Based on international literature, preliminary experiences in a three-country West African research programme, and on the disappointing impact of agricultural research on African farm innovation, the current paper argues that institutional change demands rethinking the pathways to innovation so as to acknowledge the role of rules, distribution of power and wealth, interaction and positions. The time is opportune: climate change, food insecurity, high food prices and concomitant riots are turning national food production into a political issue also for African leaders.
Innovation platforms are equitable, dynamic spaces designed to bring heterogeneous actors together to exchange knowledge and take action to solve a common problem. Although innovation platforms are being set up to attain collectively defined development objectives, there are limited methods and tools available using quantitative data to evaluate whether they are effective.
Summary of the first week of the e-conference "Innovation systems for food security and nutrition: understanding the capacities needed". The e-conference, organized by the Secretariat of the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP), is aiming at bringing together the issues of capacity development, agricultural innovation, and food security and nutrition with the objective of developing recommendations for policy-making.
The e-conference started on 18 April and lasted until 13 May 2016.
Summary of the third week of the e-conference "Innovation systems for food security and nutrition: understanding the capacities needed". The e-conference, organized by the Secretariat of the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP), is aiming at bringing together the issues of capacity development, agricultural innovation, and food security and nutrition with the objective of developing recommendations for policy-making.
The e-conference started on 18 April and lasted until 13 May 2016.
Multi-stakeholder (MS) platforms, such as innovation platforms (IP), public-private partnerships (PPP) are becoming more common but what they can achieve in innovation and scaling is limited and depends on different factors. This poster and the broader research paper provide evidence what MS platforms can and cannot achieve in their early phases and give insights about effectiveness and efficiency of Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) interventions such as CGIAR research programs (CRPs) in low and middle income countries.
The capacity of existing monitoring and decision making tools in generating evidence about the performance of R4D with multi-stakeholder processes, such as innovation platforms (IPs), public private partnerships (PPP), participatory value chain management (PVCM) is very limited. Results of these tools are either contextual and qualitative such as case studies that can not be used by other R4D interventions or quantitative i.e. impact assessments that do not inform what works in R4D.
This poster analyzes the status, challenges and opportunities of the Kyeni local innovation platform that was put up to sustainably evaluate, disseminate and hasten adoption of CA technologies involving maize/ legume cropping systems in eastern Kenya. Establishment and maintenance of IPs is one of the action oriented research approaches for technology transfer in the ACIAR funded Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project such as Kyeni Local Innovation Platform.
This study analysed the effects of the participation of farmers to innovation platforms on their livelihood in Humidtropics West Africa Flagship. Results showed that higher livelihood asset capital was found among the participants than non-participants. The study thus revealed further investment should be made in the establishment and strengthening of innovation platforms that enable the development, effective dissemination and adoption of agricultural innovations, thus fostering improved livelihood, alleviate poverty and reduce food insecurity.
The poster briefs the introducing and utility of education materials and teaching notes on multi‐stakeholder innovation processes and how they work, results and outputs and who the legacy products are useful for.
The poster briefs the introducing and utility of tools and training materials to help to mainstream gender in Humidtropics activities, how they work, results and outputs and who the legacy products are useful for.