WEBINAR: Soil Initiative for Africa (SIA)

24 March 2021. The Africa Union Commission (AUC) has called on FARA to develop and launch aSoils Initiative for Africa along the lines suggested in the Chicago Council paper. The first step in the line of action is the development of a task team by FARA to begin this work following the AUC directive. The task team is drawn from the key stakeholder’s group in Africa agriculture including, FARA, the SROs, AFAAS, AfSP/GSP etc.

The tentative roadmap for the initiative entails the following steps;

1. Identification of a task team to develop an initial plan for how the Soils Initiative will be designed and launched
2. Task team will develop draft plan.
3. Consultation with stakeholders across Africa followed by the development of the needed partnerships.
4. Engagement with interested development partners and stakeholders followed by to creation of awareness for the initiative.
5. Mobilization of the initial funding
6. Activate the project development process (Consultations, road map development; etc.)
7. Development of project content (Identify project content and develop into a workable proposal)
8. Launch the project processes.

Background:

• Ajayi M.T, Fatunbi AO and Akinbamijo O. O (2018). Strategies for ScalingAgricultural Technologies in
  Africa. Forum for Agricultural Research inAfrica (FARA), Accra Ghana
• Africa. Forum for Agricultural Research inAfrica (FARA), Accra Ghana 108 pp.
• The proposal to develop a soil initiative for Africa is built on series of recent efforts that garner the support of regional and sub regional bodies with mandates for coordination of agriculture in Africa. An initial document was prepared by David Nielson (World Bank), titled: “Considering a Soil Initiative for Africa” and published in January 2020 by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. (18 pp.) 
• This was followed by various discussion held during the “5th Annual Workshop of the Global Community of Practice on Scaling Development Outcomes” held between October 19 – 30, 2020. 
• A side event was held on “Developing a Soil Initiative for Africa” at the Alliance for Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2020 and another at the World Food Price forum side event on “Scaling Soils Restoration: A Roadmap to Action”.