Presented by Iddo Dror at the SEARCA Forum-workshop on Platforms, Rural Advisory Services, and Knowledge Management: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development, Los Banos, 17-19 May 2016
1. An overview of innovation platforms
Iddo Dror
SEARCA Forum-workshop on Platforms, Rural Advisory Services, and Knowledge
Management: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development, Los
Banos, 17-19 May 2016
2. What is Innovation?
Gottret (2006) defines innovation as “the
process of technical, social and institutional
change that results from the interaction
among multi-layered sources of knowledge
and its transformation into new things,
products or practices, applied in a specific
institutional and cultural context.”
Gottret, Maria Verónica. 2006. "Rural Innovation and Smallholders Livelihoods: Modes
of Intervention in Hillside Communities of Latin America." PhD Dissertation, Institute of Social
Studies.
3. The ingredients of innovation
• Dialog and shared
learning between diverse
actors
• Incentives and resources
available to form
partnerships and develop
businesses
• Reflection leading to
double loop learning
Low Carbon Societies Network
(http://lowcarbon.inforse.org/index.php?id=61)
• Multi-dimensional solutions
• Action at local, regional and national levels
4. Innovation in industry and commerce
• Businesses in traditional sectors are
innovating at an increasing pace both in
terms of their products and business
processes as they seek to maintain a
competitive edge in highly competitive
global markets.
• Regional Development Authorities are
responding to the increasing stress being
laid upon innovation and high growth
technology based SMEs as drivers of
economic development through
mechanisms which include Science Parks,
Innovation Centres and Technology Parks.
5. Science Parks
• Main aim is to increase the wealth of its
community by promoting the culture of
innovation and the competitiveness of its
associated businesses and knowledge-
based institutions.
• To enable these goals to be met, a Science
Park stimulates and manages the flow of
knowledge and technology amongst
universities, R&D institutions, companies
and markets.
• It facilitates the creation and growth of
innovation-based companies through
incubation, providing business advice to
start-ups, and easy access to venture
capital, patent agents, etc.
6. Agricultural Innovation System
A group of organizations and
individuals involved in the
generation, diffusion, adoption and
use of new knowledge and the
context and institutions that govern
the way these interactions and
processes take place. (Fatunbi Oluwole and
Adewale Adekunle, FARA)
Working
Together,
Delivering
Together
7. Multistakeholder Processes (MSP)
• The fundamental characteristic
of multistakeholder processes is
the participatory involvement of
stakeholders in the decision-
making process in iterative steps
that allow for shared learning,
collaborative planning and
eventual interventions with a
likelihood of institutionalization,
out-scaling and up-scaling.
• Learning Alliances and
Innovation Platforms are
examples of MSPs.
8. Innovation Platform
An Innovation Platform is a physical
or virtual forum established to
facilitate interactions, and learning
among stakeholders selected from a
commodity chain analysis.
Their interaction leads to
participatory diagnosis of problems;
joint exploration of opportunities and
investigation of solutions leading to
the generation of agricultural
innovation along the targeted
commodity chain.
(Fatunbi Oluwole and Adewale Adekunle, FARA)
9. What are innovation platforms?
Who uses innovation platforms?
How do innovation platforms work?
What kind of process is typical in IPs?
What are some of the main benefits and constraints?
In small
groups, take 5
minutes and
discuss:
11. Boogaard et al propose 5 themes and 11
reflection issues around innovation platforms
12. Innovation platform phases according to
various authors
• Generally speaking, these are quite similar to the model
we just covered.
Source: Boogaard et al p.6
14. Benefits of innovation platforms
• facilitate dialogue and understanding
• enable partners to identify the bottlenecks hindering
innovation
• create motivation and a feeling of ownership
• facilitate upward communication
• lead to better-informed decisions
• contribute to capacity development
• make innovative research possible
• enhance impact
15. What is the most enticing benefit of IPs
as far as you are concerned?
A. Facilitate dialogue
B. Identify bottlenecks
C. Motivation & ownership
D. Upward communication
E. Better-informed decisions
F. ↑ Capacity development
G. Enable innovative research
H. Enhance impact
16. Typical constraints
• Progress and success depends on the full buy-in of
the members
• Tangible outputs are needed to sustain the
members’ interest and commitment
• can be difficult and costly to implement
• require a long-term perspective
• can be difficult to monitor and evaluate innovation
platforms in a systematic way
17. What is the most crippling constraint of IPs
as far as you are concerned?
