The Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) is a G20 initiative with strategic goal of contributing to the development of national capacities for agricultural innovation in the tropics and the objective of enhancing “Capacity Development” (CD) in “Agricultural Innovation Systems” (AIS). As stated in the TAP “Theory of Change”, the “TAP capitalizes on and  adds value to on-going initiatives by fostering greater coherence of capacity development interventions in tropical agriculture, strengthening interaction for more harmonized action and greater mutual accountability, and avoiding duplication”.

One of the first tasks of TAP is therefore to facilitate the emergence of a common language and a shared understanding of the scope of the challenge. Most countries and Development Partners (DP) use their own terminology and a lot of time is lost in trying to understand the exact meaning of the words used. A few examples: Are “capacity development”, “capacity strengthening” and “capacity building” synonymous? What is meant by “Agricultural Innovation Systems” (AIS)? Is there a general agreement on the three “levels” usually identified in the field of capacity development” (CD), i.e. individual, organisational and institutional/system? How are defined the CD recipients/targets for each of these levels?