eBrain Forum of Zambia

The consultative  strategic planning workshop is a key step in launching the Research Into Use Program in Zambia. At the workshop key stakeholders in the agricultural and rural livelihoods sectors in Zambia will collectively define and shape the RIU strategy for Zambia. This workshop builds on an earlier consultation with several stakeholders and whose views will form the genesis of this national workshop.

The Research Into Use Programme, RIU, was commissioned in 2006 by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the Government of the United Kingdom. It follows ten programmes that were funded under DFID’s Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) that ran between 1995 and 2006. These programmes addressed the needs of people dependent on agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries for their livelihood. Whilst they generated a range of high profile success stories, the full impact potential of many of their outputs has yet to be realised. Hence, the two-fold purpose of the RIU is “to maximise the poverty-reducing impact of the RNRRS and other research, and by so doing, to increase understanding of how the promotion and widespread use of research can contribute to poverty reduction and economic growth”.

In order to achieve its purpose, RIU in Zambia will apply an innovation systems approaches to use research-based knowledge to achieve a poverty-reducing impact. It will learn the lessons from these activities and communicate these lessons to others. In Zambia emphasis will in particular be given to enhancing demand for research outputs.