AfricaSeeds and key stakeholders have come together in
Abidjan to validate the project document on the next four years of the Seed
Knowledge Gateway (SKG), an online platform on seed information for Africa. AfricaSeeds has achieved a lot since the Inception
Workshop of the Seed Gateway held last February in Akosombo,
Ghana. The Inception Workshop set the bases for drafting a project document
designed to guide the development of the online platform during the four
following years.
During the opening address of the Validation Workshop held
in Abidjan from 7 to 9 of August, 2019, AfricaSeeds’ Executive Director, Dr
Kouame Miezan, charged participants: “your special expertise in various aspects
of the planned SKG will help us enormously to finalize and validate the project
document that will end up in shaping such an important tool for the transformation
of African agriculture.”
During the Preparatory Phase, from September 2018 to the end
of July 2019, a team of seed and IT experts, coordinated by the lead consultant
Josiah Wobil, conducted a comprehensive series of participatory consultations
of key stakeholders of the knowledge landscape of Africa. Special attention was
paid to involve in the process national and regional experts in charge of data
and knowledge management for their respective institution. The team
subsequently conceived the project document, which outlines the creation and
implementation of an online effective, user-friendly, sustainable information
platform. The draft project document was discussed during the Validation
Workshop.
Altogether, the Seed Knowledge
Gateway is meant to become the one-stop-shop for information on the African
seed sector, to address the huge problem of data and statistics insufficiency
in seed sector development planning and implementation.
The main stakeholders on the SKG are envisaged to be
National Governments and experts, development partners, and key continental or
regional partners such as FARA,
CORAF, IITA, NASC, COMESA, DSI-Burkina Faso and AFSTA.
The Validation Workshop, attended by 17 experts from various
African countries, Ministries and International Organizations, met the main
objective of securing validation of the SKG project document. Particularly, the
Workshop participants succeeded in achieving consensus on the structure and
content of the project document towards additional work by the consultants and
complementary efforts by participants to achieve a finalized document.
With his intervention at the workshop, Dr Jonas Chianu of
the African Development Bank, gave a boost to the validation process: “the
importance of seed data and information in the realization of the goals of the
Feed Africa Initiative of the Bank cannot be overstated; I encourage you to
pursue the development of the SKG portal, as it will be significantly
contributing to the compacts in the Technologies for African Agricultural
Transformation (TAAT) Program.”
Participants lauded the Swiss Development Cooperation for
its support to the Preparatory Phase, as well as the key contribution from the
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria as well of
Government of Côte d’Ivoire.
All participants urged continued support into the Main
Phase, and appealed to all African Governments to show commitment by
contributing adequate national resources to the proposed budget.
Sourced From: AfricaSeeds
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