Ex-ante Framework Research Articles

Ex-ante priority setting in crop breeding: Towards inclusive innovation for impact

CONTEXTCrop breeding teams should ideally work a-priori to rank research priorities and varietal product concepts to make decisions considering social, environmental, production and market conditions that an improved crop variety will be entering upon release. Frequently, this research prioritization is guided by a cost-benefit optimization framing, which leaves the potential derived by alternative approaches, such as inclusive innovation, unexplored. OBJECTIVEIn this study, we apply PEEP (Participatory Ex-ante framework for Plant breeding), a new methodological framework for ex-ante participatory priority setting for plant breeding programs. This framework explores how, given a set of hypothetical crop varieties (varietal product concepts) it is possible to assess which will have the highest potential to deliver research impacts. PEEP is designed to support crop breeders to understand the impact potential of a new varietal product concept, and strategically make decisions based on this. METHODSPEEP ranks varietal product concepts across five impact domains: breeding, processing, marketing, climate, and cross-cutting themes. This paper reports on how an interdisciplinary breeding team from the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA) in Burkina Faso working on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp) applied PEEP and discusses the results from this application. We chose cowpea as a crop focus, based on prior research that showed that gender and social differences shape roles, responsibilities, and benefits from its cultivation in Burkina Faso. We engaged 650 stakeholders using tools and methods (choice experiment, surveys and focus group discussions) tailored to collect information according to their spheres of knowledge. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSWe present a reflection on the application process, results, and feedback from the INERA cowpea breeding team on these. We show that breeders and farmers ranked the potential impact of the varietal product concepts differently. We also show that differences in evaluation of impact from varietal product concepts vary based on market orientation, agroecological zones, farming systems and gender. SIGNIFICANCEWe demonstrate that PEEP contributes to inclusive agricultural innovation as a feasible method to consider the knowledge and preferences of diverse stakeholders. We show that it is informative to include diverse groups when conceptualizing new varieties before investing in varietal development. Making such research prioritization decisions early on enables breeding programs to avoid “missing the mark” on assumed impacts on smallholder women and men farmers and increases their visibility and voice in these upstream decisions.

Precautionary Principles of Sustainability versus Promotion of the Ease of Doing Business in the Proposed EIA Regulation in India: A Critical Analysis and Application of an Ex-Ante Framework to Review the Regulation

The tenets of environmental policy evolved in India and how precautionary principles of sustainability are sidelined in the draft EIA regulation 2020 are analyzed. The emphasis on exempting several categories of projects from the EIA requirements and public consultation, standardization of sector-specific terms of reference and environmental clearance conditions, and decentralization of the decision-making to simplify and fast-track the environmental clearance procedure for development projects is apparent. The list of projects/activities requiring prior environmental clearance and the procedures reveal that promoting the ease of doing business scores over precautionary principles. Efforts to increase the effectiveness and improve transparency in monitoring the implementation of environmental clearance conditions are visible. Still, the prime issues of improving the efficiency and efficacy of the EIA framework and institutional reforms in the EIA system need to be earnestly addressed. The evaluation using an ex-ante framework unveils the areas needing meticulous attention to revamp the EIA regulation.

Crowdsourcing priorities: a new participatory ex-ante framework for crop improvement

Demand-led approaches to crop breeding involve ranking priorities across different disciplines and stakeholder categories, but the implications of decisions made during varietal development are frequently understood only years later. Breeding teams must work a priori to rank crop improvement priorities and product concepts considering the context of the current, and ideally future, environmental, production and market conditions that a variety will be entering upon release. We propose PEEP (Participatory Ex-antE framework for Plant breeding), a new ex-ante framework, as a methodological tool for priority setting in plant breeding. PEEP leverages two elements: the usage of a heterodox methodological approach and the strong emphasis on the participation of knowledge-rich stakeholders. PEEP ranks crop improvement impacts based on a heterogenous set of environmental, social, and economic benefits and it employs a recursive and tailored multi-stakeholder approach to relate crop improvement impacts and product concepts. PEEP builds on the need to engage technical as well as practical knowledge and utilizes a tailored engagement strategy for each knowledge-rich stakeholder involved. The outcome is an assessment that ranks crop improvement impacts and breeding product concepts according to designed set of criteria. PEEP is scalable, gender inclusive, and crop agnostic. The results of PEEP are ex-ante recommendations for breeding teams in National Agriculture Research centers (NARs) and CGIAR centers alike. This methods manuscript describes the theoretical foundations of PEEP and its four phases of implementation.

