An innovation platform for institutional change in Ghana's cocoa sector

Abstract

-Cocoa is a major source of employment, smallholder farmers' incomes, and export revenue in Ghana. However, by 2010 institutional constraints throughout the value chain were failing to sustain bean quality and cocoa production. A national-level innovation platform, comprising key public and private actors in the cocoa sector, was established in 2010 to analyse and act to address this concern. The members' initial inquiries revealed that: farmers indirectly were paying for the national mass spraying and Hi-Tech input programmes, both provided free at the point of delivery. As the largest components in the cost structure, these programmes to a large extent accounted for the low price paid to farmers for their beans; a volatile exchange rate regime meant that often the prevailing rate was not equal to its equilibrium level; policies that heavily taxed cocoa were destroying farmers' expectation of long-term profitability. This paper draws on data recorded from the beginning 2009 to end 2013 by means of theory-guided process tracing (TGPT), to show how the platform contributed to increased prices for farmers, to subsequent reform of the input supply arrangements, and to changes to the mass spraying programme. The key causal mechanisms identified are policy learning and progressive amendment of existing institutions. The paper concludes by drawing lessons for the role of an innovation platform.Keywords: cocoa / price formation / value chain / pest control / stakeholder-led change Résumé -Une plate-forme d'innovation pour le changement institutionnel dans la filière cacao au Ghana. Au Ghana, le cacao est une source importante d'emplois, de revenus pour les petits agriculteurs et de recettes d'exportation. Cependant, en 2010, il a été diagnostiqué que des contraintes tout au long de la filière avaient un impact négatif sur la qualité et la production de fèves de cacao. Une plate-forme d'innovation nationale, comprenant les principaux acteurs publics et privés de la filière cacao, a donc été mise en place en 2010 pour analyser le problème et y répondre. Les enquêtes initiales ont révélé : que les agriculteurs payaient indirectement pour les programmes nationaux de « pulvérisation de pesticides » et d'intrants « Hi-Tech », tous deux soi-disant disponibles gratuitement ; or, en tant que composantes les plus importantes dans la structure des coûts, ces programmes étaient en fait largement responsables du faible prix payé aux * Corresponding

A Framework of Engagement Practices for Stakeholders Collaborating around Complex Social Challenges

“…Researchers have adopted several perspectives when investigating IPs. The innovation systems perspective remains one of the most common, especially the agricultural innovation systems perspective, likely because of the popularity of IPs in various smallholder agriculture settings in Africa [34][35][36]. Studies have also employed a value chains perspective to investigate the formation and functioning of IPs in health care [37][38][39].…”

“…[ 13,14,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67] Alignment Developing needs-driven platform's objectives which are rooted in the interests and needs of the platform's participants, coordination of the activities, expectations, interests and knowledge of the platform's participants towards realising the platform's objectives. [13,14,16,[34][35][36][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78] Championing…”

“…Weaker platform's participants are empowered. [13,16,35,58,[61][62][63][64][65][66]72,75,81,83] Monitoring evaluation and feedback…”

“…The participants who are responsible for various platform's activities are held accountable. [16,[34][35][36][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]70,[72][73][74][75][76]84] Participation…”

“…[ [13][14][15][16]34,35,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][70][71][72][73]80,85,86] Table 1. Cont.…”