Innovation platforms are widely used in agricultural research to connect different stakeholders to achieve common goals. To help document recent experiences and insights, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently published a series of short innovation platform ‘practice briefs’ to help guide the design and implementation of innovation platforms in agricultural research for development.
This seventh brief explains the contributions of communication and knowledge sharing to innovation platform development.
Communication helps align platform members.
An innovation platform is defined as ‘a space for learning and change. It is a group of individuals (who often represent organizations) with different backgrounds and interests: farmers, traders, food processors, researchers, government officials etc. The members come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities and find ways to achieve their goals. They may design and implement activities as a platform, or coordinate activities by individual members.’
Communication combines different ‘energy sources’ to power the platform at different phases of its development. The goal is not just to produce or disseminate more information, but rather to use communication processes to power changes identified by the platform.
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This brief is authored by Michael Victor (CPWF), Peter Ballantyne (ILRI), Ewen Le Borgne (ILRI) and Zelalem Lema (ILRI). It is a contribution to the CGIAR Humidtropics research program. The development of the briefs was led by the International Livestock Research Institute; the briefs draw on experiences of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, several CGIAR centres and partner organization.The series comprises 14 briefs:
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ILRI Clippings 