Various authors have identified the potential relevance of innovation system approaches for inclusive innovation, i.e. 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 are a way of operationalizing interaction and learning among actors, and enable reshaping of relations and institutions.

Research conducted in Mauritania.

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.

Pastoralism is used to describe a society that derives majority of their food and income from livestock. This form of farming system is largely practised in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL). It is estimated that 70% of the landmass in the Horn of Africa is dry land; in Kenya 80% of the landmass is classified as ASAL, while approximately half of Tanzania consists of dry land. These dry lands support wild resource harvesting, tourism but most importantly livestock rearing.

This paper examines post-drought rehabilitation policies to aid recovery in pastoral livestock production in Africa. It starts by describing the main impact of drought on livestock production and the sequences of this for the national economy. It considers the range of policy options open to governments and development agencies in this area and the problems associated with each one. It then examines the provision of credit to herders to aid in the reconstitution of livestock holdings, and associates the particular issues with the implementation of such projects.