Solving problems and strengthening systems: how local innovation of appropriate technology contributes to development

The chapter reviews the mental models and resulting conceptual frameworks, referred to as impact pathways, that scholars and practitioners use to theorize how local innovation of appropriate technology brings about development benefits, and what those benefits are. We identify three mental models that frame how local innovation works and contributes to development. We term the resulting conceptual frameworks the innovation adoption pathway, the innovation capacity building pathway, and the adaptive change impact model. The third model, informed by complexity science, identifies that local innovation contributes to development both by solving problems through innovation adoption and by strengthening the local innovation system through capacity building and changes to the enabling environment. We argue that this model best reflects current scholarship on local innovation in the context of rural communities in the Global South, but that additional empirical work is needed to strengthen its usefulness for policymaking and practice.