Innovations in innovation: reflections on partnership, institutions and learning

This book explores the nature of innovation processes associated with socio-economic change in rural areas of developing countries. It brings together a collection of empirical and conceptual papers that discuss contemporary experiences and perspectives. Common to all of them is the use of the innovation systems concept as a guiding framework for analysis. Most of the papers use this framework to provide lessons for the agricultural research community, and in particular lessons on ways of more effectively deploying agricultural science and technology as part of the socio-economic development process. Three main themes emerge. Firstly, partnership is a core methodology for promoting innovation and ways of developing effective partnerships should be a central concern of research managers and planners. Secondly, research and related interventions need to be understood, planned, implemented, and evaluated cognizant of their institutional contexts. Practical tools to assist this need to be further developed and promoted. And thirdly, learning, and particularly institutional learning, is a central innovation process and finding ways to enhance learning will be critical in building more effective agricultural innovation capacities.