farm-scale_research_design_Sept2012_day1close

= Developing a R4D approach at farm-level - consultation and writing workshop = Back to the event agenda
 * Info centre break out room, 13-14 September, ILRI Ethiopia **


 * Summary: **
 * // Innovation is something applied in a new place - whether new people, process, institution etc. //
 * // Participation is not the same as negotiation //
 * // Innovation system thinking is about a continuous, collective process //
 * // We need champions at various levels in this process (also in Africa RISING) //
 * // Such processes also need strong facilitation capacity, often lacking at local level //
 * // Innovation systems sometimes work in parallel but they would gain by being connected with one another //
 * // We have to draw lessons from the past - and yet also grapple with these issues in this group //
 * // In Africa RISING we need to find ways to combine typologies that help as entry points and those that help for scaling up and assessment of lessons. //


 * Fishbowl discussion**
 * What is innovation?
 * I made it very simple in my mind, the people who are involved in te process do something new, it could be people, a process, an institute, it could be done technologically or traditionally, but when we do something new I call it innovation.
 * The word //participation// is when somebody participating in some agenda, whereas in innovation system thinking, it is collaborating in research for development, farmers could participate in the process,
 * Is negotiation participation?
 * You participate in the negotiation but it doesn't necessarily mean negotiation
 * Innovation system thinking is a collective process
 * Innovation system engage people to participate in the process
 * One thing which is good about innovation system is that it creates a certain awareness...
 * Technologies can be invented but unless they are adopted and put in place and change something they will not be called innovation
 * Innovation systems are not perfect. The whole idea is to find ways to make it function better
 * The process in the innovations systems is continuous
 * The lack of knowledge and connection b/n people is the failure of the innovation system
 * There is a need for champions in the process, who should lead the process (also in the case of Africa RISING)
 * You can champion to lead the technology and the process
 * Who should do it? It could be done by researchers, local people, a local government body etc.
 * In this process we need multiple champions, we need different people who know the technology, the politics and the process
 * We need very strong champions to push the process forward
 * What is special about agriculture, agricultural technologies, what is different about it?
 * Dissemination platform is different from innovation platform, innovation platform will not be done with one click it needs engagement and collaboration
 * Coming back to problem of the participation, where is the capacity to do this? There is no strong capacity at local level to engage in this process
 * Having champions is very interesting thing, it will bring a new energy and understanding of the platforms and their dynamic structure
 * With regards to the water and land innovation system platform, how did you identify your entry point?
 * For our case the entry point was developed by us but very quickly the issue moved to marketing and then to big institutional issues
 * What is the definition of the entry point? Usually the entry point is the project
 * In the case of Africa RISING, we need to deal with different CG centre partnerships
 * Let us think about we want to do with innovation system, go and talk to different actors, could be the community, local government body and researchers, then you will develop the agenda
 * The diversity thing is interesting, with IP specially in Ethiopia dominated by the public sector
 * Local level platforms, trying to get them to be aware of the diversity, diversity of the community they are working with. And the diversity of the stakeholders
 * There is some innovation systems which exist locally but the process could be further expanded
 * Different innovation systems happen with different actors, they might not be linked
 * A lot of localized innovation systems would be successful if we integrate them with other systems environments
 * The World Bank innovation system has nothing to do with local innovation systems

//Commentary by selected people//: Fascinating process to follow. We are recreating an approach to participatory research and development which is hopefully appropriate for our purpose. Perhaps we have not drawn enough upon lessons from the past. But we have to go through this process about why a typology etc.
 * Ann**:

We were aiming of having sthg concrete but we ended up with a lot of discussions. The typologies discussion is mixing typologies to describe your system and typologies to scale things up. We were overlapping on these two because we didn't make this distinction. But how will Africa RISING make use of the typologies?
 * Diego**:

We did identify these two dimensions for typologies. There is a process we have to go through to combine technologies etc. around on-farm technology adaptation/endogenous innovation etc. and that will ultimately inform how we are going to scale (if we are). There might be different typologies for different purposes. We've had some very interesting discussions. Perhaps we can explore more how the perspectives could be combined. The overall objective of both approaches (presented by Ken and Ann) is quite similar in some way. Next Wednesday we will start step 0. We need to implement these typologies - how to do it? Having some kind of methodological comparison and identifying complementarities between the two would be great.
 * Peter**:

We have to start - we don't need a perfect approach, we'll try to learn from and improve previous approaches.
 * Diego**: