Description/achievement of initiative
The partners are in a jointly- developed, resourced and managed, solutions-driven, global academia consortium whose mandate includes domestic resource mobilization, knowledge sharing and management and cross-institutional resource sharing and technology transfers; it also defines each consortium members and their roles expectations. The work in the food, energy and water nexus, its social contribution to health and capacity for impact in addressing development problems - primarily reducing hunger and extreme poverty in a sustainable manner - are aligned with institutional goals of the participant institutions.
Implementation methodologies
WP1 (Preparation Stage – 6 months) - aimed at analyzing the institutional and national contexts for change in LMIC through transnational collaboration in research and analysis, benchmarking. Activities here will include the formation of thematic working; development of guidance and benchmarking tools for: a) national innovation system analysis; b) institutional self-assessment; development of national innovation systems assessment reports for LMICs; development of institutional capacity assessment reports for each LMIC institution.
WP2 (Development – 6 months) - aimed at planning and generating support for Innovation database at LMIC HEIs in support of innovations at the local level through external stakeholder consultation (both ad hoc and creation of permanent channels); transnational peer learning, collaboration and problem solving (US-LMIC & LMIC-LMIC); sustainability and feasibility analysis.
WP3 (Development – 2 years) - this work package will include requirement specification, system design, development/coding, testing, implementation, training and review. It is aimed at the creation and pilot implementation of Innovation portal. Develop database for the innovations and researches which will be categorized by the FEW, area or region, institution, country e.t.c. We will also development of feasibility and sustainability assessments for the establishment of Innovation database.
WP4 (Quality plan – 3 years) - Quality improvement measures will be agreed within steering committee and implemented regularly in case of divergence between planned and actual quality. Expenditures for quality improvement are borne by the partners responsible for the divergence.
WP5 (Dissemination – 3 years) - Dissemination and exploitation will be coordinated and managed by the steering committee. Dissemination will be embedded in all WPs. Partners will present key project activities to internal target groups through: a) internal publication (HEI website and social media); b) email distribution of Information; c) regularly informal communication. External primary target groups in LMIC will include senior management in the public and private sector; academe-based faculty, staff, and students; research institutions; small and medium sized enterprises, entrepreneurs, industrial associations; grassroots innovators, community leaders; public institutions responsible for higher education, research, innovation and sustainable development; non-profit organizations; donors; relevant media. We will also target wider audiences including US academic communities - reached through wider dissemination (as above). The local communities will be engaged in a two-way information exchanges through planned outreach activities.
Arrangements for Capacity-Building and Technology Transfer
The proposed FEW NEXUS Network affirms an innovative understanding of research, development and innovation as an endeavor involving a variety of stakeholders in addition to enterprises and government: non-governmental organizations, local communities, and business community. The capacity building (CB) approach will be aligned with the specific challenges and priorities of the innovation system context in LMICs: importance of the citizen sector, the informal sector and grassroots knowledge, continuing significance of agriculture and low-tech sectors, focus on equality and poverty, etc. US partners are tasked with building the knowledge and good practices base and providing continuous consultation, while LMIC institutions are tasked with planning and implementing tailor-made innovation support structures and policies, thus ensuring sensitivity not just to national and local contexts but also to institutional development plans and existing coalitions and interests within local institutions.
We will pay attention to grassroots innovation up-scaling and inclusive innovation, which are vital for economies in LMIC yet they remain under-researched and under-promoted, especially within the HE sector. The attempt to change this is the main innovating element of FEW NEXUS Network. FEW NEXUS Network activities are geared toward integrating LMIC institution's innovation capacities, with a focus on innovation and research findings. Data will be captured on innovation in FEW covering product, process and services. The FEW NEXUS Network encourages initiative and ownership on the part of LMIC institutions, while Penn State University will provide leadership and technical support and promote knowledge and innovation management tools.
Coordination mechanisms/governance structure
Since 2015, consortium members have taken a co-create approach, with round tables, focused discussion groups, fora and remote consultations with: Government ministries, county governments, development partners and other key contributors.
Penn state University is committed to working collaboratively with key stakeholders in the public and private sector as well as development partners from sectors within which the FEW NEXUS-related challenges are nested. The FEW Nexus Initiative is being developed with a long-term, transformational view of building national and sub-national capacity, enhanced production of Food, Energy and Water and forge new, as well as strengthen existing partnerships. Paraclete is managing the activities on the ground through FEW NEXUS secretariat. There is an Advisory Board with representatives from all the institutions.
Partner(s)
Penn State University
The Health Sector Development Partner Forum
Paraclete Consults
IBM
University of Nairobi
The Catholic University of East Africa
Uganda Martyrs
Cavendish University of Zambia
St Augustine University of Tanzania
Makerere University
KIM University of RWanda
Catholic University of Zimbabwe
The Ministry of Energy
Kenya School of Government
Development Initiatives
Wajir County Government
Tana River County Government
The Frontier Counties Development Council
The Lake Region Economic Bloc
Progress reports
Goal 2
2.1 - By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round
2.2 - By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
2.3 - By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
2.4 - By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
2.5 - By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
2.a - Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries
2.b - Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
2.c - Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility
Goal 3
3.d - Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks
Goal 6
6.1 - By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
6.2 - By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
6.3 - By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
6.4 - By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity
6.5 - By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
6.6 - By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
6.a - By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies
6.b - Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management
Goal 7
7.1 - By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services
7.2 - By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
7.3 - By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
7.a - By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology
7.b - By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States, and land-locked developing countries, in accordance with their respective programmes of support
Goal 11
11.1 - By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums
11.2 - By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
11.3 - By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries
11.4 - Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage
11.5 - By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations
11.6 - By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
11.7 - By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities
11.a - Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning
11.b - By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels
11.c - Support least developed countries, including through financial and technical assistance, in building sustainable and resilient buildings utilizing local materials
Goal 17
17.1 - Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection
17.2 - Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries
17.3 - Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
17.4 - Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress
17.5 - Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries
17.6 - Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism
17.7 - Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed
17.8 - Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology
17.9 - Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation
17.10 - Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda
17.11 - Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020
17.12 - Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access
17.13 - Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence
17.14 - Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
17.15 - Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development
Multi-stakeholder partnerships
17.16 - Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
17.17 - Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
Data, monitoring and accountability
17.18 - By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts
17.19 - By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries
December/ 2019
