1. The document discusses innovation platforms which bring together stakeholders from different groups, sectors, and organizations to generate innovation and joint action around common problems in rural landscapes and livelihoods. 2. Innovation platforms create opportunities for stakeholders like farmers, government departments, NGOs, and the private sector to work together to test solutions, facilitate learning, build capacity, empower actors, and lead to joint actions that address wide-ranging issues. 3. By including different sources of knowledge and facilitating communication between stakeholders, innovation platforms can contribute to new knowledge, change habits and practices, and improve how development challenges are addressed in a more inclusive and sustainable manner.

1. Innovation Platforms Explained
Push RWM interventions & technologies Empower & engage actors in RWM strategies
Achieve sustainable landscapes & improved livelihoods
Achieve short term quotas
or
But stakeholders are not coordinated
Farmers: We want to improve landscapes and
Gov’t Line Depts:
livelihoods but we are not involved in
We want to make a di erence for our people but there are
planning process and our concerns are not
C recognized.
no incentives for di erent departments to work together C
to achieve our common goals.
o o
o o
r r
d NGOs: We want to support development activities but we can’t
d
i address the structural factors that underlie rural poverty with i
n our limited resources and time n
a a
t t
i Development Agents: We spend i
o time working with farmers but we o
n Local Administration: We have no budget, transport, n
have good policies for incentives and little control over
f improving local livelihoods major decisions so can’t facilitate f
and landscapes but we have
a problems in implementation
development process e ectively a
i i
l l
u u
r Research Institutes & r
Private sector: We see many business Universities: We have many
e opportunities but we can’t realize the bene ts useful research results and
e
in the absence of favorable enabling technologies but we have
environment di culty ensuring their
uptake at local level
So what can we do to improve this situation?
Create an Innovation Platform!
An Innovation Platform is a need-based network But how do innovation platforms change
bringing together stakeholders from di erent interest how things are done?
groups, disciplines, sectors and organizations to
exchange knowledge, generate innovation and Contributes to new knowledge
develop joint action. Platforms are more than just
places to talk; they create opportunities for
stakeholders to test solutions to common problems.
Changes habits Involves wider
and practices Includes di erent institutions,
Local
Research sources of knowledge policies and
markets
research
National
NGO
NBDC Community Facilitates learning
NB
Builds capacity
ou DC Empowers to innovate
tpu re
ts sea actors
rch
Indigenous Champion
Woreda knowledge farmers
admin
Leads to joint
es
Bu
ffic action
s
o
ine
da Community
ss
Community e Ac
or tion
ide
W 3
as
Woreda Encourages local actors Addresses wide Improves communication
Private
water
sector to own the process range of issues between stakeholders
Woreda
extension
Nile ILRI
International Livestock Research Institute Beth Cullen and Kebebe Ergano
Prepared for the International Forum on Water and Food, South Africa, 14-17 November 2011.
Licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. Produced by ILRI KMIS, November 2011.