This presentation on innovation systems and innovation platforms was presented at the Africa RISING Training Workshop on Innovation Platforms, Addis Ababa, 23-24 January 2014.The presentation explains the concepts of innovation, innovation systems and innovation platform (IP) and also defines roles and characteristics of the IPs.
This report provides a short summary of the recent history of the seed industry. Although the informal seed system still accounts for an estimated 85 percent of planted seed, the formal sector has been transformed in 20 years from control by a monopoly parastatal to competition among 23 registered companies, with at least 5 or 6 being serious players. Significantly, the relief seed industry that dominated and distorted the formal seed trade during the Northern Uganda conflict has withered away, leaving room for a sustainable, market-driven seed industry to develop.
The organization of the Nutrition Innovation Labs represents a novel model for focusing U.S.- supported research on food and nutrition issues in developing countries. Their aims are to discover how policy and program interventions can most effectively achieve large-scale improvements in maternal and child nutrition, particularly by leveraging agriculture and build human and institutional capacity for applied policy analysis, research and program implementation.
The project case-studies described in this document a range of local-level, mainly donor-funded projects in four countries (Sierra Leone, Benin, Uganda and Mozambique). These projects incorporate climate change in their design and rationale in different ways, but generally base themselves on broad-brush climate trends or climate uncertainty rather than on specific downscaled projections. They also demonstrate a continuum ranging from pure knowledge provision, through breeding, seed supply, input provision and marketing, to provision of hardware and infrastructure, especially in irrigation.
The report entitled ‘Innovation in the Irish Agri-food Sector’ was compiled by researchers from the University College of Dublin (UCD) following interviews with stakeholders from across the sector, and an analysis of data from Eurostat, the OECD, and the Teagasc National Farm Survey. The report also shows that the sector is strong in terms of research capacity, overall education levels, and favourable tax regimes to encourage business innovation. The report was launched at the international conference ‘Driving Innovation in the Irish Agri-Food System', held in June 2014 at the UCD.
The purpose of this piece of work is to investigate, through a literature review, the role of intermediaries in agricultural and rural development. In the first place, a general view of the roles of intermediaries, (focusing on the two main types of intermediaries, i.e. facilitators and brokers), as depicted in literature, is provided. Following, the emergence of facilitators and brokers in agricultural literature is explored based on the turn from reductionist to systemic science as well as from the expert syndrome to participatory development.
As the world’s most youthful country, it sits on the cusp of being able to harness the youth dividend. Without a more broadly diversified economy, seizing the opportunities presented by Uganda’s youthful demographic will call for understanding both young people, and a focus on the aspects of agriculture that will need to grow and change to meet the challenge.
Ces dernières années, une « ruée vers les terres » a privé une multitude de petits producteurs du Sud de leur surface agricole. Depuis l’an 2000, plus de 1 600 transactions foncières portant sur quelque 60 millions d’hectares ont été enregistrées.
Various authors have identified the potential relevance of innovation system approaches for inclusive innovation, that is, the means by which new goods and services are developed for and by the poor. However, it is still a question how best to operationalize this. Innovation platforms (IPs) represent an example of putting an inclusive innovation system approach into practice by bringing different types of stakeholders together to address issues of mutual concern and interest with a specific focus on the marginalized poor.
Ce guide technique sur le «consentement préalable, donné librement et en connaissance de cause» (CPLCC) établit des mesures concrètes permettant aux organisations gouvernementales de respecter et de protéger le CPLCC et aux organisations de la société civile, aux utilisateurs des terres et aux investisseurs privés dans le monde de s’acquitter de leurs responsabilités envers le CPLCC, conformément à ces Directives.