By Daniel Abugre Anyorigya
The African Union Commission (AUC), the CGIAR and the CAADP-XP4 Consortium have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Knowledge Management Partnership Framework for Africa Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D). The MoU was signed during the 8th Africa Agribusiness and Science Week held in Durban, South Africa.The three major institutions will jointly implement this within the next two years. The framework will align CGIAR’s strategy with Africa’s priorities and frameworks for the development of agriculture, notably the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa, the Science Agenda for Africa Agriculture (S3A).
Addressing participants on the theme “CAADP-X4P Knowledge Management session: Acting on a Collaborative Agenda”, the Knowledge Management Manager at the AUC Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Blue Economy (DARBE), Ms Peace Mutuwa, stated that “partnership is very important because knowledge that is not be shared is not valuable; you only add value to knowledge and once it is shared and it is important that we collaborate, co-create, and inform the policies that the member states will implement. The Managing Director of Regions and Partnerships at CGIAR, Dr Harold Roy-Macauley, reiterated that “knowledge management is an enabler” Therefore, to engage partners, there is a “need to have a strong instrument like this and with a strong partnership that will look at how we can enable the other elements to reach zero hunger.”
Calling on development partners and institutions in the AR4D space to join the drive by committing their resources to advance Knowledge Management in Africa, the Director at the Africa Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services, Mr Max Olupot, added that “we still have space and opportunities to sell this to our partners; through partnership, and different country levels … we have all the means in ensuring that this effort is sustained, but we also implement what we are talking about through any means of resources that we have.”
Doubling as the Programmes representing the CGIAR and the CAADP-XP4 Consortium, he further highlighted the need to be inclusive, stating that in knowledge management, “it is good to keep the farmers in mind and remember that farmers have the knowledge and before we provide the service we need to understand the people we are providing the service.”
The Knowledge Management, Learning and Communications Lead Specialist at FARA, Benjamin Abugri, added that “knowledge is a foundation for innovation because it is a very critical factor for any healthy agri-food innovation system; we also think that making science available, accessible and usable to stakeholders can easily be driven by their knowledge management agenda”.
The framework will support the focus on getting technologies out to farmers at the scale of millions of farmers through the African Development Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT). Also, a joint technologies fair will be organized to help achieve two (2) harvests per season to improve food security.
The CAADP-XP4 Consortium is made up of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Africa Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) at the continental level and the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA), Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) and the North African Agricultural Sub-Regional Organization (NAASRO) at the sub-regional levels representing SADC, COMESA, ECOWAS and Northern Africa respectively.
The author is a freelancer Journalist/ Environmentalist and Wikimedian
