by Ranell Martin M. Dedicatoria, SEARCA KMU
06-May-2008 SEARCA News Release
Amidst the backdrop of rapid globalization and highly threatened biodiversity, governments all over the world penned the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development or Agenda 21 in 1992. Agenda 21 provides a comprehensive on how to manage the earth following the principles of sustainable development.
In this light, Dr. Wayne Nelles strongly believed that capacity building is crucial in order to protect our environment. He noted that there is a need to focus on multi-disciplinary and holistic capacity building in evaluating the global development trends in agriculture.
He also explained that capacity building is often associated with empowerment. It is a continuous process wherein the different levels of society -- researchers, policy-makers, laymen, and the indigenous peoples -- are given support in order to undertake a certain project or development plan.
“Everybody wants to do capacity building but almost no one agrees on what it means,” he concluded. Thus, he said that one should not impose a global standard on capacity building because of the different needs and concerns of each sector being targeted.
Nelles is the current head of the Capacity Strengthening Department, International Potato Center in Lima, Peru. He served as speaker during the Agriculture and Development Seminar Series (ADSS) held at SEARCA last April 29.
