In the past, our approach to capacity development in agriculture focused mainly on fostering technical skills among developing-country education and research organizations, with some additional focus on businesses and enterprises. Over time, however, our approach has become more nuanced, recognizing that capacity development requires something more. Many recent capacity development strategies and activities now integrate participatory engagement, experiential learning, and strategic communications with technical skills development.
The systems approach to capacity development for agricultural innovation builds on this evolution, with a focus on developing stakeholders’ abilities to navigate complexities, collaborate, reflect and learn, and engage in strategic policy processes.
This approach isn’t new—it’s just a more systematic way of integrating capacity development into the very center of an innovation process.
