Since the 1960s the government of Burkina Faso has consistently sought to implement new development policies to improve the economic and social conditions of its people. Until the end of the 1990s these efforts have been disappointing and unsatisfactory. In the early 2000s there was a shift towards a knowledge-centred development policy and policy makers trusted that it would bring about the sough-after improvements. In 2006 Burkina Faso chose to adopt the National Innovation Systems (NIS) framework as a policy tool to implement this new policy. Drawing on a broader definition of technology that covers social technologies, this thesis used the ST-Systems analytical concept to chart the adoption and diffusion of the NIS policy tool at two levels, namely at strategic policy level and at the operational level, focusing here on the case of Bt cotton which was officially introduced to Burkina Faso in 2003. Ethnographic methods, including in-depth interviews with policy makers, farmers, Monsanto representatives, civil society actors and researchers, were used to gain new insights into the difficulties encountered by these actors when trying to implement the NIS policy tool. 60 interviews were analyzed against a backdrop of detailed historical studies, based on examining a large amount of grey literature, published between 1961 and 2016. Findings show that the implementation of the NIS policy for innovation diffusion for socio-economic development in Burkina Faso was shaped by local actors competing for control of financial resources and power positions. The new tool also had to compete with older, more familiar tools. In the end, it failed to bring about the expected improvements in policy design and practice at sectoral level. The thesis is among the first to have studied empirically the transfer processes of the NIS policy tool for innovation diffusion in an African country (Burkina Faso) through a case study focusing on the introduction of Bt cotton. The results achieved should contribute to more informed development policy-making in Burkina Faso.