An organizational capacity self-assessment for innovation support service providers (OCATI) – approach and results from application in Madagascar

Purpose: This paper introduces the Organisational Capacity Assessment Approach for Innovation Support (OCATI) and presents findings from its application with a farmer-based organisation in Madagascar. Design/method/approach: OCATI has been co-designed within the EU–Africa collaborative research project SERVInnov, reflecting conditions in the global South, particularly Madagascar, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. It assesses organisational, technical, and functional capacities, skill needs, and structural conditions for delivering innovation support services (ISS). Findings: Results from its application in Madagascar, show disparities in performance across five capacity components with the highest performance in delivering ISS and the weakest in networking and policy engagement. Recommendations include initiating policy lobbying, institutionalisation, updating knowledge of the innovation ecosystem, new collaborations, ISS mapping tools, and clear communication channels. More so, enhancements in risk management, service diversification, human resource expansion, and ISS-type awareness are equally seen as crucial. Theoretical implications: Realising an OCATI assessment fosters organisational evolution, complements widely used monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools, and supports experiential learning approaches for extension and advisory service (EAS) organisations. Practical implications: Practically, the results provide an opportunity for reflexive thinking about organisations' own position in supporting innovation, raising awareness for ISS, and revealing how support for innovation processes in agriculture matters and can be enhanced. The approach help organisations extract and develop core competencies in innovation support, thereby becoming more professionalised and recognised. Original Value: This study addresses a significant research gap in organisational capacity assessment for innovation support and introduces a novel self-assessment tool for use by innovation support service providers.