This publication presents a coherent Collaborative Framework for Food Systems Transformation (the FS Framework) that recommends key activities across the food system for accelerating the transition to sustainable food systems. The FS Framework is primarily intended for national or local government departments that are responsible for establishing institutions and designing and implementing policies at the local or national level to develop food systems in line with national objectives and goals.
Due to the increasing gap between input costs and the final prices they receive for their produce, Indian farmers have been increasingly affected by the current agrarian crisis. It is within this context that Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) - a farming method promising low to zero input costs - has been gaining momentum.
The contributions and dynamic interaction of thousands of stakeholders from all sectors have created the GCARD (Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development) Roadmap, providing a clear path forward for all involved. The Roadmap highlights the urgent changes required in Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) systems globally, to address worldwide goals of reducing hunger and poverty, creating opportunity for income growth while ensuring environmental sustainability and particularly meeting the needs of resource-poor farmers and consumer.
Participatory communication in development aims to facilitate the integration of interpersonal communication methods with conventional and new media channels, with the focus on encouraging all stakeholders to participate in the process. The growth of internet-based technologies has created new opportunities for facilitating this participation and enhancing the ability of resource-poor communities to access information and support and to share experiences and knowledge.
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) partnered with the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) in 2011 to conduct a series of policy dialogues on the prioritization of demand-driven agricultural research for development in South Asia. Dialogues were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal in mid-2012 and this report captures feedback from those dialogues.
What can we learn from ongoing initiatives? There has been a lot of interest during the last two decades in employing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for achieving development. While many of these initiatives have benefited rural women by way of access to new information and new employment opportunities, women still face a number of constraints in accessing ICTs. This paper explores the role of ICTs in empowering Indian rural women, through a review of ICT initiatives in India.
Early applications of the innovation systems framework to developing-country agriculture suggest opportunities for more intensive and extensive analysis. There is ample scope for empirical studies to make greater use of the theoretical content available in the literature, and to employ more diverse methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative. Further, there is room to improve the relevance of empirical studies to the analysis of public policies that support science, technology, and innovation, as well as to policies that promote poverty reduction and economic growth.
Intersectoral partnerships mirror the changing nature of the relationships among state, business and civil society organizations, and are often considered innovative mechanisms to overcome single actor failure in the context of globalization. This article analyzes the capacity of partnerships to promote sustainable change in global agrifood chains from a governance and a development perspective. The global coffee, cotton, and cocoa chains serve as main fields of application.
This article describes a holistic approach to organisational development that promotes learning and its integration into everyday work practice. It presents the approach and how it leads to genuine organisational transformation, increased organisational efficiency, and resilience during change. When an organisation is both willing and able to engage with a holistic approach, the results are significantly better than any that external one-off interventions or standalone training programmes can produce.
Innovation platforms are groups of individuals or stakeholder representatives with different backgrounds and interests. They come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities, and find ways to achieve their goals. When innovation platforms are set up by development projects, their processes are usually facilitated by the support organization.