The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the role that benchmarking can play in rural and agricultural innovations. Although generally known as 'traditional sector', rural activities are far from static but rather driven by old and new challenges pleading for innovative responses. Despite the broad range of insights from the burgeoning literature on innovation systems during the last decade, most benchmarking thinking and practice still remains highly science-based and centred in promoting public R&D, especially in developing countries. This paper argues that a transition from simplistic to more dynamic forms of benchmarking needs to bring it closer to the contemporary understanding of processes of innovation and technological change, as a participatory process. This paper explores the advantages and challenges of re-defining benchmarking in an innovation systems framework. It particularly stresses the need to bring benchmarking closer to the contemporary understanding of processes of innovation and technological change. Efforts to creatively improve benchmarking in rural innovation would involve (1) expanding the set of current indicators to track underlying capacities; and (2) exploring new avenues and roles for benchmarking as a tool for dynamic comparison and as a learning mechanism.
This report documents the history of the systems of rice intensification (SRI, for short) in India in the last few years and presents some of the institutional changes and challenges that SRI throws up. The first part looks at the...
This publication presents a synthesis of methods and lessons learnt in the implementation of the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) concept within the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP). It relates lessons learnt and impact gained from the program...
This paper aims to set out for policy makers and a range of actors across donor/practitioner/research communities, a series of challenges and opportunities for support to capacity development. It pays particular attention to a systemic approach for understanding and supporting...
This study, conducted by the World Bank at the request of the Government, is motivated by the need to understand Malaysia’s progress in facilitating the shift to a knowledge-focused economy. The assessment has three primary objectives related to the ETP’s...
There is renewed attention on the importance of advisory services and extension in rural development processes. This paper, based on the publication ‘Mobilizing the potential of rural and agricultural extension', focuses on five opportunities to mobilise the potential of extension...