Background

Led by Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, the AICCRA project contributes to building a future in which African agriculture will be climate-smart and driven by science and innovation. AICCRA endeavors to increase access to climate information services and climate-smart agricultural technologies for millions of smallholder farmers across Africa. 

The sub-regional component of AICCRA in West Africa is implemented through multi-stakeholder partnerships from existing scientific and educational networks and centers. This pooling should make it possible to obtain results that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve with individual partners at the national level. 

Building on the collaboration between the CCAFS program and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) to address climate change issues at both regional and national levels by leveraging the expertise of researchers and policy makers, AICCRA is now supporting CORAF to provide technical support in terms of foresight in the region.

About the event

This collaboration is building the capacity of key regional and national institutions in sub-Saharan Africa throughout the research and development process to anticipate climate impacts and accelerate the identification, prioritization and adoption of the best available adaptation measures. Therefore, based on the workshop to identify skills needs on foresight analysis and potential areas of application that took place in April 2022 in Saly, Senegal, CORAF and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT represented by the West African regional cluster of the AICCRA project organized in October 2022 in Dakar, Senegal, a training of trainers on the application of foresight analysis in West and Central Africa (WCA). 

This workshop aimed to enhance leadership in foresight strategic planning in the region beyond individual projects, as outlined in its 2018-2027 Strategic Plan. At the end of this training, a Community of Practice (CoP) in foresight was established. This community of practice applied foresight analysis to develop a roadmap for a regional pest and disease outbreak preparedness and response plan in the region. 

From June 19 to 21, 2023, CORAF and the Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT consulted crop protection and animal health experts, as well as regional and international organizations on the draft pest and disease outbreak preparedness and response plan. This consultation resulted in the amendment, finalization, and validation of the document on the pest and disease outbreak preparedness and response plan for West and Central Africa. 

Stakeholders would now like to launch the West and Central Africa Pest and Disease Outbreak Preparedness and Response Plan for the community.

Objectives

The aim of this event is to publicize and share the regional pest and disease epidemic preparedness and response plan for West and Central Africa. It will take place face-to-face, in the form of plenary sessions, followed by discussions to:

• Share the contents of the pest and disease outbreak preparedness and response plan with community and media
• Define strategies for wide dissemination and adoption of the plan
• Organize a press conference to present the plan for widespread dissemination
• Set up a committee to monitor implementation of the plan

Participants

Please note, the workshop is by invitation only.

Participants will be experts in pest and disease management, the CORAF team, the AICCRA project cluster team in West Africa and representatives of technical partners including Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), Pôle régional de Recherche Appliquée au Développement des Systèmes agricoles d'Afrique Centrale (PRASAC), Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel- CILSS/AGHRYMET, CILSS/INSAH, WAVE (Central and West African Epidemiology for Food Security), Biorisk Management Facility (BIMAF), and Task Force.

Contact

For enquiries or questions about the launch event, please contact Belmira Moustapha, AICCRA West Africa Comms Lead at b.moustapha@cgiar.org