One Finger Cannot Lift a Rock : Facilitating Innovation Platforms to Trigger Institutional Change in West Africa

Innovation and institutional change are often the result of stakeholder interaction and concerted action. But interaction and concerted action do not just happen--they require stimulation and facilitation. Innovation platforms bring stakeholders together with that aim, and a facilitator guides the process. This book looks at the experiences of nine such facilitators. The research program Convergence of Sciences - Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Systems (CoS-SIS)--in Ghana, Mali and Benin experiments with new pathways for agricultural innovation. It has put in place innovation platforms - referred to as "Concertation and Innovation Groups" (CIGs) - for a variety of sectors: water management and rice, oil palm and cotton in Benin; oil palm, cocoa and food security in Ghana; and crops and livestock, water management and shea in Mali. The program aims to enhance institutional change through these CIGs. In this book, West African research associates from the CoS-SIS program describe how they initiated innovation platforms and facilitated the different steps in a CIG cycle. The stories show that the facilitation of innovation platforms is not easy: it requires specific skills and a lot of time, and is very much determined by the context. But they also illustrate that there are creative ways of dealing with the challenges and unpredictable situations that facilitators face. The book is written for development professionals who are in a similar position to the CoS-SIS research associates, individuals and organizations involved in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes and building partnerships, and students and professionals in the field of innovation, institutional change and agricultural services. Readers will recognize their own challenges in facilitating innovation and can draw lessons from the experiences reflected here.