A. Dependence on full buy-in
B. Need for ongoing tangible
outputs
C. Difficult & costly to
implement
D. Long term perspective
E. Difficult to M&E
F. Power dynamics
Dependence
on
fullbuy-in
Need
forongoingtangibl...
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costlyto
im
p...
Longterm
perspective
Difficultto
M
&
E
Pow
erdynam
ics
5%
15%
20%
5%
15%
40%
18. Learning Alliances
• Learning Alliances were
designed by CIAT in the early
2000s as a solution for the
challenges of outscaling;
• Quickly evolved into vehicles
for strategic research and
capacity development.
• Learning alliances are seen as
an approach for building
multistakeholder innovation
systems.
Photos: :http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/
19. Definition of a Learning Alliance
• A Learning Alliance comprises
collaborative teams involving research
organizations, donor and
development agencies, policymakers
and private businesses brought
together to share good practice.
• Links diverse actors in agricultural
value chains and their knowledge in
co-learning platforms. The multiple
sources of knowledge available help
to foster continuous technological,
social and institutional innovations to
respond to rapidly changing contexts
and demands.
IITA learning alliance for climate change
CIAT learning alliance workshop
20. Forging partnerships at multiple levels
• At the local level, an IP or Learning Alliance interacts with
processes of local economic development, local planning and
rural livelihoods in collaboration with local NGOs and, indirectly,
their partners such as farmers and farmer associations.
• At a meso level, the system conducts strategic research on
development strategies and approaches, public-sector policy,
private sector policy and decision-making.
• At a macro scale, the innovation system links to trade policy, and
issues of social equity and justice.
21. Advantages of Learning Alliances and
Innovation Platforms
• Extends the mobility of knowledge, tools
and approaches by making use of
existing networks;
• Supports ongoing dialogue between
researchers and development actors on
lessons learned, innovations, adaptation
and emerging demands for new
research;
• Ensures greater relevance of research as
it is defined by needs;
• Supports learning across organizational
and geographical boundaries through the
establishment of communities of practice
around specific topics.
22. The concept of innovation platforms originated in industry and
business. Which part of the concept did NOT carry over to agriculture?
A. The aim of improving
livelihoods of all
stakeholders
B. The involvement of
diverse actors
C. Sharing of knowledge
and technology
D.The emphasis on high-
tec
Theaim
ofim
proving
livelihood...
Theinvolvem
entofdiverse
actors
Sharingofknow
ledge
and
techn...
Theem
phasison
high-tec
2
14
1
3
23. Which of the following positive outcomes would you not anticipate
from the implementation of an innovation platform or learning
alliance?
A. Increased numbers of
patents
B. Greater relevance of
research to farmers'
needs
C. Greater mobility of
knowledge, tools and
approaches
D. Enhanced learning
Increased
num
bersofpatents
Greaterrelevance
ofresearch
t...
Greaterm
obilityofknow
ledge,...Enhanced
learning
16
0
2
3
24. There is negligible difference between an innovation platform
and a learning alliance. TRUE or FALSE?
A.True
B. False
True
False
6
12
25. More information
This module is associated with an elearning module
on ‘Understanding, Facilitating and Monitoring
Agricultural Innovation Platforms’ available at:
http://learning.ilri.org/course/detail/24
The course was inspired by a series of briefs
available at:
https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/33667
See especially: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/34157
26. The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.
better lives through livestock
ilri.org
Thank You
Editor's Notes
Let us be clear about what we mean by the term ‘innovation’. Innovation is not merely new technology. Innovation is a process of technical, social and institutional change that results from the interaction among multi-layered sources of knowledge and its transformation into new things, products or practices. The sources of knowledge are system stakeholders including researchers, farmers, financial institutions, NGOs, government and traders amongst others. The knowledge that these stakeholders bring to the table allows innovation to be effective in the particular institutional and cultural context in question.
