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S&T organisations

Africa
A selection of S&T organisations in Africa.

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International
A selection of international S&T organizations.

The Caribbean
A selection of S&T organisations in the Caribbean.

The Pacific
A selection of S&T organisations in the Pacific.

ACP S&T dialogue

Demanding Innovation
Researchers in ACP countries are facing a growing range of challenges. They are required to respond effectively to the demands of policy makers, private sector investors and donor agencies, farmers and other stakeholders in the agri-food chain. They are being asked to deliver research outputs that will improve agricultural productivity, food quality and food safety, in order to increase their countries competitiveness in global markets, and contribute to food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. At the same time, researchers must be socially and ethically responsible and contribute to the advancement of science and technology. As the demands for accountability increase and the levels of funding diminish, researchers need to prioritize and strategize their responses.

Differentiated S&T strategies for improving productivity of ACP farming systems
ACP farming systems are very diverse and the scientific community must be able to provide adequate responses to meet the varied needs of small subsistence farmers who make up the majority of the ACP farming community while simultaneously addressing the needs of the medium to large-scale farming enterprises to compete on price, quality, responsiveness to changing consumer demands and reliability in supply in all markets. Therein lies the challenge as there is no one-size fits all approach that will enable researchers to respond to the needs of small scale farmers who are primarily concerned with sustainable livelihoods or medium to large-scale farms who wish to remain competitive and take advantage of any opportunities despite deteriorating environmental conditions and trade and economic restrictions. Within the last few years, the ACP region has seen a resurgence of emphasis on family farms which are being valued not only for their contribution to maintaining social order but to environmental sustainability. This dossier provides guidance and lessons learned on the need for the ACP region to apply a differentiated strategic approach for using science to enhance the performance of ACP agricultural sector.

Early dialogues on S&T policy
Some of the most relevant briefs, notes and documents related to the pre-2007 ACP Agricultural S&T policy discussions.
EU S&T dialogue
Ethics
Financing ARD
Foresighting
ICKM / MIS / ICT

ICT for transforming research for agricultural and rural development
...
Innovation systems
Intellectual property
Measuring the impact of agricultural research
Participatory R&D
Research collaboration
Tertiary agricultural education

Biofuels
Cassava
Dairy
Fisheries
Fruits
Herbs and medicinal plants
Livestock

Enhancing competitiveness in the ACP poultry value chain
The poultry value chain in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries involves both large-scale integrated enterprises and small-scale production systems. The former have benefited from capital investments, access to information and scientific research, whereas the latter remain isolated despite their significance. Family poultry comprises approximately 80% of the world's total poultry stock and plays a key role in many households in ACP countries for food and nutrition security, livelihoods and conservation of indigenous breeds. An analysis of the family poultry value chain, including its poor productivity and low financial and technical inputs, shows that it contrasts markedly with conditions in large-scale commercial poultry enterprises. Governments and researchers would be well advised to thoroughly review the family poultry value chains to identify priorities for science and innovation that can contribute to improved efficiency for the provision of eggs, live birds, fresh-chilled, frozen and other value-added poultry products. This summary is provided by CABI and CTA, July 2012.
Other commodities

Bananas
The ACP Group of States need to adjust the approach to agricultural production, marketing and distribution to be able to compete in national, regional and international markets. Traditional commodities such as banana are no longer assured of guaranteed prices and ready access to international markets. How then should the ACP region respond? Commodities, traditionally considered as food security crops are now being looked at in a different light. Can scientists assist the countries in making informed decisions to improve efficiency, cost effectiveness, quality and competitiveness?

Coffee
The ACP Group of States need to adjust the approach to agricultural production, marketing and distribution to be able to compete in national, regional and international markets. Traditional commodities such as coffee are no longer assured of guaranteed prices and ready access to international markets. How then should the ACP region respond? Commodities, traditionally considered as food security crops are now being looked at in a different light. Can scientists assist the countries in making informed decisions to improve efficiency, cost effectiveness, quality and competitiveness?
Rice value chain
Sorghum
Sugarcane
Vegetables

S&T Organisations / Web resources

Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans) sighted In Antigua waters

The Fisheries Division of Antigua and Barbuda has its first confirmed sighting of the invasive Lionfish (Pterois volitans). The confirmation of this species in Antigua’s waters (it was spotted near neighbouring St. Kitts in October 2010) is troubling because of the negative impact that such invasive species can have on the fragile coral reef ecosystems, local fish populations and fishing communities. The lionfish is a voracious predator feeding on a variety of fish species including many commercially caught demersal fish (living near or on the bottom of the sea) and reef species that help maintain healthy coral reefs. With few natural predators in the area, the species has been allowed to proliferate and establish itself in coral and rocky reefs around the Caribbean.

7/06/2011

Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism eighth annual scientific meeting

Date: 20-30 June 2012Venue: Kingstown, St. Vincent and the GrenadinesThis meeting is meant for national and regional technical and scientific fishery experts who have responsibility for conducting fishery research and fishery assessment activities and for formulating fisheries management advice. The objectives of the meeting are: (i) to use the available and relevant data to access the status of those fishery resources for which management advice is needed, (ii) to discuss, and interpret the results of completed fishery data analyses, taking into account local and traditional knowledge and understanding of the fisheries concerned, (iii) to make recommendations for management of the fisheries investigated for completed assessments, (iv) to make recommendations for improvements in statistics, research and assessments, and (v) to provide training in fishery data manipulation and analysis. More information here.

