The Innovation Niches approach in the ReSI-NoC project
The Innovation Niches approach in the ReSI-NoC project
In North Cameroon, several projects have been carried out over the years to promote technical and technological innovations that contribute to the sustainable development of agroforestry systems. At the same time, project promoters have regularly been found to be duplicating their efforts, and activities have been slowed down or stopped once the projects have ended.
The Innovation Niche (IN) approach highlighted in the ReSI-Noc project aims to strengthen the organisational capacities of project beneficiaries so that they have the capacity to sustain the initiative and the dynamics underway beyond the duration of the project. These lines present the concept in a simple way and the activities undertaken by this concept as part of the ReSI-NoC project.
What is an Innovation Niche?
An innovation niche is a space where a group of actors experiment technical, organisational or social innovations in order to solve or anticipate a common problem. It is a geographical space in which an innovation is born, developed, and co-constructed with different stakeholders who ensure its emergence and development. The stakeholders involved may be:
- Innovation promoters (the person who introduces the innovation, either an NGO, a project, a state agent (e.g. MINADER, MINEPIA) or a parastatal (e.g. sodecoton), etc.);
- Innovation support service providers who will provide specific support for the innovation (funding, specific inputs, specific equipment, networking, etc.).
- Beneficiaries who contribute to the design of the innovation so that it can be adapted and used (e.g. farmers, livestock breeders, women, mbororos, etc.).
One of the characteristics of INs is that they involve stakeholders working together to co-create or adapt the innovation and make it more relevant and easier to use. It is also a place where an existing innovation is strengthened to improve the conditions for deploying the innovation, for example by lobbying for recognition of the innovation by local or national authorities.
The innovation niche approach in the ReSI-NoC project
In the context of the ReSI-NoC project, a niche is the micro-economic level at which the innovative activity develops. We talk about niches because they are achievements on a localised scale, in a well-defined area or with a small group of players who interact to develop an innovation, also known as an innovation community. It’s when the innovation is well developed and all its contours have been mastered that we think about disseminating it on a larger scale. Specifically, these are places where various support activities are carried out around an innovation by a variety of players with a view to improving people’s living conditions.
Why was this concept implemented in the ReSI-NoC project?
Based on the concept of the innovation system, which enables us to understand how to support innovations on several scales, the ReSI-NoC project was able to diagnose the value of working on this innovation niche scale. One of the major findings of recent research into innovation niches is the need to strengthen their technical and, above all, organisational capacities. These capabilities relate to leadership, collective action and planning, …. These are what we call “soft skills”, which enable them to adapt to changing contexts. In the context of innovation niches, these skills are key, particularly in contexts where innovations are initiated as part of projects that may come to an end. These new skills enable the actors in the niches to adapt to the new situation and to seek solutions to maintain the innovation dynamic that has been initiated, for example by identifying new forms of financing. This approach argues in favour of considering investment in organisational capacity-building to be just as important as investment in technical capacity-building, if it is to be effective. That is, if the aim is to develop the innovations initiated beyond the project framework.
