Beyond knowledge brokerage: an exploratory study of innovation intermediaries in an evolving smallholder agricultural system in Kenya

The recognition that innovation occurs in networks of heterogeneous actors and requires broad systemic support beyond knowledge brokering has resulted in a changing landscape of the intermediary domain in an increasingly market-driven agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper presents findings of an explorative case study that looked at 22 organisations identified as fulfilling an intermediary role in the Kenyan agricultural sector. The results show that these organisations fulfill functions that are not limited to distribution of knowledge and putting it into use. The functions also include fostering integration and interaction among the diverse actors engaged in innovation networks and working on technological, organisational and institutional innovation. Further, the study identified various organisational arrangements of innovation intermediaries with some organisations fulfilling a specialised innovation brokering role, even as other intermediaries take on brokering as a side activity, while still substantively contributing to the innovation process. Based on these findings we identify a typology of 4 innovation intermediation arrangements, including technology brokers, systemic brokers, enterprise development support and input access support. The results indicate that innovation brokering is a pervasive task in supporting innovation and will require policy support to embed it in innovation support arrangements. The paper is not normative about these arrangements

Unraveling innovation platforms – Insights from co-evolution of innovation in a smallholder dairy development program in Kenya

Challenges facing agricultural development, particularly in developing countries dominated by smallholder farming are increasingly framed in the context of weak innovation systems and capacities in the growing literature on agricultural innovation systems. Innovation systems (IS) approaches emphasize the collective dimension of innovation pointing to the need to effect necessary linkages and interaction among multiple actors. IS thinking also pays attention to the co-evolution of innovation processes, arguing that successful innovation results from alignment of technical, social, institutional and organizational dimensions. These insights are increasingly informing interventions that focus on supporting multi-stakeholder arrangements such as innovation platforms as mechanisms for enhancing agriculture innovation. While much emphasis in analyzing agricultural innovation systems has focused on how these multi-stakeholder platforms are organized and mechanisms through which actors interact, there has been limited analysis that has unraveled how and why such platforms contribute to innovation processes and thus they remain a black-box. This paper therefore aims to address this gap by analyzing innovation platforms as intermediaries in efforts to better understand their contribution in shaping dynamic innovation processes. The paper presents an empirical case study of the East African Dairy (EADD) program in Kenya. The program is led by a consortium of five organizations and provides a platform for building partnerships between farmers, various government and private sector actors to enhance innovation for improving productivity and market access for smallholder dairy farmers. The results show the diverse role of the platform as the innovation process unfolds and draws conclusion relevant to how the concept of platforms is usually approached and calls for a more dynamic view in analyzing them as part of understanding innovation processes

Beyond knowledge brokerage: an exploratory study of innovation intermediaries in an evolving smallholder agricultural system in Kenya

The recognition that innovation occurs in networks of heterogeneous actors and requires broad systemic support beyond knowledge brokering has resulted in a changing landscape in the intermediary domain in the increasingly market-driven agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper presents findings of an explorative case study that looked at 22 organizations identified as fulfilling an intermediary role in the Kenyan agricultural sector. The results show that these organizations fulfill functions that are not limited to distribution of knowledge and putting it into use but also include fostering integration and interaction among the diverse actors engaged in innovation networks and working on technological, organizational, and institutional innovation. Further, the study has identified various organizational arrangements of innovation intermediaries, with some organizations fulfilling a specialized innovation brokering role and other intermediaries taking on brokering as a side activity, while substantively contributing to the innovation process. On the basis of these findings, we identify a typology of four innovation intermediation arrangements including technology broker, systemic broker, enterprise development support, and input access support. The results indicate that innovation brokering is a pervasive task in supporting innovation and will require policy support to embed it in innovation support arrangements, but without prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach

Unravelling the role of innovation intermediaries in smallholder agricultural development: case studies from Kenya

Understanding agricultural innovation processes and recognizing the potential for catalysing them is crucial for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Kenya. This is because the smallholder dominated agricultural sector remains critical to realizing economic growth and poverty reduction goals. There is a growing focus in agricultural innovation studies on understanding how innovation processes are orchestrated and particularly the role of innovation intermediaries that have emerged as specialised actors that support such processes

Wastewater irrigation, farmers' perceptions of health risks and institutional perspectives : a case study in Maili Saba, Nairobi

program Initiative within IDRC. Funding for the internship was provided by IDRC’s Center and Training Awards office. I would like to sincerely express my gratitude to all members of the CFP team who provided me with support and direction during the internship. I would especially like to thank Ana Boischio, my mentor for providing invaluable intellectual guidance. I am also grateful to other members of staff at the IDRC who assisted me at various points during my internship. My heartfelt thanks also go out to my fellow interns at the center for their camaraderie. Outside of IDRC, I would like to thank my dear friend Taina Chahal for bringing the internship opportunities to my attention. During my fieldwork, many individuals provided me with invaluable assistance. I would like to particularly thank IDRC- ESARO office for hosting me, the Urban Harvest team, particularly Mary Njenga for linking me with the community in Maili Saba, David Kuria and Rebecca Kabura of ITDG Nairobi for useful comments on the questionnaire and for providing further contacts in Maili Saba. My thanks also go to Peter Mwangagi from Maili Saba and Dorcas Mwakoi, Elizabeth Njau and Tom Kinara of the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture office in Nairobi for their invaluable assistance on the field. Thanks to all staff at the Nairobi City Council who answered to my inquiries and assisted me in accessing documents. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the farmers in Maili Saba for their generosity of time and for being keen on being part of the research so that they could tell their stories

Unravelling the role of innovation platforms in supporting co-evolution of innovation: Contributions and tensions in a smallholder dairy development programme

The agricultural innovation systems approach emphasizes the collective nature of innovation and stresses that innovation is a co-evolutionary process, resulting from alignment of technical, social, institutional and organizational dimensions. These insights are increasingly informing interventions that focus on setting up multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as innovation platforms and networks, as mechanisms for enhancing agricultural innovation, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. There has been much emphasis on how such platforms are organized, but only limited analysis unravelling how they shape co-evolution of innovation processes. This paper addresses this gap and conceptualizes platforms as intermediaries that connect the different actors in innovation systems in order to foster effective co-evolution. We present a case study of a smallholder dairy development programme in Kenya, led by a consortium of five organizations that provide a platform for building multi-actor partnerships to enhance smallholder dairy productivity and improve livelihoods. The findings indicate that co-evolution of innovation is a highly dynamic process with various interactional tensions and unexpected effects, and that the distributed nature of intermediation is important in resolving some of these tensions emerging at different actor interfaces. However, platforms are not always able to adapt adequately to emerging issues. This points to the need to look at platforms dynamically and pay more attention to mechanisms that strengthen feedback, learning and adaptive management in innovation processe