WEBINAR: Strengthening the African Agricultural Research and Development Towards improved Africa Food System

9 March 2021. Strengthening the African Agricultural Research and Development Towards improved Africa Food System. FARA and FANRPAN

The main objective of the FARA Webinar: Strengthening the African Agricultural Research and Development Towards Improved Africa Food System is to provide a platform for key stakeholders in the agricultural research for development space to discuss salient options for the agricultural research for development (AR4D) mechanisms to strengthen the food system on the African continent. The session will further allow participants to think through how to engineer a repositioning of Africa for the attainment of the SDGs within the decade, given the emerging BR Reports.

The specific objectives are:

• To facilitate a consultative e-Forum to review the major issues and challenges confronting the African food system.
• To elucidate pragmatic game-changing options for the African food systems given the short time frame to 2030.
• To propose solutions that will enhance the deployment of science and innovation to provide the necessary catalysts of the food systems in Africa in the context of S3A.
• To come up with the One Africa Voice (policy brief) to the 2021 UN Food System Summit on AR4D (African message to the Summit).
• To provide modalities of moderating comments on the six (6) Papers (Draft) of the Group.
• To develop and present the African strategy trajectory to the pre-summit and the main Summit.

The preceding webinar on the subject had set the scene for a renewed policy and advocacy strategy for the collation of the “One African Voice” as a collective action to revisit this perennial concern on the continent. This is therefore the second in a series of the independent dialogue series anchored by FARA in the context of the UN-Food Systems Summit. It is important that in crafting a continental voice, all concerns as much as possible must be brought to the table, leaving no one behind.

Resources:

• Regional Dialogue: African Food Systems Seventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development 4 March 2021, Brazzaville, Congo Background Paper, ECA, AUC, FAO, AUDA-NEPAD, WEP, UNICEF, IFAD, AfDB, Akademiya2063, RUFORUM (2021)
• Regional Dialogue: African Food Systems (agenda item 9), Thursday March 4, UN Economic and Social Council
• Policy Brief, Strengthening African Agricultural Research and Development Towards an Improved Africa Food System, “One Africa Voice” towards the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, FARA, Sub Regional Research Organizations, NARS, AFAAS, AGRA, FANRPAN
• ACB Reaction to the Regional Dialogue on African Food Systems, which took place at the Seventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, 4 March 2021