Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

Keywords:

actor innovation systems; agricultural technology; ILAC Newsletter; institutional innovation; positive deviance; poverty reduction; pro-poor innovation; R&D; research and development; rural poverty; rural technology; social inclusion; technological innovation

Abstract:

In recent years, there has been a growth of interest in managerial approaches to rural development policy and planning directed at promoting economic growth, poverty reduction, social inclusion and equity in rural areas. This is illustrated by the spread of logframes, participatory/stakeholder participatory methods, management by results techniques, and ex ante and ex post quantitative economic rates of return methods. The notion that “good” and “best” institutional arrangements can be transferred (and scaled out and scaled up) is often now central to the promotion of “good governance” for development policy, planning and intervention. In this paper, I question some of the rational and common-sense appeal of such managerial approaches by analyzing two case studies where positive changes in development indicators have taken place and where the projects have had a major influence in the policy arena. The paper investigates how and why these changes came about.