Roadmap Review - Africa regional and continental level Consultations

20 September 2024. Roadmap Review - Africa regional and continental level Consultations

Organised by the CEA-FIRST project. This forward-looking project aims, among others, to operationalise the International Research Consortium (IRC) on FNSSA, in line with the FNSSA Roadmap of the AU-EU High Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD).

The objective of this virtual meeting was to garner comprehensive feedback on the perceptions of representative of Africa’s RECS and high-level continental structure on the achievements and lessons learned from the 2016-2026 FNSSA Roadmap, and to collaboratively inform the 

design of the new 2027-2037 FNSSA R&I Roadmap.

• Opening Remarks Dr. Moumini Savadogo, Executive Director CORAF 
• Overview of the FNSSA R&I 2016-2026 Roadmap Dr. Bernard Mallet, CIRAD 
• Presentation of Results from Desk Review & Surveys Prof. Adipala Ekwamu and Alex Percy – Smith, CEA FIRST Consultants

Setting up Breakout Sessions 

1. Levels of implementation, achievements, challenges, and improvements in the 2016-2026 AU-EU FNSSA Roadmap 
2. Emerging trends and future priorities of the new 2027-2037 AU-EU FNSSA R&I Roadmap, at both regional and continental levels 

Background:

Over the last eight years of implementation of the Roadmap, more than 500 projects focusing on the abovementioned thematic areas were funded and implemented across Europe and Africa. Diverse in scope and impact, these projects are at different stages of implementation, with some reaching successful conclusions while others are still ongoing. The assessment of this ambitious Roadmap, including these projects is being based on several progress indicators, including knowledge advancement, capacity building, research uptake, coordination, and overall community impact.

With the Roadmap reaching completion in two years (2026), a new initiative, the "Consortium Europe Africa on Research and Innovation for Food Systems Transformation (CEA-FIRST)" project, was launched by the African Union and the European Union alongside a number of implementing partners, under funding from the European Commission through the Horizon Europe R&I Program (Cluster 6). This envisions to develop a new FNSSA R&I Roadmap for the next decade, spanning from 2027 to 2037. 

As part of the broad multi-stakeholder consultation in Africa, a combined regional and continental-level stakeholder validation workshop are co-organized and chaired by the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF). CORAF is reaching out to key stakeholders through existing structures such as the Regional Economic Commissions (RECs) of Africa (SADC, EAC, ECOWAS, CEMAC) and specialized Technical Committees of the African Union on Education, Science and Technology, Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment, Social Development, Labour and Employment, and Gender and Women’s Empowerment. 

Related PAEPARD blogpost: 

12 - 14 February 2024. Accra, Ghana. CEA-FIRST, the Consortium Europe Africa on Research and Innovation for Food Systems Transformation 

15 August 2024. The Consortium Europe-Africa On Research and Innovations For Food Systems Transformation(CEA-FIRST) Stakeholders’ Engagement and Consultation Workshop)

29 August 2024. AFAAS Stakeholder engagement/ Consultation with Farmers & NGOs. CEA-First