CGIAR Capacity Building & other Efforts to Improve Food and Nutrition Security...The inside story
"The need for Capacity Development arises in all fields of agri-food research, but is particularly pressing in new areas such as Data Management and Communication Technologies, Landscape analysis and Climate-smart agriculture". These issues, together with other CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) strategic priorities for a food-secure future, are defined in the CGIAR Strategy & Results Framework (2016-2030).
This entry will highlight several Capacity Development efforts that have been undertaken by some of the 15 CGIAR centers, through the existing CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) making up the CGIAR Portfolio 2017-2022.
SOME FACTS ABOUT CGIAR: CGIAR’s 15 Research Centers implement collaborative large-scale CGIAR CRPs conducted in more than 60 countries with the support of over 10,000 world-class scientists and other staff, systematically contributing to CGIAR System Level Outcomes (SLOs) aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Besides two cross-cutting interlinked clusters of challenge-led research: Agri-Food Systems and Global Integrating Programs - the CGIAR Portfolio 2017-2022 also includes three cross-cutting Research Support Platforms (which underpin the research of the whole CGIAR system):
CGIAR cross-cutting issues embrace : Climate change - Gender and youth - Policies and institutions - CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT (& monitoring, evaluation and learning as functions coordinated by specific Centers or Communities of Practice to ensure integration and coordination across the CGIAR Research Programs). |
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT is …
… much broader than mere knowledge and skill development through training and education. Capacity Development is considered the responsibility of more than 60 CGIAR partner countries with donors and outsiders playing a support role of mobilizing capacities that reside within individuals and institutions. CGIAR Research Centres play an important role in mobilizing capacity by:
- Facilitating access to knowledge (with Open Access & Open Data Support);
- Brokering multi-stakeholder agreements that remove blockages to capacity mobilization;
- Participating in relevant policy dialogue or advocacy;
- Providing incremental resources that help in overcoming bottlenecks in change processes;
- Creating spaces for "learning by doing".
Through Capacity Development (enabling, for example, a specific theme, to make it grow and to flourish) can be improved Organizational Policies, Designs, Strategies, Plans and Processes.
In addition, Capacity Development can promote networking among individuals and organizations in order to improve synergies.
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS from some CGIAR Centers :
CGIAR Centers & Areas of Work WHAT & WHERE ? | Related Capacity Development efforts HOW ? | |
1. | CIAT leads the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). All related research activities are carried out research in five regions : East Africa, West Africa, South Asia, Latin America and Southeast Asia
| CCAFS aims at providing a one-stop shop for data and knowledge generated by its research activities. The program is mandated to produce international public goods (here: high quality open data outputs) that are freely accessible to the global community.. CIAT has developed a Data Management Strategy for its researchers and partners to enable them fulfill these obligations, while at the same time enabling a variety of data management procedures and good practices at project level. Much of this process is being guided by the CCAFS Data Management Support Pack. |
2. | CIMMYT leads the following CGIAR agri-food system programs :
In addition, CIMMYT has taken on a convening role in developing the aforementioned CGIAR Research Support Platforms. Besides, CIMMYT is maintaining CIMMYT institutional network of scientific datasets and software repositories and Publication Repository, helping also to achieve compliance with common agreements (on Big Data , Open access, Open Data), and processes. | Through CIMMYT Academy and an Learning Management System, CIMMYT (& partners):
Find out more from CIMMYT STRATEGIC PLAN 2017-2022 >>> Capacity Building |
3. | The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific excellence possessing the world’s largest Repository / Science Quality Platform of Agroforestry science and information focused on four Research Priorities:
The World Agroforestry Centers are based in:
| Strategic themes for Capacity Development are:
ICRAF mobilizes human and institutional capacity:
Learn more from ICRAF Capacity Development Strategy (2013-2018) Find out more about a highly variegated ICRAF’s Capacity Development Programme. ICRAF’s Resources Online contain ToolKits, Publications, Success Stories, Databases, Datasets, Concept Notes, Models… on support of Capacity Development. |
4. | Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization, which has a vision (supported by its huge Research portfolio) – that agricultural & tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation. Bioversity International works with partners in low-income countries in different regions : | Through its E-Library, Bioversity International provides access to Training and self-learning materials on selected topics on the use and conservation of agricultural and forest biodiversity for a variety of audiences including researchers, technicians, university lecturers and policymakers. Many of the training packages include lecture support notes, exercises, notes for trainers, further reading, references, links and slides. Some materials are available in different languages.
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Here are the latest news from all CGIAR Research Centers.
Related:
CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture (Communities of Practice) : Crop Modeling - Data-driven agronomy - Socio-economic data - Ontologies [see : Workplan 2017] - Geospatial Data |
The Platform will also connect CGIAR with existing initiatives, for instance, the Global Agricultural Concept Scheme (GACS), FAO’s AIMS, CIARD, the Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), and the Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative are of high importance and relevance. |
- Data and information management tools for the CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network
- Open Data and CGIAR’s Big Data Platform (recorded CGIAR Webinar)
- Introduction to Ontologies in Science (recorded CGIAR webinar)
- TOWARDS FAIR RESEARCH PROCESSES IN AGRICULTURE & RELATED SCIENCES: Focus on IGAD pre-meeting, March 2018 RDA 11 (AIMS January 2017 Newsletter)
- GODAN Action e-Learning Programme on Open Data Management in Agriculture and Nutrition
- FAO's AIMS Open Data & Research Data Management online courses
- Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR-CSI) is spatial science community that facilitates CGIAR’s international agricultural development research using spatial analysis, GIS, and remote sensing
- Data sharing (recorded CGIAR webinar)
- BDI Platform presented to the agricultural research environment (description + recorded Webinar)
- CGIAR on Gender and Agriculture: webinar series
- CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) on Youtube
- Using Open Data [from joint GODAN Action e-learning course on Open Data] (recorded Webinar@AIMS)
Perspective on Big Data in the CGIAR (recorded Webinar@AIMS) - CGSpace : A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs