The purpose of this paper is to map some elements that can contribute to an IFAD strategy to stimulate and support pro-poor innovations. It is an initial or exploratory document that hopefully will add to an ongoing and necessary debate, and is not intended as a final position paper. The document is organized as follows.
There are divergent views on what capacity development might mean in relation to agricultural biotechnology. The core of this debate is whether this should involve the development of human capital and research infrastructure, or whether it should encompass a wider range of activities which also include developing the capacity to use knowledge productively. This paper uses the innovation systems concept to shed light on this discussion, arguing that it is innovation capacity rather than science and technology capacity that has to be developed.
The agricultural innovation system can be strengthened by increasing the learning capacity of research and field organisations. Participatory methods were developed to study three dimensions of the capacity of such organisations in Nicaragua to access and analyse information, highly correlated to learning capacity – the individual routines of their professionals, the formal procedures of the organisation and the organisation's use of collaborative projects to strengthen core operations.
The present report is based on the authors' visits to Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua, during June-August 2004 in order to develop an initial understanding of innovation processes and identifying stakeholders working with national innovation processes. It also review the experiences of the invited Latin American participants in the 7th Global Conference of Competitiveness Institute (entitled "Building Innovative Clusters for Competitive Advantage") in September 2004 and finally presents suggestion for further activities.
Public–private partnerships that aim at the development of innovations have gained increasing attention from governments, public research and private companies, because they enable partners to draw from complementary resources and profit from synergy and joint learning. This article develops arguments for when partnerships should form and compares them with experiences in real partnership cases in Latin America.
Beyond the City evaluates the contribution of rural development and policies to growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental degradation in the rest of the economy, as well as in the rural space. This title brings together new theoretical and empirical treatments of the links between rural and national development. New findings and are combined with existing literature to enhance our understanding of the how rural economic activities contribute to various aspects of national development.
The Chile Country gender assessments (CGAs) identify gender-responsive policies and actions are strategic for poverty reduction, economic growth, human well-being, and development effectiveness. The report proposes priority policy objectives: increase female labor force participation, especially for low-income households, and reduce discontinuity in women's work experience. The report focus on the gender equality in the labor markets; improve access to financial services; expand access to business networks, business development services, and technology for women entrepreneurs.
This report summarizes and consolidates the findings of three Bank studies on poverty issues in Mexico, written as part of the second phase of this work: Urban Poverty, Rural Poverty, and Social Protection. It also expands on how Mexico will seek to use social protection policy as a vehicle for redistribution. Discussed in Chapter 1, the state has a clear role in providing risk-pooling mechanisms where private insurance markets fail (e.g., old age and health insurance), but the role of social protection policy in promoting redistribution is more an issue of national choice.
This text analyses the development of organic farming in Brazil. It shows the great variability of social models of organic production recognised by Brazilian Law: organic, agroecological, ecological or biodynamic agriculture, permaculture etc.. It depicts how the political and social concerns in the spheres of family farming and environment caused the reorganisation of production systems, in the agricultural practices and n the new relationships with the market and with natural resources.
Le développement de l'agriculture organique au Brésil prend des formes multiples. Au travers de leur expérience de l'AO, dans une communauté proche de trois métropoles, de petits maraîchers d'Ibiúna (São Paulo) créent des entités collectives et expérimentent de nouvelles pratiques sociales.