Innovation requires open dialog between diverse actors and shared learning. The incentives and resources needed to form partnerships and develop businesses must be available to back up the dialog. Dialog should involve a cycle of problem identification, suggesting and trialing different solutions and reflection on the outcomes. It may be necessary to re-examine assumptions and try a completely different course of action if the solutions initially identified turn out to be effective. This willingness to review the entire problem scenario rather than merely apply minor refinements to the solution initially agreed on, is referred to as double loop learning. Solutions need to consider multiple dimensions – biophysical, environmental, financial etc. Action may need to be taken at multiple levels to ensure success. For example, it may be necessary to change government policy at national level to support an initiative being taken at a local level.
Innovation is very important to industry and the emphasis on innovative processes and working together to achieve innovation was first seen in high tech industry.
The lessons of industry and commerce then came to be applied to agriculture. An Agricultural Innovation System or AIS is a group of organizations and/or individuals involved in the generation, diffusion, adoption and use of new knowledge and the context and institutions that govern the way these interactions and processes take place.
The process by which these AISs work is often termed a multistakeholder process as it involves the participatory involvement of stakeholders in the decision making process. The decision making process occurs in iterative steps that allow for shared learning and collaborative planning. Ideally the intervention designed through this iterative process will become institutionalized, out-scaled and up-scaled. Out-scaling is the process of spreading the intervention to a greater number of beneficiaries. Up-scaling involves creating policy and administrative support for the intervention at higher levels of government. Learning alliances and innovation platforms are examples of multi-stakeholder processes.
An innovation platform is a forum established to facilitate interactions and learning among stakeholders. The forum may meet physically or online. Stakeholders can be selected based on a commodity chain analysis or a more general stakeholder analysis depending on the purpose of the innovation platform. The interaction of stakeholders leads to a participatory diagnosis of problems, joint exploration of opportunities and investigation of solutions. This will probably be an iterative process involving double loop learning. The combined knowledge and experience of stakeholders has the potential to lead to the generation of agricultural innovation.
Some notable activities include:
Developing guiding principles and building blocks for development of CGIAR Capacity Development Strategy
Defining elements for articulating a value proposition for what Capacity Development could offer to the ’new’ CGIAR, and what kind of activities and approaches the CapDev community have to offer the system
Provided components and ideas for the SRF Management Update – continuing to work with the Consortium Office on this.
Learning Alliances were designed by CIAT in the early 2000s, originally as a solution for the challenges of out-scaling. CIAT found that even though many of their projects were highly successful in a pilot phase, trying to scale out good practice by traditional methods such as distributing manuals and flyers didn't work. So under the Rural Agro-Enterprise Development Project implemented from 2003, the organisation started work on developing new approaches, tools and methods. The outscaling goal was gradually subsumed within a larger goal of providing strategic research and capacity development. This led learning alliances, like innovation platforms, to become an approach for building multistakeholder innovation systems.
A learning alliance comprises collaborative teams involving research organizations, donor and development agencies, policymakers and private businesses brought together to share and adapt good practice.
The learning alliance is based on a social learning approach that situates scientific research as just one form of specialised knowledge amidst other contextual knowledge. The emphasis is on Co-Learning – linking diverse actors in agricultural value chains and their knowledge in co-learning platforms. Bringing diverse knowledge and social worlds together to exchange needs, values and norms is considered necessary to cope with the complexity of fostering continuous innovation in response to rapidly changing contexts and demands.
Learning Alliances rely on forging partnerships at multiple levels. At the local level, a learning alliance interacts with processes of local economic development, local planning and rural livelihoods. It works in close collaboration with local NGOs and, indirectly, their partners such as farmers and farmer associations. At a meso level, a learning alliance supports strategic research on development strategies and approaches, public-sector policy, private sector policy and decision making. At a macro level, work is done at the level of trade or agricultural policies with issues such as social equity and justice being a focus.
By linking actors together, Learning Alliances and Innovation Platforms extend the mobility of knowledge, tools and approaches effectively and efficiently. For instance, Learning Alliances are able to use their close association with NGOs to tap into NGO networks. A learning alliance or innovation platform supports ongoing dialogue between researchers and development actors on lessons learned, innovations, adaptation and emerging demands for new research. Because it is defined by needs, research is highly relevant to local agricultural issues. Finally, a learning alliance or innovation platform supports learning across organizational and geographical boundaries through the establishment of communities of practice around specific topics.