This is the first edition of the RIPWiG reporter. Its purpose is to share discussions from a policy dialogue group known as the Rural Innovation Policy Working Group (RIPWiG), an expert advisory group established by UNU-INTECH and its partners in India as part of a DFID funded research project “New insights into promoting rural innovation: Learning from civil society organizations.”
The mandate of RIPWiG is to facilitate dialogue between the project team and decision makers from Government and civil society organisations with responsibility for planning and implementation of science and technology-based rural development initiatives.
The RIPWiG has so far held two meetings. In the fi rst meeting it advised the project to look at how Government Schemes worked as these are the key public intervention mechanisms in the rural sector. In the second meeting, the Chairperson and other members of the RIPWiG have challenged the project to develop key lessons arising from its work that can help the Government promote rural innovation. (We explain what we mean by rural innovation in four boxes below.) In this first edition of RIPWiG Reporter, we present a brief overview of two contrasting Government Schemes that seek to promote rural innovation. But fi rst we present the ten commandments of rural innovation, a summary of principles emerging from recent research by the project team.