IS-102 SEMINAR-07

About the Event 

You are cordially invited to participate in

Chris Freeman centenary Lecture series

Innovation Systems-102- Practical application of the IS-theory

SEMINAR- 7

21st  JANUARY, 2022 | 01.00 PM LONDON TIME (GMT)

8 AM - New York | 10 AM – Brazil |2 pm - Denmark, France | 3 pm - South Africa | 4 PM - EAT | 6:30 PM - India | 9 PM China & Malaysia |10 PM - Tokyo

REGISTRATION IS MANDATORY: https://unu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJclcO6gpjkpGNOSHIGqHAKnea82iZlg55AD

PRESENTERS:

Justina A. Onumah [Ghana] Welfare Dynamics of Innovations and Innovation System Interactions: Implication for poverty reduction among farm households in Ghana

Daniel Nigussie [Ethiopia] Analysis of Radical Niche Agricultural Innovation Processes and Transitions in Ethiopia: Application of Integrated framework of Innovation System and Multi - Level Perspectives 

DISCUSSANTS:

Andy Hall

Judith Francis

Yemis Abisuga

Rajesh GK

CHAIR: Lilian Lihasi

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Justina Onumah is a Senior Research Scientist and an Agricultural Development Economist at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana. She is also a Doctoral Fellow at the University of Ghana, researching on welfare dynamics of innovations and innovation system interactions. One of her PhD papers was adjudged the Best PhD Student Paper presented at the 2021 GLOBELICS conference held in Costa Rica. Her research interests are in the fields of impact assessment, innovation systems, research-policy-industry linkages, climate change, rural development, food security, poverty/welfare analysis, technology transfer, and science policy. She has authored publications in these fields and gained rich research experience through involvement in multiple donor-funded projects, consulting for reputable organisations such as the United Nations Center for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Solidaridad West Africa (SWA), UK Department for International Development (DFID), among others. Justina has strong organizational, communication, and public engagement skills and played a key role in the organisation of the 2018 GLOBELICS Conference held in Accra, Ghana. Justina also holds certification in Evidence and Policy from the European Commission Joint Research Centre and in Science Diplomacy from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). She is currently the Next Einstein Forum Ambassador for Ghana, an initiative aimed at promoting science in Africa. Justina serves as a mentor for the Ghana Science and Technology Explorer Prize, an initiative of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Ghana aimed at igniting the innovative capacity of young boys and girls in basic schools. She is also a mentor for the Karpowership Ghana Girl Power Programme in Ghana. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Knowledge and Research Management (PACKS Africa), whose mission is to influence the use of research and other forms of knowledge in the development of policies in Africa. Justina’s passion is to see more action put in science through mentorship, advocacy, engagements, and stronger research-industry-policy linkages.

Daniel Nigussie a lecturer at University of Gondar, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, Ethiopia. A PhD candidate at Addis Ababa University, College of Development, MSc  in Rural Development and MA in Educational Planning and Management from Haremaya and Bhair Dar Universities respectively. I am interested in the areas of innovation and Development including sectoral and technological innovation system analysis, socio –technical transitions, sustainable innovations, power relation, scaling innovations and social network analysis. 

Andy Hall is a science and technology policy analyst with a specialization in the study and design of agriculture innovation processes, policies and practices.  Andy did pioneering research on the nature and performance of agricultural innovation systems and more recently has explored transformational change and innovation process agri-food systems and the nature of knowledge systems needed to support the transition to sustainable production and consumption systems. He has published extensively on these topics in peer review and non-academic literature.  Andy obtained a PhD from the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex in 1994. He has held positions at the Ugandan Agricultural Research Institute, the Natural Resources Institute (UK), the International Center for Research in the Semi-Arid Tropic (ICRISAT), India and the United Nations University Institute for Economics Research on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), Netherlands/ India, and the Open University, UK.  He also worked as a consultant advising numerous international agencies on effective innovation practice, programming and policy. Since 2014 Andy has been a Senior Principle Research Scientist in the Agriculture and Food business unit of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia.

Judith Ann Francis is the Senior Programme Coordinator, Science and Technology Policy at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in the Netherlands. Judith is one of those people with the unique ability to bring people together, who when connected, achieve much more than they would on their own. She is great at brokering partnerships, identifying opportunities, and fanning a spark into a blazing fire. Judith has been instrumental in the building capacity of women and young professionals in agriculture through the Africa-wide women and young professionals in science Competition which rewards the contributions of women and young professionals involved in innovative research; communicating their research results and technological developments; and advocating for policy change as well as influencing policy processes through their research. Judith has been my mentor and I truly appreciate her contribution to preparing me to manage the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund program which provides fellowships to scientists and graduate students from African national agricultural research organizations and universities mentors them to be leaders in biosciences research-for-development.

