pct1

=**Program coordination team m****eeting #1**= toc
 * 25 January 2013 **
 * Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana **


 * Objectives**
 * Review work plans and logical framework, M&E and comms work plans
 * Discuss and agree on learning event and external science advice mechanisms
 * Ensure coordination of the program over the three projects


 * Action points (summary)**:
 * **ACTION **: P. Thorne to meet with some people in Addis to build the first draft of the ‘rules of engagement’ with farms-household;
 * **ACTION **: Revisit the program logic in one year + organize a learning event around this.
 * **ACTION **: Peter and Irmgard to develop the regional logframe (with their team) and feed it back to the Malawi meeting
 * **ACTION **: IITA will look into this office space issue .
 * **ACTION **: IITA and ILRI to contact responsible folks in IITA project, ATA, Humidtropics team to source additional funding .
 * **ACTION **: Irmgard and Mateete to look into allocation of contingency funds for M&E.
 * **ACTION **: Jerry to connect comms team with branding team at USAID <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">.
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**ACTION**: Comms team to provide quarterly stat reports <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">.
 * <span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**ACTION**: Peter B, Peter T and Irmgard to track ideas about project contributions to program comms.
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">: Ewen and Tracy to work together on program brochure <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">.
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">: Jerry, Irmgard and Peter to organize the Malawi meeting
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">: Peter T. to spark the discussion again on the program document (sharing his comments on the comments) and Ken/Irmgard to share factual omissions and typos with Peter B and Ewen and with this PCT group
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">: Shortly after the March Malawi meeting there will be a virtual PCT meeting to discuss the planning of this learning meeting further and to take stock of planned events.
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">: All teams to review by 28 Feb the possible meetings to plan (stakeholder, review, planning, steering committee meetings) and share it with us - Ewen/Peter to identify possible overlaps and clashes.
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">: Jerry / Peter B to collect information about the budget required <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">.
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">: Tracy to report on discussion about FtF indicators for Africa RISING - and all of us in the project to share possible questions to Tracy for that discussion <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">.
 * **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">ACTION **<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">: Carlo, Peter and Irmgard to decide about the custom indicators

**Agenda**
1. Notes from last PCT meeting in July (Ewen)

2. Regional project 2013 workplans and logframes, brief updates and major milestones (Irmgard and Peter T. to provide)

3. M&E workplan 2013 and status of recruitment of regional M&E specialists (Carlo)

4. Comms workplan 2013, Program Public Awareness/promotional materials: what is available; what do we need and when (Ewen)

5. External science advice mechanism: next steps (Irmgard)

6. Program Framework Document: final version needed as reference document for project implementers and potential supporters; also as basis for project documents (Ewen)

7. Program wide activities until September 2013: e.g. cross Project learning event; peer visits of national scientists; field trip of photo journalist; M&E meetings, etc./dates, venues, content, participants (Ewen)

8. FtF indicators (Irmgard/Jerry)

9. Dates of next PCT meetings

10. AOB

Synopsis & background reading
Below also the main points we discussed/decided:
 * 1. Notes from last PCT meeting in July (Ewen)**

We went over the proposed management structure document that Elizabeth sent around - see attached with a few track changes from our conversations. [THIS WAS SUBSREQUENTLY MUCH CHANGED AND INCORPORATED IN THE PROGRAM DOCUMENT]

To ensure that we have some independent review and oversight of the science, it was suggested to convert the current ad hoc research frameworks task force (after it completes its tasks) into a more permanent 'science advisory group' with members perhaps comprising:

maggie gill bruno gerard dave harris bernard van lauwe some from a crsp usaid gender person

+ chief scientists (3) + Gerry action elizabeth - to come up with a tor and contact them; also adapting the management structure document. [THIS WAS NOT AGREED, IT IS ON THE PCT AGENDA FOR THE COMING MONTHS TO DECIDE HOW BEST TO BRING IN THIS EXTERNAL ADVICE]

PCT chair: We agreed that Ken should be the PCTchair (jul 2012-sep 2013); Iain vice chair; then a rotation

Next PCT meeting to be linked to the M&E meeting if possible. Stan - please send through new dates as soon as they are confirmed.

