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The main challenge for researchers and project staff when implementing inclusive approaches in agricultural innovation is how learning and technology adaptation interact and how to reach jointly set targets. We provide a comparative analysis of the learning process induced by adaptive research (AR) in one case and a combined AR with Learning Alliance (LA) approach in another. The AR approach bridged farmers and researchers, but its implementation where researchers controlled experimentation, was not optimally conducive to experiential and discovery learning. The combined AR and LA approach expanded the number of stakeholders with whom farmers interact. This broadened the learning agenda beyond the initial objectives of the project. Although a LA provided added value in increasing the scope for learning with other stakeholders, limitations also emerged from the autonomy and informality of the learning process. Our analysis, based on the notion of situated learning, revealed practical concerns were a major driver in the participatory process. Incorporating insights and skills developed from experimentation to support the reconfiguration of practices, not only farming but also trading and milling, is needed. Lastly, the approaches have complementary value. Inclusion of more actors, as in a LA should not merely facilitate deliberations between actors but also support the reconfiguration of different practices and the functional linkages between these practices.

To extend water, sanitation and hygiene services to all, technological innovations are required which take into account a diverse range of stakeholder perspectives. We report the experiences of an intervention which sought to build capacity in the assessment and introduction of technologies in Uganda, Ghana and Burkina Faso by developing the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF), a tool which culminates in a multi-stakeholder scoring workshop. The project also used Learning Alliances to build capacity around technology introduction. This paper explores how stakeholder attitudes changed through the project and evaluates the Learning Alliance approach. It finds that whilst the intervention did manage to connect stakeholders in a novel way, uptake of the TAF may be hampered by a lack of government involvement in the earliest stages of the project.

Learning Alliances are a relatively new approach to emerge within the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector and seek to enhance the institutionalisation and scaling up of innovations in service delivery. In the context of WASH, Learning Alliances place an emphasis on establishing multidisciplinary interconnected platforms for interaction at different institutional levels in the sector, in order to address aspects of service delivery. This thesis examines a case of a project taking place in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Uganda, which used a Learning Alliance approach to programme management. The project was aiming to build the capacity in the area of technology assessment and introduction through action research, in the development of tools which could be used by stakeholders in the sector. The paper draws from forty semi-structured key informant interviews, one focus group discussion and a further 52 Most Significant Change stories (Davis and Dart 2005), conducted among individuals taking part in the project or otherwise exposed to it through dissemination activities. Applying the Learning Alliance approach has meant stakeholders have been able to tailor project innovations to the local context. Capacity has also been built among those taking part in the alliance both in terms of technology assessment and the use of the tools. However, the study has revealed certain difficulties with institutionalising externally developed innovations in a short three year project timeline. Further research is needed to investigate the processes behind diffusion and institutionalisation of innovation in WASH Learning Alliances. Creating a favourable environment for ongoing support and implementation of innovations in service delivery should be a key area of focus for Learning Alliances going forward.