Myra Wopereis-Pura Jacky Ganry Monty Jones

1. PAEPARD Platform for African – European Partnership on Agricultural Research for Development Myra Wopereis-Pura Jacky Ganry Monty Jones Key outcomes

2. Background • Objective: • Enhance collaboration among European and African ARD stakeholder by enabling mutual learning and knowledge sharing • Activities • Assessment of current situation (desk-study and online survey) • Transcontinental and subregional consultations • Developing the platform • Developing an information and communication strategy for the platform • Partners • FARA (Coordinator) • EFARD – NATURA and ECART

3. The African partner Forum for agricultural research in Africa (FARA) 5 networking support functions • Advocacy and Resource Mobilization • Access to the knowledge and technology • Policies and Markets • Capacity building • Partnerships and Strategic Alliances • Mandated; • To facilitate & coordinate ARD in Africa • As technical adviser on ARD by the African Union/NEPAD • As Lead Institution of the African framework on agriculture (CAADP) Pillar 4 (Research and Technology Dissemination)

4. The European partners European forum for agricultural research (EFARD) EFARD Designates NATURA Network of European universities working in agricultural development composed of 28 members from 16 European countries ECART Consortium of development-oriented research institutes working for sustainable agriculture and NRM a consortium of 6 European Institutions (CIRAD, IAO, IICT, IRD, NRI, Wageningen UR) • Objective • to provide a platform for strategic dialogue among European ARD stakeholder groups • Themes • Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, • Natural Resources Management and Agro-Ecology, • Commodity Chains, Food Safety, and Under-Utilized Commodities, • Rural Transformation and Agricultural Innovation Processes, and, • Strengthening and Structuring of the European Research Area (ERA)

5. EC funding instruments: • Research frameworks • Economic development funds • Food security funds Assessment of European and African past and existing cooperation on ARD • Africa has very low ARD capacities • density of researchers per population (65x smaller in the South than in the North) • stagnation the past 2 decades • Agriculture and ARD low priority in EC instruments for scientific cooperation *Fisheries, Agriculture, Biotechnologies

6. African institutions as project participants In INCO, (% of total African participants) MostlyfromMorocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa In FP6-FAB, without INCO (% of total African participants) Mostly from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa

7. ARD Stakeholder surveyBoth Europe and Africa value partnership: lessons learnt • A lack of information and knowledge on funding opportunities, difficulties in finding adequate partners, as well as full understanding of the complex mechanisms of fund raising. • Concentration of partnerships on only two institutional categories of actors (universities and national research institutes),with very limited CSOs participation i.e. the private sector. • Existing coordination mechanisms do not fully play their role in facilitating interaction between different stakeholders • European institutes • more familiar with the EC mechanisms • initiators of the partnerships • tend to dominate both in number and setting the agenda • Dissemination of innovations is valued least amongst the outcomes of research partnerships as compared to publications, training and access to funding.

8. Hosted by CORAF in Dakar, Senegal; SADC-FANR in Pretoria, SA Subregional consultations Inception phase Modalities in building a community good understanding of gaps within individual institutions (SWOT) informal consultations good understanding of potential partner’s strategy and operation finding synergies (thematic or geographic) defining the roles and responsibilities institutional commitment Requirements • Need to increase investment in • Knowledge sharing i.e. information dissemination • Facilitating networking e.g. partnerships are stakeholder driven against funding driven • Capacity building on project and financial management (EC procedures) • SROs and FARA to facilitate pre-proposal consultations or incubate potential partnerships • Equal sharing of roles and responsibilities • Interlinked platforms, responding to the different needs of its members + Project implementation • Solid workprogram • Regular communication • Open learning • Adequate resources • Integrated M&E system

9. FARA & EFARD Consultation on agricultural research programmingfor FP7-FAB and FSTP • European Commission, Brussels, 14 – 16 April 2008 • 15 African delegates + 29 from Europe • 10 emerging challenges/opportunities • Peer to peer working group • Relevance • Coherence, Complementarity and Synergy between FP7-FSTP • Research priority descriptions and expected impacts • Theme 1 : Climate Change and Mitigation for Small Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa • Theme 2: Globalisation and trade impact on developing countries • Theme 3: Bioenergy • Theme 4: Livestock production, animal diseases and pandemics • Theme 5: Agricultural Innovation Systems Theme 6: Environmental degradation and natural resource management Theme 7: Development policies Theme 8: High Value Crops Theme 9: Demography Theme 10: Traditional Knowledge

10. Challenges in strengthening African and EU S&T collaboration on ARD thru FP7-FAB and FSTP instruments • Improving national ARD capacity and research systems within Africa & Europe; • Building complementarity and synergy for shaping global ARD agenda which contribute to addressing Africa’s priority issues; • Maximizing use of available knowledge within Africa and Europe to develop public goods and support anAfrican and EU S&T think tank; • Building and strengthening effective platforms to improve the sensitivity and responsiveness of the research/scientific community to national/global challenges, crises and priorities • Promoting the relevance of global ARD agenda to Africa’s and Europe’s socio-economic development and competitiveness; • Mobilizing sustainable long term financing for ARD that addresses the production of public goods; • Better integration of development issues into research priorities; and • Increased ownership of the ARD agenda by African and EU institutions.

11. Recommendations from the FP7-FSTP consultation • Mainstream ARD into the broader S&T agenda in Africa and Europe and enhance CAADP’s Pillar 4 links and synergies with AU/NEPAD Africa’s Consolidated Plan of Action for S&T (AMCOST) • Strengthen the role of higher education institutions in NARS • Harness principles of best practices from Africa & EU S&T Cooperation and build on outputs to serve local communities • Twin African and European ARD institutions to deliver the expected results. • Integrate traditional / indigenous science and knowledge, as well as innovation systems approach, in frontier ARD science initiatives. • Ensure that the African - EU research collaboration under FP7–FAB and FSTP results in tangible measurable outcomes with respect to enhancing the knowledge and skills of African and EU researchers and strengthening the NARS in Africa. • Encourage researchers to keep in mind horizon 2010 and beyond in setting and implementing the research agenda to address present and future needs • Strengthening local markets in Africa remains a research and development priority. • Build on PAEPARD momentum and strengthen regional mechanisms especially EFARD and FARA.

12. AU MS EU MS EFARD FARA PAEPARD FP7-FAB ARD Coordination Action FSTP The role of PAEPARD seen from FP7-FSTP consultation • Sharing of experience, good practice, data or resources • Staff exchange and human capital mobility • Exchange of contacts, training and dissemination materials • Development of new linkages, proposals and projects • Identification of priorities, gaps in knowledge and demand • Maximising programme impacts over and above project impacts Innovation

13. Lessons learnt from PAEPARD phase 1 • African agricultural research has not been a priority for the FP6, with only 2% projects supported, and only half of the 10 percent INCO projects supported in FP6 relating to Africa. • EC funded SRO competitive grant schemes were appreciated • but the management involves high transaction costs, and EDF procedures appeared inappropriate. • Inter-continental partnerships are valuable, but mechanisms need to be improved to maximize benefits. • Most partnerships are on training and writing scientific papers, with very few focusing on dissemination, adoption and adaptation of innovations. • A multi-stakeholder approach is key in fostering ARD in Africa • PAEPARD II needs to develop mediation mechanisms to move beyond joint consultation to joint project development and implementation. • The analysis focused on the agricultural sector, and did not consider other sectors (such as health, environment and education). • Sufficient time and resources for coordination (both in Africa and Europe)

14. Thank you