Food on the table and disease at the door: insights from low-income countries and regions for measuring innovation

Abstract

An important discussion regarding innovation indicators concerns their relationship with theory. It is theory that tells us something about cause effect relationships and other patterns, which in turn suggests what indicators to collect for which purpose. Therefore, as theory advances, indicator methodologies can be expected to change as well. If they do not, they may become irrelevant or victims of logical fallacies. Innovation in agriculture and health the stuff that can change the livelihoods of poor people for the better is not well understood, certainly not by researchers who have to date focused on manufacturing innovation in middle or high income countries. The question that motivates this paper is whether we know enough about innovation in poor countries to be able to create the indicators that would adequately and meaningfully reflect the underlying agents and processes of change.