During the last week of October, 2013, capacity development focal points from the CGIAR Centers and Research Programmes (CRPs), the Consortium office and key partner organizations, met in Nairobi to begin to define guiding principles and elements of a CGIAR Capacity Development Strategy. The CGIAR group met for several days and partners were then invited to discuss the plans developed and present their perspectives on actions required by the Consortium. Grasp more about the outcomes of CGIAR Consortium Workshop at: http://bit.ly/1g1JXyv

1. Balancing the Equation:
CGIAR and Capacity Development
in National AR4D Systems
Mark Holderness
Global Forum on
Agricultural Research

2. The Global Forum for All in Agricultural Innovation
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CGIAR & International research
FAO
IFAD
Farmers organizations
Civil Society Organizations
Private sector networks
Advanced research - G20 MACS & BRICS
Regional Fora –
AARINENA, APAARI, CACAARI, EFARD, FARA, FORAGRO
 Advisory Services - GFRAS
 Education Institutions - GCHERA
 Youth - YPARD

3. The Global Forum:
Breaking down the sectoral walls
• Farmer-centred thinking
• Stakeholders learning
& innovating together,
managing benefits & risks
• Mobilizing agricultural innovation
systems, engaging all sectors
• Institutional reorientation
& changed attitudes/values
Convergence of Research, Extension, Education and
Enterprise, Policies & Resources
joedale.typepad
• Catalyzing collective actions

4. CGIAR Reform
• CGIAR accountable for research outputs
• Shared responsibility for development
outcomes
What is the underlying vision of success?
To be an ever-expanding research business unit?
Or
To help enable countries to achieve self-capability in
research to be able to address their own challenges?

5. Research in Development
Foresight &
prioritization
Societal
demand
Learning &
Scale-out
AR4D
Demand
The AR4D Cycle
Partnership with
Shared objectives
Joint Commitments
Evaluation
Impact
Immediate
Outcomes
Feed
back
Knowledge
Transformation
Access & Use
Enabling factors
Knowledge
Generation

6. GCARD 2010: Knowledge & innovation are essential,
but are not themselves sufficient for development
Innovation
pathways
Desired
development
outcome
Enabling
environment
& inputs
Institutions & capacities
supporting agricultural
development &
innovation

7. Building the Human Capacity Pyramid
For policy makers, scientists, researchers- Providing
opportunities to study in the wider contexts of economic
dev’t, security, world trade, climate change,
For entrepreneurs, traders, processors, wholesalers &
those who interface with producers and business people
- Improving agribusiness education in agribusiness
For extension workers/change agents-Training in
soft /personal mastery skills
For rural technicians and artisansTechnical and vocational training
For small-holders and farmers Empowering them with both
opportunities for learning and
information , i.e. Make them
knowledge-able
(I. Frempong, 2012)

8. Development is changing as economies grow
As poverty reduces, the prime challenge will become the intractable
problems of societal inequalities and civil conflicts:
Agricultural production does not itself equal poverty reduction or
access to nutrition:
• India is self-sufficient in tonnage yet has up to 40% child stunting
• China is moving 200 million people from smallholding farms into cities
in the next decade to reduce rural poverty and ‘feed’ factories
22 Countries have been both food insecure and in protracted
conflicts for over a decade:
• 17 of these are in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Iraq lost 2/3 of its AR4D capacity during the recent war
• 5 years ago, NARIs of Eritrea and Liberia had one agricultural
research PhD each
Need to look beyond macro-production data alone, question
inequities and engage civil society - needs new AR4D capacities

9. Re-imagining agriculture – Capacity development requires
Smallholders to have a say in envisioning their own futures
 Productivity gap – a constraint of technology, or of inputs vs
returns and risk aversion in changing practices?
 Rethinking agriculture from an engendered perspective…
gender-blind technology is not gender-neutral…
 Need greater PPP investment in labour & time saving in
production & processing, in value addition & market access
 Poverty reduction – future challenges will be in reaching the
poorest sector – usually rural poor
 Impacts of disrupted systems – e.g. protracted crises – what
role for civil society and PPPs in protracted crisis countries?
 Foresight – envisaging our desired agricultural futures and the
innovation we need to get there – and its implications…

