WP 5: Synthesising lessons and setting the agenda for future research, practice and policy

Task 5.1: Identifying lessons and priorities for future research, practice and policy

The identification of lessons and priorities will be an ongoing process throughout project implementation, but will be given a concerted focus towards the end of the project. Key activities include:

1. Ensuring that each case-study report undertaken as part of WP2, and particularly the in-depth ones, includes a brief section on identified priorities for the way forward
2. Discussing the findings of the case studies and identifying initial priorities for research, practice and policy through the second e-discussion (ED2) by the international learning platform (WP4 Task 4.2)
3. Discussing case-study findings and identifying key lessons and priorities for future research, practice and policy at country level in each of the three target countries, during the multistakeholder series of events at the end of the project (N-X3)
4. Consolidating and validating these outputs during the end-of-project workshop G3
5. Reviewing and summarising all the above outputs to come up with a focused agenda for future research, practice and policy, to be shared widely and made available on the project website (see Task 5.2).

Note: Provided that additional funding can be secured, the JOLISAA project would be ideally placed to be a major co-organiser of a second “Innovation Africa Symposium” (IAS II), building on the success and interest generated by the first such Symposium organised in November 2006 in Uganda (Pascal et al 2008; see also www.innovationafrica.net). IAS II would provide a forum for a large group of resource persons to know about and review the case studies and lessons learnt and to bring in other experiences related to agricultural/rural innovation and L/TK approaches in Africa. It would also contribute to strengthening the interactions between the different players and provide an opportunity to build up broad-based support for following up on the identified priorities for future research, practice and policy. Other likely interested co-organisers may include FARA, the Convergence of Sciences programme, the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations’ AGRA programme, the World Bank Innovation Systems programme, the UNU-Merit/FAO LINK network, CGIAR centres and other major ARD players in Africa, including the EC.

Task 5.2: Documenting and disseminating lessons learnt and formulating a future agenda

Documentation and dissemination of project outputs will be an important activity throughout the project but especially towards its end. The major activity will be to summarise the key findings and experiences of all activities, study reports, workshop proceedings etc into a synthesis document that also highlights priorities for future research, practice and policy. This synthesis report will be written in such as way that it will be accessible to non-academics such as policymakers, development practitioners, the private sector and donors. It will be prepared in close collaboration with the authors of the case studies and the project partners. Researchers will write articles for publication in scientific journals. A policy brief will be prepared, specifically looking at policy issues related to agricultural/rural innovation and L/TK. Key documents to be prepared will include:

• Scientific papers for relevant international journals (such as Agriculture and Human Values , Agricultural Systems , Research Policy  and World Development ) synthesising the key results of the assessment across countries, including an analysis of the framework, the approach and the comparison across cases
• Articles about results and lessons for more practice-oriented publications, such as the LEISA Magazine , or Rural Development News
• Synthesis reports for each of the three target countries, providing (a) short individual executive summaries of the in-depth case studies; (b) an overview and discussion of the state of innovation systems in each target country, based on lessons learnt about it through the series of case studies; and (c) an overall assessment of the institutional landscape that impacts upon these innovation systems, including elements for a future advocacy strategy envisioned by the national network/platform members. Conclusions from these workshops will be developed and made available in the form of national syntheses.
• A synthesis report on future priorities for research, practice and policy.

Task 5.3: Policy recommendations

Based on the above inputs, a policy brief will be prepared, specifically looking at policy issues related to agricultural/rural innovation and L/TK. Elements for this report will be discussed and validated during national events NX-3 and during the final global event G3.

Deliverables WP5

D5.1  2–3 scientific papers, synthesising the key results of the assessment across countries (Month 31 or later, for the submission of manuscripts to journals)

D5.2  2-3 articles about results and lessons for more-practice oriented publications (M20, M30)

D5.3  Three synthesis reports by each target country (Month 28) about the state of innovation systems, the individual case studies, the lessons learnt, the institutional landscape and the way forward.

D5.4  Policy brief on agricultural/rural innovation and local/traditional knowledge (Month 30)

D5.5  Synthesised agenda for future research, practice and policy (Month 30)