The Joint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture (JOLISAA) program, shares recent experiences on innovation processes involving multiple stakeholders and types of knowledge.
Innovation Systems (IS) perspective inspires the framework of the
JOLISAA research. IS stresses that the flow of technology and information among stakeholders is key to innovative processes. The project uses several avenues (inclusion/exclusion criteria, storyline, common underlying concepts, and iterative processes) to identify relevant innovations for deeper assessment and joint learning. JOLISSA lists selected innovations in three national inventories (
Benin,
Kenya, and
South Africa).
Jointly, practitioners and researchers assess 13 cases from the existing
national inventories. The key steps in this collaborative case assessments are: i) planning meetings, ii) focus group discussions, iii) multi-stakeholders feedback, and iv) literature review.
First findings of the study show that African innovation processes at smallholders level have the capacities to take advantage of opportunities, create markets, and manage natural resources. The project recommends
long term support (min. 10 years) in dynamic, iterative and flexible manner adapted to specificities of context. This allows unfolding of multiple stakeholders processes and widespread impact of innovations in the African agricultural sector.
If you are interested and work on this topic,
do not miss the
international event JOLISAA will organize late may 2013, Kenya.