Storyline

Overall Storyline

How the different sessions link up

Introductions (thursday morning)

We start with welcomes, where Alan introduces APM objectives (see front page), the overall process devised and principles followed, and some preliminary 'results' from pre-survey activities.

After the welcomes, we start with 'ILRI' and 'CGIAR' scene-setters by Carlos and John in which all participants are brought up to speed on recent and upcoming developments in our immediate situation.

This session ends with an ice-breaker that involves all staff positioning themselves and their work in relation to their overall understanding of livestock goods and bads.

Setting the scene (thursday morning and afternoon)

This session aims to acquaint all participants with the scope of the 'goods and bads' debate and where different parts of ILRI see themselves it it. It will be a mainly one-way flow of information, livened up by the interviewers posing tough, food for thought, questions.

After lunch, participants work together to jointly identify the most pressing questions they want to ask, getting an opportunity to interact with various experts on specific aspects. We will document the discussions with social media that can be viewed on the campus.

The organizers of each of the working groups that will pitch to the panel on saturday afternoon will be given a short space to 'pitch' for their groups, so levels of interest in each can be assessed. These organizers need to listen out for issues and points to build on in their working groups.

Working with partners

On Friday and Saturday before the working groups meet up, two sessions with other types of partners (research organizations, development partners) will help us think through the ways that we can engage with others and other perspectives to achieve our goals. The research discussion should particularly identify 'goods and bads' opportunities and gaps that we can work on.

Identifying research opportunities and gaps (saturday morning)

On Saturday morning, some seven working groups will get together to identify critical research gaps and opportunities that could (or should) e the focus for further ILRI effort. The outputs of each discussion are a research 'pitch' arguing the case for a certain line of research, a specific pitch for $10K to work the idea into a project, and a pitcher to 'sell' these ideas to a panel of experts who will decide which proposal to support.

Pitching the research ideas (saturday afternoon)

This concluding scientific session sees each of the seven groups pitching their ideas to a panel, seeking to win the $10K of project development funds as well as any co-financing and kudos from the colleagues in the audience. The panel will choose one project to be financed. Irrespective of the panel's decision, these pitches could be the basis for further fleshing out into a program of followup research.

Along the way, given the challenges of size and location, we aim for the process to be as engaging and as lively as possible.