Strengthening national capacities for agricultural innovation in the tropics

To increase farmers’ income, food security, nutrition and environmental sustainability in the tropics, the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) helps countries to strengthen their national capacities for agricultural innovation. Ultimately, small farmers, small and medium-sized agribusiness and consumers are the beneficiaries of TAP’s activities.

The TAP Action Plan is structured around 4 main components:

Common Framework on Capacity Development (CD) for AIS - The TAP partners agreed to develop a Common Framework on CD for AIS. The objective is to consolidate the different approaches to CD for AIS, and make interventions more coherent and effective.

Advocacy and policy dialogue - Allowing for greater dialogue and interaction among stakeholders to enhance clarity and coherence of national policies for capacity development in agricultural innovation. The priority is also to advocate for and raise awareness of the Common Framework on CD for AIS.
Knowledge Hub - Offering a global information system (TAPipedia) for good CD practices, innovation outputs, success stories, and lesson learned.
Marketplaces - Promoting and brokering existing demands and offers in capacity development for agricultural innovation, at regional and country level.

Regional assessments in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America

A survey conducted by TAP in 27 countries in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America found that Capacity Development (CD) interventions are seldom designed and implemented in an integrated manner. Consequently, they fail to capture the full complexity of innovation processes. To bridge this gap, the TAP partners approved an Action Plan that promotes more coherent CD interventions and helps advance AIS in developing countries. The three regional assessments were conducted by three partner organizations: Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Africa (view report), International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Latin America (view report) and Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Asia (view report).