__West Africa__ A Review and Planning Workshop for the West African project was held at Tamale in October 2012. It was agreed to form writing teams to develop concept notes (CNs) on key research themes and/or value chains. The CNs are to guide research and development activities or work-plans for the rest of the project period, 2013-2016. Multi-disciplinary teams were formed in November to draft CNs on: The CNs were reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team a one-day work-shop in Accra on 12 December, 2012 to ensure integration. Regional work-plans with milestones and indicators for 2013 have been developed based on the CNs. A regional proposal with logical frame-work and milestones is being drafted.
 * 2. Regional project 2013 workplans and logframes, brief updates and major milestones (Irmgard and Peter T. to provide)**
 * Intensive, profitable and sustainable maize-legume, sorghum/millet-legume, rice and vegetable –based cropping systems
 * Ruminant (cattle, sheep and goats) production
 * Rural poultry and pig farming
 * Water and soil management
 * Post-harvest processing and market linkages
 * Improving household nutrition

__East Africa__ See.

__Ethiopian Highlands__ Over the period September 2012 - January 2013, Africa RISING in the Ethiopian Highlands has been progressing towards implementation:
 * September 2012. A project planning meeting with national and CGIAR partners agreed the basic mode of operation of the project and the means by which partners could contribute equitably to its implementation on the ground. The main mechanism for this would be a "Partner Research Forum" (PRF), meeting on an ad hoc basis, at which all partners could represent their views about implementation / research priorities and plans.


 * October 2012. The project implementation plan, developed by the project coordinator (based on the programme research framework) was discussed and agreed by the PRF. A sub group of the PRF met to discuss options for site selection based on the report provided by IFPRI's consultant, Chris Legg. Target woredas for Tigray, SNNPR and Oromia were identified and a re-run of the data was requested of Chris so that a target woreda could also be identified for Amhara.


 * November - December 2012. Site selection visits were made to each target woredas by the project coordinator and partners from ILRI, CIP, ICRAF and ICARDA. Two intervention kebeles were selected in each of the target woredas, differentiated in terms of access to market (viewed as a key driver of intensification). For each region (zone /woreda), key partners for implementation (in the regional research organisations and agriculture bureaux) were also visited and recruited to the project.


 * Moving forward. An implementation meeting (for all project partners) is scheduled for 13 - 14 February 2013. This meeting will be used to finalise the detail of the research as outlined in the current drafts of the Research Component documents and to assign roles and responsibilities. The field research related to research components 1 - 3 / 4 will start early March, 2013.

The 2013 workplan and timeline of M&E activities strictly depend on the planned AR baseline evaluation surveys (ARBES) in each mega-site, and on IFPRI current staff recruitment. Activities on the ARBES have been initiated in Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi. For Mali and Ethiopia dialogue is still ongoing, and the Ghana meeting will be an opportunity for discussion among lead agencies, IFPRI, and partners on timeline, responsibilities, and common actions. Activities have begun on: The timeline of ARBES is structured this way:
 * 3. M&E workplan 2013 and status of recruitment of regional M&E specialists (Carlo)**
 * Site re-selection analysis for Northern Ghana, Southern Mali (led by ICRISAT), Malawi, and Tanzania (in collaboration with AVRDC and AfricaRice).
 * Instrument design for Northern Ghana, discussion with survey companies, and identification and contact of possible candidates as regional M&E officer based in Tamale, Northern Ghana
 * Instrument design for Tanzania, discussion with survey companies, and agreement on contract and conditions of the regional M&E officer based in Arusha, Tanzania
 * Hiring of the global M&E officer, who will be full-time responsible of the M&E activities for all mega-sites
 * Partnerships with ACDI-VOCA and FAO-EPIC. Discussions around common collaboration on household survey data collection are ongoing.
 * Northern Ghana: survey fieldwork to begin at the end of February/beginning of March. One-month data collection ending in four weeks; data cleaned and analysis ready on June.
 * Mali: pending. Discussion with ICRISAT ongoing.
 * Tanzania: survey fieldwork to begin at the end of May/beginning of June. One-month data collection ending in four weeks; data cleaned and analysis ready on September.

