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An overview of innovation platforms
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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
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From technology transfer (TT) to agricultural innovation systems (AIS)ILRI
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An overview of innovation platforms
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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)
- 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:
- Typical innovation platform cycle
- Boogaard et al propose 5 themes and 11 reflection issues around innovation platforms
- 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
- Dynamic Processes Changing focus Changing membership Changing responsibilities
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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... Difficult& costlyto im p... Longterm perspective Difficultto M & E Pow erdynam ics 5% 15% 20% 5% 15% 40%
- 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/
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- There is negligible difference between an innovation platform and a learning alliance. TRUE or FALSE? A.True B. False True False 6 12
- 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
- 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.
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