Paper presented to the European Initiative for Agricultural Research and Development (EIARD), 12 January 2015.
This project report from Wageningen UR (as a contribution to the CGIAR Humid Tropics research program) examines critical issues for reflection when designing and implementing research for development in innovation platforms’. The current document therefore aims to increase awareness about the complexity of research in innovation. The underlying idea is that innovation platforms can facilitate institutional changes and support system innovations through increased interaction, negotiation and learning between stakeholders, including (new) roles of research(ers).
This policy brief presents, explains and illustrates the five key recommendations that came out of the joint learning process during the JOLISAA project: 1. Build on innovation “in the social wild”; 2. Combine local and external knowledge and ideas to enhance innovative capacity; 3. Encourage access to diverse value chains to lower the innovation risks; 4. Support unpredictable innovation processes; 5. Address the multiple dimensions of innovation.
Recent interest in inclusive innovation to serve base-of-the-pyramid markets has so far produced relatively little evidence about the role of policy. Drawing on cases from Kenya's mobile phone sector that have successfully scaled innovations to poor consumers, we suggest that policy-making is not only present, but can also have a significant role in shaping and supporting inclusive innovation systems. In these cases, inclusive innovation has been built upon a reinforcing circle of adaptive innovation, dynamic competition, and presence of innovation intermediaries within poor communities.
This presentation, prepared for the Workshop "Policies to Enhance Agricultural Innovation and Productivity: Focus on China" - held in Beijing (24 October 2013), illustrates the multiple benefits of agriculture innovation, the importance of the policy environment, the research and development main features and trends and the ways for fostering national AIS.
The key concepts and definitions of this brief provide a common point of reference to inform the formulation of the TAP Common Framework on Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems.
The report synthesises the research conducted under the PRO AKIS project for the topic "Designing, implementing and maintaining agricultural/rural networks to enhance farmers’ ability to innovate in cooperation with other rural actors".
Present-day society asks more from agriculture than just the production of food. Agriculture is now required to be concerned with the quality of food, ecosystem services, inclusion of marginalized populations, revitalization of rural territories, energy production, etc. This opening up of the future of agriculture encourages rural actors to experiment with new farming systems, using imagination, creativity and determination to replace dominant models. At the same time, low-cost mass-production systems continue on their way, with promises of a future based on green technologies.
Nouvel instrument communautaire mobilisant la politique de recherche et la PAC, le PEI entend susciter des partenariats entre les acteurs du développement, de l’enseignement agricole, les agriculteurs, les chercheurs et les entreprises. En cela, il reflète l’évolution récente du cadre de pensée des institutions internationales, qui voient dans l’innovation agricole moins le produit de la recherche et du transfert de connaissances que le résultat d’interactions entre acteurs au sein de réseaux plus ou moins formels.
Ce document fait le bilan du projet de recherche-action Agora dédié au renforcement de la gouvernance de services publics dans des communes du Bénin, du Burkina Faso et du Mali. Mené par Cités Unies France, le Gret, le Laboratoire Citoyennetés et plusieurs partenaires locaux de 2011 à 2014, Agora a couplé des phases de recherche, d’animation et d’apprentissage à la concertation entre les opérateurs, élus, agents de services techniques et usagers. Il se caractérise par la participation effective d’une équipe de chercheurs au dispositif de concertation.