Deployment of Living Lab Approaches in Africa for Sustainable Agriculture
TIME
14:00 – 15:30
TRACKS
TRACK 3: Living Labs for Inclusive Soci(et)al Engagement;
TRACK 5: Living Labs Operations, Methods, Tools, and Impact.
ORGANISER
PrAEctiCe, Merchalene Smith
DESCRIPTION
The CANALLS, CIRAWA, NATAE and PrAEctiCe, cluster Horizon Europe projects, are working towards creating solutions that promote agroecology transition pathways across Africa. Each is setting up different Living Labs in different (rural) agroecosystems in Africa, fostering co-creation and multi-stakeholder and community engagement. This workshop explores the opportunities and specific challenges of implementing the Living Labs methodology in emerging countries and particularly vulnerable communities. The four projects will co-organise this workshop to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences among established and upcoming sustainable food systems in Living Labs throughout Africa and other emerging countries.
PrAEctiCe aims to facilitate the agroecological transition of farmers in East Africa by providing them with a novel Decision Support Tool (DST) that features an agroecology indicator set. The DST is designed to empower farmers to make informed decisions that enhance their agroecological practices. To validate the effectiveness of this tool, PrAEctiCe has established three demonstration pilots (living labs) in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The data generated from these pilots will be used to validate the DST.
NATAE employs a transdisciplinary Living Lab approach to identify, test, and scale-tailored agroecological practice combinations with local stakeholders in six Living Labs that reflect the diversity of agroecological zones in North Africa. Farmers and farm-scale agroecological practices are the starting point of NATAE Living Labs, which operate at the community level to enable dialogues and activities between key stakeholders necessary for an agroecological transition.
CIRAWA, using four key agroecological approaches, the project aims to demonstrate how working with nature can enhance ecosystem health and biodiversity while improving local livelihoods and climate resilience.
CANALLS: aims to drive agroecological transitions in the humid tropics of Central and Eastern Africa via multi-actor transdisciplinary Agroecology Living Labs and provide holistic agroecological solutions that meet the challenges of local food systems.
Agenda
- Introduction (10 min)
The four workshop facilitators will do a welcome and briefly introduce themselves to the project and the Living Labs they currently coordinate
- Goal and methodology (10 min)
The workshop moderator will introduce the goal of the workshop and the methodology
- Workshop exercise (50 min)
The participants will be divided into four tables, each centred on one of the four discussion starters.
These starters focus on the opportunities and challenges faced by the Living Labs, which were developed by the four projects organising the workshop.
Each table will have a facilitator to guide the discussion. The facilitators will have an A0 pre-printed poster with a quadrant representing the key activities for stakeholder engagement, including informing, consulting, involving, and collaborating. The poster will represent the key phases of a Living Lab lifecycle: planning/design, implementation (testing the solutions suggested from co-creation workshops), and evaluation. The facilitator will have a set of pre-printed cards with examples of activities that can be developed at each stage (e.g., activities developed by the four projects organising the workshop) and more blank cards for the participants to use to suggest alternative solutions based on their experience.
The participants will be free to move from one table to another at any time and to follow and contribute to the different discussions at each table.
- Presenting the work of each Table (final 20 min)
SPEAKER BIOS
Patricia Carbonell
Head REVOLVE Barcelona Office
Patricia Carbonell
Head REVOLVE Barcelona OfficeWorking on the CIRAWA project, Patricia is an experienced communicator with a solid background in multimedia storytelling, media relations, and events organisation. She is currently leading the REVOLVE Barcelona office, growing a community of journalists and researchers to improve scientific reporting and reporting skills around the Mediterranean region, and leading strategic communication for EU-funded. Research and Innovation projects and meaningful partnerships. She holds a Master’s degree in Media, Communications, and Critical Practice from the London College of Communication (2013), with a thesis on communicating climate change in the media. Before joining REVOLVE in 2017, she was a content producer and communications manager promoting sustainability in London's water & energy sectors.
Marilena Reinhard-Kolempas
PhD candidate Wageningen University
Marilena Reinhard-Kolempas
PhD candidate Wageningen UniversityAs PhD candidate at Wageningen University, she is conducting her PhD research in the frame of the EU Horizon project NATAE (North African Transition to AgroEcology). Her research aims to identify place-based and stakeholder-driven agroecological transition strategies in Northern African Living Labs and assess their effects on food system sustainability and resilience. During her Graduate studies in Organic Agriculture at the University of Kassel and her Master's studies in Sustainable International Agriculture at the universities of Kassel and Goettingen she developed a strong interdisciplinary socio-ecological systems thinking. Effective and locally adapted agroecological strategies, demand an in-depth understanding of the specific farming context and the perspectives of local actors. Thus, her thesis will work on integrating local and scientific knowledge sources and quantitative and qualitative methods, such as focus group discussions, participatory multi-criteria assessments, agronomic experiments, and bio-economic modelling. The methods used will be evaluated for their contribution to building transformational capacities among system actors in the Living Labs.
Kiki Argyropoulou
Project Manager and Head of the Dissemination and Communication Unit Q-PLAN International
Kiki Argyropoulou
Project Manager and Head of the Dissemination and Communication Unit Q-PLAN InternationalAn engineer with studies in urban and spatial planning and regional development. She has 15 years of professional experience in supporting entities of the Public and Private Sector for the planning, management, monitoring and implementation of financed and co- financed projects of cross-border/ inter-regional/ transnational cooperation as well as research and innovation in several fields, including social Sciences and humanities, culture, environment, energy, entrepreneurship and health. The domain of expertise includes management and coordination, dissemination and communication, intellectual property and other intellectual assets management, data and innovation management, and business planning. She is the Project Manager and Head of the Dissemination and Communication Unit at Q-PLAN International and holds the Communication and Exploitation Manager position for the CANALLS project.
Margherita Trestini
Co-Founder and General Manager Apodissi
Margherita Trestini
Co-Founder and General Manager ApodissiAn entrepreneur with 30 years of experience, including a decade dedicated to Research and Innovation projects funded by the European Commission. As the Co-Founder and General Manager of Apodissi, operating in Lagos, Nigeria, Windhoek, Namibia, and Dubai, UAE, Margherita excels in business development, start-ups, innovation, and go-to-market strategies across various industries, including FMCG, telecommunications, engineering, international sports events, and luxury brands. With a passion for EU-Africa collaboration, Margherita has significantly contributed to various high-impact projects. She has been instrumental in initiatives like the Policy and Regulation. Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) and Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and ERASMUS+ projects, including DIGILOGIC, PrAEctiCe, SMART STEP, and GreenVETAfrica. Her roles have encompassed project management, scientific dissemination, community engagement, and capacity building, ensuring successful outcomes and fostering innovation ecosystems. She has successfully led initiatives to foster EU-Africa Research and Innovation collaboration, supporting the European Union Delegation in the organisation of the first EU-Nigeria Research and Innovation Days and presenting at several international conferences. Margherita's work has been instrumental in shaping SME and startup growth strategies in emerging markets, particularly in Sub-Sahara Africa and the Gulf, delivering scalable program toolkits, market data, and customer insights. In her role as a national expert and principal Investigator for GIZ programmes, National Contact Point for the European Institute of Innovation & Technology and the European Innovation Council programmes in Nigeria, Margherita has focused on supporting the establishment of digital innovation hubs and healthcare innovation assessments, contributing to the empowerment of innovators. Her global career has equipped her to navigate diverse cultural environments. Margherita holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Turin University. She leads the Disssemination & Communication activities of PrAEctiCe.