Strengthening poverty reduction programmes using an actor-oriented approach: Examples from natural resources innovation systems

This article examines the role of individuals and their interactions on the accumulation, improvement, and diffusion of knowledge regarding natural resources. The authors argue that the exchange of information and relationships formed between individual actors can facilitate an effective and sustainable production of innovations when there is continual interaction and they are supported by institutions. Using case studies of natural resource-based development projects in Bangladesh and Nepal, the authors offer qualitative tools and social science research methods which address the interactions between actors in innovation systems. These are presented as complementary to the quantitative approaches of natural resources research.