The Southern African Development Community (SADC, then SADCC, Southern African Development Consultative Conference) States established SACCAR (Southern African Centre for Cooperation in Agricultural Research and Training) in 1984 as an intergovernmental body to alleviate the common problems of poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, land degradation and recurring droughts. SACCAR was given the mandate of coordinating and strengthening agricultural research. During the past fifteen years, SACCAR developed regional research and training programmes to address the above problems. However, most of the activities focused on technology development and transfer in crop production through commodity oriented projects. Farming systems approaches have never been explicitly part of the agenda developed by SACCAR. The restructuring of SACCAR offered an ideal opportunity to review strategies and activities of the institution by addressing emerging issues in regional research and training and adapting collaborative mechanisms to the ever changing environment. SACCAR has elaborated a Long-Term Strategy and Five-Year Plan based on an analysis of demands/needs of stakeholders. In order to address the demands from the stakeholders in the Region, (scientists, endusers of research and training products and services), SACCAR believes that the application of fanning systems approaches is one major field that should be considered. However, three shifts are proposed to move from technology development and transfer to development oriented research through application of fanning systems approaches and to address the whole range of problems faced by the stakeholders of the agricultural sector: (i) the need to shift from technology transfer to decision making support; (ii) the need to recognise new researchable issues based on an analysis of problems faced by stakeholders; and, (iii) the need to build new partnerships in order to address the issues in a participatory and efficient manner and to