Wicked problems: Then and now

What are “wicked problems”, why are they wicked and what does it take to do something about them?These are central issues in our new book, “Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security: Research and Innovation for Development”, which is based on experiences of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF).

Engaging stakeholders and learning how to learn is key to solving wicked problems.                    Photo: CPWF Sourcebook

Wicked problems are those whose requirements are contradictory, changing, hard to reconcile and not well understood and whose solutions require many people to change mindsets and behaviors. It turns out that such problems are not uncommon. Many of us struggle with them every day. I have struggled with them in one way or another for over 35 years.

Evolving mindsets

Back in the 1970s, when we worked on cropping systems and farming systems research, we found many occasions when no single farmer could adopt a technology unless all other farmers in a community adopted at the same time, because of a need to coordinate water control or pest management. The integrated pest management experience showed us that community-level coordination of pest control can be achieved.

In the 1980s, during the exciting early days of conservation agriculture in South Asia, it was commonly understood that a general change in mindset would be necessary to mainstream no-till farming. This meant getting farmers, equipment manufacturers, researchers, extension workers, senior policymakers – and even the press – all on board. Yet conservation agriculture is now quite successful there.

During the ten-year lifespan of CPWF, we found wicked problems at every turn. In our river basin programs, progress often depended on working through issues of power balances, resource access, benefit sharing, downstream consequences of upstream land and water use, and incompatibilities between government policies and community needs. We were able to make substantial progress through what we came to call research for development (R4D).

There is a funny thing about working on wicked problems. They are never really “solved” in one fell swoop. Rather, they evolve and transform from one thing to another. As old issues are resolved, new ones emerge to take their place. The only way to maintain a trajectory towards equitable and sustainable development is for research to trigger and inform an autonomous social process, led by others, with a momentum and life of its own, with its own champions and resources.

The experience of CPWF is that this is difficult but not impossible to achieve. The book contains numerous recommendations on how to use R4D to trigger innovation and social change. (To see the complete list of recommendations, best get the book!)

CPWF Recommendations

When I reflect on the CPWF recommendations, however, I am reminded that many CGIAR “old-timers” understood these rather well. These were often unique individuals acting on more or less on instinct. They may not have been aware of why they were doing what they were doing: they just knew how to do the right thing.

Technical innovation and institutional and policy innovation go together – I am reminded of Norm Borlaug and his direct confrontations with government ministers to shake up seed import laws and institutions to launch the first Green Revolution.

Innovations can have unexpected consequences when used at scale – does anyone remember the extensive literature of the 1960s-70s on “second generation problems” of the Green Revolution?

Adaptive management allows flexibility – in the old days flexibility was highly prized and was resourced through what many people called “grease money” to try new ideas whose importance had just suddenly emerged. This is how “second generation” problems were often addressed.

Innovation is a long-term, non-linear social process that is risky and unpredictable – I am reminded of Sanjaya Rajaram and his 20 years of work on wheat breeding, with triumphs but also dead ends, always sustained by a clear vision and constant interaction with users and consumers.

Scaling out innovations involves tailoring to local circumstances – even back in the 1960s we were using “recommendation domains” to explore how to fit technologies to environmental niches.

A lesson from CPWF is that all of us can be such unique individuals by becoming more self-aware of our actions, decisions and their consequences. As long as we are learning – and even better – learning how to learn – we have a good shot at making progress at addressing “wicked problems”.

Learning how to learn

A couple of parting thoughts to end these reflections.

First, using R4D to influence social decision making processes makes life hell for evaluators. R4D can’t be evaluated like a crop improvement investment with a clear-cut and unique product at the end.

Finally, it turns out that CPWF – the Challenge Program on Water and Food – wasn’t really about water after all! It was about learning how to learn and about wicked problems with water as just one dimension.

Join us at Stockholm World Water Week at the IWMI-WLE Booth for the official book launch:
September 3, 17.00-19.30: CPWF Book Launch: Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security, WLE-IWMI Booth
Participants: Andrew Noble, Director WLE; Alain Vidal, former Director of CPWF