Impact case study database

Our research has involved close collaboration with a range of stakeholders including local and international NGOs and local communities themselves, delivering impacts across three mutually reinforcing areas ( Source A):

• Institutional impacts - NGO adoption of the FLA and the integration of research findings into development policy and field interventions;

• Livelihood impacts - improvements in livelihood security and social-ecological resilience among project beneficiaries;

• Policy shifts - building legacy by informing the broader wetlands-livelihoods policy agenda at national and international levels.

Three examples demonstrate this.

1. Impacts of FLA adoption in Southern Africa

Action research in northern Malawi

Application of the FLA builds capacity within wetland communities for adaptive co-management, creating an environment for improved livelihoods, reduced vulnerability, and enhanced social and natural capital. Community-based action research in Kankhulukulu since 2017 ( Source B) has delivered impacts in these areas for 30+ farmers via:

• development of six community-based institutional structures to oversee wetland and catchment issues (FLA committee, dambo (wetland) committee, Tiyeni club, social welfare committee, village bank, marketing committee);

• development of farmer-led low-tech environmental and livelihood monitoring systems (e.g. annual ecosystem service assessment and resilience ranking);

• four farmer-to-farmer extension visits that facilitated knowledge exchange and livelihood adaptations (e.g. committee formation, new crops, soil management) amongst 80+ farmers;

• informing the self-mobilisation of a community in Mzimba district (60+ families) who established their own NGO to implement and disseminate the FLA and its associated practices ( Source C).

Subsequent impacts realised from these activities ( Sources B, C) include:

• Formation of community-based institutional structures (as per above) that have enhanced resilience at the local level;

• Crop diversification and innovations (e.g. CA practices, garlic production, dambo cultivation) that enhance resilience among subsistence farmers and their families;

• Environmental sustainability (e.g. maintenance of streamflow, reduction in soil erosion, deforestation halted, active community-led monitoring);

• Increased income generation from improvements to farming and the environment.

Self Help Africa FLA adoption

NGO Self Help Africa has integrated the FLA into its development of community-based ‘climate-smart’ livelihood adaptations throughout the region. This has been informed by a continuing process of research collaboration and implementation ( Sources D-G) characterised by institutional impact:

• Dixon and colleagues delivering a week-long training workshop for SHA and 30+ government and NGO stakeholders participating in the Irish Aid Livelihood Development Programme (IALDP) in Zambia in 2014;

• SHA acquired EU funding of €500k in 2017 for the project ‘ *Striking a Balance – Developing a Green Economy around Lake Bunyoni [Uganda]*’ which integrates the FLA and its lessons for developing institutional arrangements;

• FLA integrated into SHA’s ‘DISCOVER’ Project (2012-2017, EUR1.7m) which enhanced resilience among 15,593 households across Malawi;

• FLA integrated into SHA’s ‘BETTER’ programme’s farmer field schools in Malawi (2018-2023, EUR16m);

• Integration of the FLA into SHA’s work programme for the ‘PRESERVE Kafue’ project in Zambia (2018 - 2022).

Livelihood impacts realised from these activities include ( Sources D-G):

• Lifting 16,000 vulnerable households out of poverty over the course of the IALDP:

• Enhanced knowledge and awareness amongst 30+ NGO trainee staff relating to the FLA to improve catchment-wetland management for 1000+ beneficiaries across Zambia;

• Over 14,000 households adopting FLA practices with 35,000 people benefitting from increased dietary diversity (DISCOVER Project Malawi);

• Training and capacity building of 2300 government extension staff and FLA applied among 100,000 families in Malawi benefitting from improved livelihood security and resilience to climate change resilience (‘BETTER’ Project Malawi);

• 3,000 farmers benefitting from the ‘PRESERVE Kafue’ project in Zambia, with indirect benefits for 15,000 relating to improved food security, enhanced nutrition and resilience.

1. Conservation agriculture and Tiyeni Malawi

Our research and consultancy work has developed strategy and built operational capacity within Tiyeni as well as having direct impacts on farmers’ livelihoods ( Reference 6; Source J):

• DBF integrated and promoted widely as a catchment measure within FLA, with subsequent benefits for crop diversification, innovation, new networking potential, sustainability and resilience through self-mobilisation of farming communities;

• Contribution to improved food security, nutrition and livelihood resilience for 15,000+ farmers;

• Facilitating improved networking, collaboration and funding streams for Tiyeni thereby increasing the number of beneficiaries.

1. Impacts of wetlands research in Ethiopia

Our research has directly informed the strategic direction and implementation activities of EWNRA ( Reference 5, Source H):

• EWNRA has implemented 50+ development projects delivering food and water security for 500,000+ beneficiaries. By 2019 EWNRA had an annual turnover of more than $1 million, and has successfully driven change in conservation, development and wetland policies at the national level;

• Dixon, EWNRA and WA contributed to the Ethiopian Government’s Wetlands Proclamation ( Source I) designed to shape wetlands policy for the coming decades, and ensuring Ethiopia attains accession to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.