Prolinnova - Promoting Local Innovation

Prolinnova is an NGO-initiated international network and community of practice that promotes local innovation processes in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resource management (NRM). It focuses on recognising the dynamics of indigenous knowledge (IK) and enhancing capacities of family farmers (including pastoralists, fishers and forest dwellers) to adjust to change – to develop their own site-appropriate systems and institutions of resource management so as to gain food security, sustain their livelihoods and safeguard the environment. The essence of sustainability lies in the capacity to adapt.

The network builds on and scales up farmer-led approaches to participatory development that start with finding out how family farmers create new and better ways of doing things. Understanding the rationale behind local innovation transforms how agricultural researchers and advisors view local people. This experience stimulates interest on both sides to enter into joint action. Local ideas are further developed in a process that integrates IK and scientific knowledge. Joint action and analysis lead to social learning.