This item is about finding out what has happened, what is planned, where there might be some needs to address. What has happened so far: What remains to be done:
 * 4. Comms workplan 2013, Program Public Awareness/promotional materials: what is available; what do we need and when (Ewen)**
 * We have set up various communication tools
 * We have collected various stories (71 posts - 11,300 views so far), documents (128 on CG Space), pictures (130 photos) and presentations (36 presentations, 3500 views).
 * We have recruited staff (and are currently in the process of recruiting an ET comms officer to complete the team)
 * We have trained/supported the IITA comms staff on AR program comms channels and some processes
 * We have facilitated 7 program events and some others at project level
 * We have developed templates for presentations and documents
 * Clarifying roles and responsibilities across the comms teams
 * Further training / coaching on comms tools
 * Coordinating comms among the 3 regions and in alignment with the work plans
 * Developing a program brochure/flyer. Developing it (and other materials?) in French
 * Developing an 'Africa RISING history' PPT and an AR standard PPT
 * Collecting further stories, pictures, presentations, videos, interviews, packaging them for USAID reporting and other dissemination purposes
 * AOB?

See.
 * 5. External science advice mechanism: next steps (Irmgard)**

The program framework is finalized for now. How to keep it up-to-date over time? What process? Who to take care of this?
 * 6. Program Framework Document: final version needed as reference document for project implementers and potential supporters; also as basis for project documents (Ewen)**

We have a number of activities to plan in 2013. Each of these needs to be planned and considered around specific lenses: This discussion item is all about agreeing on a good calendar of events that make sense, that balance out the regional work and help all program staff to do their work and contribute to a larger objective.
 * 7. Program wide activities until September 2013: e.g. cross Program learning event; peer visits of national scientists; field trip of photo journalist; M&E meetings, etc./dates, venues, content, participants (Ewen)**
 * A project learning event which brings together the three regional components and aims at understanding the program from a global perspective, make sense for all project staff and advance thinking around theoretical and/or practical issues for how the program is implemented. Who / What / When?
 * An M&E meeting: What / Who / When / Where? Opportunities to connect with other events?
 * A peer visit of national scientists to share experiences and thinking around the project activities: Where, when, to do what, inviting whom? How to align this (somewhat) with important cross-project learning event and questions?
 * A field trip of a photo journalist: When? Where ? About what? Next year where/when?


 * 8. FtF indicators (Irmgard/Jerry)** - List of indicators in [[file:Feed the Future indicators 3.docx|this document]].

USAID provided Africa RISING with nine (9) indicators from a longer list of Fed the Future indicators (see attached document). We had to provide numeric targets and the disaggregation for year 1 activities by mid August. Implementing partners in WA and ESA in addition to saying that it was too early to report achievements, they found it very difficult to use these indicators. They were considered not appropriate for research activities. Targets that were provided were therefore not always realistic. Some partners ignored the request. When we had to report to USAID the real achieved numbers and the disaggregation in October partners again expressed their discomfort with the indicators. There were big discrepancies between targets and actual achievements which could then be not always explained satisfactorily. During the research framework workshop in July, Stan Wood (IFPRI) mentioned that he was working with USAID on indicators specifically for Africa RISING. At the M&E workshop in September in Addis, we also discussed indicators but did not finalize the discussion. Therefore, in October, when targets for years 2013 and 2014 were requested by USAID we found ourselves in the same situation as before with partners not knowing how to handle the 9 indicators. The purpose of this agenda item is to learn whether there are revised and more research related indicators available for reporting next October.


 * Participants**

Ken Iain Peter T Irmgard Carlo Jerry Ewen (secretary)

**Notes**
Looking back at the program coordination committee mandate:


 * Q: Why does this committee not provide supervision?
 * A: This committee leaves detailed decisions and supervision to project teams and steering committees in the region.
 * Comment (C): we might have to focus more on setting standards and guidelines. The Ethics section in the program document is good. It might be good to review this.
 * **ACTION**: P. Thorne to meet with some people in Addis to build the first draft of the ‘rules of engagement’ with farms-household.

