Driving sustainable innovations: How policy can transform communities and ecosystems

Policy is essential to fostering innovations that address pressing global challenges, from food insecurity to environmental sustainability. On Innovation Day at UNCCD COP16, Cargele Masso, CGIAR Environmental Health and Biodiversity Platform Director, joined international leaders to explore how policy can enable sustainable innovations that meet the needs of diverse communities.
As the climate crisis intensifies, technical and social innovations must revolutionize food, land, and water systems. However, these transformations demand policies that not only promote access to innovations but also facilitate the transition to sustainable practices.

Masso, speaking on the Main Stage at the UNCCD COP16 Green Zone, highlighted the importance of the event's central themes: Policy as a catalyst for sustainability innovation; overcoming barriers in policy implementation; and shaping future policies for sustainable innovation.

"Sustainable innovation must go beyond boosting yields," said Masso. "It needs to address interconnected challenges-ecosystem health, economic stability, and societal well-being." This perspective reflects a shift from traditional agricultural research focused solely on productivity to solutions that consider biodiversity, resource conservation, and social equity.

Joost de Laat, Managing Director of Wageningen University's Social Sciences Group, emphasized that innovation is more than just technology: "We must consider the human dimensions of adopting technologies and integrate them into broader, co-created solutions."

Policy as a catalyst for collaboration
"Collaboration is key when all stakeholders are committed to sustainability and innovation," said Abdullah Alraddadi, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environment and Water Agency, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Policies that incentivize co-creation among farmers, researchers, and stakeholders can unlock transformative potential.

One way to do this is through funding and incentivizing co-created innovations among farmers, researchers, and stakeholders. While co-creating innovations, establish inclusive platforms for collaboration, ensuring marginalized groups have a voice. Another way is to support capacity sharing and technical assistance to empower all actors in sustainability innovation. Lastly, provide financial mechanisms to scale up successful collaborative solutions in agriculture.

The CGIAR is implementing these suggestions through our co-developing and co-designing research with farmers. One example, Climate-smart villages, empowers communities to lead experiments that combine a range of measures such as agroforestry, climate-smart seeds and solar irrigation. In West Africa, this approach has led to a 94% increase in rice yields and boosted farmers' net incomes by $267 per hectare.

Cargele Masso speaking on a Policy panel in the UNCCD COP16 Green Zone Main Stage. Photo credit: CGIAR/Kristen Tam

Overcoming barriers to policy implementation
Smallholder farmers often face significant barriers in implementing soil health practices due to limited resources, knowledge gaps, and systemic challenges. To overcome these barriers and support them in adopting sustainable innovations, two policy interventions are essential:

1. Financial support and market access: Incentivize sustainable practices through improved value chains and public-private partnerships.
2. Capacity building and innovation access: Enhance technical assistance and training, such as CGIAR's Kaznet project, which uses digital crowdsourcing to bolster pastoralist resilience to climate change.

Shaping the future of sustainability innovation
To align innovation with systemic change, public-private partnerships are crucial. However, misaligned financing models often impede progress. Mariana Mazzucato, Founding Director at UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose, underscored the need for governments and private entities to collaborate directly on transformative solutions.

Masso called for a bold commitment: "Governments must allocate at least 10% of national budgets to sustainable agriculture, agroecology, and restoration." Coherent policies that align productivity with sustainability and foster accountability can drive the systemic shifts needed to transform food systems.

The insights shared at COP16 emphasize that policy is not just a framework-it is a catalyst. By investing in collaborative, inclusive, and forward-thinking policies, governments and stakeholders can unlock the full potential of sustainable innovation to create resilient communities and ecosystems.

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