Activating agricultural transitions to sustainability through participatory research and co-innovation

The DeSIRA Initiative is a portfolio of 80 research and innovation (R&I) projects run in over 65 countries across three continents between 2019 and 2026, supported by a European Union contribution of €340,000,000. DeSIRA aims to enhance the contribution of R&I in addressing complex issues relating to sustainability transitions and agrifood system transformation, towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in low- and middle-income countries. Researchers are supported in DeSIRA as major facilitators of change to enable national agricultural innovation systems (AIS) actors to jointly understand these complex issues, and to co-develop strategies for dealing with them in their specific contexts. DeSIRA also aims to upgrade the capacities of research organisations, as key actors of agricultural innovation systems, in order to improve governance of the researchinnovation- transition continuum at local, national, regional, continental and global levels. But how much of this is achieved? Many would agree that the answer is “not enough”. Part of the problem is that research and its outcomes are poorly communicated. Many more would agree that it is hard to prove the extent to which research and researchers have contributed to strengthening agricultural innovation systems. As such, the collection of stories in this book aims to provide funders, decision-makers, research managers, implementing organisations and project formulators with insights into tangible changes that have occurred as a result of researchers and its partners. We can distinguish between a) changes in the ways research contributes to innovation and innovation systems; and b) changes in the agrifood systems and transitioning pathways thanks to innovations developed with research.

The stories presented in this book address the first type of changes. The portfolio of critical innovations for transitioning pathways is illustrated in the second volume of this collection. Changing the ways research contributes to innovation is part of the new imperative for systems approaches and transition management, which includes prioritising innovation programmes, providing more intentional support for innovation, and greater inclusiveness and responsiveness thanks to user-centered innovation methodologies. Countries need to have AISs with appropriate governance mechanisms, innovation support services, and enabling policies with the objective to facilitate and accelerate the scaling of innovations that address problems faced by farmers, rural communities and vulnerable members of society, while developing more sustainable agrifood systems. Stories of Change are a powerful tool to illustrate how research engages in these processes to support systemic thinking and action, and more user-driven innovations toward transitions. The stories narrate not only the changes that have occurred but also the reasons why they have occurred, and the processes leading to these changes at various levels of project intervention. Stories can focus on positive results, but they can also be used to investigate circumstances in which results were not achieved, and derive important lessons about the assumptions underlying the intervention.

The collection assembled in this book has two objectives. The main objective is to enhance the understanding of research as a game changer for agricultural innovation systems and transitions, with a focus on what DeSIRA projects achieved and learnt from their experience. The second objective is to use the Stories of Change as a reflective tool to support learning in DeSIRA projects and in the DeSIRA community. The Stories of Change were developed by project teams through a participatory process coached by the DeSIRA-LIFT facility to help identify processes of change supported by research in different key areas and at different levels. The juxtaposition of all their stories in one book helps illustrate the diversity and complementarities of the research outcomes in DeSIRA. The collection of stories will walk the reader through the intensive journey of organising, catalysing, promoting and achieving innovation that the DeSIRA project teams went through. The stories show how research teams had to mobilise multiple capacities and partnerships to be able to act as a facilitator, connector and learner in larger ecosystems of actors working to innovate and create lasting, systems-level changes, within time-limited project approaches.