Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research and development projects and programs with an innovation objective.

The purpose of this report is to provide some of the groundwork in answering the question of how the CGIAR system and other public agricultural research organisations should adapt and respond to an era of transformation framed by the SDGs. It does this by exploring the way in which this transformation agenda reframes agricultural research and innovation.

This document is accompanyng the volume Public Agricultural Research in an Era of Transformation: The Challenge of Agri-Food System Innovation (available in TAPipedia here), which provides some of the groundwork in answering the question of how the CGIAR system and other public agricultural research organisations should adapt and respond to an era of transformation framed by the SDGs.

This paper addresses the question how public-private partnerships (PPPs) function as systemic innovation policy instruments within agricultural innovation systems. Public-private partnerships are a popular government tool to promote innovations. However, the wide ranging nature of PPPs make it difficult to assess their effects beyond the direct impacts they generate for the partners.

This Coaching Process guide was prepared under the project Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (CDAIS), a global partnership (Agrinatura, FAO and eight pilot countries) that aims to strengthen the capacity of countries and key stakeholders to innovate in complex agricultural systems, thereby achieving improved rural livelihoods. CDAIS uses a continuous learning cycle approach to support national agricultural innovation systems in eight countries in Africa, in Asia and Central America.

This brief argues that youth-inclusive investments to modernise the agricultural sector will unleash its huge potential, offer attractive employment opportunities and create a level playing field for rural girls and boys. It sets out several youth-inclusive approaches that will help agricultural value chain development programmes meet the needs of young people.

This brief argues that policy-makers in ACP countries must engage with young people to ensure that the policy environment reflects their interests and makes the sector attractive to them. Policies that work for and with youth are more likely to attract young people to the sector, injecting dynamism, growth and transformation.

This study considers what lessons might be learned from the cassava value chain in the context of CTA’s interest in the potentials of: digital financial services for agriculture, such as mobile payments for farmers’ products; other payment streams for financial inclusion of farmer; index based insurance services;  digital services to support access to loans and credits. This research provides a comprehensive market study of cash usage behavioural practices and financial literacy among cassava farmers in Ghana and Nigeria.