Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

WEBINAR: Independent Dialogue UNFSS. Expert Workshop on Food Systems Resilience in Africa and Europe

20 April, 2021. Independent Dialogue UNFSS.
Expert Workshop on Food Systems Resilience in Africa and Europe coordinated by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and supported by University of Copenhagen and Wageningen University, all in the LEAP4FNSSA- Long-term Europe-Africa Partnership for Food.

The Long-term Europe-Africa Partnership for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (LEAP4FNSSA) has undertaken a study on Food Systems Resilience with the objective of making recommendations that could shape future policies in bi-regional (Africa-Europe) collaboration on research and innovation (R&I). University of Hohenheim led the Study Team, and has submitted the study report. 

The Experts Thematic Workshop is organized to provide an avenue for presentation and discussion of the findings of the study. The workshop will receive presentation of the study report, deliberate on the key outcomes and recommendations, and help to elaborate action steps, analysis, and foresight that could be used in advancing Europe-Africa partnership in Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture.

Workshop Program Structure 
  • Introducing the LEAP4FNSSA and the Food Systems Resilience theme. 
  • Presentation of the Study Report – by the Study Team (led by Hohenheim University) 
  • Commentaries from the Invited Experts Comments from the FNSSA Working Group 
  • Moderated discussion and Q&A (including Break Out Groups) Synthesis and Conclusion 

Principles for building resilience food systems (Source: Biggs et al. 2015/ Stockholm Resilience Center)

  1. Maintain diversity and redundancy
  2. Manage connectivity
  3. Manage slow variables and feedbacks
  4. Foster complex adaptive system thinking
  5. Encourage learning
  6. Broaden participation
  7. Promote polycentric governance systems
Speakers:
  • Moderator Dr. Kwesi Atta-Krah Director Country and Regional Engagement International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
  • Dr. Carolin Callenius Managing Director of the Hohenheim Research Center for Global Food Security and Ecosystems (GFE), University of Hohenheim 
  • Dr. Thomas Pircher Program Officer, Hohenheim Research Center for Global Food Security and Ecosystems (GFE), University of Hohenheim 
  • Dr. Karen Tiede University of Hohenheim Research Centre for Global Food Security and Ecosystems 
  • Prof. Julian D. May Director of the NRF-DST Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa 
  • Dr. Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters Senior Expert in the field of inclusive food systems, Wageningen University, Netherlands 
  • Dr. Victor Ajieroha Senior Programs Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nigeria Country Office 
  • Dr. Sandrine Dury Agricultural Economist, Centre of Agricultural Research for Development (Cirad), Montpellier, France 
  • Dr. Bussie Maziya-Dixon Crop Utilization and Nutrition Specialist; International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria 
  • Closing Keynote speaker Dr. Jemimah Njuki Director for Africa IFPRI
Resources:
The FNSSA projects database 
  • This is a work in progress, and contains projects in the area of FNSSA, funded by the European Commission (EC) framework programmes such as Horizon 2020, as well as the African Union Research Grants. In addition, the database also contains a number of relevant projects from other EU DGs, and from various national funders within the EU. 
  • The projects all have participants from countries in Africa and Europe in cooperation. Information included in the database is collected from external sources and curated with care, but minor inaccuracies may occur. https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/leap4fnssa-projects/africa
Helena Posthumus, Jonne Bosselaar & Herman Brouwer (2021) Food Systems Decision Support tool  Wageningen University & Research and KIT Royal Tropical Institute. 31 pp. 
  • The Food System Decision Support tool, developed by Wageningen Economic Research and KIT Royal Tropical Institute, aims to turn those scientific food systems insights into practical recommendations for food and nutrition security policy.
  • This report can be downloaded for free at https:// doi.org/10.18174/541410 or at www.wur.eu/cdi (under publications). The Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation uses a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (Netherlands) licence for its reports.

"Most of the projects are located in East and West Africa, and Central and North Africa have the least number of projects. In Europe there seems to be a dominance of some countries in terms of the partners participating in the project" p. 6

The study makes several recommendations as follows. 
  1. Increase focus on the roadmap theme Trade and markets- improve productivity and value added production, particularly agro–processing. 
  2. Increase attention to issues of gender, women and youth as cross cutting themes
  3. Promoting farmers’ organisations and cooperatives involvement in R&I projects
    "Recognize the role of farmers’ organisations as critical partners in R&I projects. Farmer organisations have potential to accelerate knowledge and technology transfer and adoption of new solutions, which in turn could lead to significant impact in agricultural transformation to achieve the objectives of the roadmap. There is therefore a need for focused attention on projects that promote the roles of farmers’ organisations in the partnership". 
  4. Address concentration of projects in some countries in both Africa and Europe
  5. Harness the potential role of the private sector 
  6. AU and RECs should increase funding for FNSSA partnership projects- 
  7. Explore long-term sustainable models for financing in agriculture to enhance use of knowledge generated by R&I investments 
  8. Address emerging risks to FNSSA

(RUFORUM) and Wageningen University and Research analysed recent strategic policy papers (or initiatives) by AU and the EU to assess their relevance for and alignment to the Roadmap towards a jointly funded EU-AU Research & Innovation Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Roadmap).

The study reviewed the objectives and main activities of the partnership projects formulated as part the short-term (pre 2016) implementation of the Roadmap, including:
  • Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe (CAAST-Net Plus), 
  • Platform for African European Partnership on Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD), 
  • Research and Innovation Network for Europe and Africa (RINEA); 
  • Towards a long-term Africa-EU partnership to raise sustainable food and nutrition security in Africa (PROIntensAfrica), 
  • Strengthening Technology, Research and Innovation Cooperation between Europe and South Africa (ESASTAP) and ERAfrica. 
Further reviewed were the medium term (2017) and long term (2018-2020 and beyond) programme and projects developed as new initiatives to operationalise the Roadmap. These include: 
  • African Union Research Grants – Phase II (2016 and 2018 Calls for proposals); 
  • A Long-term EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (LEAPAgri); 
  • Innovations in Technology, Institutional and Extension Approaches towards Sustainable Agriculture and enhanced Food and Nutritional Security in Africa (InnovAfrica); 
  • The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa); 
  • Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations (SEACRIFOG); 
  • and Long-term Europe-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (LEAP4FNSSA). 
Recent Policy Documents Emerging Issues and Implications for the Roadmap
  1. Towards a comprehensive strategy with Africa
  2. Communication on a new Africa – Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs: taking our partnership for investment and jobs to the next level
  3. The Green Deal
  4. A Farm to Fork Strategy for A Fair, Healthy and Environmentally-Friendly Food System
  5. Food 2030-European Research & Innovation for Food & Nutrition Security
  6. A Strategic Approach to EU Agricultural Research & Innovation
  7. An Africa-Europe Agenda for Rural Transformation Report by The Task Force Rural Africa
  8. Second Biennial Review Report of the AUC – February 2020
  9. New Africa EU Digital Economy

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