CGIAR Innovation Platform Case Study Competition

June 2015. Last November, to better assess the efficiency of these platforms and document stories of Innovation Platforms from various countries in the developing world, Humidtropics launched an Innovation Platforms Case Study Competition. In February, twelve candidates were selected to participate in a writeshop focused on writing­ stronger, more reflective and cohesive cases.

Case studies were assessed based on the following criteria announced in the competition notice: content strength, quality of writing, and usefulness of the case study.

Can an Innovation Platform Succeed as a Cooperative Society? The story of Bubaare Innovation Platform Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd., came out ahead as the winner of the competition. The editors found this to be an excellent case because of the legal precedent of creating a cooperative out of an Innovation Platform, which will be very useful for other country contexts with common law settings. Furthermore, it does a great job in illustrating a true multipurpose Innovation Platform, with the capacity to innovate and scale up its innovation to the benefit of members. This platform came up with technological, market and policy innovations, and tells a compelling story about sustainability and platform impact.

The case entitled MilkIT Innovation Platform: Changing Women’s Lives – One Cow and One Litre of Milk at a Time – Deep in the Foothills of India’s Himalayan Mountains; The MilkIT case demonstrates a clear pathway to addressing constraints of dairy farmers in India, with development and policy impact, and powerful lessons

Overcoming Challenges for Crops, People and Policies in Central Africa – the Story of CIALCA Stakeholder Engagement. The CIALCA case provided an interesting example of an emerging platform process, with identification of success elements – both cases hold many valuable lessons for platforms around the world.