By Yonas Tafesse
Community participation and engagement is increasingly getting recognition in development and research practices of African nations. In what is popularly known as ‘citizen science,’ community members play proactive roles in scientific investigations, from community-based monitoring to collection, analysis and use of data for decision-making about management of the environment and other initiatives.
Citizen science has four models which are characterized by increasing levels of public involvement in a research process. These include contributory, collaborative, co-created and citizen-led approaches. IWMI is known to promote and use most of these models.
Citizen science practices in Ethiopia
Community-based approaches are not new to Ethiopia. They have been practiced in the country for the purpose of natural resources management, among others. Studies show that they can deliver valuable data on groundwater levels, spring flow and local streamflow from water sources in small and micro-watersheds.
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has collaborated with the Sustainable Land Management Program of the Ministry of Agriculture to jointly pilot and test the hydrological benefits of watershed management. This led to the preparation of two important guiding documents for setting up a National Citizen Science Program for watershed management as well as to engage and train para-hydrologists in Ethiopia.
Leveraging citizen science capacities in ecosystem protection
IWMI, Farm Africa and partners are dedicated to pursuing the ecosystem protection aims of their Nature-based Solutions Program. This includes the protection, conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services and supporting communities to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in eight regions of Ethiopia.
Amare Haileselassie, a Principal Researcher at IWMI, said that IWMI is stepping up coordinated efforts to meaningfully engage citizen scientists through its latest program on hydrology and watershed management. This is because community groups have the potential to inform the selection of appropriate technologies, identify intervention sites, and collect data and information on the impacts of interventions on the hydrology of its watersheds.
IWMI leveraged lessons drawn from its past citizen science projects across Ethiopia to organize a training workshop for 40 experts and community groups from government and non-governmental organizations to share its experiences on citizen science, its institute-wide citizen science framework, and co-designed and set-up a citizen science program through an inclusive and participatory approach.
Alemseged Tamiru, a Senior Researcher at IWMI, explained the four main steps considered during the set-up of the co-designed program. The consultation of district administrators and identification of a para-hydrologist; a discussion with community representatives in the selected watersheds and the identification of citizen scientists; characterization of the watersheds; and equipping and training the citizen scientists.
A pilot initiative
IWMI worked with community groups on the hydrology of their watershed as a pilot initiative in Limu Bilbilo and South Sodo districts of Central Ethiopia. The focus was on the importance of water monitoring in their watershed for improved water security and better watershed and landscape management.
Community members in South Sodo District (Kelekindo watershed) were primarily interested in using the citizen science to inform the expansion of rainwater harvesting ponds and shallow groundwater wells for enhanced water availability and water quality. In Limu Bilbilo District (Chemeri watershed), the interest of the community was in gully rehabilitation and soil and water conservation.
IWMI provided the citizen scientists at the two watersheds with easy-to-use measuring equipment, including a rain gauge designed for community-based monitoring, measuring tapes and rope for river water level measurements, dip meters for recording groundwater levels, and color strips for water quality testing. A para-hydrologist is also assigned to serve as an intermediary between citizen scientists and researchers and is responsible for supervising citizen scientists, archiving the data sets and facilitating community consultation meetings, according to Tilaye Worku, a Research Assistant with IWMI.
Currently, the IWMI-supported citizen scientists are collecting data on river water level, shallow groundwater level and rainfall as well as water quality in the two watersheds while the citizen scientists in Kelekindo watershed are also gathering water quality data.
Tamiru asserted that the lessons from the two pilot watersheds are expected to further support the revision of IWMI’s citizen science program framework and that different stakeholders can easily scale out the program in their watershed and landscape management initiatives across Ethiopia.
“IWMI believes that its latest citizen science program goes beyond data collection and involves community-based mapping of watershed characteristics, co-identification of watershed management technologies and sites, and co-interpretation of the citizen science data,” underscored Haileselassie.
Contact
Amare Haileslassie – a.haileslassie@cgiar.org
Alemseged Tamiru Haile – a.t.haile@cgiar.org
