Science and Technical Partnerships in Africa: Round 2 Technology Assessments and Platforms: Tools and Reach in Africa a Partners Meeting

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Round 2 Technology Assessments
and Platforms:
Tools and Reach in Africa
A Partners Meeting
December 1 and 2, 2016
ILRI Campus, Kenya, Nairobi

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Background
Round 2 of the Technology Assessments and Platforms: Tools and Reach in Africa – A Partner’s Meeting
took place on ILRI’s Nairobi campus, December 1 and 2, 2016. The meeting was co-hosted by the S&T
Partnerships in Africa Program from IFPRI and the BeCA-ILRI Hub, and supported through IFAD and
USAID, in collaboration with the CRP Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM). During the course of the
two-day meeting the group reviewed and discussed six technology briefs, chosen to complete the initial
review of 10 promising technologies and the different scientific, technical and partnership models they
represent – in order to ultimately determine potential investment and scaling up. The group took the
discussion further regarding the delivery platforms, tools and scaling up with on-the-ground partnerships
at both the national and sub-regional levels – keeping in the forefront the concept that is not enough to
generate technologies but new innovations must be demand-driven, in order to be put to use and shared.
The important role that African partner institutions play in the brokering, coordination, and dissemination
of agricultural technologies at the national and regional levels was discussed at length.
For a full overview of meeting presentations and program, as well as information from earlier meetings led
by the S&T Partnerships program please go to https://www.ifpri.org/project/scientific-and-technical-
partnerships-africa
Day 1: Technology Assessments and their role in Support of the African Science Agenda
Gabrielle Persley, senior consultant with the S&T Partnerships program, reviewed the set of six
technology assessments, noting that certain criteria are essential for technologies to be effective in
contributing to Africa’s agricultural transformation, with the current climate proving that:
 Africa’s agriculture is at a tipping point, moving from
subsistence systems to market-led systems;
 Smallholders are generating surpluses to sell in local,
national, regional and international markets;
 Demand for products is rising with population growth,
urbanization and changing lifestyles;
 A new breed of consumers – focused, choosy and ready to
pay for quality and safety of food;
 Enabling small scale farmers to access the expanding
markets is a critical challenge facing policy makers; and
 Participation of smallholders in markets requires both
identification of market demand and developing products with
suitable characteristics to meet market requirements.
The CGIAR’s DIIVA project in 2014 https://www.asti.cgiar.org/diiva showed an average adoption rate of
35% (new varieties) of 20 crops in 30 African countries over the previous 15 years, compared with an
average of 60% new variety adoption in Asia and 80% in Latin America.
The current technology assessments set out to tackle the following questions in anticipation of how we
meet the growing need for a changing and dynamic food system in Africa, by using the following criteria
across all ten technology assessments:
1. What is the current constraint/context for the technology?
2. What is the discovery? Proof of concept?
3. What is the product profile?
4. What is the market demand for the new technology?
5. What evidence do we have of impact, both ex-ante and ex-post?
6. What is required for scaling up and delivery of these technologies – and how will future
partnerships and investments be made?