Wednesday 20 June 2012 - Saturday 30 June 2012

E-COST Project

The E-COST project will develop a new approach to assess the societal cost of fishing activities and fishing policies. By societal cost E-COST understands all costs linked to fishing activities: these may be ecological (alteration of the capacity of a system), economic (all costs linked to production, management, subsidies and external factors), social (linked to choices made in public policy, food security and safety, provision for national or international markets, the eradication of poverty and to development models (small scale fishing versus industrial fishing). The project has to be seen from the wider perspective of equipping public decision-makers and society with the appropriate tools and methods needed to take into account, not only immediate economic and social profits, but also the costs engendered by fishing activities which relate as much to ecosystems as to societies.(Source: IRD, 2005 - ongoing as of June 2010)

5/11/2010

E-COST Project

5/11/2010

‘Too Big To Ignore’: A global partnership for small-scale fisheries Research

‘Too Big to Ignore’ is a new research network and knowledge mobilization partnership to promote and revitalize small-scale fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and around the world. The first goal of the network is to enhance the understanding of the real contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security, nutrition, sustaining livelihoods, poverty alleviation, wealth generation and trade, as well as the impacts and implications of global change processes such as urbanization, globalization, migration, climate change, aquaculture, and communication technology on small-scale fisheries. The second goal is to create an innovative and interactive web platform, a Small-scale Fisheries Information System (SFIS), for global and local analysis of small-scale fisheries and their contributions to the broader society. Currently, the characteristics of small-scale fisheries are difficult to capture because of the lack of official statistics, even though small-scale fisheries account for about 90% of the 560 million people who depend on fisheries.

16/08/2012

The Caribbean Fish Sanctuary Partnership (C-FISH)

The Caribbean Fish Sanctuary Partnership (C-FISH) initiative was developed out of the CARIBSAVE Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) that examined the vulnerability of Caribbean communities and ecosystems to the accelerating impacts of climate change in 15 CARICOM countries. C-FISH is aimed at strengthening community-based fish sanctuaries (marine reserves or no-take- zones) by providing resources, training and alternative livelihood opportunities in 5 countries across the Caribbean (Jamaica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica). The project will establish a private-public partnership – involving large companies in the tourism sector, governments, communities and regional institutions – to develop an innovative financing mechanism to support the establishment of fish sanctuaries. http://c-fish.org/what-we-do/ http://sids-l.iisd.org/news/ccccc-caribsave-launch-caribbean-fish-sanctuary-project/ (C-Fish via IISD RS, 12/2012)

7/03/2013

The Grenadines Marine Resource and Space-use Information System (MarSIS)

The Grenadines Marine Resource Space-use Information System (MarSIS) is a project of the Centre for resource management and environmental studies of the University of the West Indies, Barbados. MarSIS brings together a variety of social, economic and environmental information drawn from both scientific and local knowledge into a single information system. The system has been created to integrate a wide range of marine-based knowledge and provide people with a more complete information base for coastal marine planning and management. MarSIS will be used to identify critical fishery habitats (essential fish habitats, nursery areas, endangered species); areas of high biodiversity; important marine ecosystems (mangrove, sea grass, coral reefs); areas of high cultural and recreational importance; areas important for fishing, marine-based tourism, yachting and shipping; areas of land-based sources of pollution, human threat and potential space-use conflict. http://www.grenadinesmarsis.com/ (MarSIS, 2014)

13/05/2014

Regional survey of inland fisheries in the UEMOA

UEMOA (Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine; West African Economic and Monetary Union) with the help of the consortium led by the IRD, France, has compiled the results of a regional survey on inland fisheries in eight member states and made them accessible via an online web atlas. This portal offers up-to-date documentation and statistics on inland fisheries capacity, exploitation, services and value chains for each one of the countries. Reviews, data and national and regional analysis on the topic of inland fisheries and aquaculture can also be downloaded from the website. Statistical data especially is useful for decision makers looking to compare and learn from the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in neighbouring countries. http://www.statpeche-uemoa.org/ (UEMOA, 2013)

13/05/2014

iMarine: data e-infrastructure initiative for fisheries management and conservation of marine living resources

iMarine, a project co-funded by the EU under the Framework Programme 7, is an open and collaborative initiative that supports the implementation of an ecosystems approach to fisheries management and the conservation of living marine resources. iMarine provides an open access e-infrastructure that facilitates sharing of a multitude of data, collaborative analysis, processing and mining processing, as well as the publication and dissemination of newly generated knowledge. Practitioners from multiple scientific fields such as fisheries, biodiversity and ocean observation benefit from 'e-infrastructure capacity'; 'application bundles' (access tools by topic modules: biodiversity, geospatial, statistics, interoperability); 'data heterogeneity management'; 'policy best practices'.

28/07/2014