This Call for Proposals is intended to select a recipient or consortium of recipients to receive IFAD grant financing to implement a project on Pro-poor Agricultural Innovation System for Sustainable and Resilient Agri-food Systems.

Deadline for submission is Friday, 16 November 2018 at 17:00 hours CEST.

All proposals and communications should be submitted to:

Malu Ndavi, Lead Technical Specialist, m.ndavi@ifad.org
Cc: Xiaozhe Zhang, Technical Specialist, x.zhang@ifad.org

Queries can be submitted before Friday, 2 November, 17:00 hours CEST. Queries will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Interested institutions are requested to confirm by e-mail their intention to submit a proposal by Friday 9 November, 17:00 hours CEST.

Feeding a world population of nearly 10 billion by 2050 is one of the greatest challenges of this century. Innovation, the process of putting knowledge into use, is a driver of improving productivity and economic growth and a catalyst to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Agricultural innovation is the outcome of effective and functioning Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS). The Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) regional assessments of AIS capacities, gaps and needs in low income countries revealed major shortcomings, including: ineffective and inappropriate policies, limited investments, heteronomous nature of AIS, fragmentation, passivity of actors, the lack of capacity to seek and sustain partnership with private sector, ineffective and poor interaction and coordination among extension and rural advisory services, research and education, private sector and civil society. AIS therefore needs to be strengthened to foster and realize the potential of innovation to achieve broad improvements in agricultural productivity, and ultimately reducing poverty and improving livelihood of billions of people.

This three-year project aims at promoting pro-poor agricultural innovations in order to contribute effectively to the sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems and improved rural livelihoods. The objective is to strengthen Agricultural Innovation Systems through targeted interventions to enhance functional capacities of actors and their organizations within the system within IFAD funded investments. Specifically, the project will identify agricultural innovations with potential for scaling up in on-going IFAD projects in Peru and Zambia, targeting poor farming families.

All eligible institutions are being invited to develop a proposal based on the background and guidance detailed in the Invitation to bid documentation.