Post on 29-Nov-2014
description
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