Newsletter Special Edition August 2003

Five parallel sub-plenary sessions were organized and designed to maximize interaction among the members of the different GFAR stakeholder constituencies in discussing emerging themes around which potential GPPs could be developed. The themes, selected on the basis of some of the initiatives currently under development by some GFAR stakeholders, include the following: (1) Rural Knowledge Systems and Innovation Processes; (2) Agrobased Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Markets in Developing Countries; (3) Agriculture-Livestock Integration; (4) Organizational Partnerships for Agricultural Research; and (5) Innovative Policy Directions and Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development. A non-exhaustive list of issues for discussion prepared by the Secretariat, was made available to each sub-plenary session as guidelines in order to stimulate discussion (Boxes 8 to 12).

Among the activities that the GFAR Secretariat is facilitating are those related to rural knowledge systems and innovation process (RKS & IP). Broadly, these include efforts aimed at addressing mutual learning and sharing of agriculture-related information, technology and knowledge among various stakeholders in ARD in a participatory way so that these can be made accessible to communities in forms which they can utilize. RKS & IP are deemed important in empowering local communities and improving their livelihoods.

Session Structure

The sub-plenary session was chaired by Raghunath Ghodake, Director-General of the Papua New Guinea National Agricultural Research Institute, with Paul Engel, Director of the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) as key speaker, Nathan Russell of CIAT as resource person, and Ann Waters-Bayer of ETC-Ecoculture as rapporteur.

Presentations

Five presentations were made during the sub-plenary session. The main presentation was by Paul Engel on Knowing for Development. His presentation covered the concept of knowledge as a domain of inquiry and how knowledge systems thinking changes over time, i.e. from planning for innovation in the 1970s to social inquiry and learning in the 1990s. He also presented some issues and insights related to governance of knowing for development. He concluded his presentation by posing researchable questions related to a global research effort on the governance of knowledge systems and innovation: What approaches do work? Why do they work? What conditions are to be met to make them work?

Complementary presentations on ongoing initiatives related to RKS&IP were made by the following participants: Monica Kapiriri (Aga Khan Foundation-Tanzania) on Promoting Local Innovation-PROLINNOVA, and Bert Lof (ETC-Ecoculture) and Cecile Broutin (GRET-Senegal) on InterSard/InterDev: Partnership for Sharing Information and Knowledge. Finally, Mark Holderness from CAB International presented the concept note on a new initiative on rural knowledge partnership called Putting Knowledge to Work.

Discussion Summary

The presentations were followed by a discussion session on the concept of knowledge and innovation, which generated the following observations. Firstly that innovation is a process of social interaction that provides new knowledge for the stakeholders. Secondly that evidence exists that most farmers and communities construct knowledge without interaction with scientists, because more often than not, scientific innovation systems and institutions deny farmers pride in their own knowledge and learning systems. Hence the need for scientists to learn how to contribute to the wider societal process of learning. Finally the importance of sharing credit and benefits equitably amongst contributors to knowledge generated was emphasized.

Given the above observations, participants agreed on the need for a platform for global learning on local innovation systems to improve their efficacy and enhance the contribution of formal science to them. The participants agreed that this platform described as a Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) should: (1) build on current initiatives; (2) generate some synergy by bringing together different disciplinary and philosophical approaches; (3) derive organizational, institutional and policy principles of promoting innovation systems (such as international public goods); and (4) advocate for an innovation systems approach to research thereby facilitating the translation of lessons learned into policy. Participants also recognized the potential of EGFAR as a means for people faced with local problems to access useful ideas and innovation from a global pool.

Some indicative and appropriate researchable issues that could be treated under this GKP are described below. The cultural sociology and economic policy of successful innovation, including enabling environment, policy and power linkages associated with RKS & IP. Socio-cultural differences in the way people learn at individual, community and institutional levels as well as factors that hinder and favor synergy among diverse learning communities.

Approaches for facilitating linkage between indigenous and scientific innovation systems as well as effective ways, tools and devices of developing mutual social learning to link indigenous and scientific innovation systems in order to encourage interactive learning processes between farmers and scientists. Competences needed to manage and facilitate interactions between knowledge systems as well as institutional mechanisms for scaling-up principles and good practices in participatory innovation processes. An understanding of how farmers conduct their own research, innovate and learn, including what stimulates social behavior among farmers to seek out new information, to combine this information with their own knowledge, to experiment, to innovate, to have sufficient pride and confidence in their own tradition and culture to use this as the fertile ground for growing outside ideas.

Two other researchable issues identified were firstly the need to examine documentation and subsequent diffusion of rural knowledge and innovation, especially local means of preserving and passing on knowledge. The challenge here is how rural realities can be documented from local perspectives which are socially constructed and embedded in a complex cultural whole. Democratizing tools for handling information and giving people opportunities to document their own experiences as a means of learning for themselves and for others is another research issue that needs attention.

Secondly, the need to look into the inertia of donor-driven innovation, measuring the impact and efficacy of mutual learning processes in improving livelihoods, and the effects of external factors such as trade on the success of innovation processes.

Next Steps

As follow-up to the discussion, participants agreed to provide feedback on the draft sub-plenary session report to be circulated by the GFAR Secretariat. An electronic discussion will also be launched to further the interaction on the topic as well as to explore institutional interests and potential contributions in the development of the GKP. As well a workshop was proposed to define global partnership on RKS & IP in more detail.

Box 8. Issues for Discussion-Rural Knowledge Systems and Innovation Processes

The purpose of this sub-plenary session is to have an understanding of the knowledge-poverty nexus and to discuss how this can be translated into concrete partnership programs in ARD.

The knowledge-poverty nexus

What is a knowledge system? How can the mutual recognition, interaction and utilization of various knowledge systems contribute to poverty alleviation?
What are the general trends and global strategic issues in rural knowledge systems and innovation processes? Why the sudden interest in the theme?
What are the related concepts, methodologies and principles that contribute to the transformation of researchers, development agents and farmers and their organizations, institutions, norms, behaviors and relationships?
What are the capacities (knowledge, skills, attitudes and behavior) needed to enable the above transformation, and the effective generation, access and use of knowledge?
How to demonstrate the direct impact/relationship between poverty alleviation and improved knowledge systems, for example increased capacity of vulnerable groups to deal with complex issues while improving their resilience to rapid change in their livelihood systems (e.g. market) and their natural environment

Partnership programs

What type of partnerships and what implementation mechanisms are needed to promote research partnerships in this area? What are the ways of incorporating knowledge management and innovation processes into ARD?
What are the qualitative and quantitative costs and benefits of knowledge-sharing using criteria from different knowledge systems from a sustainability perspective? How to sustain information flows and who pays for it? Does the benefit of having access to a global pool of knowledge outweigh individual benefit?
What are the roles and responsibilities of researchers and communities in utilizing and managing knowledge systems to facilitate the agricultural innovation process?
What are IPR issues related to knowledge management? How will they impact on local communities and small farmers? How can these impacts be mitigated?
What is the role of modern ICT in this area?

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