10. The changing face of capacity investment
Global public investment has been growing (ASTI & GFAR, 2012)
 Following a period of declining growth rates, global public spending
on agricultural R&D grew by 22 percent during 2000–2008;
 Long-term government commitment to agricultural R&D and
supportive policies have fuelled increased agricultural productivity and
overall economic growth
 China and India together accounted for around half the global
increase, other large middle-income countries - including
Argentina, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, and Russia also increased
 ¾ of global AR4D investment is in G20 Nations
 India now has 24,000 agricultural scientists, of whom 4,800 are in
ICAR institutes
 Private-sector involvement in agricultural R&D has increased, but
mostly in agribusiness, rather than agricultural production

11. The Investment & Capacity Challenge
 NEPAD target: at least 1 % of GDP to R&D
 In 2008, Africa spent $0.61 for every $100 of AgGDP on agricultural
R&D
 Africa under-invests in agricultural R&D, still limited operational
budgets & aid project dependency
 What can the CGIAR do to help fund & leverage more?

12. Impact of the CGIAR Reform
Achieving a more open and inclusive system…?
Year
2004
14
2005
16
2006
14
2007
15
2008
16
2011
16
2012
•
•
•
•
% of CGIAR funds to
partners
17
CGIAR receives 2/3 of all donor support to AR4D in Africa (EIARD, 2011)
Transparency on funds scored lowest in 2012 CGIAR partnership survey
Overall funding has greatly increased due to the reform, 5-25% to partners
Yet for Challenge programs 35% went to partners in 2007 & 2008

13. Re-imagining the value chain
Rapidly changing roles and perceptions of the agricultural private sector
in development:

Private sector encompasses all areas for which services are paid
for by the client, rather than being paid for from public funds.

Balanced by social and environmental considerations: agriculture
and entrepreneurship are products of cultures and societies.
Roles include:
•
Input service provision,
•
Enabling environment – credits, insurance etc
•
Markets for produce and processed foods, fibers, fuels etc.
•
Smallholder farmer & cooperative enterprise
•
Farmers as entrepreneurs, economic growth is a basic
driver for change
•
But the poorest remain largely excluded - govt safety nets ?

14. The International private input sector is changing fast:
What does this mean for the CGIAR’s role in countries?
Iowa State
Univ. 2012
•Top 5 seed companies 9.4%
market share in 1995, 45.9% in
2011
•Driven by research costs & scale
of returns, economies of scale and
regulatory procedures & costs

15. Delivering advanced research products through seed, with IP protection
has led to very rapid takeovers & consolidation in the seed industry:
The Global Forum

16. Some PPP Challenges
 Private and public partners must truly understand and share the
same objectives from the outset
 How can PPPs reach the poorest, where there is least commercial
imperative?
 What can we learn from producer & market self-investment in
innovation e.g. commodity crops, into the public sector?
 How to identify, understand and empower the customers in these
processes?
 What policy and investment environment is required to ensure
benefit to small farmers?
 How can famers be empowered & supported to grow their own
livelihoods? – information access, market awareness, collective
actions, support systems, innovation brokers, business
mentors & incubators, risk management…

17. Some key capacity challenges need to be resolved by policy
changes and investment

Lack of productivity and market gain, high cost
of inputs and transportation costs, exploitation
by middle men.
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Public- private sector dialogue on investment in
agricultural infrastructure:
irrigation, transportation, warehouses...

Opportunities for Business Development
Services, market sourcing, financing of early
stage agribusinesses
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Enabling business environment & platforms for
PPP interaction along value chains e.g. Kenya
Agribusiness and Agro-industry Alliance (KAAA)
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More participation of youth, women and poor in
agribusiness in financial, labour, service &
goods markets
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Small farmers and traders are underrepresented and vulnerable.

18. Create ‘instant’ capacities through Information Open
Access, Transformation & Use in direct farmer support
New Technologies: Information and
Communication, Bio-Technology and
others applied individually and
together
Bringing new opportunities in
agricultural services, agro-industries
and agribusiness
Using Open Access Data and
Networked Local Weather Stations
with Forecasting Models for Risk
Aversion and Management
e.g. In Kenya for Crop, Disease and Pest
and Insurance in Smallholder Tea and
Coffee Plots
Role of CGIAR Open Access Policy?

19. Re-inspiring the Youth, the entrepreneurs of tomorrow:
e.g. Earth Univ., Wageningen Univ.
 Earth University ethical entrepreneurship: Social and environmental
awareness and commitment, capacity to generate positive change.
 Student loans to start a business venture during their first three
years study,
 Gain a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to start a
business
 No more parrots! Dynamic and participatory, facilitated
learning:
 Students explore real challenges and become active participants in
generating knowledge, not passive receivers of information.

