CDAIS project

The CDAIS project

CDAIS is a global partnership whose mission is capacity development for agricultural innovation systems.

Launched in 2015, its main objective is to make agricultural innovation systems more efficient and sustainable in their ability to meet the needs of farmers, agribusiness and consumers to help improve food security. The CDAIS partnership operates in eight pilot countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Actions to develop capacities in these eight countries are demand-driven and integrate the development of individual skills and organizational capacities into policy dialogues.

This will enable the implementation of policies promoting improved capacities for agricultural innovation systems, joint innovations and the organizational culture, practices and procedures of key multi-stakeholder organisations. Based on lessons learned from the experience of the pilot countries, the CDAIS partnership will strengthen the existing global mechanism (TAP) to stimulate, coordinate and evaluate capacity development approaches to strengthen agricultural innovation.

This mechanism will then feed the national level. The development of the so-called Common Capacity Development Framework for Agricultural Innovation Systems takes place in the context of the Agricultural Agriculture Platform (TAP), a G20 initiative launched to support the development of capacities in agricultural innovation in the tropics. CDAIS is a partnership between Agrinatura, a consortium of 31 European universities and research institutes, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

On a national level

CDAIS uses continuous learning cycles to improve functional capacities for innovation in Africa, Asia and Central America. In eight pilot countries, CDAIS brings together key partners and actors to respond to commonly identified challenges and opportunities in specific regions or value chains. Together, international, national and local partners develop and implement capacity development plans for agricultural innovation.

At the World level

CDAIS supports the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) whose mission is to capitalize and consolidate knowledge on agricultural innovations around the world. A general analysis framework is designed to help, assess and improve the innovation capabilities of individuals or organizations. It is fed by continuous feedback from lessons learned from national and local actions. This framework, endorsed by TAP partners in 2016, focuses on functional capabilities.

Functional abilities

To succeed in innovating together, the actors must possess two types of capacities: technical and functional capacities. The functional capacities on which the CDAIS project focuses, encompass the different skills required for innovation networks and partnerships to work well: the ability to navigate complexity, the ability to collaborate, the ability to experiment and learn, and the ability to engage in strategic and political processes.

The Capacity Development for Innovation in Agriculture (CDAIS) program operates in eight pilot countries in Africa (Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Rwanda), Asia (Bangladesh, Laos) and Latin America (Guatemala, Honduras)