Upcoming workshop to present findings of four-year project (2021-2024) in North Cameroon
GAROUA, Cameroon (13 May 2024) – A new approach to incorporating agro-sylvo-pastoral innovations into production systems is yielding important results for farmers and other stakeholders in northern Cameroon – particularly in the realm of avoiding duplication of efforts and sustaining activities beyond the close of projects.
The innovation niches approach has been deployed within the Strengthening Innovation Systems in the North of Cameroon (ReSI-NoC) project.
ReSI-NoC is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and Cameroon’s Agricultural Research Institute for Development (IRAD).
The project’s overall objective is to promote economically profitable, ecologically sustainable and socially equitable agricultural production, livestock and forest management systems in the North Region of Cameroon. It works to strengthen these systems in the arenas of inclusive planning, consultation, and the co-creation and implementation of technical, organizational and social innovations.
In this context, the innovation niches approach seeks to strengthen the organisational capacities of the beneficiaries of previous interventions that initiated or supported the project’s innovations, so that these beneficiaries can maintain the initiatives beyond the project period. An Innovation Niche is understood as a space where a set of actors experiment with technical, organizational, or social innovations in order to solve or anticipate a common problem. It is a geographical space in which an innovation is born, develops, and is co-constructed with different actors who ensure its emergence and development.
The ReSI-NoC project identified 60 innovation niches in the Northern Region, of which 12 were characterized, and eight were selected for support within three intervention zones: near protected areas, around Garoua, and in cotton expansion frontiers. The eight niches include local communities of the Tcholliré co-managed protected areas, Lagdo land tenure security, Poli/Pintchoumba climate-smart agriculture, Poli/Béka (Tchamba) environmental education, Ngong watershed approach, Lagdo transhumance, Touroua climate-smart agriculture and the Mbé/Ngahan shea butter value chain.
The project aims to strengthen niches by first identifying capacity needs to contribute to innovation, then defining the capacities to be strengthened, and finally organizing the necessary training and support, networking, and/or moments of exchange.
To present and further explore findings from the work in these innovation niches, with a view to sustaining their activities beyond the close of the ReSI-NoC project, a workshop will be held on 14-15 May at the Tour d’Argent hotel in Garoua.
For more information on the project, please contact CIFOR-ICRAF scientist Ann Degrande: A.Degrande@cifor-icraf.org and communications officer Laurianne Mefan: M.Gilda@cifor-icraf.org.
