Knowledge and communication in the Livestock and
Fish Research Program: The first year
Peter Ballantyne (ILRI)
Program Planning and Management Committee
Meeting, Nairobi, 14 December 2012

Principles
• The knowledge we generate will be open and public
• We value the knowledge of our clients and partners
• We publish and communicate using multiple formats for multiple
purposes
• We support knowledge collecting, connecting and conversing
• Face‐to‐face communication is as important as other more explicit
communication channels
• Advocacy is everyone’s responsibility
• Communication inextricably linked to outcomes
• Internal communication is part of our communication strategy
• Partnerships are the key to impact
• We will innovate in the ways we share knowledge and use ICTs.

5 Areas of Intervention
Comms 4 VCD Comms tools, methodologies and approaches reinforce efforts of key actors within
the 9 target value chains to identify and address innovation needs and to access
and use appropriate technologies, institutional strategies and knowledge.
Comms for Tech The results/evidence of technology development activities are published as
international public goods and adapted/transformed as required for optimal re-use
Dev by VCD partners
Program comms Partners in the Program are supported by and using a range of tailored
communication and knowledge sharing tools, methodologies and approaches to
and learning deliver effective learning and communication within and across the Program
Comms 4 wider Targeted stakeholders beyond the Program are aware of its focus, emerging results
and insights, and they are encouraged and influenced by the evidence presented
impact to take up, as necessary adapt and put the Program’s results into use.
Data Data collected and produced by the Program components is properly documented,
archived and published to maximize its wide accessibility and re-use by others

Scope of activities
•Communicate for wider influence and impact – Reach and engage with and
influence wide audiences
•Research for impact – Translate outputs into potential research,
development and policy outcomes, get knowledge into use
•Knowledge sharing and learning – Enrich program/project learning,
interaction and exchange
•Publishing – Capture and disseminate research products and outputs
• Internal communication – Link and connect teams

local
Ambitions
VN IN TZ UG ET ML EG NI
Connecting and powering value chain
development
Facilitate
processes, Translate
Internal engagement outputs for
communication uptake Communicating
Knowledge for wider
internal sharing and Organize & influence and
external
learning across disseminate impact
the program products
Deal with data Enabling
technology
development
Gender VCD Target Health Genetics Feeds
global

Results
• Tools set up and Workflows initiated
• Repository: http://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/3112
• Web site: http://livestockfish.cgiar.org
• Workspace: http://livestock-fish.wikispaces.com
• Calendar: http://livestock-fish.wikispaces.com/calendar
• Communication space on Yammer
• Facilitating and documenting/communicating component
planning activities (http://livestock-fish.wikispaces.com/events)
• Workshop with WLE CRP on building blocks to organize
knowledge and information for CRPs
• Initial communication ‘templates’ and materials
• ILRI and WF comms collaboration started
• re-orienting from ‘center’ towards ‘program’

Numbers
Up 300%
web views 11,000
web posts 66
Weekly!
alert subscribers 176
products (program and projects) 125
wiki members 76 Evidence of
Sharing?
wiki views 17,000
wiki edits 1,139 Facilitation
meetings reported 34 & reporting
yammer posts 75
yammer members 50 Exchanging!

Working out loud!
• “bringing activities out of closed repositories
and applications [and events and processes],
and pulling them into the open increases the
likelihood of learning . . .”
- Stowe Boyd:
http://blog.podio.com/2011/08/01/worki
ng-out-loud-make-work-open-to-make-it-
better

now

Opportunities
• Walk the talk – Use the tools, work out loud!
• Data! Let’s get started.
• Country VCD … document the approaches,
the choices and the results (partners?
multimedia, engagement)
• Innovate with ICTs …
• Attribute (claim) legacy project results?
• Comms budget? Comms skills?

CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish
livestockfish.cgiar.org
CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. The CGIAR Research
Program on Livestock and Fish aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable
ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable across the developing world.