This paper is a contribution to the establishment of a new capacity development (CD) 9 strategy, a process that the Consortium Office will facilitate, with external input, during 2013. The paper explores the lessons learned from CGIAR’s experience with CD and reflects the findings of a working group that was brought together in late 2012. The objective of the paper is to identify the roles that individual and institutional CD might play in CGIAR in order to increase CGIAR’s impact on the welfare of smallholder farmers and the sustainability of their farming systems. A number of case studies have been included; these indicate the need for a more comprehensive approach to documenting the lessons learned to date. The paper also discusses possible interventions by the Consortium to ensure that CD contributes positively to achieving development outcomes through the CGIAR Research Programs. While the paper gives only partial answers, the authors have found it to be an important opportunity to learn and start to re-engage as a CD community.
Early applications of the innovation systems framework to developing-country agriculture suggest opportunities for more intensive and extensive analysis. There is ample scope for empirical studies to make greater use of the theoretical content available in the literature, and to employ...
What can we learn from ongoing initiatives? There has been a lot of interest during the last two decades in employing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for achieving development. While many of these initiatives have benefited rural women by way...
This paper, part of the Social Sciences Working Paper Series, presents studies undertaken by nine community-based, natural resource management (CBNRM)-oriented organizations in China, Viet Nam, the Philippines and Mongolia. The partner organizations, representing three broad types: academic, regional network, and...
Innovation is largely held to be unlikely in rural regions. This reflects the current emphasis on regional innovations systems that are driven by large expenditures on formal science based activity that results in patentable outcomes. From this metric the observation...
This study demonstrates the practical application of Catholic Relief Service (CRS)' partnership principles. CRS Niger and CADEV Niger (Caritas Niger), with the support of USAID's Food for Peace program, worked together to identify areas of CADEV Niger's organizational strengthening plan...

