PABRA: 30 Years of Building Partnerships to Transform Bean Research in Africa
PABRA, established in 1996 by CIAT’s Bean Program and its partners, has been strengthening bean research and production in more than 30 African countries for 30 years to improve productivity, nutrition, and livelihoods.
- Africa
- agricultural research
- food security
PABRA: 30 Years of Building Partnerships to Transform Bean Research in Africa
PABRA, established in 1996 by CIAT’s Bean Program and its partners, has been strengthening bean research and production in more than 30 African countries for 30 years to improve productivity, nutrition, and livelihoods.
Thirty years ago, the then Bean Program of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), now part of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, together with Africa’s national agricultural research organizations and the support of international partners, established the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) with a clear purpose: to strengthen bean research, development, and production through a regional collaboration model. What began in 1996 as an initiative to connect scientific networks has grown into an alliance spanning more than 30 countries and hundreds of institutions working together to improve productivity, nutrition, and the livelihoods of millions of African families.
PABRA’s story, however, began long before its official creation. In the 1980s, CIAT’s Bean Program promoted regional research networks such as RESAPAC, demonstrating that sharing knowledge across countries accelerated the development of new bean varieties, strengthened national research capacities, and enabled more effective responses to farmers’ needs. These early experiences showed that Africa’s greatest agricultural challenges could not be solved through isolated efforts, but through sustained collaboration among institutions and countries.