Anti-Google Law: An Analysis

When an organisation acts independently of the dynamics of the competitive market and attracts the greatest number of customers, it enjoys a dominant position in the market. It has been repeatedly proven through a series of cases that a dominating actor may try to engage in actions that are an abuse of their dominant position and hence, anti-competitive, resulting in a chilling effect on efforts to create perfect competition. In a fast-developing digital technology market, it is expected that the competition enforcement machinery will adopt measures that can be applied to dynamic competition. With the South Korean government bringing in a stricter legislation to control such misuse, would an attempt to shift from ex-post facto mechanism to an ex-ante framework afford a possible solution to bring in effective changes to circumscribe abuse of dominance in the digital marketspace? This paper tries to comparatively analyse the recent law passed by South Korea, nicknamed the “Anti-Google law”, and how India can take inspiration from it to implement changes to existing laws.

Are farmers ready to use phone-based digital tools for agronomic advice? Ex-ante user readiness assessment using the case of Rwandan banana farmers

ABSTRACT Purpose Digital extension is widely embraced in African agricultural development, promising unprecedented outcomes and impact. Especially phone-based services attract attention as tools for effective and efficient agricultural extension. To date, assessments of digital extension services are generally ex-post in nature, thus consideration of users and broader systems occurs once an intervention is broadly identified. However, early understanding of user needs, readiness, and relevant context is a prerequisite for successful adoption and sustainable use of digital extension services. We conducted an ex-ante assessment of user readiness (UR) for phone-based services. Design/Methodology/Approach We developed an ex-ante framework to assess UR, considering capabilities, opportunities, and motivations of targeted users. The case study of Rwandan banana farmers served to verify the UR framework, using survey data from 690 smallholder farmers. Findings Findings demonstrate limited capacity to access and use phone-based extension services, especially those requiring a smartphone, and a mismatch between expected UR and actual UR, current capabilities and opportunities. Findings provide entry points for designing suitable digital extension projects and interventions, suggesting a need for capacity building. Practical implications The UR-framework provided understanding about current limitations in farmer readiness for digital extension. This ex-ante approach to explore UR before designing digital interventions for African farmers is recommended. It points at the importance of embedding digital technologies into existing practices and creating blends of ‘digital’ and ‘analogue’ or 'high-tech' and 'low-tech'. Theoretical implications The UR-framework provides a structured approach to developing pre-intervention insights about users and use-context, supporting informed strategizing and decision-making about digital extension. It is a relevant addition to existing readiness frameworks, participatory design methods, and ex-post intervention performance assessments, as part of a balanced readiness level assessment. Originality/Value This is the first ex-ante assessment of UR for digital extension services in an African context, and the first attempt to analyse Rwandan farmers’ readiness for digital extension services.

Testing an ex-ante framework for the evaluation of impact assessment laws: Lessons from Canada and Brazil

Scholars have been increasingly investigating legislative changes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However, most of the existing evaluation frameworks have been applied to ex-post scenarios, after EIA laws and respective policies and regulations had been implemented for some time. This article has a twofold objective: first, to propose an ex-ante framework for the evaluation of proposed EIA laws and, second, to test the application of the framework to bills C-69 and PL-3729, which target federal-level EIA reform in Canada and Brazil, respectively. The proposed framework is meant to indicate the extent to which proposed legislative changes meet 50 good practice criteria, thus providing a more balanced and transparent account of the issues that should be addressed effectively in the legislative process and in future regulations and guidelines. Results indicate very contrasting scope and potential effects of proposed legislative changes in the two countries. Brazil's bill is essentially intended to integrate existing regulations into a law that would make EIA faster, simpler and less frequent. Canada's bill, recently approved by Parliament, includes a new Impact Assessment Act that is expected to deliver more comprehensive and credible assessments. The ex-ante framework, by exposing how close or distant proposed EIA regimes are from good practices, can be particularly helpful in lawmaking and regulatory design. The article finally discusses limitations and highlights future avenues of research.

