Africa: Future Agricultures Launches Three Regional Hubs in Africa | Gossip Wire
Breaking News
Loading...

Friday, June 14, 2013

Africa: Future Agricultures Launches Three Regional Hubs in Africa




The Future Agricultures Consortium has instituted a regional, Africa-centred structure to support its research and policy engagement activities, with new 'hubs' in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa joining the existing secretariat, based at the Institute of Development Studies.
Since 2005, Future Agricultures has produced research and analysis on the political economy of agricultural policy in Africa through a network which now includes over 90 researchers, supported by a secretariat in the UK.
Future Agricultures is producing insights on the politics of agricultural policy and rigorous evidence on how smallholder farmers can contribute to broad-based agricultural growth.
Choices about how to produce food, support farmers, involve private sectors and donors, and work with civil society, will require strong and relevant evidence from researchers with relevant experience and understanding. Future Agricultures' new setup comprises three new hubs related to the major regional economic communities in Africa, as well as a fourth hub in Europe.
The hubs are hosted in leading university-based, policy research institutions in each region: Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Kenya (Eastern Africa hub), the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, South Africa (Southern Africa hub), the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, Ghana (Western Africa hub) and the Institute of Development Studies, UK (Europe hub).
"Future Agricultures has a strong track record"
Hon. Mohamed Elmi (MP for Tarbaj and former Minister of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands, Kenya) said, "Future Agricultures has a strong track record of engaging directly with African policy-makers and African citizens to illuminate the complex processes shaping contemporary agricultural development.
Its new Africa-centred structure is a welcome development which will strengthen these linkages and build on the investment it is already making in research capacity across the continent."
Future Agricultures is funded by the UK Government to research policy options on a number of key areas affecting agricultural development in Africa, including pastoralism, irrigation and water, agricultural growth, and the role of young people in the agri-food sector.
The research supports the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), the principal framework for governments supporting agriculture as part of development in Africa. It also looks at ways that private sector investment could work for smallholder farmers.
The consortium's other research projects, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as well as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), are studying how China and Brazil are engaging with African agriculture, the impacts of different types of land commercialisation, and the implications of land deals on local people in Southern Africa.
UN Environment response
In response to the new phase of work, Achim Steiner (UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director, UN Environment Programme) said, "Africa is moving into a new phase that could see the continent become a major player in the transition to a global inclusive Green Economy, but to do that it needs access to well-managed natural resources.
Future Agricultures builds on the capacity of leading research institutions to inform policy-making for a sustainable future by focusing on areas that need urgent attention - showing how to remove barriers to policy-making and implementation, highlighting alternative policy options and facilitating access to new knowledge and information."
African agriculture is the focus of renewed expectation for development on the continent. Amid concerns about large-scale 'land grabs' and hopes for the potential of new partnerships with China and Brazil, policymakers are grappling with how agriculture can feed citizens, provide jobs and bring in much-needed investment.
These challenges require insights from within Africa itself, linked to national, regional and Africa-wide policy debates and networks.

google+

linkedin

0 comments:

POST A COMMENT