Prolinnova Webinar Series 2023 – Webinar 1 Report: “Linking with universities and research institutions in promoting farmer-led participatory innovation development in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resource management”
Prolinnova has initiated a series of three webinars to provide an opportunity for its Community of Practice to share experiences in linking with university and research actors in promoting the Participatory Innovation Development (PID) approach. This report presents the results of the first of the three webinars, which took place on 19 April 2023. The webinar introduced the concepts of local innovation and PID and case studies on PID activities implemented in Prolinnova Country Platforms (CPs) in collaboration with university and research actors.
Five cases were presented during the webinar from five CPs, namely in Kenya, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Nepal and the United Kingdom (UK). The cases covered the following topics:
- An overview of the PID concept and an innovator’s perspective
- Experience in collaboration between a research institution and Prolinnova–Burkina Faso in the framework of the Proli-GEAFaSa (Promoting local innovation in water management by family farmers in the Sahel) project
- The use of PID as an entry point to engaged scholarship
- Status and lessons learnt in Nepal in integrating local innovation and PID into academia
- Powering up farmer-led research through linking with research and innovation organisations in the UK and the European Union (EU).
The webinar highlighted the importance of collaboration among CP stakeholders and the value of using “PID champions”. It showed that continuous capacity building and awareness creation of stakeholders for continuous engagement is necessary for the effective implementation of the process and attitude change. Influencing universities and research institutions need time and resources. Instituting a reward system for lecturers and researchers and their capacity building can help change their attitudes. Documentation and sharing of experiences are necessary as well as resource mobilisation for PID projects. Advocating for appropriate funding sources is key.
The full report can be found here.