In today’s globalised world, no single group has all the answers to the challenges of sustainable development.  Civil society, researchers, entrepreneurs, producers and policy makers must join forces in new ways that enable innovative and creative responses to development issues.

Knowledge institutions have a critical role to play in generating scientific understanding. However, they must also actively engage in developing capacities for societal learning and change whereby their own and others’ knowledge can be put to effective use.

Our mission:
To empower individuals and organisations with the capacities for learning, innovation and institutional change to create a sustainable future. 

Wageningen UR, with its focus on ‘science for impact’, is taking a lead in this direction.  The Capacity Development and Institutional Change Programme (CD&IC) is part of the strategy.  We offer partners and clients a comprehensive range of capacity development services. These combine our expertise on innovation, learning processes and institutional change with the specialist know-how of Wageningen UR’s Science Groups.  Our approach brings different stakeholders together in constructive dialogue and integrates scientific understanding and technology development with processes of organisational and social change.

We work in partnership with other knowledge centres, government agencies, civil society organisations and businesses from around the world.  Our focus is the challenges facing food systems, agricultural markets and trade, natural resources management and the livelihoods of rural people. 

CD&IC is hosted by Wageningen International, which provides a focal point for accessing the knowledge and expertise of Wageningen UR. In 2006 the portfolio of work previously undertaken by the International Agriculture Centre (IAC) was merged into the CD&IC Programme enabling greater collaboration within Wageningen UR on capacity development.

CD&IC report 2006/2007(PDF)
CD&IC brochure (PDF)