The agricultural sector is able to provide food of sufficient quantity and quality to feed and nourish the world’s population. However, capacity-development efforts need to be strengthened among agricultural extension and advisory services through a systematic approach based on a better understanding of needs, challenges and interactions at and among all institutional levels, from front-line workers to policymakers.

The Global Capacity Needs Assessment (GCNA) methodology examines the capacity gaps at the individual, organizational and enabling-environment levels and aims at:
exploring all the opportunities and challenges to integrate nutrition-related objectives into agricultural programmes and policies;
identifying capacity needs of the EAS providers and at the organizational and policy/enabling environment levels for strengthening capacities to integrate nutrition outcomes in their regular tasks and responsibilities; and
identifying knowledge gaps in training materials on nutrition-sensitive agriculture.