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As mentioned in earlier meetings, the current portfolio of 10 promising technologies are comprised of a
wide selection of CGIAR and partner technologies. The technology assessments are intended to help
identify the range of uses and impact for technologies, in order to better understand the partnerships
required (and the actions needed by each partner), including CGIAR Centers and research programs.
The initial 10 technologies represent examples of a range of technologies, with 5 crop based
technologies or products (variety improvement in beans, maize and rice, a GM variety of banana with
disease resistance, and Vitamin A enrichment of sweet potato varieties); 3 livestock-based technologies
or products (African chicken genetic gains, rapid diagnostics for African swine fever (ASF) in pigs and a
thermostable vaccine for the PPR virus in sheep and goats); and 2 technologies representing the areas of
post-harvest technologies (Aflatoxin control in maize) and climate smart technologies (in a suite of soil
and climate data sets).
During the discussion several important points were raised to apply in the further refinement of the
technology assessments, and to aid new innovations with their potential reach:
 There is a need to link production areas to markets, right from the start. In the case of beans,
PABRA (established now for 30 years in Africa as a research alliance across 30 countries,
facilitated by CIAT) has established market corridors to assist in the flow of breeding
materials across countries, for example from Kenya to Tanzania and Ethiopia. PABRA members
also work to establish high standards for seed quality to assist farmers in addressing access to
new markets.
 In the case of new and promising technologies to address high resolution climate and soil data,
with an emphasis in precision agriculture -- the challenge in taking new innovations from the R&D
level to the farm level was discussed and how to make maps and summaries of the data easily
accessible to policy and decision makers. The opportunities are vast, in terms of the use of
these technologies and the CGIAR and partners can work to ensure access to data (fertilizer use
and soil analysis). There are also strong private sector implications for new partnerships, with
new technologies such as drone delivery discussed for reaching isolated regions.
 Some of the technologies featured had strong gender roles
to be further explored, in the case of beans, sweet
potatoes and small ruminants where women are in control of
the production and how these technologies affect their
financial security and livelihoods.
 The role of institutional governance around successful
partnerships – and how this can affect the impact of scaling
up and integration of new technologies into national level
programs was noted. The example was given of the close
work on rice taking place in Western Africa between
CORAF/WECARD and AfricaRice. The shared governance
structures they experience has made their work that much
more effective with member countries.
 Still others raised concerns, noting that the CGIAR has a role and obligation to continue to meet
the needs of farmers often left out of the private and public sector discussions. For example, what
is the demand for open-pollinated vs. hybrid maize varieties, and what access do farmers have to
choose their preference? What cross-learning opportunities exist between maize with other
seed systems?
 Important to note the definition of market segments and how this impacts breeding programs.
there is still a strong need to strengthen the training of more plant breeders (throughout
Africa), and a need for governments to lead in the regional/sub-regional harmonization of
procedures, regulatory and policy issues across different commodities. A USAID-supported
program in West Africa was listed as a successful example of helping to support the seed system

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and harmonize processes across countries – in partnership with CORAF/WECARD and
ECOWAS.
 Ultimately, farmers need incentives to make investments and proper feedback loops are
critical. Farmers need to have access to the best technologies available in Africa – and have
partnerships and networks designed to deliver. As an example, Technoserve participants said
they would like to work closely with CGIAR efforts at both the breeding and seed supply level,
building on in-country networks for new delivery options.
In addition to the technology assessments, and as part of the deliverables under preparation for IFAD as
CGIAR’s contribution to technical support of the Science Agenda for African Agriculture (S3A), Yihenew
Zewdie, who served as a member of FARA’s Expert Panel in the creation of the S3A is conducting a
scoping study of the current institutional framework, platforms, programs and activities to determine how
they will add value to the implementation phase. A summary of his early findings was presented at the
meeting and can be found on the meeting website link.
Next Steps
 The development of the technology assessments will continue in 2017, in consultation
with both private and public sector partners regarding opportunities for scaling up of
various technologies.
 Several participants mentioned this approach to identify promising technologies would be
of use for other programs such as the Technologies for African Agricultural
Transformation (TAAT) program as it gets underway in partnership with the African
Development Bank, CGIAR, FARA and African national governments – to assist in the
“clearing house” mechanisms under discussion. The Round 1 meeting in July mentioned
the option of providing a “broker” or “matchmaking role” for the CGIAR in bringing
investors and scientists together with policy makers around new technology generation
and knowledge dissemination.
 View the initial technology briefs as potential pilots for further development – with
additional analytical and empirical evidence provided to explore specific partnerships
(around specific technologies) at the national and regional levels. Emphasis will be given
to the institutional arrangements and innovations in the research processes when further
developing each brief.
 Continue to work with FARA, the SROs and national institutions to ensure technologies,
tools and new approaches remain relevant in the “menu of options” available for the
implementation phase (country level engagement) of the Science Agenda.
Day 2: Technology Platforms – Impact pathways for enhanced support and analysis, SRO
research engagement and Panels on Institutional Initiatives and Public-Private Sector
Perspectives
On-the-ground research activities with platforms, tools and technologies in place at the country level,
including geospatial data and analytical tools to further support knowledge sharing with agricultural
investment decision makers featured as part of the Day 2 discussions. This work includes activities to:
 Improve productivity, links to markets, management of natural resources and competitiveness in
regional and global markets, and
 Provide data and analytical research support for partners and strengthen their technical self-
assessment capacity for better targeting of agricultural technology investments toward the
country’s food security and nutrition goals.

