 The main objective of the DURAS Project is to contribute to strengthening the involvement of southern stakeholders’ particularly non-traditional research actors in the agricultural research and innovation process. It also endeavors to support them in ensuring that their voices are heard at the international and (sub) regional levels. The DURAS Project’s Competitive Grants Scheme (CGS) aims to encourage and promote innovation as well as to scale up innovative practices in ARD developed in the south; and to enhance scientific capacity southern partners. Two Calls for Proposals on four priority themes identified by GFAR stakeholders were launched in 2004.
Of the 302 submissions received, 12 were selected for funding on the basis of criteria that favors a balance among project feasibility, innovation, socio-economic consideration; sustainability considerations and partnership quality. Two years after the launching of the 12 DURAS-funded initiatives, the implementation of the DURAS CGS has been a very insightful experience. It has afforded both the Project Office and the various stakeholders involved in the 12 projects a rich experience and handful of lessons learnt along the way. However, it is deemed that much still has to be done to increase the opportunities for learning from these experiences, as well as sharing the learning and building a wider body of knowledge on and further understanding and appreciation of involving various actors in the agricultural research and innovation process. DURAS feels the need to capture the dynamics involved in these multi-actor, inter-country/regional effort by further reflecting, examining and documenting what has happened involving the various stakeholders themselves involved in each of the projects.
 
As such, two Documentation workshops have been carried out in order not to loose sight of the richness of the experience and use these in taking further each of the individual projects on one hand, and the entire DURAS Project on the other hand. What follows here are the results of these workshops.
 Crop-livestock project: The implication of local knowledge in the increasing integration of animal husbandry in the farming systems of disadvantaged communities
Pig project: Improving the pig and pig meat marketing chain to enable small producers to serve consumer needs in Vietnam and Cambodia
POPSe project: Poverty and Pace setters. From sector support for farm products marketing to targetting entrepreneurs by building networks among poverty struck
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