**1. Notes from last PCT meeting in July**
No particular information or question about it.

**2. Regional project 2013 workplans and logframes, brief updates and major milestones**
__East & Southern Africa__: The planning exercise in October didn't get very far. The work for this season until May focuses on Research Output 1. We didn't have baseline surveys before. Integration is not very prominent in the proposals. No livestock activity is possible for this year in Kilombero and in Kongwa/Kiteto. We are not yet at the stage of achieving real systems research ongoing. Mateete needs more information on RO1 before he can plan more integrated research. There is as yet no regional project document or logframe.
 * Q: Is it possible to manage all ILRI activities under one contract?
 * A: The contract went out to ILRI for Babati work but not here yet. We shouldn't hold things up either if such contracts are not dealt with together.
 * In the rice-vegetable areas there is no prominent livestock component, but in the future it might be that the baseline invites us to expand on livestock work or to not work on it at all.
 * C: Parts of the testing are about impact assessment on the whole-farm system. What are the impacts on the system in terms of labour etc.?

__West Africa__: There was a similar approach in West Africa (to ESA). There are 3 dominant systems in the region: Maize, sorghum and rice. We asked Africa Rice to prepare the work plan for the rice-based systems, ICRISAT for sorghum-millet and IITA for maize-based systems. Asamoah brought people together to address the four research outputs that are in the program document. We are not satisfied yet with the work planned in West Africa. We don't really see farming system research, rather classical agronomic research with some degree of interaction but not enough interaction. The steering committee asked to develop region-specific hypotheses and to look at activities testing these hypotheses. The way work plans are formulated do not seem to address these hypotheses which will be drafted over the next 3 days and the work plans will be reviewed in the next 2 weeks. There is more time in West Africa (rains start in May) but e.g. R4D platforms and RO1 activities need to start before - we need baseline data. Draft work plans came in late (until last week).
 * It's excellent to have had these meetings now to alert stakeholders on the plans.
 * Q: What is the situation in Mali?
 * A: We work in the Sikasso region in Southern Mali, which is calm. In Bamako there is police presence but life goes on. ICRISAT and other centres were requested not to leave Bamako by road. AVRDC, ILRI etc. left after the coup last year, which brought delays in implementation. There is a capacity issue in Mali which is not easily boosted by other people coming from outside. ICRISAT etc. cannot work with NARS. In Ghana we have a similar issue, a lot of partners are not present in the country (ILRI, AVRDC etc.) which means they sub-contract a lot to national partners. If a CG partner subcontracts work to a national partner that IITA works with it should be lumped together in the contract with the national partner.
 * This begs the question of who is contractually responsible/accountable. --> This kind of issue happened in year 1 and IITA asked to formally report to IITA and to share that with ICRISAT too.

__Ethiopian Highlands__: We have engaged strongly with the regional authorities. 2-3 meetings with partners since the planning meeting in Sept. 2012. The implementation plan was developed out of that and focuses on 5 research components: household level system analysis and characterization, community engagement and institutions (uptake pathways for exogenous research), Markets / value chains and multi-stakeholder platforms, on-farm action research, scaling. We have started to flesh out the first 3 components and the bulk of the research is in component 4. Community engagement etc. is very important because it relates to existing practices in communities and how to transfer them. There are 4 regions involved based on Chris's characterization. We visited these areas to identify 2 kebeles in each woreda. Market access was a determinant factor in the choice of these kebeles. We have 8 sites where initial engagement will take place. In October-November we will take stock of what has worked or not and expand. I hope we will end up with 16 to 24 villages. In March we should start with RO 1. We want to do some work with on-farm intervention research, not just diagnostic activities. But we'll have to be pragmatic with some outputs from early wins this year. Next year we can bring it all together and do some more speculative research. I doubt we will have good value chain information when we start.
 * Q: Are you referring to R4D platforms linking research to development? Seeds, farmers etc. all together?
 * A: The R4D platforms would be an output of these research components.
 * Q: Are you planning to formulate these specific research hypotheses for Ethiopia?
 * A: There will be some hypotheses floating around e.g. getting better adoption rates if we introduce some technologies.