A Multi-Step Design Framework Based on Life Cycle Thinking for the Holistic Renovation of the Existing Buildings Stock

In recent years, the transition to a sustainable society has highlighted the importance of tackling a holistic renovation of the existing building stock, able to contextually solve its structural, energy, and architectural deficiencies. Nevertheless, in practice, the cost of the intervention, the building downtime, and the potential relocation of the inhabitants have been recognized as major barriers to the renovation. To overcome such barriers and foster sustainability, eco-efficiency, and resilience, new design approaches and solutions sets have been proposed. However, given the lack of a global vision of current regulations, a design framework able to conjugate technical and functional performances with principles of sustainability and feasibility is still required. In this paper, a new multi-step design framework is proposed, which, for the first time: 1) adapt the three pillars of sustainability to the renovation of the existing buildings interpreting them as reduction of environmental impacts, increase of safety and resilience, and overcoming of the major barriers to the renovation; 2) introduce a new Life Cycle perspective that also considers impacts and loss associated to structural decay and vulnerability of existing buildings; 3) shift from an ex-post perspective to an ex-ante framework, to be used since the initial design steps.

The Role of Ex-Post and Ex-Ante Integrated Assessment Frameworks in Conceptualization of the Modeling Process in the Context of Integrated Water Resources Management

Reconnaissance and conceptualization of the system are the first steps to perform an integrated assessment study and step towards sustainability. This paper focuses on the conceptualization phase of the integrated assessment using frameworks to identify the key variables of a system and their relations. Authors believe that in an integrated assessment study, it is important to include both “ex-post” and “ex-ante” aspects. This paper adopts Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) as an ex-post, and Goal Oriented Framework (GOF) as an ex-ante framework to the model conceptualization process in the case of water resources system in South Khorasan, Iran. It is shown that DPSIR framework is well adapted to describe past and present interactions of the system and provide a retrospective view, also more focused on the environmental dimension, while GOF is able to capture the future interactions as well and it can also encompass the three dimensions of sustainability. By adopting both frameworks, a more integrated and comprehensive view of the system has been achieved, which can be helpful to shed lights on knowing the key variables and relations to be relied on in the phase of developing efficient models to analyze the system.

Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis: a practical method for project planning and evaluation

Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) is a practical approach to planning, monitoring and evaluation, developed for use with complex research-for-development projects. PIPA begins with a participatory workshop where stakeholders make explicit their assumptions about how their project will make an impact, and produce an ‘Outcomes logic model’ and an ‘Impact logic model’. These two logic models provide an ex-ante framework of predictions of impact that can also be used in priority setting and ex-post impact assessment. PIPA engages stakeholders in a structured participatory process, promoting learning and providing a framework for ‘action research’ on processes of change.

CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS WITH THE HYPOTHETICAL MONOPOLIST TEST IN EX-ANTE REGULATION OF COMMUNICATIONS UNDER THE NEW REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Under the new European regulatory communications framework that was enacted in 2002, market definitions are subject to a different and much more analytical scope. With regards to market definition, the new regulatory ex-ante framework explicitly adopts the so-called “Hypothetical Monopolist Test” (HMT), which has long been the state of the art in ex-post competition law. Direct empirical implementation based on rigorous statistical grounds is found to be exceedingly difficult. The very fact that the HMT is endorsed in ex-ante as well as ex-post jurisdictions, but rarely implemented directly in practice, underlines this point. Therefore, a proper understanding of the conceptual framework is of particular importance because this makes clear what the individual factors determining the outcome of the HMT are. Such understanding will serve as a valuable guidance in the decision-making process in line with the conceptual framework. This article discusses those aspects and gives applications from sector-specific communications markets. Doing this also illustrates that the HMT is, in principle, designed to be applied alongside all relevant market definition dimensions. Any methodological deviations from the HMT have therefore to be justified analytically.

How to Diversify Internationally? A Comparison of Conditional and Unconditional Asset Allocation Methods

To obtain the maximum benefits from diversification, financial theory suggests that investors should invest internationally because of the larger potential for risk reduction. The question that we raise in this paper is how to select the optimal portfolio of countries? This article synthesizes the major international asset allocation methods based on mean-variance analysis that have been proposed so far in the literature. In particular it compares two types of conditional asset allocation with unconditional methods. The different policies are simulated in a truly ex-ante framework that reflects exactly the uncertainty faced by the portfolio manager at the moment he has to decide upon his future investments. The asset allocation methods are implemented from a Swiss perspective over the period 1988-2001. We find that conditional methods based on direct predictability of expected returns outperform all other asset allocation methods.