Description of the subject. We present a literature overview of innovation platform practices in Africa, combined with case studies of sub-national platforms established in Senegal and Burkina Faso. Objectives. The main objective was to understand how the facilitation process of innovation platforms can become more effective. Two specific objectives were to study RAMSES II innovation platform cases in Senegal and Burkina Faso where we observed and reflect on the facilitation of agroforestry innovation platforms. A final objective was to position the case results in a literature overview of IP experiences in Africa. Method. Information on innovation platforms was collected by combining an analysis of RAMSES II agroforestry innovation platform cases and an innovation platform literature review. Results. The study illustrates how the organizational position of the facilitating research agents contributed to shaping platform agendas, functions, and outcomes. This process hinges on the deployment of legitimacy claims, which appeal to technical expertise and scientific narratives, in this case on agroforestry. Institutional embeddedness is shown to be a critical aspect of agency in innovation platform multi-actor processes, contributing to framing local understandings of agroforestry and to channel collective efforts. Conclusions. The institutional identity of facilitating research agents and their relationship to members of a platform requires a more open and process oriented role. Coordination and facilitation roles can also be taken up by other members of the platform. This enhances the platform’s ability to ground their agendas into local needs and priorities. It also enhances sustainability, as active membership during the project period prepares platform members to continue after project closure.

Description du sujet. En Afrique de l'Ouest, en particulier au Burkina Faso, l’intensification des parcs arborés est de plus en plus préconisée dans les interventions d’accompagnement des populations rurales confrontées à la diminution progressive des arbres dans leurs systèmes de production agricole et pastorale. Cependant, la mise en œuvre de ces interventions se heurte à un contexte social dominé par une diversité d’acteurs aux intérêts souvent antagonistes. Objectifs. Cette étude vise à identifier les acteurs pertinents à inclure dans un processus de réflexion pour co-construire des scénarii d’intensification des parcs arborés. Méthode. Pour ce faire, une démarche purement qualitative a été mobilisée en combinant une revue de littérature, des ateliers de cartographie des acteurs et des entretiens semi-directifs dans les communes de Koumbia, Guéguéré et Dano. Résultats. Les résultats montrent que dans les communes de Koumbia et Dano, la gestion et l’usage des arbres sont réalisés par une diversité d’acteurs ayant des intérêts convergents pour l’intensification des parcs arborés et interreliés par des échanges commerciaux, d’informations et de connaissances et des relations de pouvoir. Conclusions. Cette étude a permis de définir collectivement les contours d’une plateforme d’innovation incluant tous les acteurs dans chaque village, avec une gouvernance centrale au niveau de la commune en vue de co-construire des scénarii d’intensification des parcs arborés.

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Consumption and production practices are part of the logics and habits of the different social structures. Every sociolinguistic community possesses its own food and cultural practices. Those practices and behaviors are not necessarily static. They can be influenced by external phenomena. This paper tries, through a socio-anthropological qualitative approach, to understand the consumption and production practices of rural households in the communes of Koumbia and Béréba. The study showed that the rural communities of Koumbia and Bereba have a diversity of cultivation practices and eating habits. However, this diversity of production does not correspond to what is consumed. The reason for this paradox stems from the perceptions that these communities have of food. Rural households are more focused an "eating their fill" than on the nutritional quality of what they consume. Thus, dietary behavior or food choices are ultimately much more determined by cultural values related to education, openness, curiosity, acquired and ethnic information than by technical-economic factors related to the resources of the farm or its environment as supported by classical theories. Food habits therefore remain determining factors in production and consumption practices. They favor change because societies are dynamic and highly functional in contact with modernity and the diffusionist current resulting in the mixing of cultures.

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