Institutional Innovations in Ecological Organic Agriculture in Africa

Summary

The study presented in this chapter focused on these institutional and market intermediaries and illustrated how markets work to create incentives for the adoption of sustainable practices (Loconto et al., 2016). This chapter presents a summary of the core results of this study, with a specific focus on the six African experiences included in the study. First, we summarize the study methodology and present the concept of ‘institutional innovations’. Second, we introduce the six African experiences from Benin, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda and present the core elements of the innovative mechanisms that are at work in these cases (multi-actor innovation platforms (IP) and participatory guarantee systems (PGS). We conclude with the policy recommendations that were developed through a participatory researcher-practitioner workshop that was held in Bogotá, Colombia in 2015.