Project design and management based on a co-innovation framework: towards more effective research intervention for sustainable development of farming systems.

Most of the budget for agricultural research-for-development is spent through projects and therefore project impact is important for funding agencies. Impact assessment is commonly performed ex-post for the purpose of accountability and has provided little guidance to more effective project design and management. Here we present a project design that bases its project theory on co-innovation, seen as an approach that combines farming systems theory, social learning and dynamic project monitoring and evaluation. The design is implemented in the EULACIAS project, focused on stimulating strategic re-orientation of family farm strategies in three case studies in Latin America. The paper sketches the conceptual basis of the co-innovation approach and the program theory of the project. Following a description of the case studies illustrations of the implementation of the approach are provided. The paper ends with first impressions of the outcome of the approach, pending full analytical results in the cases.

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