“The CDAIS project brings an innovative methodology because it creates capacities in us as human beings” explains Carlos Valladares of the Intibucá Farmers Network. “This has improved our understanding of our situation, we have taken full responsibility for it, and are now better able to obtain and manage information to improve producer organizations”. Associations in the region have appreciated the spaces created by CDAIS that allow them to link with other stakeholders, find solutions to common problems, and now, to even take issues to the national policy level.

“I have seen my income grow since I started farming frogs and fish” says Bounlium Planethavong, “but other farmers need support to adopt the techniques I use.” The CDAIS project identified this innovation that increases and diversifies household income and nutrition by promoting the production of aquatic protein sources.

This tool  helps the design of comprehensive capacity development interventions aimed at strengthening mainly functional capacities. The purpose of this tool is to  provide an overview of the different options in terms of capacity development modalities that an innovation partnership can consider while developing the action plan.

The multi-stakeholders Assessment Form is a tool to enable  the different actors creating a partnership to ask systematic questions to a potential partner to ensure a good fit with the goal, vision and needs of the partnership. This tool can be used at the development/ starting point phase of the partnership to explore a potential relationship.

The Outcome mapping factsheet provides a series of steps to gather information on the outcomes of the process initiated by capacity development for agricultural innovation. This tool provides an overview of the outcome mapping methodology used for planning and assessing projects/programmes oriented towards change and social transformation. A simplified version (three stages and 10 steps) is proposed, based on the original IDRC methodology and experiences from the application in the CDAIS project.

This tool is designed for reviewing the partnership to assess whether it is achieving the goals of the individual actors or partner organisations. It is essentially a ‘health check’ of the innovation partnership. This tool can offer an opportunity to the partners to reflect on the value of the partnership from their own organization’s perspective. It also helps to assess what-if any- changes would improve the effectiveness of the partnership and to agree as a group to any revisions to the partnership agreement taking into account the findings of the review process.

The goal of this tool is to help facilitators examine the roles that women and men play in an innovation partnership and to better integrate their specific needs and priorities in the interventions planned for the innovation partnership. Gender analysis of the innovation partnership can also be done throughout project implementation to monitor how men and women are integrated and benefit from the project and to reduce the gender gaps.

This book collects 24 stories of change from the EU-funded CDAIS project. Launched in 2015, the overall objective of CDAIS is to make agricultural innovation systems more efficient and sustainable in meeting the demands of farmers, agri-business and consumers. The stories are about the eight pilot countries - in Africa, Asia and Latin America - in which CDAIS operates. Countries and title of the 24 stories are provided below, with date of last update for each story.

Angola:

01) From farm to agri-business (February 2018)

A complex systems approach to innovation provides rich insights into the drivers, barriers, and key elements for innovation in rural systems. Through a case study of dry direct seeding (DDS) in smallholder systems in Laos, this article reveals a “perfect storm” of challenges and opportunities resulting in rapid adoption. Labour shortage, climate variability, and machinery availability are key factors.

The Synthesis Document, here in its Hindi version, provides a synthesis of concepts and principles of the Common Framework developed under the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP). The objective of the TAP Common Framework is to promote better coherence and greater impact of capacity development in support of agricultural innovation in the Tropics. Developed in 2015 through a highly participatory process, it was agreed that the Framework should provide conceptual underpinnings and practical guidance.