In a bid to ensure diverse representation of young people in various executive meetings and committees, the Global Coordination Unit has nominated Flor as the YPARD representative in the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) the Capacity Development expert group.

But I guess you are thinking, what is TAP CD Expert group?

TAP Capacity Development Group

Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) is a coalition of more than 40 global, regional and national partners, coming from the G20 and other countries. TAP partners, of which YPARD is, are encouraged to contribute - and benefit from - the facilitation mechanism that TAP provides.

TAP works to contribute to the development of national capacities in agricultural innovation in the tropics. Its activities enhance the integration of regional and international capacity development programmes, encouraging interventions to be aligned with national plans and policies. The platform strengthens existing partnerships and brokers new ones between actors of all types, facilitating the emergence of agricultural innovation systems that increase farmers’ income, food security, nutrition and environmental sustainability. Ultimately, small and medium-scale producers will benefit from TAP’s activities.

The TAP Common Framework recognizes three dimensions of Capacity Development (CD): individuals, organizations and the enabling environment. The dimensions must be viewed as interconnected, affecting each other in complex ways through push and pull factors. Within the context of Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS), it is pertinent to stress the crucial importance of partnerships and networks in creating that interconnectedness, and in bringing together the three dimensions to create new knowledge.

About Flor and her role in the TAP CD expert group

Flor de María is a graduate with a Bachelor´s in Administration. In the first years of her career, she worked in some Peruvian companies but afterwards started volunteering work as she knew that she wanted to change the direction of her career.

This saw her working in different production chains such as banana, asparagus, cacao and coffee with different groups of farmers in the jungle and coast of Perú. A ripple effect of this is that she was invited to be part of a Belgium cooperation study mapping the situation of rural youth in the coffee and cocoa sector in Peru. Nowadays, she is working as a commercial technical facilitator in a Peruvian NGO that executes a program of Canadian cooperation which seeks to improve the quality of life of young people in rural areas in the region of Lima. Finally, she complements her studies with a Diploma in Sustainable Development and a Diploma in Change Management and Territorial Development in Perú.

Flor’s role in the TAP CD expert group will be to contribute youth-centric technical advice for developing self-assessment tools and a common framework for Capacity Development to advance agricultural innovations. The group has contributed to the development of a Common Framework on Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (CD for AIS). The present status of the CD group now is reflecting on the Common Framework (concepts, operationalisation, scaling-up, simplification etc.) and advise needed in to make the framework more impact-oriented.

Looking forward to learning more from Flor’s interaction with the TAP CD group.

 

Photo Credit:  Agrinatura