Add event to calendar

Event objectives

To explore and identify key takeaways on:

• How the African Union hopes to deliver its Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan
• How Africa’s regional organizations can support this AU Strategy
• Actions to transform CGIAR capacity building partnerships with African institutions, ensuring truly ‘locally led development’
• Why CGIAR needs a ‘vision’ for scaling innovation in Africa, informed by AICCRA
• Key messages from a new journal article ‘Building twenty-first century agricultural research and extension capacity in Africa’ (Jayne et al 2023, reviewed by Sonja Vermeulen of CGIAR)

Speakers

Moderator

• Loraine Ronchi – Lead Economist, Agriculture, The World Bank

Presenters

• Manyewu Mutamba – Head (Ag) of Agriculture, Food Systems and Rural Transformation, AUDA-NEPAD
• Ana Maria Loboguerrero – Director, Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA)
• Phoebe Mwangangi – Smallholder farmer from Makueni County, Kenya

Panelists

• Cliff Dlamini – Executive Director, Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA)
• Edith Adera – Lead Coordinator, Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) and Regional Principal Officer, African Development Bank Group
• Javier Mateo-Vega – Senior Director for Partnerships, Stewardship, Innovation, and Intelligence, CGIAR
• Florence Nakayiwa - Deputy Executive Secretary - Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM)

Background

CGIAR has played a critical role in global agricultural development for five decades, promoting food security and raising living standards for smallholder farmers. But it lacks resources to deliver innovations in challenging agroecological conditions across Africa on the scale needed to address climate change.

Strong national and regional partners are essential, but African institutions (especially National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems - NARES) remain dependent on international research organizations.  

A new paper (Jayne et al 2023) argues international partners must undertake “serious stocktaking” to develop a greater appreciation of how their own effectiveness depends on the performance of NARES and efforts to build their capacities must be prioritized.  

How do we sustainably support truly African-led research, innovation, and scaling?

Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is building partnerships to scale climate-smart agriculture and transform climate services, through capacity development, innovation ‘bundling’ and technology transfers. It has developed a vision for scaling action based on its experience from its first phase of operation.  

With the prospect of AICCRA additional finance from The World Bank, the project wants a clear ‘exit strategy’ that enables African partners to take forward their own agendas for action independently, aligned to the ambitions of the African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022-2032).  

This event explores ways to transition to a “twenty-first century African-led agricultural research system”.