Various authors have identified the potential relevance of innovation system approaches for inclusive innovation, that is, the means by which new goods and services are developed for and by the poor. However, it is still a question how best to operationalize this. Innovation platforms (IPs) represent an example of putting an inclusive innovation system approach into practice by bringing different types of stakeholders together to address issues of mutual concern and interest with a specific focus on the marginalized poor.

West Africa (WA) is among the most food insecure regions. Rapid human population growth and stagnating crop yields greatly contribute to this fact. Poor soil fertility, especially low plant available phosphorus (P) is constraining food production in the region. P-fertilizer use in WA is among the lowest in the world due to inaccessibility and high prices, often unaffordable to resource-poor subsistence farmers. This article provides an overview of soil P-deficiency in WA and opportunities to overcome it by exploiting sorghum and pearl millet genetic diversity.

This paper reviews the studies of property institutions that have been undertaken by researchers affiliated with the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) since 1980. Particular attention is given to the systems studies and an ongoing study of the impacts of trypanosomiasis control on property institutions. Past and current studies by other workshop participants are mentioned but not reviewed in any detail. The majority of the completed studies have been concerned with two fundamental questions: (1) How do property institutions affect the use and management of resources?

Drought is one of the major climatic hazards impacting on the various sectors including crop and livestock in the West African Sahel. Pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the region are regularly affected by drought, with vulnerability differing with gender, age, wealth status (access to cropland and livestock endowment), geographic location, social networks, and previous exposure to drought. Effective interventions require regular monitoring of vulnerability to drought, for which various quantitative and qualitative approaches exist.

This report provides a new approach to integrating spatial data on poverty and ecosystems in Kenya. It is endorsed by five permanent secretaries in Kenya and with a foreword by Wangari Maathai (recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize). It provides a new approach to examining the links between ecosystem services (the benefits derived from nature) and the poor. Through a series of maps and analyses, the authors focus on the environmental resources most Kenyans rely on such as soil, water, forest, rangeland, livestock, and wildlife.