Multi-stakeholder dialogue space on farmer-led irrigation development in Ghana: an instrument driving systemic change with private sector initiatives



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https://www.km4djournal.org/index.php/km4dj/article/view/489
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Licensing of resource: 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
Type: 
journal article
Journal: 
Knowledge Management for Development Journal
Number: 
2
Volume: 
15
Year: 
2020
Author(s): 
Minh, T.
Cofie, O.
Lefore, N.
Schmitter, P.
Publisher(s): 
Description: 

Private sector actors bring expertise, resources, and new perspectives to agricultural development, but the tendency to short-term approaches and market-based orientation has been unable to drive a systemic change in the development agenda. We explore how multi-stakeholder dialogues can capitalize on and trickle systemic change through private sector involvement. Analysis from the farmer-led irrigation development multi-stakeholder dialogue space (FLI-MDS) in Ghana shows the need for a physical and institutional space to cater for and merge different stakeholder interests. For all stakeholders, the institutional space is a multi-level-playing institution which can trickle systemic change by leveraging the private sectors investments with multi-stakeholders' collaboration, interactive learning, and potential support for commercial scaling of FLI. For private sector actors, a physical space for collaboration is crucial. It enables them to envisage their commercial interests, opening up opportunities for collaboration and mobilization of resources. Ensuring long term sustainability of an FLI-MDS requires catering for the private sector needs for a physical dialogue space to trickle systemic change and accelerate commercialization in farmer-led irrigation development.

Publication year: 
2020
Keywords: 
Private sector
farmer-led irrigation
multi-stakeholder dialogues
systemic change
Ghana