OR/17/064 Conclusions

Gill, J C, and Mankelow, J. 2017. Workshop report: earth and environmental science for sustainable development (Lusaka, September 2017). Nottingham, UK, British geological Survey, OR/17/064.

Summary

Through this workshop, and subsequent analysis, we have undertaken, understood and demonstrated the following:

• Section 2 (Workshop participants). Characterised the organisations involved in this workshop, identifying key stakeholders from academia, government, and the private sector. The workshop adopted a bottom-up approach, with those attending demonstrating a high level of enthusiasm, engaging positively, with a willingness to share their expertise and experiences. Participants developed and enhanced their own networks, with the potential for future collaborative activities.
• Section 3 (Prioritising the UN Sustainable Development Goals). Explored development priorities in eastern Africa and Zambia, and the role of Earth and environmental science in addressing these, identifying quality education, ending poverty, access to clean water and sanitation, ensuring food security, and improving health as recurring priorities. This report allows all workshop participants (including the BGS) to understand development priorities in eastern Africa and Zambia, using the SDGs as a reference tool. The approaches used to understand these priorities demonstrated an interactive pedagogy, and raised awareness of the SDGs as a global development strategy.
• Section 4 (Thematic working groups). Summarised the discussions of three working groups, exploring potential ideas relating to food security and nutrition, water and sanitation, and energy and climate change. From these groups we identified thematic projects that could support sustainable development in a Zambian context (with applications to the wider region). For example, emerging from the water and sanitation working group was the idea of developing a mobile application (app) to improve data management and transfer between stakeholders and laboratories. This approach could enhance the quality of data, and help increase understanding of the processes causing water pollution, with the ultimate aim of reducing pollution. At the end of Thematic working groups we also highlight some crosscutting project priorities (e.g., data management, engagement with diverse stakeholders). The approaches used to develop projects demonstrated an interactive pedagogy, and raised awareness of a theory of change process by which projects can be determined.
• Section 5 (Science-for-development partnerships). Documented the characteristics that workshop participants considered to be of greatest importance in science-for-development partnerships, identifying those characteristics associated with equality. For example, equal access to data generated as part of the partnership, project outputs (e.g., reports, journal articles), and opportunities for all members to contribute to project design. All of the activities identified in Thematic working groups will require multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary partnerships.

In the following section, we outline the next steps, to be explored with project partners, which will advance these ideas.

Next steps

This workshop report discusses development challenges in eastern Africa (particularly Zambia, with insights into Malawi and Zimbabwe), and presents several ideas where Earth and environmental science will support sustainable development. We will send this report to all workshop participants, and encourage their active engagement in reflecting on the conclusions and refining the proposed next steps. Through externally funded activities, BGS staff are actively engaged in work in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. We will proactively continue discussions with many of those who were present at the workshop, and discuss the following actions to advance and enhance the outputs from this workshop:

1. Co-produce project proposals (aims, objectives, background context, pathways to development impact) for ideas generated in this workshop. Workshop participants identified a set of potential projects that could be developed through (for example) BGS ODA or GCRF funding. For example, the food security group suggested a comprehensive multinational capacity-building programme that strengthened access to data, and the ability of researchers to use this to complete further analyses on micronutrient deficiencies in eastern Africa. Through meetings with stakeholders in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, we will co-produce with in-country colleagues outline proposals for these projects in preparation for relevant funding opportunities.
2. Bring in stakeholders from additional disciplines. While the workshop attracted 14 organisations, key groups were missing, particularly those from socio-economic disciplines and civil society. Many of the pathways to development impact identified in previous sections will need engagement and input from professionals in the socio-economic sciences. Additional engagement was also needed with the minerals sector in Zambia. We will pro-actively work to build relationships with appropriate civil society groups, socio-economic professionals, and minerals professionals, mapping out potential stakeholders, and seeking enhanced engagement at future workshops.
3. Connect stakeholders in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe with BGS (and external) expertise relevant to emerging projects. Having identified relevant expertise and research/project interests in Zambia, we will use the extensive BGS network of researcher links from across eastern Africa and the UK to catalyse new interactions.
4. Explore eastern African priorities by contrasting this workshop with the results of workshops in Tanzania and Kenya. Having coordinated three workshops in eastern Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia), we will proceed to contrast the results of these. We will write and publish a peer-reviewed paper that examines similarities and differences between development priorities across the region, and discuss emerging themes of common interest.
5. Improve our understanding of effective international partnerships to support science-for-development. During this workshop, we collected data to understand partnership priorities in a Zambian context, with initial perspectives from Zimbabwe and Malawi. We will supplement this data with semi-structured interviews, and aim to publish a peer-reviewed journal article on science-for-development partnerships.