In February, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) convened the Africa Technology and Innovation Partnerships (ATIP) final learning event in Nairobi, bringing together delivery partners, grantees, FCDO and wider innovation system actors to reflect on six years of the ATIP programme. The purpose was not to “report back”, but to create a structured learning space: one that allowed people working in very different contexts to step back from day-to-day work, compare experiences and collectively make sense of what system strengthening looks like in practice.
Participant feedback from the event reinforces why this kind of learning space matters. Across the survey responses, people consistently highlighted the value of interaction and collaboration, particularly the opportunity to learn from peers across countries, intermediaries and downstream partners, and to engage with perspectives that are often missing from more formal programme discussions. Many pointed to the importance of being in the room together: relationship building, informal exchange and trust were seen as just as valuable as the formal sessions.
From IDS’s perspective, this feedback speaks directly to the role of learning facilitation in complex programmes. The event was deliberately designed around participatory methods, including story circles, thematic deep dives and facilitated plenaries, to help participants surface how their work had evolved over time, where adaptations had been necessary, and what this revealed about innovation systems more broadly. Rather than aiming for consensus, the facilitation focused on creating space for diverse interpretations, recognising that systems change plays out differently in different places or sectors.
The themes that participants took away from the event underline this complexity. Survey respondents repeatedly emphasised that system change takes time, and that sustainability depends on long-term thinking rather than short funding cycles. Governance emerged as a central concern. Not as an abstract concept, but as something experienced through accountability gaps, coordination challenges and relationships with government actors. A briefing Governing Innovation Ecosystems in Africa: Challenges and Lessons Learned finalised after the meeting, following feedback gathered there, speaks to that concern.
Many highlighted the importance of intermediaries as critical “soft infrastructure”, and the persistent challenges around funding models, particularly for early stage innovation and backbone functions. At the same time, participants noted that while shared challenges exist (e.g. fragmented innovation systems) responses still need to be context specific.
Constructive challenges
Importantly, feedback also provided constructive challenge. Participants felt a learning event of this nature would have been even more valuable if held earlier in the programme cycle, allowing insights to shape implementation rather than only retrospectively inform it. There was also some uncertainty about how far shared messages from the event would influence external governance actors, a reminder that learning does not automatically translate into policy influence without deliberate follow through. Planning for an upcoming influencing opportunity in Paris attended by 60 development professionals from across the membership of the OECD Development Assistance Committee spoke to that need to seize external moments. These reflections are not shortcomings so much as learning in themselves. They point to the ongoing tension between depth and breadth in learning processes, and to the need to treat facilitation as adaptive work. For IDS, they reinforce the importance of continuously refining how learning spaces are designed, ensuring clarity without oversimplification, and balancing structure with openness so that participants can engage meaningfully with evidence, experience and each other.
Participant feedback described the ATIP Learning Event as highly valuable, collaborative and well organised, with strong appreciation for the opportunity to step back from delivery pressures and reflect collectively. Participants also expressed a clear desire to see learning taken forward — through published outputs, shared messages to platforms such as the OECD event, and continued convening of partners.
In a sector that often prioritises delivery over reflection, the ATIP Learning Event offers a reminder that learning is not an add on. When thoughtfully facilitated, it becomes part of how complex systems are understood, navigated and ultimately strengthened.
