Multi-stakeholder or innovation platforms are increasingly seen as a promising vehicle for agricultural innovation and development. In the field of agricultural research for development (AR4D), such platforms are an important element of a commitment to more intentional, structured and long-term engagement among sector stakeholders.

Innovation platforms are widely used in agricultural research to connect different stakeholders to achieve common goals. This brief deals with the gender dimension in innovation platform and is part of the series of ‘practice briefs’ intended to help guide agricultural research practitioners who seek to support and implement innovation platforms.

The brochure summarizes main features and goals of the EU funded CDAIS project, jointly implemented by FAO and AGRINATURA to support the Action Plan of the Tropical Agriculture Platform.  

Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) is the world’s first index-based insurance designed to protect vulnerable pastoralists in drought-stricken areas from losing their primary asset—livestock. This case study demonstrates the opportunities and challenges emerging from the IBLI project. It explains the need to establish the product in locations with large vulnerable pastoralist populations and encourages students to consider and develop an IBLI growth strategy.

The gender strategy of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish highlights the key role of gender analysis in livestock value chain research and guides the integration and implementation of related research activities. The  Program’s gender team has produced a gender capacity assessment tool to evaluate existing skills and gaps in partners’ gender capacities and identify measures to address them. In 2015, the tool was implemented in four L&F value chain countries (Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda). 

The capacities of twenty-four Livestock and Fish CGIAR Research Programme partners in four countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Nicaragua), representing two partner types (development and research), have been assessed during the period December 2014 – September 2015. This report aims to summarize these four assessments, analyze the differences and similarities, and present recommendations for the design of capacity development interventions. 

The Agribusiness and Market Development (AMDe) project is funded through USAID Ethiopia’s Feed the Future program from June 2011 to May 2016.  It goal is to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger by improving the productivity and competiveness of agricultural value chains that offer jobs and income activities for rural households.

Using a combination of an ordered logit and Heckman selection models and a case study from an out-scaling program for a barley technology package in Ethiopia, this study provided evidence that a newly introduced farmer-to-farmer extension approach offers a viable option for tackling this development challenge. Model results showed that unlike the conventional approach, the new extension approach was effective in creating better access to seeds of the improved varieties and positively influencing farmers’ perceptions, ultimately leading to favorable adoption decisions.