__Integrated overview across the regions__ (milestones, logframes etc.) Nobody has a project logframe for now. We could write some milestones easily: we'll have the research activities by mid Feb and implementation starting in mid March. The reports have proven very useful for the USAID missions. We might use a common template. The research framework is a living document and each region needs to refer to it and follow it. We have 4 research outputs. Should we try to have those 4 in our projects? We should come back, in a year's time, to the program logic and what we have learned + suggest ways to update the program document. **ACTION**: Revisit the program logic in one year + organize a learning event around this.
 * Logframes are important and useful as a monitoring tool, provided that they are not followed rigidly.
 * We want each project to have a logframe.
 * If we can use the program document as a guide with hypotheses for research, adoption, tradeoffs etc. we can make some progress.
 * It might be good to stall the revision of the program document for now.
 * It's important that each project informs the research hypotheses - is our work plan addressing these?
 * Hypotheses in the current document may not be suitable. The program document itself is also a living document.
 * ACTION ** : Peter and Irmgard to develop the regional logframe (with their team) and feed it back to the Malawi meeting

Reading through work plans, there are fundamental differences for the vision we have: we have gone through many meetings and some people were not in the original discussions. Each research team has certain skill limitations and we are diverging on points of weaknesses. We have to encourage cross-project learning to work together, compensate for each team's weaknesses and further develop our collective vision. It seems some plans are integrated in a more traditional research design way which leaves out the farming systems vision. The scale at which we work reveals stark differences. ESA team is meeting in early March - that might be an opportunity to bring people from this meeting there to reveal differences and align, co-learn among peers... We have not been learning sufficiently among ourselves.
 * From a meeting last night, some ideas emerged for ways forward**:

**3. M&E workplan 2013 and status of recruitment of regional M&E specialists**
M&E plan linked to RO1 and to baseline surveys and staff recruitment. Beliyou will be working at program level and partly in Ethiopia - in relation with another arrangement to cover all needs in that region. Naomie Sakana will be working in ESA and will take care of the baseline survey. In West Africa, we issued a letter for an officer in Tamale but he rejected that offer. We are in contact with another good candidate who is in Malawi. She could be available in mid-February. **ACTION**: IITA will look into this office space issue. There was some confusion re: baseline surveys for RO1. Remaining issues: focus farmer group discussions and generally qualitative baseline. For Northern Ghana, we are in contact with a survey firm and should be able to carry it out in March. For Mali, there might be an issue as IFPRI staff are not authorized to travel to Mali. We might transfer funds to ICRISAT to carry it out. For Ethiopia, we are thinking of partnering with ATA and conducting 2 different visits in the project kebeles post-planting (May) and post-harvest (Sept-Oct) but this has cost implications. IFPRI don't have funds to cover 5 countries so we need to prioritize baseline data activities. Carlo going to Tanzania next week to discuss survey instruments. The survey might be carried out in May-June and the report would be available in September. In N. Ghana we are looking at June. IITA is working on a baseline survey for a maize project in N. Ghana. Perhaps they can work together with IFPRI on this baseline? For Ethiopia, we could also find some funds from the Humidtropics program. **ACTION**: IITA and ILRI to contact responsible folks in IITA project, ATA, Humidtropics team to source additional funding. The comms team should work with the M&E team on the project - this could be a great way to ensure we cross-fertilize activities around the project.
 * Q: Is there office space?
 * A: SARI has not released promised office space so we don't know yet where that person could be based. That person should be based in Tamale.
 * Comment: For Tanzania, getting the results in September might be too late. We need preliminary information as early as possible.
 * Q: Can you specify on paper what's the status of M&E officers etc.?
 * A: Yes
 * Q: The costs associated with required activities - is it possible to borrow funds from this year to the next?
 * A: Perhaps we can borrow from each other's funding (e.g. IITA-IFPRI). For M&E this year is really important and we hope that the baseline survey can really inform research activities beyond the evaluation purposes.
 * Q: Could you start the surveys in e.g. March?
 * A: We don't have enough time and staff capacities.
 * But the danger is that partners carry out their own baseline work --> but this is different to what IFPRI is looking into
 * Q: Is there a way out of the financial shortfall issue?
 * A: In Malawi we may share costs with ?? - ditto with ATA in Ethiopia. We can 'shop' for funds if the instruments are interesting.
 * ACTION ** : Irmgard and Mateete to look into allocation of contingency funds for M&E.
 * Q: Where are you on the overall design of the impact assessment study?
 * A: We have put together a proposal in West Africa to develop power calculations etc. We are trying to be consistent with the research design. We underwent a thorough selection process for action/control sites.
 * Q: Survey design: are you discussing between research and your team about the physical instruments used etc.?
 * A: In Ethiopia we will be present in the 13-14 Feb workshop. We would like to have a good basis for discussion, we want to have the approval from partners for this.
 * Q: How do we link quantitative IA and knowledge management/learning components of the program?
 * A: This is crucial. We will share all we have re: specific needs. The IA final report will not be released until end of the project. Earlier on, if there's any data need we'll share it. There are regular phone calls.

