Action Research in Partnership is an approach to research that was defined by researchers from the Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (C.I.R.A.D.), a French research center ‘working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues’. According to R.A.P. developers, the inventions submitted by agronomic researchers are not sufficiently taken into account by potential users and do not necessarily leadto innovation. Inspired by social sciences, and introduced as an approach capable of creating favourable conditions to enable a reciprocal commitment in innovation, R.A.P. must improve the transition between inventions by researchers and the adoption of these inventions by users. This thesis focuses on the conditions of the implementation of R.A.P. in C.I.R.A.D. and then on two countries: Cameroon and Burkina Faso. My main argument will essentially concentrate on determining, with a number of concrete examples, whether R.A.P. is indeed inspired by social sciences to encourage reciprocal commitment in innovation and attain one of its principal objectives, i.e. to resolve the problems faced by participants. This thesis examine the role and possible influences of social sciences in this type of approach and development projects. Theobservation of R.A.P. as an object of socio-anthropological research leads to a fundamental questioning, both in terms of research and in local geographical situations.
