Four ways of achieving impact with innovation platforms are discussed in this brief.
This brief is part of the series of ‘practice briefs’ intended to help guide agricultural research practitioners who seek to support and implement innovation platforms. A contribution to the CGIAR Humidtropics research program, the development of the briefs was led by the International Livestock Research Institute; they draw on experiences of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, several CGIAR centres and partner organizations.
This report brings the information about the capacity needs analysis carried out by CRP in five countries. Capacity development is a core enabling factor in the delivery of the 5 Livestock CRP flagships. One of the strategic capacity development actions for the Livestock CRP is to design evidence based capacity development interventions based on capacity needs analysis.
Genetic improvement on local breeds kept by small farmers in developing countries is challenging. Even though good pedigree and performance recording is crucial and an important component of breeding programs, it remain difficult or next to impossible under conditions of subsistence livestock farming. This means that standard genetic evaluations, as well as selection and planning of mating based on estimates of the animals' genotypes, cannot be done at any level in the population of the target breed or genetic group.
- Lack of automated data capture systems affects timely feedback and accuracy of information for breeding decisions.
- CGIAR researchers and national research partners have adopted a digital genetic database, Dtreo, that is enhancing genetic improvement by providing timely and accurate animal ranking information to communities.
- Dtreo is a digital genetic database that is flexible and easy to use, that allows users to capture and save data offline. Data is uploaded to the database once an internet connection has been established.
Digital platform enhances genetic progress in community-based sheep and goat breeding programs in Ethiopia:
- Up-to-date information on estimated breeding values and animal rankings is directly channeled to breeder organizations and used for selection decisions.
- The digital platform motivated use of more complicated evaluation models which improve accuracy of breeding values considerably.
- When upscaled, this will help create a permanent multi-country source of information.
Ethiopia is a home for diverse livestock including small ruminants and has the largest population of livestock in Africa. Livestock is kept for export earnings, food security, economic growth, poverty reduction and employment opportunities. Small ruminants are an important resource for livelihood and food security improvement serving as sources of food, income, risk mitigation, property security, monetary saving, investment, and providing other social and cultural benefits.
This paper is a contribution to the establishment of a new capacity development (CD) 9 strategy, a process that the Consortium Office will facilitate, with external input, during 2013. The paper explores the lessons learned from CGIAR’s experience with CD and reflects the findings of a working group that was brought together in late 2012. The objective of the paper is to identify the roles that individual and institutional CD might play in CGIAR in order to increase CGIAR’s impact on the welfare of smallholder farmers and the sustainability of their farming systems.
The Challenge of Capacity Development: Working Towards Good Practice draws on four decades of documented experience provided by both bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as academic specialists, to help policy makers and practitioners think through effective approaches to capacity development and what challenges remain in the drive to boost country capacity. The analysis is underpinned by a conceptual framework which guides practitioners to view capacity development at three interrelated levels: individual, organisational and enabling environment levels.
The Guidance Note on Operationalization provides a brief recap of the conceptual underpinnings and principles of the TAP Common Framework as well as a more detailed guide to operationalization of the proposed dual pathways approach. It offers also a strategy for monitoring and evaluation as well as a toolbox of select tools that may be useful at the different stages of the CD for AIS cycle.
The Conceptual Background provides an in-depth analysis of the conceptual underpinnings and principles of the TAP Common Framework. It is also available in French and Spanish.