Bottom-up, Bottom-line: Development-Relevant Enterprises in East Africa and their Significance for Agricultural Innovation

Hall, Andy, Clark, Norman and Frost, Andy (2010). Bottom-up, Bottom-line: Development-Relevant Enterprises in East Africa and their Significance for Agricultural Innovation. UNU-MERIT.

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  • Sub-type Working paper
    Author Hall, Andy
    Clark, Norman
    Frost, Andy
    Title Bottom-up, Bottom-line: Development-Relevant Enterprises in East Africa and their Significance for Agricultural Innovation
    Publication Date 2010
    Place of Publication Maastricht, NL
    Publisher UNU-MERIT
    Pages 41
    Abstract Over the last 10 years much has been written about the role of the private sector as part of a more widely-conceived notion of agricultural sector capacity for innovation and development. This paper discusses the emergence of a new class of private enterprise in East Africa that would seem to have an important role in efforts to tackle poverty reduction and food security. These organisations appear to occupy a niche that sits between mainstream for-profit enterprises and the developmental activities of government programmes, NGOs and development projects. This type of enterprise activity is not corporate social responsibility, but an altogether new type of business model that is blending entrepreneurial skills and perspectives with mission statements that seek to both serve the needs of poor customers and address their welfare. The ethos is both "bottom-up" and "bottom-line". This paper classifies these organisations as Development-Relevant Enterprises (DevREs).The experience of the Research into Use (RIU) programme discussed in this paper suggests that supporting these types of entrepreneurial activity may form the basis of a new mode of development assistance aimed at using innovation for both social and economic purposes.
    Keyword Development-relevant enterprises
    Agricultural research
    Agricultural innovation
    East Africa
    JEL N5
    N57
    O13
    O19
    O31
    Q13
    Q16
    Copyright Holder UNU-MERIT
    Copyright Year 2010
    Copyright type All rights reserved
    ISSN 18719872
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