ILAC Learning Laboratory Meeting – March 2008

The Learning Laboratory is an ILAC activity in which professionals from collaborative research programmes come together to share knowledge and experiences, experiment with new approaches for facilitating innovation for poverty reduction, and evaluate the results. The first meeting was held from March 30 – April 2, 2008 in Cali, Colombia. It was attended by 29 professionals (from 7 case studies and other experts) from different organizations and backgrounds.

The following seven programmes working on pro-poor agricultural innovation participated in the meeting:

• Integrated Crop Management and Value Chain Improvement for Sweetpotato Livelihoods in Central Luzon, Philippines – Users’ Perspectives With Agricultural Research and Development (UPWARD-CIP)
• Andean Change Program
• Network for linking users to researchers for banana and plantain improvement
• The Kenya Smallholder Dairy Project (SDP)
• Knowledge and Monitoring System of SG2000 Innovations in Africa
• African Highlands Initiative (AHI)
• Generating new knowledge on Knowledge Intensive Agricultural Systems

The overall workshop objectives were:

1. Develop inputs to work plans for ILAC Learning Laboratory cases
2. Develop inputs to the ILAC Project Design Document and Work Plan
3. Develop relationships, understanding and links among members of an incipient community of innovation researchers and practitioners

The objectives were pursued through clarifying and agreeing on impact pathways for: 1) ILAC as a whole, and 2) for the individual cases.

A report has been produced with more details about the meeting and also what the next steps will be.