contribution of science policy platforms to innovation functions

The innovation platform (IP) approach has gained

popularity as a promising way to stimulate meaning-

ful changes in agricultural systems.

In the innovation literature, intermediaries are

portrayed as neutral agents. How their experience

and intrinsic capacity interplay with the innovation

processes and contribute to specific innovation

functions was not studied specifically.

• baCkgRound

The broader contribution of this study is to provide

empirical evidences on how intermediaries in inno-

vation communities contribute to the innovation

functions in the context Sub-Saharan agricultural

and climate change.

• objeCtives

Research focused on three diversified case studies

from Jirapa, Lawra and Nandom districts, in the

Upper West Region of Ghana.

Empirical data were collected from field interviews

and observations to investigate the dynamics that

take place in the practice of the platform approach.

• Methodology

The profile of the intermediaries affects the activi-

ties that they promote.

The more the intermediaries are engaged in a wide

network, the more diversified are the activities,

contributing to many innovation functions.

The combination of divers functions offer more

rooms for sustainable transformation.

• ConClusions

Contribution of science-policy platforms to innovation functions:

An analysis of three case-studies from Ghana Edmond Totin1, Carla Roncoli2, Pierre Sibiry Traoré1

1International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)2Emory University, USA

Corresponding author email: e.totin@cigar.org

- At Jirapa, the platform intermediary is extension

officer; at Lawra, the traditional authorities and

at Nandom, an NGO. The choice of intermedia-

ries is shaped by the broader historical, political

and the institutional contexts in each district.

- At Jirapa, the focus is on the knowledge develop-

ment & diffusion function;

- Lawra platform goes beyond primary function

of knowledge development & diffusion,

intermediaries developed activities that also

contribute the legitimation function.

- At Nandom, intermediaries propose a wide range

of activities that contribute to Knowledge

development & diffusion; Entrepreneurship and

Market identification and formation functions.

• Results