Yemisi Abisuga is Associate Researcher at Central University of Technology. She has worked as a lecturer and researcher for the past twenty-five years. The focus of her work lies on the arts, cultural and creative industries, cultural policy, indigenous knowledge, SMEs, entrepreneurship, and marketing. She is also the founder and CEO of the “Good Reward Foundation”, an organisation that trains and empowers young people and women in fashion design, textile production, and crafts making.

Rajesh GK is a development practitioner and Civil Servant with the Government of India and an Adjuncy Fellow of Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. A post graduate in Agricultural sciences, he holds an Mphil in Applied Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India (Centre for Development Studies) and PhD from Gandhigram Rural University, India. His research interests include Innovation Systems and diffusion of agricultural technologies. He founded CRIS-IS.ORG, Association for South South Cooperation in Innovation Systems Transformation (ASSIST and Council for Nature Conservation and Environmental Protection (CONCEPT), and headed major projects such as drafting the Master Plan for developing silk indistry in North East India and performed the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of Indian-silk, with the Oxford University; findings of which formed the basis for 'Higg MSI for silk' developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). Rajesh is closely associated with GlobeLics and AfricaLics and serves as a member of the Scientific Board of the latter.

A B S T R A C T S 

Welfare Dynamics of Innovations and Innovation System Interactions: Implication for poverty reduction among farm households in Ghana

Justina Adwoa Onumah

To improve farmers' welfare and reduce the high poverty incidence in the agricultural sector, agricultural modernization using innovations have been pursued by governments and actors in the agricultural innovation system (AIS). This study, therefore, sought to analyze how agricultural innovations and actor interactions in the AIS contribute to poverty reduction among farm households in Ghana. Using the Ghana socio-economic panel data with 891 and 2595 observations for cocoa and maize households, respectively, the study adopted the multinomial treatment effect model for the analysis. Adopting all sets of innovation and having strong ties in the innovation system were found to significantly reduce poverty among maize farming households, who were poorer compared to cocoa farming households. Digitization of the agricultural sector should be pursued since informational innovation combined with other innovations, consistently showed improved welfare outcomes. Promotion of interactions in the AIS through any media such as innovation platforms is imperative for gains to be realized in order to reduce the incidence of poverty among farmers, especially food-crop farmers.

Keywords: Welfare, poverty, Agricultural innovation system, multinomial treatment effect, Ghana

Analysis of Radical Niche Agricultural Innovation Processes and Transitions in Ethiopia: Application of Integrated framework of Innovation System and Multi - Level Perspectives 

Daniel Nigussie, Getnet Alemu (PhD) and Million Getnet (PhD) 

Agricultural innovation is a high priority on the global sustainable development agenda to address food insecurity, land degradation and climate change challenges. Agricultural Innovation generation and dissemination in the Ethiopia used to be organized as a linear and stepwise process. Ethiopia’s huge investment in agriculture and shift in approach to participatory extension system, significant change in the provision of advisory services has not been achieved. The above scenarios indicate the need for a relatively new paradigm that incorporates these reforms. Innovation system approach offers a more holistic, multidisciplinary and comprehensive framework for analyzing innovation process. The study combines technological innovation system with the broader theoretical orientation in socio technical system transition, using the Multi Level Perspective. The successful process of radical innovations and transitions is still unexplored area; much more empirical work will be needed to increase our understanding on this topic. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to apply integrated framework of technological innovation system and multi-level perspectives in the context of Maize based farming system and livelihoods so as to identify capacity and policy gaps. The study used a qualitative approach. Primary and secondary data were used to analyze the functions, structure, niches, socio technical regime factors and landscape factors of the innovation system. The data was collected using a structured and semi-structured interview with farmers and experts of different actors. Simple mean and thematic method were used to analyze the qualitative data. Results show that systemic failures (problems in structural elements) such as the absence of key actors, limited capacity of existing actors, institutional problems, lack of interaction between actors and inadequate infrastructure have been prevalent in generation, dissemination and utilization of improved maize seed varieties. It is necessary to design policies that create space for actors capability development , stimulate interaction among heterogeneous actors ; Prevent too weak or too stringent institutions ; ensure adequate quality of the physical, knowledge, financial infrastructure to perform system functions effectively. The paper proposes some policy recommendations to tackle systemic problems in relation to Maize improved seed varieties considering as radical innovations.

Keywords: technological innovation system analysis, multi-level perspective, Socio-technical transitions, radical innovations