DOCUMENTATION

ANALYSIS

Paths to the entrepreneurial poor - DURAS


1. Participation:  Functional involvement of stakeholders and collective project management
Indicators
Positive aspects
Negative aspects
Unknown aspects
Number and type of stakeholders involved
  • Active stakeholder participation approach
  • Synergy is attractive
  • Lead partners in the project are open
  • Those directly affected by the project have a say
  • Those in support, coming from outside the project, can back up
  • Researchers learn more about local knowledge
  • Government likes to gets closer to people
  • Group and community get benefits from “learning by doing”
  • Disturbing government management priorities
  • Farmers loose time in the field
  • Researchers don’t get proper resources
  • A stakeholder joins with destructive intentions
  • A stakeholder comes with preconceived ideas
The motive of the stakeholders to join
Actual role of stakeholders in project implementation
  • People see that consensus building makes sense
  • Focus
  • Efficiency in management
  • Conflict of interests
  • Active involvement
  • Responsibility
  • Interaction
  • Addressing c b
  • Spin-offs
  • Conflict of interests
  • Limited capacity without capacity building
A stakeholder may have several loyalties
Project governance structure
  • Mutual understanding of issues
  • Networking
  • Support if given from government departments Governance structure gives legitimacy
  • Legitimacy and influence in terms of government policy change
  • Recognition by the university
  • A project structure may conflict with host structures (focus, time, activity level, mandate)
  • The reaction in other structures
  • The chemistry between governance proponents (leadership)
       
2. Knowledge management: Sharing, learning and exchange
Indicators
Positive aspects
Negative aspects
Unknown aspects
Frequency of inter-stakeholder interaction (email, telephone, face-to-face meetings)
  • A lot of face-to-face meetings with the farmers
  • Work as friends with the farmers
  • Interaction encouraging for up-taking of credit, education, training
  • On the part of the scientist the face-to-face interaction increasing through increased interaction for better solutions
  • High costs and long distance discourages face-to-face interaction
  • Differences in socio-cultural and environment circumstances
  • Gossiping / targeting
Implementation arrangements modified/improved as a result of lessons learned from inter-stakeholder interactions identified above
  • To address the real needs of farmers
  • To enhance efficiency and delivery of project outputs
  • Stakeholder approach opened the opportunities for stakeholders to identify and express views
  • Farmers get basic knowledge on their production environment before seeking markets
  • Danger of top-down approach
  • Loss of time because of loss of time
Any new intervention bring uncertainty
Creation of an active network (e.g. local organizations, group of researchers, organizations) involved in the project
  • Access very attractive for the active stakeholder
  • Committed farmers move on with the project; quick gains not forthcoming means a sorting principle of likeminded farmers
  • Applies also to researchers
  • Research networking useful for knowledge exchange
  • Testing ideas and getting feedback
  • Opportunities to open new markets
  • With a network connection the individual becomes assertive (for example giving the farmer a voice; example camel herders forgotten to coffee support, or bee producers to tea production)
  • An active network can become exclusive
  • Relations between researchers and government can become tense
  • Friend-enemy principle applies
  • Passiveness in network building
       
3. Capacity building: Improving research and research management capacity
Indicators
Positive aspects
Negative aspects
Unknown aspects
New skills obtained/improved due to the project
  • Traditional techniques questioned, and new skills anticipated to give added values
  • A limited understanding by researchers leads to replace tested traditional techniques
  • The farmers may worry to apply new skills for the scare of failure
  • High costs of new technology prohibiting
  • The POPSe budget is too low for up/scaling, meaning disconnecting with development
  • POPSe time is too short for proper monitoring
  • Long-term environmental cycles can not be monitored under the project period
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Research / innovation / technology uptake

Process open for initiative from pace-setters / groups
The project can have a catalyst effect so that existing knowledge becomes activated

Pace-setters grow in the POPSe project; they take own initiative based their needs

/As above/
If research finding has to be transformed into production in a top-bottom fashion there is a risk of long-term negative effects

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Improvements in research infrastructure

Demand-driven research style
Synergy in pooling of resources brings effective management

Limited financial source -
       
4. Institutionalization: Mainstreaming innovative partnership arrangements
Indicators
Positive aspects
Negative aspects
Unknown aspects
Counter-parting (funds, skills, time, information)

Interest and motivation of the research team / partners, so that they are willing to contribute and share experience free of charge

Facilities for research already available
Part-time attention; other work and need to keep several activities going hampers involvement

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Project activities integrated in regular activities of the organizations involved in the project

Effective use of resources
Opportunity to harmonize development initiatives

If project is within government initiative this enhances its performance of government projects towards the role-out of development
Project looses identity and becomes co-opted by government or other initiatives -
 Change in policies of institutions involved (e.g. encouraging participatory research, involvement of civil society organizations in R&D process, etc.)

Policies do not change easily but the project can lead to policy discussion by bringing about new knowledge
Change of government and donor human resource may enhance a project’s prioritization and performance

Evaluation may bring in new insights

No communication for change is possible if interaction between project and government is lacking
Government and donor human resource changes may alter a project’s perspectives and priorities

External evaluation may hinder a project’s development
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Spin-offs (i.e. other initiatives developed directly or indirectly from DURAS project)

Spread of project impact
Inspire government to take the direction of the project initiative as theirs (hijacking)

Harmony between development agents can pick up spin-offs and push the project to a higher level

Bad elements in the project can have long-time effects
Short-lived projects attracts social resources from the community in vain

Lost spin-offs mean re-inventions and loss of resources
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