Innovation Policy Challenges

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Innovation Policy Challenges

• Regina Birner
• Research Program
• Governance for Agricultural and Rural Development

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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
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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.
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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?

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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)

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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

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Public Investment in Agricultural Innovation
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Frameworks Guiding Innovation Policy
Agricultural Knowledge Information
Systems (AKIS/RD)
Farmers
Farmers
Source Rivera, Alex, Hanson, Birner,
(unpublished)
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Mapping Innovation Partners (USAID)
Agricultural Partnerships for Productivity and
Prosperity (AP3), presented at USAID, 2004.
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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?

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NIS as Benchmarking Tool Mapping an Innovation
Index Example of EU countries
Source http//trendchart.cordis.lu/
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Source http//trendchart.cordis.lu/
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Constructing an Agricultural Innovation
Indexthat is pro-poor and gender-sensitive
Aspect of the NIS Example K4D index (economy-wide) Agricultural innovation index - Some ideas -
Innovations Patents (USPTO) Journal publications No. of farmers trying s.th. new New varieties adoption Productivity / agricultural growth
Research and extension Researchers in RD Budget (share)/ staff for agricultural research extension partnerships innovation funds NGOs Farmers voice in research and extension Farmers networks
Knowledge base Adult literacy rate, sec. tertiary enrolment Adult literary rate of rural pop. No. of vocationally trained farmers
Incentives institutions Governance indicators such as rule of law Policy-induced price distortions Regulation affecting agriculture
Infrastructure Telephone / computer / internet users Telephone / internet Physical infrastructure
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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?

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Priorities of citizens in UgandaProjects
considered most important
National Service Delivery Survey (UBOS 2004)
17,600 households
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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!