Four MMUST Researchers belonging to the InternationalBRECcIA Project https://www.gcrf-breccia.com/  from Left to Right (below)  Dr. Daniel Namenya Naburi (Project Post-Doc), Prof. Peter Bukhala (Director, Research and Postgraduate support), Dr. Edward Mugalavai (Project Co-Investigator) and Kaleb A. Mwendwa (MMUST Project Lead & Co-Investigator) participated in the BRECcIA Celebratory & Closure workshop held in Ghana, Labadi Beach Hotel Accra, Ghana from the 28^th to 31^st of March 2022.

Among the achievements of MMUST in the 4 year project (2017-2022) that were highlighted at the workshop included the following:

• SMALL AND LARGE RESEARCH PROJECTS:

The MMUST BRECcIA Researchers wrote four (4)  Research Proposals and Won Grants amounting to approximately 18 Million Kenya Shillings https://www.gcrf-breccia.com/small-research-projects-srps/

SMALL RESEARCH PROJECTS

1. 1. Determining resilience attributable bio-physical, social/gender, economic and political factors that influence Food and Water Security in ASALs of West Pokot and Turkana Counties-Kenya-Lead Researcher-Kaleb A.Mwendwa
   2. Trends in climate variability, land use change, watershed governance and implications on food security in the dryland of Suam River Basin, West Pokot County, Kenya-Dr. Daniel Namenya
   3. Managing invasive shrub species for enhanced social livelihoods in Turkana drylands of Kenya-Late Prof. John Obiri

LARGE RESEARCH PROJECT

• 1. Understanding spatial characteristics, socio-economic effects and opportunities of Prosopis Juliflora and other invasive plant species in drylands of Africa –Kaleb A. Mwendwa, Dr. Daniel Naburi, Late Prof. John Obiri and Dr. Edward Mugalavai
• POST-DOC PROGRAM: BRECcIA project produced and hosted the 1st ever Post-Doc Research fellow at MMUST
• MSC PROGRAM: 1 MSc. Student graduated from MMUST with a Research thesis based on Prosopis utilization (Supervised by Late Prof. John Obiri)
• MENTORED: Two students were mentored in various aspects of Research
• MENTORED-THRO’ EXCHANGE- The MMUST Team initiated a Data Analysis Workshop in MALAWI that was able to mentor five (5) researchers from LEAD-MALAWI and the Malawi Forestry Research Institute.
• NEW SKILL SETS: The team was able to acquire new skills in ODK, Zoom, Data Analysis, Collaborative Research, Drone mapping and Satellite imagery analysis.
• RESEARCH KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER: 10 members of staff in Turkana County government and 10 members of staff in West Pokot County have been trained to be experienced research technicians in various aspects of drylands research.
• MMUST-BRECcIA Team was involved in community outreach programmes in Turkana and West Pokot Counties where communities were capacity built on the usefulness of the research findings and the actual field applications to enhance food security.
• PUBLICATIONS: One publication presented by Daniel at WaterNET Conference and published in 2020.
• Nine (9) Manuscripts from the Small Research Projects/Large Research Projects in preparation
  • 1 Manuscript submitted to Journal of Climate Risk Management
  • 2 on Climate Change and Water Governance SRP in the Suam River basin West Pokot County
  • 2 on Socio-Ecological Dynamics in relation to resilience to food and water security adaptive capacity in the Drylands of Turkana
  • 2 on Invasive Species Prosopis in Turkana and West Pokot Counties
  • 1 Comparative analysis perceptions paper between Kenya and Malawi on Prosopis
  • 1 Comparative (Kenya and Malawi) on Crop Modelling for yield estimates
    
     