**4. Comms workplan 2013, Program Public Awareness/promotional materials: what is available; what do we need and when**
**ACTION**: Jerry to connect comms team with branding team at USAID. Tracy started working on the program document - **ACTION**: Ewen and Tracy to work together on this.
 * It would be good to connect the regional comms team with the branding team at USAID. New guidelines have been issued that could inform us.
 * Q: Any plans for improving the website?
 * A: Not to my knowledge but ILRI is working on layouts and website design which might inform the redesign of the overall website.
 * C: Program document to be updated - a few items were missed.
 * Q: Are you recording those stats?
 * A: Yes. ACTION: Comms team to provide quarterly stat reports.
 * Q: I have difficulties with CG Space and searching documents. It might refrain some people from using it.
 * A: We might want to develop a PPT with screenshots to illustrate how to use it.
 * Q: We had agreed that project contributions to comms would be channelled directly to ILRI - what are those contributions for ESA and WA?
 * A: Not clear - to be found again via Eric Witte by Jerry.
 * C: The site does not show up on the search engine looking for 'Africa RISING' - this could be improved with linking to USAID.
 * C: CIAT and ILRI need to be added to the end slide for the PPT template. **ACTION**: Ewen and Peter to sort out PPT templates.
 * Q: What about email newsletters?
 * A: The regional comms teams can develop their own newsletter but this will not be supported at program level. We are encouraging the use of RSS feed-based updates on the website. We should urge people to sign up for these alerts. Feed the Future also features some news from Africa RISING.
 * C: Data management - it will not happen without a concentrated effort, budget etc.

**5. External science advisory mechanism: next steps**
Are we continuing with the task force after finalization of the research framework? In terms of membership we might want to consider gender balance, more Southern members, having ambassadors (e.g. Jeffrey Sachs)... That team could be now more focused on overcoming challenges and be more of a co-learning team including a couple of external reps with skills we miss internally. Bringing people in from outside when we lack a collective vision might be challenging. We might want to get our stories straight first. The meeting in Malawi could be one of the meetings of this co-learning team. Bernard might join us for that. Bringing people from other CG centres could be helpful and then 1-2 external folks. Before this can be addressed again, the Malawi meeting needs to happen.

