IITA and IFAD explore collaborative opportunities to boost food security in Africa

27 September 2024

IITA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rwanda have initiated discussions on strengthening their partnership to drive food security and sustainable agricultural development in the country. Focusing on aligning areas of interest in the future, the meeting which took place between IITA Director General and CGIAR Regional Director for Continental Africa, Dr Simeon Ehui, and IFAD Associate Vice-President, Program Management Department, Donal Brown, on the sidelines of the just concluded Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) 2024, explored potential opportunities.

During the meeting, DG Ehui expressed IITA and CGIAR's commitment to identifying opportunities and aligning strategies that could further enhance food security in Rwanda and across the continent.

"We are open to exploring existing opportunities and how we can further push alignment forward," he said. He emphasized the importance of leveraging IITA's extensive presence across Africa to drive tangible impacts on food systems and agricultural sustainability.

Brown acknowledged IITA-CGIAR's global and continental recognition in agricultural research and impact and outlined key timelines for collaboration, adding that these timelines are pivotal to resource mobilization and programming initiatives.

"Since food security and food systems are key priorities, we can work with these timelines to project the areas of collaboration discussed, especially in the coming year," Brown said.

While grant opportunities for research are not much, Brown proposed collaboration in program development and scaling.

During the meeting, DG Ehui, who led a team from IITA to the IFAD Rwanda office in Kigali, emphasized the potential for joint research programs, particularly in countries where government collaborations are already in place. He expressed optimism about focusing efforts on impactful research initiatives.

"We can focus on research programs, especially in areas where we have governments collaborating," he said, signaling the potential for targeted research and project-based collaboration. He also mentioned the possibility of working on specific projects such as the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, which aims to boost agricultural productivity and improve nutrition in rural communities of developing countries by better adapting crops and soils to the changing climate.

The meeting concluded with both parties reaffirming their commitment to working closely to address Rwanda and Africa's food security challenges through innovative agricultural solutions and collaborative research. Discussions are set to continue in the coming months as they work towards concrete programming and project plans for 2025.

Contributed by 'Timilehin Osunde

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