• NETWORKING: MMUST was involved in the formation of the Research Management Network (REMNet) covering several countries (researchers) in Africa and UK.
• COLLABORATION INITIATED: The MMUST researchers have now established a working relationship with the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (World Agroforestry Centre) on using the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LSDF) for Biophysical characterization of Dryland Ecosystems. This will eventually be linked to the Global Land Programme hosted by the Universität Bern, Germany, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)
• STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT: Many Stakeholder engagement forums were carried out by MMUST Researchers using the principle of co-design, co-production and co-implementation of research process with Policy Makers/Actors/Implementers or Community Members e.g. SRP-Resilience (412 HHs, 8 FGDs, 15 KIIs) SRP-Water Governance (387 HHs, 12 FGDs, 18 KIIs) and LRP Prosopis- (410 HHs, 7 FGDs, 15KIIs)
• LEVERAGING BRECcIA: 2 Grant proposals were written with other BRECcIA project partners and submitted to various donors
• MEDIA ENGAGEMENT: The team has been involved in several media sessions on Climate change issues: 3 on VOA; 2 BBC and 2 TV (NTV –Kenya Coverage on Prosopis)
• EXTERNAL LINKAGES: Daniel (MMUST Post-Doc) has been involved in Global Virtual lecture series for Master Degree in International Disaster Management Program at the University of Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
• DISSEMNINATION: Daniel shared his findings in Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Training of Trainers workshop Nakuru, Kenya
• TRAINING OF TRAINERS: MMUST team has developed training manual and trained Climate change adaptation, Mitigation and governance for Food Security in West Pokot County
• POLICY BRIEFS: At least 5 to 6 Policy Briefs are in preparation in conjunction with Turkana and West Pokot County Governments on various matters involving Water, Livestock, Land, Agriculture, pastoralism and Agro-pastoralism as a result of the research findings and joint recommendations.
• CLIMATE RESILIENCE DECISION DASHBOARD: The MMUST Researchers are in discussions with the Turkana County Government regarding the revamping of the Dashboard which was set up by the International Centre for Research In Agroforestry (ICRAF) based in UN Complex Gigiri-Nairobi.
• DOCUMENTARY: This is being done to capture the various aspects the impact of Prosopis juliflora plant species, on water and food security that has been designated as invasive in both Kenya and Malawi. The “Tale of Two Stories” is in the final stages of production with the involvement of MMUST and LEAD Malawi Researchers.
• DRONE MAPPNG: Through the BRECcIA Project MMUST Team has carried a comprehensive drone mapping exercise to obtain the spatial and temporal distribution and abundance of the Prosopis juliflora species in Turkana and West Pokot Counties. This is aimed at supporting data collected qualitatively. The same exercise was carried out in Malawi sites.

MMUST also presented the outcomes of the highly successful BenchMarking and Capacity Building visit by MMUST top management  to University of Pretoria, NRF-South Africa, Kenya High Commision to South Africa and Kenyan Diaspora in South Africa. This visit was organized by MMUST, University of Pretoria (UP), Southern Africa Research Innovation and Management Association (SARIMA) and funded by Global Challenges Research Fund-United Kingdom Research and Innovation (GCRF-UKRI) through the BRECcIA Project.  This visit was lauded by the Project PI Prof. Justin Sheffield as the most proactive way to sensitize university managers to embrace matters of Research Management as a pathway to being Research Intensive Universities in Africa. It was also announced officially that Mr. Kaleb Mwendwa will be the first BRECcIA researcher to be accredited by SARIMA and University of Witwatersrand as Research Management Professional (RMP) after completing all the necessary six (6) courses towards that attainment.

On the sides of this workshop, Prof. Bukhala led the MMUST Team in Networking with Researchers from Ghana (Prof. Samuel Codjoe and Dr. Mawuli-University of Ghana), Malawi (Prof. Katundu-Director, Research, University of Malawi, Prof. Sosten Chiota-Executive Director LEAD Malawi), South Africa (Dr. Prenitha-Project Manager SARIMA) and Dr. Paleso-Head Post-Doc Programmes- University of Stellenbosch) and UK (Prof. Justin Sheffield –BRECcIA PI, Dr. Julie Reeves-University of Southampton) on matters of advancing research, research mangement and collaboration within African Universities and regional bodies for MMUST researchers. The potential follow-up of this project, “BRECcIA 2” was discussed with a proposed “DryNet”-a grouping of researchers with interests in Drylands Research to lead the initial formulation of the research concept.

In the same vein the actualization of the Research Management Office at MMUST was discussed with the UKRI-ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Impact Acccleration Account (IAA) Fund administered by UoS (with funding from UKRI) agreed as the best funding mechanism to be explored. The overall aim of the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) is to maximise the practical application of Southampton’s social science research outputs. The two SRPs and LRP in Turkana and West Pokot Counties had a significant amount of social science research outputs that need to be moved to the implementation or policy level.  MMUST will immediately embark on drafting  a proposal on the same.

Prof. Bukhala used the occasion to invite a number of BRECcIA researchers to be Keynote speakers at the upcoming 15th International Multidisciplinary Conference is  scheduled for 25th - 27th May, 2022 whose theme is; ‘Operationalizing Agriculture through Digital Technology, Innovation, Education, and Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development.’

Prof. Bukhala also visited the Research Management office at the University of Ghana where he held fruitful discussions with the Pro VC Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo (above) on Research collaborations and Research Management issues.