20. Women as entrepreneurs
Almost 50% of farmers are women, yet receive 10% of
income and 5% of technical assistance in
agriculture, often not even considered as farmers
Women farmers, given equal access to inputs, are as
productive as men farmers
Research and innovation often totally miss women’s
needs:
needs
e.g. Niger
• Men want input
technologies,
production and returns
• Women want labour &
time saving, value
addition and household
nutrition

21. Addressing CD in the GFAR Medium Term Plan
Working through Action Partnerships to achieve real
change
 CGIAR is a key actor within the Global Forum
 Strengthening International: National linkages and
common purpose across diverse sectors
 Driven by national & farmer-centred needs
 Challenging norms and assumptions from diverse
perspectives
 Building Collective commitments to change
 Delivered through the GFAR stakeholders themselves

22. Outcome 3
Transformative investments stimulated to provide
tangible opportunities for the world’s poor
 3.1: Smallholder producer entrepreneurship & new forms of publicprivate investments explored for new income and market
opportunities from agricultural innovation (ESFIM+)
 3.2: Investments and returns in national AR4D systems better
determined through global monitoring system (ASTI+) among key
actors
 3.3: New funding mechanisms fostered in national systems
, directly empowering end-users to shape agricultural research &
innovation processes (DURAS & Prolinnova+)

23. Outcome 4
Collective initiatives fostered to improve Capacity in
Agricultural Innovation
 4.1: Contribute to more coherent global action (TAP) to strengthen
capacities of innovation systems
 4.2: Transformative changes facilitated in function, relevance and
entrepreneurial curricula of formal agricultural education and
informal learning (GCHERA)
 4.3: Advocate & facilitate processes for opening of access to
information systems (CIARD) for sharing, transforming and using
agricultural knowledge among national systems
 4.4: Fostering of a global mechanism (GFRAS) to reform &
strengthen processes in the advisory service & extension sector
through capacity development & collective learning

24. Outcome 5
Agricultural research and knowledge is embedded into
rural development agendas
 5.1: Coordination and management support to establishment of the
Gender in Agriculture Partnership (GAP) , innovative collective,
self-driven global movement for greater gender equity
 5.2: Self-reliant youth platform (YPARD) enabled to increase in size
and scope, enabling young people to take active part in shaping
global AR4D reforms
 5.3: Action network (Kigali Movement, CFS) on knowledge
management and innovation for growing out of protracted crises,
multi-stakeholder support mechanisms and transfer of expertise

25. Outcome 6
Accountability, transformational change & development impacts in
AR4D systems increased through more effective governance &
greater stakeholder involvement
 6.1: Mutual public accountability and learning on transformative
processes fostered & tracked among AR4D stakeholders via GCARD
processes.
 6.2: More effective governance of agricultural research for
development priority setting and implementation through enabling
multi-stakeholder participation in fora in each region and Globally
 6.3: GFAR roles in supporting International policy processes and
strengthening coordination of bilateral and multilateral systems
FAO SO1-6

26. The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for
Development – a process for change
GFAR – Catalyzing partnerships & programmes for action
among all those generating, accessing, adapting & using
agricultural knowledge & technologies
CGIAR – Reform & new Strategy of International agricultural
research system requires partnership, consultation &
accountability
GCARD - Outcome-focused process & milestone metaconferences for transforming and strengthening agricultural
innovation systems around the world

27. Where we are now

In last 4 years, GFAR has catalyzed many stakeholder actions
delivering to the GCARD Roadmap principles

GCARD 2012 has set out commitments from all
concerned, GCARD3 tracks processes of change and learns via
meta-event
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Reforms of CGIAR & FAO provide important change–enabling
environment for collaboration and wider reform

Need to leverage from CGIAR investments into national capacities
and investments
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Achieving impacts requires our combined efforts, equitable
processes and commitment to practical actions

Need to foster greater coordination with and within users: farmer
organizations, CSOs, small enterprises, cooperatives etc

Resourcing is a collective responsibility, requires still greater

28. Implications for CGIAR & national innovation systems

Technological options are choices determined by societies

Farmer is the client – not just the taxpayer

International role in leveraging national support & assistance

Requires effective accountability & feedback mechanisms

Empower farmers (her!) with innovation investments, credit, land &
input access & skills
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Transform education with new skills ,approaches & mentoring
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Share knowledge and learning via multi-stakeholder platforms

Develop support systems for collective enterprise

29. Thank You
www.egfar.org