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Innovation Policy Challenges

Innovation Policy Challenges. Regina Birner Research Program Governance for Agricultural and Rural Development. On the challenge of being innovative. “There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order. ..

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Innovation Policy Challenges

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  1. Innovation Policy Challenges Regina Birner Research Program Governance for Agricultural and Rural Development

  2. On the challenge of being innovative • “There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order. .. Whenever the enemies have the ability to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly, so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.” Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince In E. Rogers: The Diffusion of Innovations

  3. Outline of the presentation • Introduction: Challenges of Development • that innovation policy needs to address • Analytical Concepts to Support Innovation Policy • National System of Innovation Framework (NIS) • Innovation Policy-Making as a Political Process • Role of citizen participation in innovation policy • Conclusions Innovation policy: Set of policy actions that promote innovative activity in order to reach societal goals. Innovative activity: Creation, adaptation and adoption of new or improved products, processes and services.

  4. Looking Ahead: Challenges of Development that innovation policy in agriculture needs to address • Food security challenge: Feeding the growing world population • Number of hungry people increasing for the past five years • Environmental challenges • State of natural resources on which agriculture depends alarming; • Climate change – impact on agriculture? • Health challenges • Adjusting agriculture to cope with HIV/AIDS; • Coping with livestock epidemics • Globalization challenges – and opportunities • Move towards an industry- and demand-driven food system: Challenges and opportunities for the rural poor? • Technology challenges – and opportunities • Biotechnology, ITC: How to avoid that they by-pass small-scale agricultural producers?

  5. Looking Back: Agricultural Innovation in Economic History • Dynamics of agricultural innovation • Revolutions: (1) Neolithic (2) British Ag. (3) Green Revolution • Periods of stagnation and decline (long periods in European and Asian history, parts of Africa today) • Periods of evolution (constant but not revolutionary increases in agricultural production) • Which factors are the primary drivers of agricultural change? • Availability of new technology (M. Lipton) • Economic conditions (E. Boserup, Hayami/Ruttan) • Institutional change (D. North) • Political processes (R. Brenner) • Experimentation and learning (X. Zhang)

  6. The Innovation Policy-Makers’ Perspective • Innovation policy-makers’ at the national level • Ministers of Agriculture, Science and Technology, and Finance; Parliamentary Committees; Opposition leaders; Stakeholders • Concerns: • Overall goals – Innovation is not a goal in itself! • Possible trade-offs between growth, equity and environment • (1) Areas that policy-makers can directly influence • Public investment for agricultural innovation • Organization of publicly funded research, extension and education • (2) Areas that policy-makers can indirectly influence • Creating the frame conditions for unleashing innovative behavior • Particularly important in agriculture: Nature of production • Dominated by small-scale producers, complex • Need for a conceptual framework and empirical evidence to guide innovation policy

  7. Public Investment in Agricultural Innovation

  8. Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) Consumers Agro-Processors NARS: Research Exporters NARI NARI NARI Producer Organizations NAES: Extension Input Suppliers NAETS: Education & Training NAEA NAEA NAEA Credit Agencies Land Agencies Government Policy & Regulatory Framework Frameworks Guiding Innovation Policy Agricultural Knowledge & Information Systems (AKIS/RD) Farmers Farmers Source: Rivera, Alex, Hanson, Birner, (unpublished)

  9. Mapping Innovation Partners (USAID) Agricultural Partnerships for Productivity and Prosperity (AP3), presented at USAID, 2004.

  10. What can we learn from the National System of Innovation (NIS) Framework? • Origins of the concept • Introduced in the late 1980s in Evolutionary Economics • Freeman 1987, Dosi et al. 1988, Lundvall 1992, Nelson 1993, Edquist 1997 • Components of a National Innovation System • Research (public/private); knowledge base & HR (education) • Frame conditions (regulatory quality, ICT infrastructure) • Why did the framework become so popular with OECD technology policy-makers? • Benchmarking studies • Why are some countries/sectors more innovative than others? • What determines the capacity of a country / sector to innovate?

  11. NIS as Benchmarking Tool Mapping an Innovation Index: Example of EU countries Source: http://trendchart.cordis.lu/

  12. Source: http://trendchart.cordis.lu/

  13. Constructing an Agricultural Innovation Indexthat is pro-poor* and gender-sensitive**

  14. Innovation policy-making as a political process • Trends in development policy-making • Participatory policy processes • Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) • Sector strategies with stakeholder consultation • Who participates? • What is the role of elected representatives? • Role of innovation policy in PRSPs and other strategies? • Contribution to democratization of science? • Is there a popular demand for innovation policy?

  15. “How to demand s.th. you don’t know?” Role of citizen panels and other forms of deliberation Priorities of citizens in UgandaProjects considered most important National Service Delivery Survey (UBOS 2004): 17,600 households

  16. Conclusions • Building analytical capacity for innovation policy • to identify bottlenecks and priority areas • National Systems of Innovation (NIS) framework useful • Role for regional and international organizations • Compiling/publicizing data, benchmarking • Institutional reforms in specific sub-systems • Example: Pluralistic advisory service delivery • Promoting experimentation and learning • Developing “smart” policy instruments to create incentives for innovations and linkages (such as innovation funds) • Exploring new forms of citizen involvement in innovation policy-making • Creating empirical evidence in support of innovation policy – moving away from ideological debates!

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