Innovation platforms are groups of individuals or stakeholder representatives with different backgrounds and interests. They come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities, and find ways to achieve their goals. When innovation platforms are set up by development projects, their processes are usually facilitated by the support organization. This short story presents how the author’s facilitation allowed the multiple stakeholders within local community innovation platforms supported by a project in Ghana and Burkina Faso to share experiences and knowledge so as to develop their respective capacities in value chains’ management and analysis. The main lesson from this story is that when facilitation by the support organization effectively supports learning processes by the stakeholders, it helps bring about recognition that commitment and communication are essential to help smallholders benefit from value chains and the subsequent engagement of all stakeholders in a continuous learning process. In time, the members of the innovation platform will take the responsibility to carry out further knowledge sharing activities without project support
One option for practically applying innovation systems thinking involves the establishment of innovation platforms (IPs). Such platforms are designed to bring together a variety of different stakeholders to exchange knowledge and resources and take action to solve common problems. Yet...
African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and help contribute to global food security. To achieve...
This report provides a synthesis of all findings and information generated through a “stocktaking” process that involved a desk study of Prolinnova documents and evaluation reports, a questionnaire to 40 staff members of international organizations in agricultural research and development (ARD),...
Dans le besoin urgent de lutter contre le changement climatique, une priorité essentielle est de renforcer la capacité de ces groupes et communautés les plus vulnérables, et déjà fortement affectés, à améliorer leur capacité à adapter leurs systèmes de subsistance....
Despite efforts over recent years to improve the status of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, little change has been noted, due partially to the fact that efforts have come from individual entities, which had short-term funding or lacked the necessary expertise...
