Participative Innovation Platforms (PIP) for Upgrading NTFP Value Chains in East Africa

Abstract

Improving forest product value chains is considered a means to solve forest-related challenges in the Global South. The ‘Participative Innovation Platform’ (PIP) instrument has been developed to design and to continually adapt solutions and strategies for effective cooperation amongst value chain actors. The instrument is rooted in the action-oriented and social learning approach, combined with the concept of innovation systems. This paper presents findings from three PIPs conducted for upgrading non-timber forest product value chains in Ethiopia (bamboo, natural gums) and Sudan (gum Arabic). A comparative analysis of highest ranked contents revealed similarities in the challenges: lack of government support, poor infrastructure, producers’ lack of knowledge and skills, and lack of market information. Priority upgrading measures focused on producers’ knowledge, skills, and capacity to engage in collective action and to lobby interests, and on capital resources to invest in processing technology. It is concluded that although the PIP instrument presents an innovative way to upgrade forest-based value chains, the instrument requires a long-term process with frequently held platform meetings, conducted by neutral institutions with skilled moderators. Crucial in this process is the need to consistently verify and ensure that all actor groups of the chain are represented, and are confident they will derive benefits from the value chain upgrading.

Nexus approach and environmental resource governance in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

“…Efficiency was the most recurrent in the literature (69%). In parts of East Africa, processes to optimize natural resource-based benefits have been engaged through participative innovation platforms (PIPs) (Auch and Pretzsch 2020). Yet, studies that show its promotion in the natural resource nexus are few (Tafon and Saunders 2015;Kiruki et al 2019;Lowore 2020).…”

“…3a)-probably due to the rising interests by scholars from around the world, to engage in this part of SSA on the nexus subject. Also, the wood-based bioeconomy sector received significant attention in East Africa, considering the need to narrow the wood supply gap (Auch and Pretzsch 2020). Several papers drew from cases across more than one sub-region.…”

“…This largely affects large scale developers (Addo-Danso et al 2019). Information flow deficits were also reported in East Africa -indicating that it stalls innovations to spur transitions to the processing and upgrading of bio-resources (Auch and Pretzsch 2020). Besides growing inefficiency in timber transformation, information flow deficits reportedly stalled the transformation of forest-based products in Uganda (Sseremba et al 2011), while its availability improved technical efficiency in Ghana (Wongnaa and Awunyo-Vitor 2018).…”

Co‐creation of business models for smallholder forest farmers’ organizations: Lessons learned from rural Ethiopia and Tanzania

“…To further refine the role of FFO in functional upgrading, a multi‐stakeholder workshop with members, vertical value chain actors, and (non‐)governmental actors would be an important step. Insight into strategies for cooperation and a deeper understanding of the roles of the value chain actors can be gained by using the Participative Innovation Platform instrument (Auch & Pretzsch 2020), which has been developed and tested to upgrade value chains. Another option would be Participatory Scenario Development (Bizikova et al., 2014; Gausemeier et al., 1998; Rowland et al., 2014), which is used to discuss future scenarios and propose appropriate strategies.…”

Bioeconomia do cacau no estado do Amazonas

“…A eficiência nas transações e a distribuição justa de valor ao primeiro elo das cadeias produtivas são condições centrais para a conservação dos recursos florestais (Auch & Pretzsch, 2020). Essas condições dependem da governança e organização das cadeias de valor.…”