What is capacity enhancement?

A person or organization increasing their ability to achieve their objectives effectively and efficiently. This could involve improving the skills and knowledge of an individual, or the systems of an organization. Capacity includes, for example, the ability to ask the right questions, to interpret, and to learn.

Read more: CCAFS Phase II Capacity Development Strategy

Capacity Enhancement

To deliver a food secure future, it is imperative that we increase the capacity of individuals, households and institutions to meet the threats posed by climate change. By increasing capacity, we can increase food security and livelihood security while also improving the management of environmental resources, safeguarding them for future generations.

For this reason, capacity enhancement is a cross-cutting issue that is integrated into the work carried out by all Flagships of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). It acts as an essential element of delivering CCAFS outcomes.

To increase capacity effectively, CCAFS takes a two-tiered approach. First, CCAFS aims to increase the capacity of research partners to generate knowledge. Once that knowledge is produced, CCAFS then works to increase the capacity of decision-makers to demand and use that knowledge effectively.

Activities with researchers include training in and co-development of scientific tools and models, support for a network of research students to share methods, support for women in their workplaces, and south-south and south-north exchanges. Activities with decision-makers include knowledge-sharing platforms, critical science-policy dialogues, support to attend key decision-making forums at regional and global levels, awareness-raising on decision-support tools and other CCAFS outputs, and multi-stakeholder development of regional scenarios looking forward to 2030. 

Examples of current initiatives

CLIFF PhD Student Network

The Climate Food and Farming Research Network (CLIFF) is an international research network that enhances the capacity of young researchers working on climate change mitigation in smallholder farming. The CLIFF network generates novel climate change research on smallholder farming systems and facilitates South-South knowledge exchange. It is a long-term investment in developing countries’ capacities to measure and mitigate climate change from agriculture. From 2011 to 2019, over 85 students from around the world have been supported to carry out research.

Learn more on the CLIFF webpage.