ABSTRACT

Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) has the potential to increase food security without detrimental effects on ecosystem services. However, adoption of SAI practices across sub-Saharan Africa has not reached transformational numbers to date. It is often hampered by lack of context-specific practices, sub-optimal understanding of tradeoffs and synergies among stakeholders, and lack of approaches that bring diverse evidence sources together with stakeholders to collectively tackle complex problems. In this study, we asked three interconnected questions: (i) What is the accessibility and use of evidence for SAI decision making; (ii) What tools could enhance access and interaction with evidence for tradeoff analysis; and (iii) Which stakeholders must be included? This study employed a range of research and engagement methods including surveys, stakeholder analysis, participatory trade-off assessments and co-design of decision dashboards to better support evidence-based decision making in Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. At the inception, SAI evidence was accessible and used by less than half of the decision makers across the three countries and online dashboards hold promise to enhance access. Many of the stakeholders working on SAI were not collaborating and tradeoff analysis was an under-utilized tool. Structured engagement across multiple stakeholder groups with evidence is critical.

摘要

可持续农业集约化 (SAI) 有可能在不损害生态系统服务的情况下提高粮食安全。然而，迄今为止，撒哈拉以南非洲地区对 SAI 实践的采用尚未达到转型数字。它通常受到缺乏针对具体情况的实践、对利益相关者之间的权衡和协同作用的次优理解以及缺乏将各种证据来源与利益相关者聚集在一起以共同解决复杂问题的方法的阻碍。在这项研究中，我们提出了三个相互关联的问题：(i) SAI 决策中证据的可及性和使用是什么；(ii) 哪些工具可以增强权衡分析证据的获取和互动；(iii) 必须包括哪些利益相关者？本研究采用了一系列研究和参与方法，包括调查、利益相关者分析、参与式权衡评估和决策仪表板的共同设计，以更好地支持赞比亚、坦桑尼亚和埃塞俄比亚的循证决策。最初，三个国家/地区不到一半的决策者可以访问和使用 SAI 证据，并且在线仪表板有望提高获取能力。许多从事 SAI 工作的利益相关者没有合作，权衡分析是一种未充分利用的工具。具有证据的多个利益相关者群体之间的结构化参与至关重要。坦桑尼亚和埃塞俄比亚。最初，三个国家/地区不到一半的决策者可以访问和使用 SAI 证据，并且在线仪表板有望提高获取能力。许多从事 SAI 工作的利益相关者没有合作，权衡分析是一种未充分利用的工具。具有证据的多个利益相关者群体之间的结构化参与至关重要。坦桑尼亚和埃塞俄比亚。最初，三个国家/地区不到一半的决策者可以访问和使用 SAI 证据，并且在线仪表板有望提高获取能力。许多从事 SAI 工作的利益相关者没有合作，权衡分析是一种未充分利用的工具。具有证据的多个利益相关者群体之间的结构化参与至关重要。