University-induced innovations for nurturing farm based micro-enterprises: Experiences from engaging with refugee hosting contexts
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Date
2023-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Journal of Rural Development,
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The linear approach of technology transfer is widely criticized for being non-responsive
to the development needs of the marginalized and vulnerable communities. As such,
universities have been urged to play an active role, within their community engagement
mandate, in facilitating inclusive innovation. Accordingly, this papers uses experiences
gained while facilitating the development of farm based micro-enterprises in refugee
and host communities of West Nile in Uganda to show how university community
engagement can be harnessed to facilitate an inclusive innovation system. An analysis
in this paper reveals that the interface structures of community engagement models
namely: The Student-Centered Outreach and the Student Enterprise Scheme with
supervision from faculty-staff, and together with community leadership, facilitate
successful university-community interactions, learning and innovation. We highlight that
stimulating sustainable innovations in marginalized communities is dependent on how
the interventions are packaged. Further, active engagement of marginalized communities
in decision-making does not only give beneficiaries opportunity to contribute and own
the development process but also enables the University to learn community challenges
for appropriate response.
Description
Keywords
Inclusive innovation system, innovations, interactive learning, marginalized communities, University community engagement
Citation
Odongo, W., Elolu, S., Akite, I., & Kalule, S. W. (2023). University-induced innovations for nurturing farm based micro-enterprises: Experiences from engaging with refugee hosting contexts. African Journal of Rural Development, 8(1), 1-17.