by Daniel Abugre Anyorigya (CitiNewsRoom)
The Africa 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 AR4D.
The MoU was signed during the 8th Agriculture and Science Week held in Durban, South Africa.
This will be jointly implemented within the next two years by the three major institutions in support of an action place unveiled by CGIAR and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).
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 (S3A).
Addressing participants on the theme “CAADP-X4P Knowledge management session: Acting on a Collaborative Agenda”, the Knowledge Management Officer at the AU, 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 will be implemented by the member states.”
Hence the partnership will contribute to an institutional framework that supports and strengthens national and supra-national agricultural research organizations
The Knowledge Management and Outreach Officer at FARA, Benjamin Abugri added that “knowledge is a foundation for innovation because it is a very critical factor for any healthy agro-food innovation system; we also think that making science accessible 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 jointly organized technologies fair which will help achieve two (2) harvests per season to improve food security.
The CAADP-XP4 Consortium is made up of FARA, AFAAS at the continental level and CCARDESA, ASARECA and CORAF at the sub-regional levels representing SADC, COMESA and ECOWAS respectively.
