AFSF 2026: Connecting science and investment at scale
How can agricultural science help development finance deliver better results for people? At the Africa Food Systems Forum 2026, CGIAR’s dialogue on “Capital, Science, Partners” explores how governments, international financial institutions (IFIs), and research partners can work together to embed proven innovations in country-led investment and implementation.
The scale of the challenge is stark. In 2024, approximately 307 million Africans—more than one in five people on the continent—faced hunger, while 64.8 million children under five were affected by stunting. Against this backdrop, isolated pilots are not enough: proven innovations must be connected to finance, institutions and delivery systems capable of reaching millions, while adapting to diverse local realities.
The starting point is a practical challenge. Scientific advances can improve productivity, nutrition, livelihoods, and climate resilience. Governments and development banks finance programs intended to achieve those same outcomes. Yet the connections between research, investment design, and delivery are often fragmented. Promising innovations can remain outside major investment programs, while implementation teams may lack access to the expertise needed to select, adapt, and scale them.
Building on recent continental science and partnership dialogues, the question is how to make those connections earlier, stronger, and more systematic.
The African Development Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Clearinghouse offers a practical illustration. It acts as a broker: validating technologies, assembling investment-ready packages, providing technical assistance, and connecting research institutions with governments, financiers, and delivery partners. Its integration into CGIAR’s Scaling for Impact Program creates a mechanism for bringing expertise from across CGIAR into these relationships.
The Clearinghouse is linking CGIAR innovations to approximately US$1.5 billion in AfDB-backed national investments, with an expected reach of 3.4 million farmers in 2026. These figures describe the investment portfolio and anticipated reach, rather than funding received by CGIAR or impact already achieved.
Nigeria illustrates the approach. Heat-tolerant wheat varieties developed by ICARDA and CIMMYT were integrated into an AfDB-financed national program, supported by US$134 million in scaling investments informed by TAAT. Wheat area expanded from around 70,000 hectares in 2022/23 to 277,577 hectares in 2024/25. The significance lies in the combination of scientific innovation, financing, and national implementation. Read the Clearinghouse impact story.
AfDB provides a proof point for a wider discussion. Which features of this approach can strengthen other investment programs? What needs adapting across institutions and countries? And how can collaboration become a sustained part of the investment cycle?
Scaling requires attention to the conditions that make an innovation useful and accessible. Improved varieties need functioning seed systems. Technologies need advisory services, viable markets, and appropriate policies. Governments and national research organizations need capacity to adapt solutions and sustain delivery. Farmers, businesses, and communities need a voice in deciding what is relevant.
This means involving scientific and implementation expertise while investments are being shaped, then maintaining that support through delivery, monitoring, and adaptation. It also means assessing success through better diets, incomes, jobs, inclusion and resilience, alongside production gains.
The Forum dialogue puts several practical questions to its speakers.
For AfDB and CGIAR leaders, what has collective engagement through TAAT enabled, and which institutional arrangements made it work? For AfricaRice, how can closer relationships with AfDB, the World Bank and other financiers bring rice science into country-led investments more consistently?
For the World Bank Group, the emphasis is on actionable next steps: where in the investment cycle should CGIAR engage, with whom, and with what evidence and capabilities? Identifying specific entry points could help turn shared ambitions into collaboration immediately after the Forum.
IRRI’s engagement with the Asian Development Bank brings another dimension: two-way learning between Asia and Africa. South–South collaboration can help countries exchange experience in integrating science into investment, strengthening delivery systems and adapting innovations to local conditions. The opportunity is to learn from how partnerships function, while recognizing regional differences in institutions, markets, and priorities.
CGIAR must also examine its own ways of working. A collective offer requires coordination across Centers and Programs, clear routes for partners to access expertise, and incentives to support implementation over time. Scaling for Impact can help connect that expertise with finance and delivery partnerships.
The ambition is an Africa-led approach in which evidence strengthens investment decisions and reduces implementation risks, while national institutions lead delivery. This discussion should also inform CGIAR’s evolving 2040 Strategy and its accountability to African partners.
Maybe this is a good spot for the government representative/intervention.
A useful outcome from Kigali would be concrete opportunities for joint work: an investment under preparation, an implementation challenge requiring scientific support, or a partnership ready to exchange lessons across regions. The next step is to identify who will act, through which country-led process, and how progress will be assessed.
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