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Activities underway in 2016-2017, as part of the IFAD work and with support from USAID and PIM
include:
 Desktop studies that present a baseline productivity of major commodities at subnational levels
and recent trends.
 Establish engagement with in-region technical capacity with the Ministries of Agriculture in focus
countries and assess the specific technical support demand areas.
 Updates were provided on the technology assessment case studies in the field, chosen by
institutional partners:
o CORAF/WECARD: Improved rice varieties in Senegal
o ASARECA: Quality Protein Maize varieties in Uganda
o CCARDESA: Small ruminants in Namibia
These case studies will be further developed using IFPRI’s ex-ante bioeconomy modeling
framework, to be presented at the final workshop in April, 2017.
 A presentation and discussion on impact pathways and additional analysis to aid in decision
making was given by Jawoo Koo and Katie Downie. This information is intended to provide
further options when considering decisions that involve various level of decision making along the
impact pathway at the value-chain level – from the farm to national policy level decision making,
factoring in elements such as market demand along with likely nutrition, poverty, and human well-
being impact. The impact pathway tool is currently under development to identify the most
effective entry point of the interventions through the profiling of countries, empirical data on the
selection of technologies and target geographies, and predictive modelling for assessing the
potential impact of technologies.
 Jawoo Koo, Thematic Leader for Data and Spatial Analytics at IFPRI, provided an update on the
recent approval of the Big Data and Analytics Coordination Platform for CGIAR, supporting
all 15 Centers, co-led by CIAT and IFPRI. His group will lead the first component on Organize
(the other two components, led by CIAT include Convene and Inspire). In light of the current work
in Africa, discussion was given how to best build on what is already in place for increased
effectiveness, and how to include other partners beyond CGIAR effectively. A position for the
Director of the new initiative was announced in December and will be filled in the next few
months.
Two panel discussions were held as part of Day 2 – and included a panel moderated by John Lynam on
Institutional Initiatives – made up of participants from the meeting serving in various capacities across the
different R&D activities in Africa, and another panel on Private and Public Sector Perspectives, with guest
speakers from Technoserve, USAID and the Syngenta Foundation.
In the case of the Institutional Initiatives panel, a rich conversation took place around new activities
underway and under planning/preparation involving CGIAR Centers and programs, FARA, the SROs and
others in the research for development landscape – and how synergies can be kept at the forefront of
decision making to ensure the Science Agenda and other important initiatives are implemented. This past
September the World Bank held a writeshop for the organization of the Science for Agriculture
Consortium -- formed to facilitate and manage the implementation of the Science Agenda for Agriculture
in Africa (S3A), comprised of FARA, the SROs and the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services
(AFAAS). Development partners and other research groups (including IFPRI) were invited to provide
feedback and guidance on the last day of the meeting.
Building on Yihenew Zewdie’s presentation from Day 1, the group discussed what is the voice of the
NARS in this work. The role of strong national leadership is seen as imperative, noting however that
funding seems to have shifted in recent years from regional approaches to more bilateral efforts. Will the
new TAAT initiative from the African Development Bank (and led by a consortium of partners) represent a
renewed approach to regional funding and perhaps stronger linkages to infrastructure?

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The group discussed:
 What are the institutional linkages in place?
 How will the CRPs with greater NARS focus feature and how might site integration with respect to
working at the national level be strengthened as a result?
 Moving into the implementation phase of the AUC’s Technical Networks – what are the linkages
here, how can we best help strengthen and participate in these? and
 How will the S4AC (FARA, the SROs and AFAAS) provide cohesion and best link the Science
Agenda implementation to strengthen the joint delivery of partners such as the NARS and
CGIAR?
The Private and Public Sector Panel discussion focused on exploring core innovations where public
sector research – once outputs and products are developed – can be taken to commercial scale.
Incentives that are critical to this success were included in each presentation.
David Galaty, representing Technoserve’s experience mentioned it is essential to consider:
 Proper measurement to support agricultural transformation – with incentives such as “cheaper,
better and faster” leading the list, and
 Focus on innovations that have 1) already been tested and 2) have not yet gone to scale.
He listed partnerships underway with Technoserve and ICRAF on the collection of geospatial information
collected remotely and work with ILRI and Galvmed on commercial distribution models for vaccine
markets to create greater adoption.
Steve Orr from USAID’s Kenya and East Africa office spoke about USAID’s desire to look into new
elements that involve systems approaches – with emphasis on structured economic growth through the
production and movement of food. Embedded in this approach are several elements:
 Business systems, how does food get traded? What is involved in that? How to make informed
decisions – CAADP and Malabo form the framework with which to make informed decisions;
 In terms of partnerships – USAID relies on their partner organizations to come up with solutions;
 It is important to find and partner with African institutions – CGIAR is important, but the private
sector is also important to helping make this work;

