Evaluation of the project “Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (CDAIS)”

“Capacity development for agricultural innovation systems”, implemented by FAO and Agrinatura from 2015 to 2019, supported the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) to improve the global coherence of capacity development for agricultural innovation. The project contributed to developing a common framework for a practical approach to capacity development for agricultural innovation, and piloted its application across eight countries. The approach is based on soft skills and the importance of process, as opposed to the mainstream paradigm based on developing technology and hard technical skills.

This approach was found to be relevant to most of the 40 TAP members by helping to improve the coherence and impact of their capacity development activities. The common framework has strong potential for adoption beyond TAP members. However, it is important for future similar interventions to work on both functional and technical capacities simultaneously.