A team of scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), WorldFish and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) on 4-5 December 2012 met to set out plans for the program’s ‘targeting and environment component’. This was the first meeting of  this team and it aimed to finalize a log frame and agree on a clear set of activities, deliverables, and milestones as well as assign responsibilities to the team members.

Targeting
To get a clear and joint understanding on the overall expectations of the component, participants described what targeting as a research field is and discussed the aim of the targeting component in the Livestock and Fish CGIAR Research Program.

Targeting is a process that is driven by activities such as site characterization, data collection and impact assessment.  It involves the use of tools such as spatial modeling and future scenarios and working with partners to create intelligence that can be used to plan context-specific interventions. It aims to provide evidence to inform and enable those conducting research to make informed choices about what to do where.

With its obvious important role of informing research, the targeting component was noted as an area that ought to work extra closely with the other program components, namely, feeds, genetics, animal health, value chain development and gender and learning. It should be able to ensure that program staff, partners and decision makers select the most promising value chains and sites to focus their efforts and investments for significant impact and wider scaling out.

From targeting to targeting sustainable interventions
One of the key outcomes of the two days planning meeting was an agreement by the team to re-name the component ‘targeting sustainable interventions’ from ‘targeting and environment’. The new name was seen to better describe what the component is about. The 5 key outcomes that would form the basis of the component’s activities are:

• Identification of promising value chains
• Using integrated models to project commodities’ supply and demand as well as associated livelihood, environmental and nutritional outcomes
• Ex-ante impact assessment of best-bet interventions
• Identification of a set of indicators at project and value chain level
• Development of approaches, tools and processes for targeting sustainable interventions

Among the success factors defined by the program leadership is ‘building effective delivery teams.’ From this planning meeting, the team was able to identify key people from the various centers who would steer specific activities of the component, jointly agree on the set of work plans, and achieve clarity of the research activities ahead of them.

This component is led by An Notenbaert at ILRI.

Download the targeting strategy from the original proposal.