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 Money and markets drives demand for research and technology and it is important to build
capacity that is both nimble and flexible; and
 How can we start from demand and then decide how to move in the research, technology
and innovation space?
He provided examples of partnerships that USAID has helped foster – one with IITA and the use of
Aflasafe to target aflatoxin problems and another with CIMMYT to establish a community of practice on
maize lethal necrosis in the Naivasha (Kenya) facility.
Gabrielle Persley, representing her work with the Syngenta Foundation on Demand-led Plant Breeding,
(as part of a public-private partnership with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
and the Crawford Fund) provided additional perspectives. This work focuses on a demand-led approach
to plant variety design, by identifying priority traits in new variety design and to make the business case
for investments in plant breeding programs on specific crops. For example, there may initially be 40 traits
identified as desirable by various stakeholders in the crop value chain, but in the end 5 or 10 may be
targeted as high priority traits in a breeding program, depending on what traits are most required and are
scientifically feasible. It is important to build a business case up front, working with private and
public sector partners from the start. She also advocated for early engagement with partners in
decision making to help build trust as an important component for a successful partnership. It is
important to focus on each new variety as a product that will be grown by farmers and for which there is a
demand in the market for purchase as fresh food and/or for processing. These different end uses often
require different varietal traits.
During the meeting wrap-up, participants commented that they enjoyed the rich and diverse technologies
and platforms discussed – and further emphasized the need to consider individual solutions and next
steps around technology dissemination, taking into account the institutional partnerships and structures in
place to support the research delivery systems.
It was also noted during a time of institutional and financial challenges for research activities across Africa
(and other parts of the world) it will remain important to work in new and creative ways. An African
proverb shared by one of the AfricaRice colleagues during the meeting summed this up perfectly:
“We are partnerships between farmers and scientists – and we realize – if you want to go fast, go
alone. If you want to go far, go with partners.”
Next Steps
1. During the next few months the initial 10 technology assessments will be finalized.
2. Further development of the Technology Platform and in-country research with the SROs,
NARS and NGOs, along with RUFORUM and IFPRI/ASTI on a portal for African universities
will continue in 2017.
3. The final meeting for Phase I of the IFAD supported work will take place the first week of
April, 2017, most likely co-hosted with AfricaRice in Cote d’Ivoire.
4. The S&T Partnerships in Africa group will explore ways to better characterize (describe
and classify) technologies and articulate demand. This could include how to better
measure farmer demand of different technologies, as well as the delivery mechanisms in
place. We will work with colleagues and partners to further develop the concept of
“matchmaking or brokering” opportunities for CGIAR and partner technologies in Africa,
including the potential delivery systems for a clearing house mechanism. This could be
expanded to include important ways to classify and share information within and outside
of the CGIAR around gender, nutrition, poverty reduction and health benefits.

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Annex A:
Meeting Agenda Round 2 Technology Assessments and Platforms:
Tools and Reach in Africa
ILRI Nairobi Campus, John Vercoe Conference Center
Meeting Objectives:
 Review the initial draft for the six case studies on specific technologies coming from the CGIAR
Centers – with national and regional research partners. This round of six technologies (4 were
featured in the first) are comprised of a mix of crop, natural resource management and livestock
based technologies.
 Discuss an initial scoping study on the current institutional initiatives to deliver on the African
agriculture science agenda (and how the different components add value).
 Explore examples of country level applications, technology classification, adoption and diffusion.
 Look ahead to the different roles and interactions with private and public sector partners in
making the case for technology investment.
Day 1: Thursday, December 1, 2016
9:00 Welcome, Introductions and Agenda Review K. Wright Platais
9:30
Overview of Approach to Technology Assessments and their role
in support of the African Science Agenda
G. Persley
10:00
Session I
Technology Assessment 1: Beans in Africa
Moderator Session I:
A. Djikeng
Discussants:
PABRA and ASARECA
10:45 Coffee Break
11:00
Technology Assessment 2: High-resolution climate and soil data
for climate smart agriculture
Discussants:
CCAFS/CIAT and IFPRI
11:45
Technology Assessment 3: A PPR thermostable vaccine
for sheep and goats
Discussants:
ILRI-BeCA
12:30 Lunch Break
1:30
Current institutional landscape and initiatives focused in support
of the Science Agenda
Y. Zewdie

