Building multi-stakeholder processes in agricultural research for development in Rwanda

Humidtropics adopts an integrated systems perspective. Instead of tar-geting one single pre-selected commodity and trying to boost its produc-tivity at farm level, Humidtropics focuses on stimulating productivity, nat-ural resource management (NRM) and institutional innovations across different levels in order to achieve more sustainable impacts. It consid-ers all farm enterprises and their interactions, as well as nutrition, social differentiation (e.g. gender and youth), and policy and markets.This case study zooms in on multi-stakeholder processes in the East and Central Africa (ECA) Action Area or Flagship that were launched on 20 May 2013 in Bukavu, DR Congo. The ECA Flagship encom-passes the Rwanda, DR Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia Action Sites. More specifically, the case study describes and reflects upon the first two years of Humidtropics in Rwanda., aiming to outline the multi-stakeholder process as it unfolded and highlight-ing lessons that can be learned from this. In Rwanda, activities are mainly taking place in Kadahenda and Kayonza (also referred to as Field Sites). The case study is based on meeting minutes, progress reports, event documentation, and 10 semi-structured key informant interviews. Furthermore, data originate from an IP and an R4D plat-form reflection meeting, and participatory observation by the authors. Some interview quotes used in this case study have been slightly edit-ed to enhance readibility