Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

The following text is drawn from Lundy et al (2005).

Learning alliances

Millions of dollars are spent each year on research and development (R&D) initiatives in an attempt to improve rural livelihoods in the developing world, but rural poverty remains an intractable problem in many places. There are many reasons for this; one being the limited collective learning that occurs between researchers, development workers, donors, policymakers and private enterprise. As a result, useful research results do not reach the poor, lessons learned do not influence research, and donor and policy agendas are less relevant than they could be.  Through building learning alliances that engage multiple stakeholders in processes of innovation, the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is enhancing learning and improving effectiveness in rural enterprise development.

Source: M. Lundy, M. V. Gottret and J. Ashby (2005). Learning Alliances: An approach for building multistakeholder innovation systems. ILAC Brief No. 8. Rome: Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative.