S&T Partnerships in Africa - Program Overview

Cultivating Science in
Agriculture through
Partnerships
A meeting was held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire April
4 and 5, 2017, co-hosted by IFPRI and AfricaRice, to
strengthen linkages and forge stronger partnerships
at the national and sub-regional levels in Africa to
deliver and contribute to developments in science,
technology and innovation. The meeting, attended by
over 60 participants from international development
institutions (World Bank, African Development
Bank, IFAD, USAID) and technical partners (CGIAR
Centers, national partners, sub-regional organizations,
private sector and NGOs) and demonstrated how
new technologies and their assessments, delivery
mechanisms, shared platforms, and new tools and
portals support agricultural transformation and
economic development in Africa.
Several next steps were raised among the partner
groups. The list is by no means exhaustive and
will form the basis of continued conversations and
technical engagement in the months ahead.
1 A renewed interest was discussed to explore
further how the bridging mechanisms and
transitions from research to development can
be further cultivated.
2 Agricultural technologies (from CGIAR
and partners) need to be viewed and
developed as integrated packages, as they
are interlinked with other key success factors in
order to be commercially viable. Technologies
are also embedded in the overall work on value
chain and supply development and therefore
must leverage existing platforms—or create
new platforms—to accelerate the uptake and
scaling process.
S&T Program Meeting Abidjan April 2017
3 It is important to ensure long-term
commitment from all stakeholders, with
clearly defined roles and responsibilities,
in order to create effective and lasting
partnerships in Africa.
4 With respect to the S3A, FARA continues to
provide the leadership in the next phase as
indicated by two main activities: 1) continued
streamlining and rolling out of the Science
Agenda at the country level and 2) the
establishment of a strategic framework
that will facilitate targeting as well as
monitoring the various initiatives to ensure
there is collective input and synergies for
implementation. With this in mind, there is
critical work to be accomplished and requires a
full cadre of engaged partners to implement.
5 Investments are needed and should continue
to be made as part of a learning process
for the CGIAR and its partners around
technology delivery—with a particular focus
placed on building the business case for
impact and sustainability of the various
technologies. Value chains are one important
area for future concentration, and the richness of
the full spectrum of CGIAR research is essential
for moving towards agricultural transformation
across Africa.
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 this S&T Partnerships in Africa brief:
Scientific and technical contributors: Kerri Wright Platais
and Mark Rosegrant (IFPRI); and Harold Roy Macauley (Africa Rice)
Editor, S&T Partnerships in Africa briefs: Gabrielle Persley, Doyle Foundation.
Design: Eric Ouma and Kamau Wanyoike.
Photo credits: Cover, Shutterstock; inside, David White/ILRI.
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

Program Overview
The Scientific and Technical Partnerships in Africa Program,
hosted by IFPRI, is in continuation of the CAADP and CGIAR
alignment activities. During the formulation of these
activities, a Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A
or Science Agenda) was undertaken by the Forum for
Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and listed as one of
the key activities in the Memorandum of Understanding
between CGIAR and the African Union Commission (AUC)
signed in 2013. IFAD supported the creation and writing
of the Science Agenda through initial support to FARA
and the S3A was officially launched by the African Union
Commission and FARA in 2014.
In response to and as part of CGIAR’s support to African
partners in the implementation of the Science Agenda,
IFPRI and partners have organized technical research to
partner in implementation of the S3A by: (1) developing
an example of the tools needed to promote the sharing
of information and new agricultural research findings and
disseminate existing tools at national and regional levels;
and (2) build capacity for the existing technology base and
contribute evidence-based research to strengthen the next
phase of the Science Agenda work in Africa, to ensure that
research has direct impact on rural poverty and food and
nutrition security.
The initial phase of this project was designed to deliver on:
1 An increased awareness of the Science Agenda goals
and targets at the country level through the use
of existing agricultural technology and innovation
platforms to improve technology uptake and tracking of
technology delivery;
2 Explore a synchronized approach to delivering
technologies, innovations, practices and approaches at
national and sub-regional levels in Africa to transform
small-holder agriculture and expand its productive
capacity and;
3 Establish lead country examples (case studies) to learn
from and modify next steps in S3A implementation for
scaling up through local institutional partnerships.
Partners were chosen for the expertise they bring to
each of the three work streams and include: CGIAR
Centers and Research Programs (CRPs), institutions that
form the Science for Agriculture Consortium (S4AC) for
implementation of the Science Agenda (FARA, the three
Results to Date
The initial 12 months (2016-2017) focused on
implementing the three work streams on:
1 A Technology Platform using geospatial tools, analysis
and technology monitoring at the national level—and
partnering with ASARECA, CCARDESA, CORAF/WECARD
in country-led case studies—to define the uptake and
adoption of agricultural technologies and provide pilot
opportunities to “broker” new technologies (from
discovery to delivery) through partnerships along the
value chain.
2 A portal on Higher Education of the African
Agricultural Higher Education Capacities (AgHEd)
developed by RUFORUM and ASTI and will include
updates on ASTI’s new datasets and analyses on
agricultural R&D indicators for Africa South of the
Sahara.
3 Technology Assessments and a Scoping Study
providing technical assessments of 10 promising new
agricultural technologies, developed by CGIAR institutes
and their partners in Africa to determine the potential
impacts and demonstrate key analytical tools to be
used in support of identifying and scaling up a suite
of new technologies with potential impact in the
transformation of agriculture in Africa. The ten initial
technologies are listed in Table 1.
Materials produced by the program are available at:
https://www.ifpri.org/project/scientific-and-technical-
partnerships-africa.
Sub-regional Organizations (SROs—ASARECA, CCARDESA,
CORAF/WECARD, and the Africa Forum for Agricultural
Advisory Services (AFAAS)—along with RUFORUM, a
network of universities for capacity building in agriculture
throughout Africa, institutionally linked to the AUC. IFAD
support for this research has been used to leverage and
complement research with the same institutions with
support from the CGIAR Research Program—Policies,
Institutions and Markets (PIM), and to build on earlier
work supported through the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation (BMGF).
Scientific & Technical Partnerships in Africa

S&T Partnerships in Africa - Program Overview

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