Given the diversity and context-specificity of innovation systems approaches, in March 2007 the World Bank organized a workshop in which about 80 experts (representing donor agencies, development and related agencies, academia, and the World Bank) took stock of recent experiences with innovation systems in agriculture and reconsidered strategies for their future development. This paper summarizes the workshop findings and uses them to develop and discuss key issues in applying the innovation systems concept. The workshop’s recommendations, including next steps for the wider
Multi-stakeholder partnerships network which is typified by the FARA-led Integrated Agriculture Research for Development (IAR4D) of the SSA-Challenge Program is an innovation platform (IP) composed of stakeholders bound together by their individual interests in a shared commodity or outcome. The result from such innovation platforms is largely influenced by the strength of the network. In this paper, similarities within and across platforms are assessed using the simple matching procedure. Results indicate consistency in conduct of Innovation Platform activities.
This document provides an overview of the Tropical Agriculture Platform and highlights its main goals and activities.
This study demonstrates the practical application of Catholic Relief Service (CRS)' partnership principles. CRS Niger and CADEV Niger (Caritas Niger), with the support of USAID's Food for Peace program, worked together to identify areas of CADEV Niger's organizational strengthening plan for CADEV Niger's human, material, and financial management, its institutional framework, and its access to and use of management tools.
The Africa Capacity Indicators 2012 Report (2012A CIR) seeks to address the issues of capacity development on the African continent, building on the dialogue stemming from the inaugural 2011 ACIR and linking this to a very pertinent issue facing Africa today – agricultural transformation and food security. The Report does not only identify the underlying capacity challenges facing Africa. It also attempts to help Africa redefine its post-colonial agricultural landscape and more importantly prescribes policy-relevant solutions and recommendations informed by country-specific ground truths.
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.
This report sets out the synthesis of work carried out within the framework of the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) Secretariat Initiative on “The family economy and agricultural innovation: towards new partnerships”. The initiative aimed to stimulate analyses, collect field data and case studies that encourage debates between regional actors, with a view to informing the development of regional policies and actions in order to promote and strengthen producer access to agricultural innovation, where most producers are anchored in the family economy.
This briefing considers the status, systems, instruments and institutions underpinning agricultural innovation and research for development (ARD) globally and in the ACP countires. It puts a strong emphasis on lessons learnt and opportunities for successful agricultural innovation, based on broad range of interventions at different levels of the agricultural value chain. It analyses participatory innovation processes to find more efficient and effective modes of agricultural research and technology development benefiting farmers and rural communities.
Agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) are often mentioned as a promising platform for the delivery of nutrition knowledge and practices, due to the close interaction that EAS agents have with farmers through their role as service providers in rural areas. Yet the context in which any nutrition knowledge is delivered by EAS agents, and the mechanisms for doing so, is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the integration of nutrition and agricultural EAS in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
This flyer is about the AgriFood chain toolkit, which has been launched in 2013 by the CGIAR programme on Policies, institutions and markets.The AgriFood chain toolkit acts as a clearing house and learning platform – using the power of information and communication technologies to bring together people and resources.