI-workshop.

• Consortia will be required to share 20% of the cost of accommodation and food (i.e. 20% of the per diem), as well as some costs related to their travel.
• The write-shops will be facilitated by experienced trainers in research proposal writing with expert knowledge of the specific requirements of the ARD-funding sources targeted, both in terms of content and form of the proposal and in terms of the administrative, legal and financial aspects of research project management.
• In organising write-shops, PAEPARD will combine partnerships on the basis of similarity on requirements of the targeted donors. This may lead to different combinations from those used in the PI-workshops.

Expected results of the Write shop

• Result 1: Consortium members are aware of the procedures and formats required by the identified funding source to which their research proposal will be submitted and are able to use these formats and apply these procedures.
• Result 2: Each consortium has fully developed its proposal following the specified format by the identified funding source

C) Follow up with the funding opportunities
After the write-shop, proposal development and submission to a donor.

• PAEPARD will make sure the consortia continue to work together in other activities while waiting for the funds.
• PAEPARD will inform the consortia on targeted funding opportunities (see bi-monthly PAEPARD update on funding opportunities)
• Lessons will be drawn from feedback obtained from donors on proposals that win funding and those that are rejected for one or another reason.

Expected results of the follow up on the funding opportunities

• Research proposals from different consortia that participated in the process of inception workshop and write-shop are submitted to the targeted funding sources