How does institutional embeddedness shape innovation platforms? A diagnostic study of three districts in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Totin, E and Roncoli, C and Traore, P C S and Somda, J and Zougmore, R B (2018) How does institutional embeddedness shape innovation platforms? A diagnostic study of three districts in the Upper West Region of Ghana. NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences (TSI), 84. pp. 27-40. ISSN 15735214

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Abstract

Innovation platforms have emerged as a way of enhancing the resilience of agricultural and food systems in the face of environmental change. Consequently, a great deal of theoretical reflection and empirical research have been devoted to the goal of understanding the factors that enhance and constrain their functionality. In this article, we further examine this enquiry by applying the concept of institutional embeddedness, understood as encompassing elements of platform design, structure, and functions as well as aspects of the broader historical, political, and social context to which platforms are connected. We present a case study of sub-national platforms established in three districts of the climatically-stressed Upper West Region of Ghana and charged with facilitating climate change responses at the local level and channelling community priorities into national climate change policy. A different kind of organization − the traditional chief council, the agricultural extension service, and a local NGO − was chosen by members to convene and coordinate the platform in each district. We examine platform members’ accounts of the platform formation and selection of facilitating agent, their vision for platform roles, and their understandings of platform agenda and impacts. We analyse these narratives through the lens of institutional embeddedness, as expressed mostly, but not solely, by the choice of facilitating agents. We illustrate how the organizational position − and related vested interests − of facilitating agents contribute to shaping platform agendas, functions, and outcomes. This process hinges on the deployment of legitimacy claims, which may appeal to cultural tradition, technical expertise, community engagement, and dominant scientific narratives on climate change. Iinstitutional embeddedness is thereby shown to be a critical aspect of agency in multi-actor processes, contributing to framing local understandings of the climate change and to channelling collective efforts towards select response strategies. In conclusion, we stress that the institutional identity of facilitating agents and their relationship to members of the platform and to powerholders in the broader context provides a useful diagnostic lens to analyse the processes that shape the platform’s ability to achieve its goals.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Research Program : West & Central Africa
CRP:	CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Innovation platforms, Institutions, Stakeholders, Climate change, Food security, West Africa, Agricultural and food systems
Subjects:	Others > Innovation Others > Climate Change Others > Africa
Depositing User:	Mr Ramesh K
Date Deposited:	26 Jul 2017 08:20
Last Modified:	26 Dec 2018 09:02
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/10105
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2017.07.002
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	The authors acknowledge the CGIAR Fund Council, ACIAR (Australia), European Union, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), New Zealand, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and Thailand for funding to the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The authors thank the platform leaders and members at Jirapa, Lawra and Nandom and the CCAFS team in Ghana for the collaboration. They are also grateful for contributions by Drs. Martha van Eerdt, Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong, Greetje Schouten, and Chase Sova and for feedback by two anonymous reviewers and by the special issue organizers. The opinions expressed in this article are solely the authors’.
Links:	Google Scholar

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