NEWS:

17 May, 2015


Drawing from Anil Gupta’s work on frugal innovation, the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and Michigan State University (MSU) are facilitating a five-week practicum on frugal innovation in urban food systems. Frugal innovation refers to the development of technologies, organizational forms, and business models by and for people who generally have minimal access to productive resources. In addition, in contrast to the more prevalent top-down models of innovation development, frugal innovation typically proceeds in an inclusive manner ‘from the ground up,’ and is primarily focused on solving constraints of the poor through the organization and application of readily available resources and knowledge.


In this practicum, 16 students (8 from MSU) with the involvement of faculty members will be working with market managers, vendors, traders and city official to find better solution to urban food systems and markets in Lilongwe City.This practicum enacts the goals of Global Centre for Food System Innovation funded by USAID and LUANAR by providing students with a hands-on experience that teaches them the value of (1) problem-based, rather than discipline-based, approaches in which students are encouraged to co-create solutions based on lived realities (2) seeing and solving problems from multiple perspectives and (3) inclusive approaches to innovation that recognize and elicit meaningful input from people who are often marginalized. In such an approach to food systems development, there is a dual focus on the creation of solutions and empowerment among people who do not often have a voice in how development happens.


This activity builds the capacity of MSU and LUANAR faculty to provide experiential learning opportunities in a context that deliberately addresses rapidly changing food environments. Collaborative development and implementation of the Frugal Innovation Practicum (FIP) between LUANAR and GCFSI-MSU represents a good fit for several reasons:


• MSU and LUANAR have a strong history of mutually beneficial research and education collaborations over the years, which provides a strong foundation for developing, piloting, and refining new opportunities that strengthen both institutions.
• MSU and LUANAR have mutually stated goals of improving interdisciplinary education for students in the context of rapidly changing food environments. Urban food systems are changing rapidly and those changes are not being well-addressed by research nor by policy-makers. This activity provides an opening for engaging students, faculty, and policy-makers.
• LUANAR has expressed a need to provide its students with more experiential learning opportunities. Such opportunities are often missing in African universities, and building LUANAR’s capacity to deliver such training represents an important institutional advancement.
• LUANAR has incorporated public private partnership and graduate entrepreneurial programs into its curricula, which are building the capacity of students to create employment, improve household food security and be involved in national challenges that include food insecurity. The FIP represents another avenue for building this capacity.


It is expected that by the end of the practicum, students will (i) understand and be able to articulate the necessity of inclusive approaches to innovation (ii) be able to practice multiple methods for collaborative community analysis and problem-solving (iii) be able to translate outcomes of collaborative community learning process into practical recommendations for municipal officials and other professionals (iv) produce a final project that includes lessons learned, recommendations for future classes, and reflections on what the experience has meant to their future career trajectories (v) be able to directly contribute to national and global goals on food security and nutrition and (vi) produce policy briefs for policy makers especially those dealing with urban food systems.


From LUANAR the faculty members involved are Dr David Mkwambisi, Dr Jessica Kampanje, Dr Liveness Banda, Dr Martin Gulule, Mr Andrew Safalaoh, and Mrs Loveness Msofi-Mgalamadzi. Dr Stephanie White is the team leader from MSU. For more information on this activity contact Dr David Mkwambisi david.mkwambisi@bunda.luanar.mw or Dr Jessica Kampanje jaykampanje@yahoo.com.