14/09 + 15/09 LEAP4FNSSA Final writeshop, General Assembly and IRC Launch – towards an AU-EU International Research Consortium on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture https://paepard.blogspot.com/2022/09/science-and-partnerships-for_15.html
OSCamp Kubernetes 2024 | A Tester's Guide to CI_CD as an Automated Quality Co...
IRC Membership and growth
1. International Research Consortium
for Food and Nutrition Security and
Sustainable agriculture:
an EU-AU partnership
Supported under the EU Horizon 2020 Instrument
Patricia Wagenmakers
Thato Morokong
Membership criteria and growth
strategy
September 14th, 2022
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Department of Science and Innovation, South Africa
2. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Who can be IRC members?
Legal entities actively involved in R&I for FNSSA in Africa and
Europe
Funding agencies, governments, academies, research organisations,
user organisations, companies, NGOs/CSOs etc.
Willing to share resources, either cash or in kind
Accept an inclusive membership; all members have equal
share in decision making
3. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Benefits
• Finding partners with complementary skills, expertise
across countries and regions
• Sharing information on current and expected AU-EU
projects and policies
• Sharing ideas, jointly exploring opportunities for resources
• Value for money (services at low cost)
• Higher impact of R&I in all its dimensions, and capacity
building to achieve these goals
4. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Members agree to:
contribute to the priorities of the AU-EU Roadmap on FNSSA:
1. Sustainable intensification
2. Agriculture and food systems for nutrition
3. Expansion and improvement of agricultural markets and trade
4. Cross-cutting issues
Including their mutual relationships, and any other (future) priorities, to
be jointly defined
accept a multidisciplinary, participatory and demand-led
approach, especially for women and youth
5. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Members are willing to:
Put effort into the generation of bi-regional and bi-
continental activities (projects, skills, events) and the
utilization of the results by cross-country and cross-
disciplinary learning in a participative process
Work on long-term commitments (5 years?)
Pay a minimum annual fee for running a small secretariat
(1000 euro/yr?)
6. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Associated partners:
• are legal entities
• have similar access to projects and working groups
• do not pay fees
• are observer in General Assembly meetings
7. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Growing the IRC membership – short term
1. Create commitment at institutional level
2. Include Europe-Africa private sector FNSSA initiatives (for-
profit and not-for-profit)
3. Synergize with other networks or platforms (CGIAR, FARA
Dgroups, Agrinatura, Africa knowledge platform...)
4. Showcase relevant services of the IRC
8. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Growth strategy – long term
1. Guarantee long-term funding for activities
2. Showcase results with impact on the ground
3. Shared vision development
4. Fair governance
5. Membership contribution (fee)
6. Just representation of women and youth organisations
7. Adapt R&I priorities if and where needed
9. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Discussion
• Of all elements, what would be the most critical one for
generating impact of the IRC?
• How would you go about that?
• What should IRC members avoid above all?
Information on new policies: the new EU-Africa partnership addresses food as one of the top priorities, next to water, health, education and environment
These priorities of the roadmap are included in the new EU-Africa partnership as gender equality and women empowerment. Governed by the HLPD but unfortunately the HLPD is not well known and not well connected with African ministries of education, or regional economic committees, or non-state actors. Anyway, this is still the joint IRC framework, and although not everybody knows the HLPD, the priorities are recognized.
Sustainable intensification: whatever you name it, it is about environment friendly agriculture, and safe and healthy food. Need for innovation, leapfrog older or more polluting technologies. Nutrition linked with One Health. Trade: Increase the domestic production also to reduce the food import dependency. The recent geopolitical tensions show the importance of it.
The EU Africa partnership also point to the need for accelerating knowledge exchange, including traditional knowledge.
PPS: important part of the EU Africa strategy. PPS are considered as essential for achieving SDGs also in EU Africa partnership. All topics are about equally important according to e-consultation.
First 2 topics most critical according to e-consultation, followed by the rest.
Funding is one of the first recommendations of the advisory group on R&I of how to make R&I a driver for sustainable development in AU-EU relations. They say: invest, strengthen existing funding instruments and establish new and flexible ones. Foster international partnerships.
Funding opportunities are not well known so improving awareness will be also relevant for the IRC.
@7: adapt? The ministerial meeting of HLPD on STI has agreed to develop the AU-EU innovation agenda. This is expected to be approved early next year. Actions:
1. public health,
2. green transition (much about climate but also the agricultural ecosystem),
3. innovation and technology
4. capacities for science
5. cross-cutting. That covers: Promoting R&D with a special focus on youth, women and demography, mitigation and management of global challenges and networking between different stakeholders