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...
The purpose of this paper is to review the innovation research literature which has made an explicit use of social network analysis methodology in order to provide empirical support to innovation theories or conceptual frameworks. The review introduces social network...
This issue of the quarterly journal "Capacity.org" focuses on methods that can help to understand the societal context in which capacity development takes place. One of these methods is systems thinking, in which organisations, sectors and societies are seen as systems composed...
This paper sets out to explore the nature of new organisational and institutional vehicles for managing innovation in order to put research into use for social gain. It has reviewed four classes of such vehicles found in South Asia. The...
Based on international literature, preliminary experiences in a three-country West African research programme, and on the disappointing impact of agricultural research on African farm innovation, the current paper argues that institutional change demands rethinking the pathways to innovation so as...
