Science and Technical Partnership in Africa: Technologies, Platforms and Partnerships in support of the African agricultural science agenda, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, April 4&5, 2017

1. Scientific & Technical
Partnerships in Africa
Key Messages of the Science Agenda
for Agriculture in Africa (FARA 2014)
Africa should commit to strengthening its role as a player in
global science for agriculture to drive the transformation of
agriculture and society.
Science for agriculture in Africa is too important to be
outsourced. African leaders must take responsibility for
enhancing the role of science in their societies.
Science is critical for the preservation and use of Africa’s rich
biological heritage and indigenous and local knowledge.
Agricultural transformation in Africa will not happen without
realizing the potential of women and young people.
Now is the time to increase investments in science for
agriculture in Africa, when countries have the means and
opportunities to invest, and gain returns.
African Solidarity in Science is an important dimension of
the strategy for harnessing the power of science.
Source: FARA (2014) Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa. FARA, Accra, Ghana.
www.scienceagenda.org
Further information
Kerri Wright Platais | k.w.platais@cgiar.org
Program Head, Scientific and Technical Partnerships in Africa
Cultivating Science in Agriculture through Partnerships
IFPRI, April, 2017
Acknowledgements
IFPRI is pleased to acknowledge the following contributions to the Scientific
and Technical Partnerships in Africa brief on “Institutional Scoping Study on
S&T in Africa”.
Scientific and technical contributors: Yihenew Zewdie and Kerri Wright
Platais, IFPRI.
Editor, S&T Partnerships in Africa briefs: Gabrielle Persley, Doyle Foundation.
Design: Eric Ouma and Kamau Wanyoike.
Photo credits: Cover Alnoor Abdulla/ILRI; Inside, Shutterstock.
The financial support of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) and the CGIAR Program on Policies, Markets and
Institutions (PIM) to this program is gratefully acknowledged

2. Institutional Scoping Study
on S&T in Africa
This scoping study is an integral part of the grant that
IFAD provided to IFPRI within the framework of the “CGIAR
Technical Support to the African Agricultural Science
Agenda.” The main objective of this scoping study is to
undertake an assessment of the evolving institutional
architecture for the provision of technical support to the
agricultural transformation agenda in Africa — giving due
emphasis to partnership opportunities that could arise for
CGIAR’s continued engagement with key African science,
technology and innovation (STI) stakeholders.
The study explored the following six institutional initiatives:
Technical Networks in support of the Comprehensive
Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP);
the drive towards establishment of a Science for
Agriculture Consortium (S4AC); the two major continent-
wide programmes that the AfDB has initiated as part
of its current agricultural strategy for the continent: the
Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT)
and the African Agricultural Research Programme (AARP);
the Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International
Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) Hub, which is a
shared biosciences platform; and the CGIAR Platform for Big
Data in Agriculture.
To provide the context within which these initiatives are
expected to be implemented, the study presented an
overview of the main programmatic frameworks relevant
for the delivery of STI to agriculture in Africa. These
include: the CGIAR reform processes; CAADP; strategies
and platforms facilitating tertiary agricultural educational
institutions and agricultural extension and advisory services;
and the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A).
The discussion on the CAADP Technical Networks was
framed in the context of the STI-focused support expected
to be given to CAADP-based national agricultural
investment plans (NAIPs). This discussion pointed to the
launch of the Technical Networks in seven thematic areas
that mirror the strategic action areas enunciated in the
Malabo Declaration, which is the most comprehensive
recent declaration of the African Union on advancing the
CAADP agenda.
The discussion on the Science for Agriculture Consortium
(S4AC) highlighted that this is a continental strategic
platform that Africa’s agricultural research and advisory
service community has initiated for operationalising the
Science Agenda. Noting that this initiative is bound to
benefit from the accumulated experience of the CGIAR, the
study identified potential areas of collaboration between
the CGIAR system and the S4AC. These include: provision
of conceptual guidance in some of the thematic focus
areas of the S4AC, advice and assistance on organisation
and management aspects of the Consortium, collaboration
around knowledge management and communications,
The report also identified opportunities for strengthening
linkages and working relationships between policy-focused
CGIAR Centres (e.g., IFPRI) and CRPs (e.g., PIM and CCAFS)
and scientific platforms such as BecA. The report noted that
such considerations are consistent with the broader thrust
of managing the science-policy interface enunciated in the
Science Agenda.
The discussion on the new CGIAR Platform for Big Data in
Agriculture underscored the potential that the S4AC and the
different CAADP Technical Networks have in providing this
initiative institutional homes on the continent. These STI
initiatives could be considered opportunities for nurturing
demand for support for Big Data management from
countries, and for channelling the multitude of capacity
development support that the Platform intends to provide.
Although most of the initiatives described in the report are
yet to evolve fully and secure the necessary organisational
and financial resources to roll out their services, most
could be used to advance the Science Agenda. While
some of these initiatives provide the institutional base for
operationalizing the Science Agenda (e.g., S4AC), others
such as TAAT support the upscaling/outscaling of proven
technologies and hence augur well with the tenets of
mainstreaming the Science Agenda.
The report, acknowledging the varying potentials of
the surveyed initiatives for operationalising the Science
Agenda, underlines the importance of creating synergies
and facilitating shared communication among these
platforms and institutions. The report also recognises that
almost all of these initiatives are at a conceptual stage, and
that the organisational shape they take will depend on a
number of considerations, the main one being their ability
to mobilise resources and thereby sustainably provide
the services they are expected to offer. Central to this is
a realisation that Science for agriculture in Africa is too
important to be outsourced, and that African leaders must
take responsibility for enhancing the role of science in their
societies. The initiatives described in this report provide
such an opportunity for African scientific and political
leaders to demonstrate ownership through taking effective
action in support of a long-term agricultural science agenda
for Africa.
Scientific & Technical Partnerships in Africa
mainstreaming the Science Agendaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
and support for resource mobilisation and fiduciary
management.
The TAAT is by design aimed at mobilising proven and
sustainable agricultural development technologies and
business practices generated by the CGIAR centres so as to
bring about rapid agricultural transformation in commodity
value chains that cover agro-ecological zones and
production systems on the continent. TAAT has enabled
substantial inter-agency collaboration among the CGIAR
institutions in the development of programme proposals
and the initiative is expected to serve as a critical linkage
between CGIAR research capacity and national level
implementation actors. The related AARP has the potential
to provide the CGIAR system with the necessary framework
and prioritised research agenda to strengthen its scientific
partnerships and capacity development assistance to NARS.
Through examining the record of shared intra- and
inter-regional scientific platforms, with emphasis on the
achievements and business models of the Biosciences
eastern and central Africa (BecA-ILRI) Hub, the report
highlights how advanced research facilities, which are
beyond the reach of individual countries, have been put
to use and the invaluable services the BecA-ILRI Hub has
rendered to scientists in the region and beyond. The
report also underlined the role of BecA leadership in
forging partnerships with like-minded institutions and the
significance of the BecA investors’ long-term commitment
to theBecA mission of “mobilising science for Africa’s
development”. One of the success factors of BecA is
its ability to plan with and respond to the needs and
priorities of its constituency in a demand-driven manner
as well as its track record to engage with investors in a
partnership-oriented manner whereby investors co-
design research programs with BecA. This model
promotes solidarity among African countries in
building shared science capacities.