Co-creation, along with human-centered design and lean startup, are innovative approaches that have risen to prominence in the development lexicon over the past five years. Some of us (myself included) have used “co-creation” without fully understanding what it means, simply assuming it is an event that brings  various partners together to brainstorm ideas to solve a problem. Only when I attended the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize co-creation workshop from June 26 to 29, 2018 in Kampala, Uganda, did I fully grasp the nuances of co-creation, and realize the significant benefits it holds for end users of the co-created products.  

Seeking Innovators

Fall armyworm is a devastating pest that has the potential to destroy millions of tons of crop yield across Africa, drastically reducing smallholder farmers’ incomes. In response, Feed the Future and its partners, Land O’Lakes International Development and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), created the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize competition to source digital tools and approaches that provide timely, context-specific information that enable smallholder farmers and those who support them to identify, treat, and track incidence of fall armyworm.