the reality of innovation and its implications for projects
DESCRIPTION
Not just the adoption of new technology, (agricultural) innovation also involves a new way of organising farmers to do things, of marketing crops and implementing new projects and new policies. Here we discuss the implications for projects and initiatives.TRANSCRIPT
The Reality of Innovation and its Implications for Projects
Andy Hall
LINK-United Nations University-MERIT
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Development: A Knowledge-Intensive Process
• Using knowledge, information and ideas to add value to existing resources and skills to create social and economic outcomes in a sustainable way
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Integrated Nature of Issues
• Fodder/ Seed Systems / Flexibility in Governance Systems
• Transport / Animal Health/ Water Resource Development/ Infrastructure/ Marketing / Policy
• Animal Traction/ Confinement / Fodder / Fodder Production / Seed Production
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
What is Innovation?
• Adoption of new technology• New ways of organising farmers to do things• New ways of marketing crops• New ways of implementing projects
– new groupings of partners, new methodologies, new strategies
• New policies
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Partnership (Networking)
• What for?– Problem identification– Accessing resources/ funds/ skills/ technology– Joint problem-solving
• Who with?– Farmers/ individuals/ groups/ associations– Government– Research organisations– Private sector and NGOs– Etc.
• When?– Different partners at different times for different reasons
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Second-Third (etc.) generation problems
• Sorghum — Yolk colour
• Organic production — Confinement and bulls — Fodder strategies
• Fodder — Seed systems
• A continuously-evolving set of problems
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Skill Development
• New skills as part of a bigger set of activities
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Reflection on how results were achieved (Redefining Objectives)
• Sorghum coalition continued to work because they found the approach useful
• Transport project
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Implications for Projects and Organisations
• Defining problems much more holistically -- farming system but also much wider system of markets, government structures and policy
• Therefore need to tackle farm level, market level and policy level innovations all within the same project
• Therefore also need to think about who defines the problem, and follow opportunities rather that just constraints. Negotiating objectives rather than setting them.
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Implications for Projects and Organisations
• Multiple types of innovation require different and diverse partners.
• Village-level groupings for on-the-ground ownerships and outcomes, but also groups of stakeholders at operational and policy levels who can make change happen at their level
• Therefore, the need to have skills and time to identify partners and nurture partnerships that work. (Ritualistic partnerships don’t help)
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Implications for Projects and Organisations
• Need to recognise that making links is a specific activity and working out how to do it is a research task
• There is no one way of catalysing groupings/linkages and partnerships. This always has to be investigated in a particular context. It needs to be experimented with
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Implications for Projects and Organisations
• New problems need new partners• New problems cannot be predicted and need an
approach that recognises this – Action, Research, Flexibility
• Need mechanisms for identifying new problems and identifying the partners needed to help solve these
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Implications for Projects and Organisations
• Research, training, extension advocacy for policy change are all tasks that need to be part of a project
………..And not necessarily in that order
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
Implications for Projects and Organisations
• Systematically reflecting on how success was achieved
• Need for mid-course correction and developing capacity for future projects (of self and others)
• Therefore, need specific mechanisms and skills to do this in projects/ organisations
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation
LINK is a specialist network of regional innovation policy studies hubs established by the United Nations University-MERIT (UNU-MERIT)
and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to strengthen the interface between rural innovation studies,
policy and practice and to promote North-South and South-South learning on rural innovation.
Learning INnovation KnowledgePolicy-relevant Resources for Rural Innovation