We would be looking at: the different scales of work, some of our assumptions and how we're progressing against them; a collective vision around farming system and integration; addressing capacity weaknesses; redirecting the peer-to-peer learning and learning event to this coherence pathway we are on. We might suggest that our lead scientists in each project see what's going on in each region - lead scientists' peer learning. This would help us identify what we need for the cross-project learning event. We need to bring others up-to-speed on this Malawi project. **ACTION**: Jerry, Irmgard and Peter to organize the Malawi meeting. **Probably 7-8 March.** Only after that Malawi meeting will the external science advisory committee discussion be touched upon again.
 * The 'Malawi meeting'**

**6. Program Framework Document: final version needed as reference document for project implementers and potential supporters; also as basis for project documents**
There were revisions after the meetings in Arusha and Tamale and Peter T went through them and didn't get feedback on his feedback and thought it was accepted. Some research methodologies were over-emphasized. **ACTION**: Peter T. to spark the discussion again on the program document (sharing his comments on the comments) and Ken/Irmgard to share factual omissions and typos with Peter B and Ewen and with this PCT group. Peter B / Ewen will be involved in some edits. Mali references are missing. M&E should be presented as a research output. This document will be revisited in a year from now. Comments can be collected and stored. There is a project document being developed - in accordance with the steering committee for each.

**7. Program wide activities until September 2013**
In Malawi we could look at the ILRI would like to host this program learning event in April and to combine it in September/October in M&E. Program learning event looking back on the program logic/document and hypotheses formulated. Could we combine the learning event with a review meeting? In WA there will be a review meeting + stakeholder meeting, later followed by a planning meeting + steering committee meeting. In Ethiopia there will probably be another meeting in September/October. Who would take part to the meeting? This will be also addressed in the upcoming Malawi meeting. **ACTION**: Shortly after the March Malawi meeting there will be a virtual PCT meeting to discuss the planning of this learning meeting further and to take stock of planned events. **ACTION**: All teams to review by 28 Feb the possible meetings to plan (stakeholder, review, planning, steering committee meetings) and share it with us - Ewen/Peter to identify possible overlaps and clashes. We need to get a yearly calendar to map all these events.
 * e.g. cross program learning event; peer visits of national scientists; field trip of photo journalist; M&E meetings, etc./dates, venues, content, participants**

__Photo journalist trip__: Jerry knows a freelance photographer (for a.o. National Geographic) who could make 1-2 trips / year and that would cost roughly < 10.000 USD. This would raise the profile of Africa RISING. We might also use this opportunity to document the progress of impact (an informal baseline) to document the impact of the project. This might be very useful. We might also use digital stories, participatory video, participatory radio work etc. to report on our work. **ACTION**: Jerry / Peter B to collect information about the budget required. Ghana could be visited in late September.

__Peer visits of national scientists__: This will be addressed after the Malawi meeting, together with the M&E meeting.

**8. Feed the Future indicators**
A lot of these indicators were not developed for research. Are we continuing with the current indicators or with the adapted indicators which Gary Ender and Stan Wood worked on (separately)? No one in USAID evaluating Africa RISING is likely to go through FtF indicators submitted. There is a f2f evaluation process which Tracy is going to attend. **ACTION**: Tracy to report on discussion about FtF indicators for Africa RISING - and all of us in the project to share possible questions to Tracy for that discussion. There are currently 8 FtF indicators and 9 custom ones - we might want to report against one or two that could be useful. We will do our best to report against the 8 main and formal indicators. **ACTION**: Carlo, Peter and Irmgard to decide about the custom indicators.
 * Q: Are we, in the future, going to have more appropriate indicators for Africa RISING?
 * A: You can develop your own indicators and include them in reporting - these will not be included in the formal FtF reporting. There is no mention of developing more appropriate FtF indicators. If there were they would be supplemental to the generic indicators.

**9. Dates for next PCT meetings**

 * Next meeting (1.5h): **14 March 2013**, 1630 EAT / 1430 Ghana / 1530 Ibadan / 0930 DC.
 * **13 June 2013**: 1630 EAT / 1430 Ghana / 1530 Ibadan / 0930 DC.
 * **Early October 2013**: 1630 EAT / 1430 Ghana / 1530 Ibadan / 0930 DC. Coinciding with the learning event.

**10. AOB**
Every document should have an executive summary - which can then be easily translated. ICRISAT has a comms officer that speaks / writes in French.
 * French translations**: not acceptable in French only - these should have a summary in English.