An overview of achievements and lessons learned in establishing the Thrive Blog.

1. 3 years of impact and lessons

2. Basics of Blog
 Created 2012
 Why
Water Land and Ecosystem
Vision:
A world in which agriculture thrives
within vibrant ecosystems, where
communities have higher incomes,
improved food security and the ability
to continuously improve their lives
Agriculture and Ecosystems
Blog Milestones:
• Created 2012
• Renamed Thrive 2015

3. Big Stats 2012 - 2015
 Overview:
• 280,000 pageviews
• 369 blog posts
• 723 comments on the blog
• >1,000 newsletter subscribers
 Connections:
• 174 authors
- From 76 Organizations
– 12 CGIAR centers
– 64 non-CGIAR organizations
 Social Media Referrals
• 10% of new blog visitors referred
by social media

4. Lessons/Accomplishments
 Process of engaging researchers
• Adaptive submissions
• Open dialogue
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Downloads
Before
680
After

5. Lessons/Accomplishments
 Ideas repository
• Simon Cook (2012): Intensification, Benefit Sharing, Politics
• Andrew Noble (2013): Resource efficiency, Restore degraded lands,
Reduce risk/uncertainty
• Johan Rockstrom (2015): Agricultural production, sustainability and
resilience
 On board:
• New York Times
• Devex
• Eco-modernists
• Fred Pearce
The ecosystem service community of practice finds
Thrive to be a gem and increasing the “water
cooler” of the larger community of practice. They
find it fresh, informative, dynamic, and well
presented.
- Fabrice DeClerck, Bioversity

6. Lessons/Accomplishments
 Furthering the discourse
• Blog Months
• Big Questions
 LinkedIn Discussions

7. Lessons: Blog v Website
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the
author of each post. They do not represent the opinions of the CGIAR
Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) or of the
International Water Management Institute (IWMI) or any associated
partners. This is an open space for constructive scientific discussion.
If you disagree with the opinions or information displayed, please
leave a comment or write to the editor: wle(at)cgiar.org.
Opinion Evidence
Multi-
Media

8. Challenges
 Who is the author? Who has the final edit?
• Communicator or Researcher
 Political cases
• Mekong
 Conflicting opinions
• Water Funds
• Integrated Water Management
 Translation
 National/Local participation

9. Recipe for Success
 Coalition of the willing
• Face to face engagement
 Encourage critical discussions
• Make sure the disclaimer is prominent and well-known
 Speak the research language
• Gather evidence, make graphs
 Gain trust
• Makes constructive editing a lot easier
 Active promotion
• Organize, attention to detail, deliver
Don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness
- Michael Victor

10. Thrive Ways Forward

11. Plans for 2016
 Continue to update/revise website – gain back features.
 Podcast – on ad hoc basis/less proactive due to budgets
 Explore further funding and partnerships
 Potential thematic areas for 2016
• WLE specific
- WLE Phase 2 proposal discussion opportunities?
- Synthesis of WLE research around its big question Can we reduce
ecosystem degradation from agriculture while maintaining agricultural
productivity. Experiences and lessons from Phase 1?
• What do impacts of Anthropocene have on sustainable
intensification?
• Rural-urban myths – where does food come from?
• Youth in agriculture

12. Plans for Phase 2
 Continue to use the blog as an open space for editorial, opinion and
discussion around core areas in Agri-food systems and sustainable
intensification (separate from WLE website)
 Would like to see how we can use as shared space given resource
constraints
• Use by other programs for advancing/discussion agenda
• Use by other partners for advancing their agenda
• How does it fit into new plans for CGIAR platform “flourish”
 Costing – needs editor/manager – is there potential for cross
funding.

13. Areas to discuss for future
 What scope is there for further improvements to the blog
(content and reaching out)?
 How would partners like to get involved more actively –
contributions/thematic months/podcasts/governance management
 Focus: continue to focus on editorial, opinion and debate or
news/features
• What themes/issues are others interested to support get involved in?
 Budget/costing: are there opportunities for cost sharing and
building in Phase 2 proposals – are there other cross CRP
platforms that can we can also use?