The more I hear about the dynamic agricultural initiatives being implemented in many parts of the African continent, the more convinced I have become that strong partnerships hold out the best hope for Africa to feed itself in the coming years.
The 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) in Accra, Ghana, which I have spent much of the past week attending, has been an important event for CGIAR. So much so that we made it one of our key appointments for 2013. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), which organized the conference, is one of our major partners, and that was reflected in the fact that almost all the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and Research Centers were represented in Ghana last week.
Much of the week was dedicated to exploring innovative solutions that can help Africa’s smallholder farmers increase agricultural production and food security in a sustainable manner. And as I listened to the presentations and met with people during the many opportunities for networking and exchanging information, I became increasingly convinced that we at CGIAR are on the right track.
In the ‘new CGIAR’, partnerships are the cornerstone of our approach to research and getting the results out into the field where they are needed. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa, where CGIAR invested 53 per cent of its funding in 2012. That alone is evidence of our firm commitment to supporting our African partners in reducing poverty and improving food security in sustainable ways.
But helping Africa to feed itself is not just about investment. It is also about planning how that investment is channeled, so that there are tangible impacts on the ground. Working in partnerships means there is an opportunity to align research priorities with research needs, so that investment and energy is focused where it is most needed.
Stronger alliances
Less than 2 years ago, the so-called Dublin process was established to achieve greater collaboration between the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union and CGIAR. CGIAR research managers started to plan their research agendas to align them with the CAADP priorities, so that they could achieve the greatest impact in areas identified by national agricultural Investment Plans (IPs) spearheaded by CAADP.
This partnership was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CGIAR and the African Union Commission (AUC) for a strategic partnership under CAADP in January of this year. Through our partnership with CAADP, and our MoU with the AUC, we are now building stronger alliances with African partners. By ensuring the alignment of priorities and taking a collaborative approach to achieving these, we will help meet the real needs of smallholder farmers and their families, and the African people whose future depends on them.
CGIAR’s mission is to help bring about sustainable intensification for the poor, by the poor. Let us not forget that the theme of last week’s conference was “Africa feeding Africa”. The forecast is that 75 per cent of the increase in food production will have to come from land already in use, through intensification rather than expanding agriculture, farmed by small-scale producers, many of them women, in a climate smart way.
Of course, the difficulties should not be underestimated. The 2012 Global Hunger Index, drawn up by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), shows that 20 countries still have alarming or very alarming levels of hunger, a high proportion of them in Africa. In many countries on the continent, agriculture is being challenged by climate change, and predictions are that the situation is likely to become even more dramatic, putting farmers’ ability to grow food at serious risk.
Setting targets and measuring impacts is central to the way we now work. The CGIAR Consortium is developing clear and standardized outcome indicators for all of its Research Programs, which will serve to hold us accountable for our contribution to achieving development outcomes, together with our partners.
We are thus making it clear that our CRPs must be accountable for development outcomes. We don’t just want to develop a new variety of drought resistant maize. We want to make sure that millions of farmers will use this new technology. We are no longer only concerned with producing new technologies, but will work to ensure adoption at the scale of millions of users, through our partnerships with those well placed to reach farmers directly – be they governments, extension services, NGOs or private seed companies.
Focused portfolio of CGIAR Research Programs
Since the CGIAR reform process was launched a few years ago, a great many things have changed in our organization. Prior to the reform, in 2008, there were 60 donors, loosely coordinated, 15 Research Centers, which worked independently from each other, implementing a portfolio of as many as three thousand small projects each year – with islands of collaboration in a sea of competition, and overhead costs which averaged 24 per cent. Perhaps not surprisingly, funding became stagnant at about US$$400M per year.
Today, the picture is very different. Donors are united under the CGIAR Fund and CGIAR funding in 2012 rose 20 per cent to $870M. Average funding growth over the past 4 years has been 12 per cent. The CGIAR Research Centers have been brought together under the CGIAR Consortium and a single research agenda has set out our objectives and strategies. These days, CGIAR’s research takes a cross-cutting approach, harnessing synergies and avoiding duplication. carried out 80 Eighty per cent of CGIAR’s work in 2012 was implemented through a portfolio of 16 CGIAR Research Programs.
Donor confidence
I think it is fair to say that a significant factor in this rise in funding levels is an increase in donor confidence in the new CGIAR. Donors see that there is more focus on delivering development outcomes, and scaling up technology adoption. We are the first to accept that we cannot deliver such ambitious results by ourselves. That does not just mean working with partners within CGIAR, although collaboration between disciplines and Research Centers is a guiding principle of the new CGIAR strategy. We are committed to partnerships with outside organizations too, in order to deliver outcomes. Our Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) CRP is a case in point. The program has made a concerted effort to link up with a broad range of partners – more than 900 at the last count — ranging from the research end of the scale right down to delivering outputs on the ground.
Last week at AASW, we heard inspiring presentations on innovations to improve productivity and resilience, as well as ways to build on some of Africa’s many strong features, including its huge population of young people, who represent vast potential for bringing about a turning point in the continent’s agriculture.
In order to reach the kind of development outcomes for which we will hold our CRPs accountable, it is very clear that we need close partnerships with the development organizations that we have seen in Ghana. We organized many side events last week and a number of bilateral meetings that we believe will lead to even stronger partnerships in the years to come. Africa can feed Africa, and we at CGIAR are determined to make sure that happens. But we know all too well that we cannot do it alone.
For more information:
The Challenge of Food Security and the Evolution of CGIAR (Slideshare ppt)
CGIAR AASW page (CGIAR.org)
AASW6 blog (FARA)
Committed to helping Africa feed Africa (CCAFS)
Strong African partnerships point to a brighter future for the continent (CGIAR Consortium)
“Dublin Process” Aligning Agendas for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (CGIAR Consortium)
United Behind the African agenda to Eradicate Hunger (PDF)
African Union Commission and CGIAR Consortium form new strategic partnership (CGIAR Consortium)
Donors and partners tell CGIAR program leaders to “Show us the impact” (CGIAR Consortium)
CGIAR Research Programs join forces with partners and donors to shape targets and impacts (CGIAR Consortium)
Photo: C. Schubert (CCAFS)