The purpose of the 2022 Leaders Forum is to galvanize CORAF’s R&D stakeholders to discuss the trends in sub-regional priority agriculture research themes and evaluate their contribution towards increasing agricultural productivity and building a resilient food system in West and Central Africa.

Robert Zougmoré, West Africa Lead for AICCRA, will be presenting at the forum on AICCRA's work and related OneCGIAR initiatives, including ClimBer.

The specific objectives of the forum include:

• Present an overview of the state of Agriculture R&D in West and Central Africa focusing on top trends and a comparative analysis (where are we today vs 5yrs ago)
• Discuss a CORAF commissioned study on trends affecting agricultural R&D and technology & innovation in sustaining WCA’s food system transformation
• Dialogue and review existing frameworks on both national and regional levels in agricultural R&D space and determine whether the levels of efficiency and contribution to economic growth in the sub-region.
• Examine required actions for effectively improving productivity along the agriculture value chain through R&D. (Facilitated panel discussions with scientific leaders).
• Share lessons-learned and identify priority areas in Ag R&D for subsequent research leader forums to stimulate technology and innovation adoption in West and Central Africa.

Livestream will be available on the CORAF Facebook page