 The CGIAR research program on livestock and fish, led by the International Livestock Research Institute, leads a major initiative to consolidate research and development efforts for a pro-poor transformation of small-holder livestock value chains implemented across Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. The research program is implemented with three other CGIAR centers – World Fish, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas. The idea is to help small-holders intensify and commercialize their agriculture, making scientific research relevant by fostering the leap from individual learning to sustainable livelihood outcomes and impacts through an integrated capacity development approach paying particular attention to gender issues and women's empowerment. The Livestock and Fish program sees capacity development as a crucial and strategic enabler in the journey from research outputs to development outcomes and therefore strongly engages with diverse local groups – from policymakers to youth groups to farmer associations and women cooperatives, business market hubs to local private sector enterprises. The program adopts a systems-thinking approach to capacity development. The main innovation that systemic thinking introduces is that rather than prioritizing interventions that need immediate fixing, emphasis is given to defining the issue-creating system, meaning that programs look de facto more at working across sectors with multiple stakeholders and interlinked interventions. The identification of capacity needs by systematically applying capacity assessment methodologies across three distinctive system levels, namely the institutional environment, the organizational level, and individual level, is a critical prerequisite for designing capacity development strategies, prioritizing and implementing interventions and measuring impact. Nine elements of capacity development are identified and defined in CGIAR Strategic Results Framework and the program's capacity development roadmap 2014-2017, underlining its complex and multifaceted nature. While the flagships do not need to include all nine elements in their strategic implementation plans, a minimum set of elements should be applied to achieve intermediate development outcomes. A seeming lack of absorptive capacity by marginalized communities and their organizations is not an argument against, but rather for, making investments in the nine elements. Many national agricultural research systems with which the program and centers collaborate lack strong capacities in and around research. Similarly, the organizational capacity of rural advisory service providers and other boundary partners who adapt research results for the next level of users may be weak and constrain the upscaling of research. The program need thus capacities to better engage with partners in identifying and addressing such weaknesses, so that innovations are more widely adapted and taken to scale. Design and delivery of innovative learning materials and approaches The program facilitates and identifies innovations and breakthroughs in e-learning approaches gaming, mobile, ICT, etc. through adult learning theory, instructional design, content development and delivery of high quality training packages and collaborations that are aimed specifically for organizational strengthening purposes and which harness technology for capacity development initiatives that are tailored to the cultural, organizational and institutional contexts in which the new agricultural knowledge is to be applied and to make research outputs more suitable, accessible and appealing to a wider range of users. Institutional strengthening The program will design and use institutional capacity assessment tools and communication methodologies to identify appropriate partners and interventions and prioritize investments in capacity development interventions. Development of institutional capacities may include advocacy and policy dialogues, advising decision makers on legislation and innovation programs and establishing action research projects to test and adapt new institutional arrangements in order to hasten the uptake and use of research results. Research on capacity development In order to develop more effective approaches for capacity development the program will research on capacity development to learn what works in each value chain context. Developing future research leaders through fellowships The program will improve links with advanced research institutions and national agricultural research system which offer fellowship programs to significantly raise the opportunities for talented young scientists to develop capacities in key areas that directly support achievement of outcomes. Fellowship initiatives will strategically focus and leverage investments for fellowship programs building up national skills, experiences, knowledge and leadership. These were five of the nine elements of capacity development. As mentioned before, the flagships do not need to work on all nine elements but should purposely apply a minimum set of elements to contribute to the intermediate development outcomes leading to sustainable livelihood impacts in the smallholder livestock and fish value chains. You can find out more information on our websites and engage with us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates of our program.