Typical ILRI audiences

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Typical ILRI stakeholders and audiences

Typically, everyone engaged in the project is a potential creator and consumer of data, information, and knowledge. There is also a large audience beyond the project—locally, nationally and internationally—that will be interested in its results. Who are the people we will work with, and what are their knowledge needs? The list of typical stakeholders below is illustrative and derived from several past ILRI projects.

  • Researchers—ourselves and our colleagues, international, national, academic—they need in‐depth knowledge products, data, data sources, as well as methods and tools. We may need to help them produce a wider range of communication products than they are used to.
  • Development practitioners and partners—public, non‐governmental and private—need targeted knowledge products, dissemination products, training and capacity building products, decision support tools, synthesized data and the chance to join events and dialogue. Likely overlap with value chain actors. We will need to look carefully at communication between these groups and the researchers—there is frequently a cultural/communication gap that needs to be overcome. We also need to find innovative ways to capture and share their knowledge, recognizing that they may not be as used to publishing as are scientists.
  • Value chain actors—producers, traders, farmer organizations, and the like—here we are likely to have greatest impact by working through other partners who are close to them, translating or adapting our products into locally accessible formats. National/local radio, print and television media will often be important partners in this. We will also join with organizations and initiatives that use more interactive tools that integrate web applications with mobile phones for example. These enable value chain actors to interact in real‐time and to transact in more transparent ways.
  • We aim to influence decision‐makers, investors and the global support community. They need focused knowledge and advocacy products, awareness products, decision‐support tools, and synthesized data. Influencing them requires targeted strategies that combine a range of approaches, as well as timely advice and inputs from people they trust and the media.
  • A vital, often overlooked, ‘internal’ community of project managers and implementers needs access to an effective M&E system, information on current activities and events, shared methods and tools, data, training and capacity building products, outcome support tools, communication and collaboration spaces, and event planning tools.