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Day 1: Thursday, December 1, 2016
2:15
Session II
Technology Assessment 4: Maize with drought tolerance
Moderator Session II:
Aggrey Agumya
Discussant: AATF
3:00 Technology Assessment 5: Rice in Africa
Discussants:
CORAF/WECARD
and Africa Rice
3:45 Coffee Break
4:15
Technology Assessment 6: Sweet potato with improved
nutritional quality Discussants: CIP/RTB
5:00
Summary and Next Steps for Technology Assessments G. Persley and
K. Wright Platais
5:30 – 7:00 Poolside Cocktail Reception at ILRI
Day 2: Friday, December 2, 2016
9:00
Impact Pathway Modeling for Enhanced Support
Analysis for Agricultural Technologies
J. Koo and
K. Downie
9:45
Assessment of Technology Adoption and Diffusion:
Country led studies with SROs (partnering with
ASARECA, CORAF/WECARD and CCARDESA)
J. Koo,
M. Odeke
K. Kondo
B. Podisi
10:30 Coffee Break
11:00
Panel Discussion on Institutional Initiatives:
CAADP Technical Networks, Science 4
Agriculture Consortium (S4AC), TAAT, BeCA-
ILRI Hub with group discussion
Panel Moderator:
J. Lynam
Discussants:
A. Agumya
S. Sanyang
A. Djikeng
R. Buruchara
12:00 Lunch Break
1:00
CGIAR Big Data in Agriculture Coordination Platform:
Update
J. Koo

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Day 2: Friday, December 2, 2016
1:30
Panel Discussion on Private and Public Sector
Perspectives: Next Steps for Technologies and
Scaling Up
Panel Moderator:
K. Wright Platais
Discussants:
S. Orr
D. Galaty
G. Persley
2:30 Coffee Break
3:00
Next Steps – Preparing for April Meeting, end of Phase I
K. Wright Platais
3:30 Meeting Wrap-up and Adjourn

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Annex B:
Round 2 Technology Assessment and Platforms:
Tools and Reach in Africa
ILRI Campus, Nairobi, Kenya
December 1 and 2, 2016
PARTICIPANT ORGANIZATION DESIGNATION
1 Agumya, Aggrey FARA Director of Corporate Partnership and
Communications
2 Bett, Bernard ILRI Senior Scientist
3 Buruchara, Robin CIAT PABRA Director
4 Djikeng, Appolinaire BecA-ILRI Hub Director
5 Donohue, Chris TNS Associate Vice President
6 Downie, Katie ILRI/IFPRI Consultant
7 Duveiller, Etienne AFRICA RICE Deputy Director General
8 Galaty, David TNS Director, Research & Innovation – East Africa
9 Girvetz, Evan CIAT Senior Scientist
10 Kamanda, Josey AFRICA RICE Innovation Systems Specialist
11 Kidoido, Michael ILRI Monitoring & Evaluation Economist
12 Kondo, Kodjo CORAF Monitoring & Evaluation Expert
13 Koo, Jawoo IFPRI Senior Research Fellow
14 Lemma, Yihenew Zewdie CTA Independent Consultant
15 Lynam, John ICRAF Board Chair
16 McEwan, Margaret CIP Seed System Specialist
17 Ndungu, Paul TNS Project Manager, Research and Innovation – East
Africa
18 Odeke, Moses ASARECA Monitoring & Evaluation Officer
19 Okogbenin, Emmanuel AATF Director of Technical Operations
20 Okoth, Edward ILRI Epidemiologist/Field Team Coordinator
21 Omanya, Gospel AATF Seed System Manager
22 Onsongo, Mary USAID Project Management Specialist
23 Orr, Stephen USAID Deputy Office Chief - Agriculture
24 Persley, Gabrielle DOYLE
FOUNDATION
Senior Advisor

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PARTICIPANT ORGANIZATION DESIGNATION
25 Podisi, Baitsi CCARDESA Research & Advisory Thematic Coordinator
26 Rubyogo, Jean Claude CIAT Feed Systems Specialist
27 Sanyang, Sidi AFRICA RICE Rice Commodity Specialist
28 Sie, Moussa AFRICA RICE Breeding Task Force Coordinator
29 Staal, Steve ILRI Program Leader
30 Teufel, Nils ILRI Senior Scientist
31 Toye, Phil ILRI Principal Scientist
32 Wright Platais, Kerri IFPRI Program Head