27 October 2026 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Africa Science and Innovation Forum (ASIF 2026) was convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Ethiopia's Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) and other partners, the three-day forum focused on harnessing science, technology and innovation to accelerate Africa's agrifood systems transformation.
The Forum brought together policymakers, agricultural researchers, innovators, development partners, investors, farmers' organisations and private sector representatives to address a central challenge: how to translate Africa's scientific knowledge and innovations into practical solutions that improved agricultural productivity, strengthened climate resilience, created economic opportunities and contributed to food and nutrition security.
Connecting African innovation priorities with AU–EU research cooperation
For agricultural research, these policy developments reinforced the importance of aligning European investment with African-defined priorities and strengthening the capacity of African research and innovation institutions.
Initiatives such as DeSIRA+ and MAINSTREAM illustrated how AU–EU cooperation could move from high-level policy commitments towards practical investments in agroecology, institutional development, research partnerships and innovation scaling.
Extracts of the programme
27/10 Morning Plenary 1: Closing Africa’s productivity gap: scaling science, innovation and inclusive value-chain solutions
- Moderator: Mandefro Nigussie, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute
- Charles Spillane, Chief Scientist, FAO
- Tahirou Abdoulaye, Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery and Scaling, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
- Dongxin Feng, Director, Joint FAO/IAEA Centre for Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture
27/10 Parallel Session 4: Nutrition, food safety and healthy diets through science and innovation
- Francis Zotor, Vice President, International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS)
- John Oppong-Otoo, Food Safety Officer, African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources
- Ildephonse Habinshuti,University of Rwanda, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Science, Department of Food Science and Technology Musanze-Rwanda
- Luke Metelerkamp, Head: African City Food Centre, ICLEI
- Francis John Sesay, Cassavity (SL) Ltd.
27/10 Parallel Session 6: Inclusive innovation ecosystems for women, youth, SMEs and small-scale producers
- Nanko Madu, AfriLabs Director of Programmes
- Esther Watts, Associate Vice President for Program Strategy and Partnerships, CARE, USA
- Odile Mukeshimana, Assistant Lecturer and Researcher, Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chains (ACES)
- Esther Kimani, Farmer Lifeline Technologies, Kenya
28/10 Morning Plenary 2: Science and innovation for resilience: managing multiple risks and stewarding Africa’s natural resources sustainably
- Presenter: Aggrey Agumya, Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
- Daher Elmi, Director of the Agriculture and Environment Division, ICPAC/IGAD
- Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, Director General, African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group
- Lavender Birike, Chief Executive Officer, Klima360
28/10 Parallel Session 10: Biodiversity, bioeconomy and nature-positive agrifood systems
- Patrick Yawo Kpai, Founder & Lead Agronomist, BOF BioGrow Solutions Ltd
- Tunde Adeyemi, D-Olivette Labs, Nigeria
- Scott Newman, Senior Animal Production and Health Officer, FAO RAP
- Oluwole Abiodun Fatunbi, Director of Research and Innovation, FARA
- Moderator: Hua Yang, Director of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division, FAO
- Hon. Robert Migadde Ndugwa, Minister of State for Fisheries, Uganda
- Tara Nathan, Executive Vice President for Growth Segments and founder of Community Pass, Mastercard Inc.
- George Theuri, CGIAR Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES), Nairobi, Kenya
- Shinjiro Amameishi, General Coordinator, Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD)
28/10 Launch event MAINSTREAM – Mission-oriented agrifood innovation systems for sustainability transition through agroecology,
This is a project implemented by FAO and funded by the European Union under the DeSIRA+ initiative, within the framework of the EU Global Gateway strategy.
- Running from September 2025 to September 2030, MAINSTREAM aimed to strengthen mission-oriented agrifood innovation systems in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Rather than focusing exclusively on individual technologies, the project supported governments and innovation partners in developing coordinated approaches to implementing national agroecology strategies.
- A distinctive feature of MAINSTREAM was its establishment of regional innovation scaling hubs and innovation policy labs in Senegal, Kenya and Zimbabwe. These mechanisms were designed to strengthen collaboration between research institutions, policymakers, farmers, entrepreneurs and other innovation actors, while supporting the scaling of inclusive, gender- and youth-responsive agroecological innovations.
- With MAINSTREAM, the FAO Office of Innovation turns that decade of experimentation with many partners in ecosystem strengthening into something operational: three regional innovation scaling hubs for West, East and Southern Africa, anchored in national innovation policy labs.
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