Knowledge for Development

ACP agricultural S&T dialogue

This dossier is intended to enable the ACP community of scientists, policy makers and other stakeholders in the agricultural and related sectors and disciplines to share their knowledge and experiences in order to enhance national and regional policy dialogue to support informed policy formulation and implementation. The lead discussion papers in this dossier, supported by material available through the links to related documents and websites, will stimulate debate.

Sustainable improvement of human well-being depends crucially on knowledge, its production, organisation, distribution, appropriation and wise use. Access to information, the capacity to generate and use scientific and technological knowledge and human innovation give institutions and countries an edge. For ACP countries, past development efforts that ignored local circumstances, technologies and systems of knowledge wasted enormous amounts of time and resources and have failed to achieve the desired result: "sustainable development". 31/07/2013
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Brian Cooksey of the Future Agricultures Consortium (secretariat at IDS, Sussex, UK) examined the impact of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) on Tanzania's agricultural sector. In this paper he discusses how CAADP relates to national and regional policy initiatives (including the country's Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plan, the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania, and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition) and their governance; the possible impacts of CAADP on spending on agriculture in the country; and the extent of the influence and inclusion of civil society organisations on agricultural policy processes. The author concludes that CAADP-related agricultural expenditure was minimal, regressed after recent elections, and left out agricultural research activities in the country.  http://www.future-agricultures.org/publications/research-and-analysis/working-papers/doc_download/1815-what-difference-has-caadp-made-to-tanzanian-agriculture   (Future Agricultures Consortium, 11/2013) 13/05/2014
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Scientists have raised concerns about Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA) that African heads of state adopted on 2 July 2014. This ten-year pan-African science and innovation strategy prioritizes the use of research to drive economic and social development across the continent. The success of the strategy will depend on the quality of research projects in individual countries. To help scientists win domestic support for research programmes, STISA plans to set up a research and innovation council that will bring together academies and funders to coordinate national activities. It will also take control of a European Union-funded competitive grant scheme that has spent almost €14 million on research projects in water and sanitation, agriculture and energy. But critics fear that the strategy’s top-heavy administrative structure and lack of firm pledges may render it ineffective. They also believe that its aims may be beyond the continent’s limited resources, especially given that it contains few financial commitments. However, despite their concerns, critics agree that STISA is an improvement on its predecessor, Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA).   (Nature, 25/06/2014) 02/09/2014
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Ian Scoones, at Future Agricultures, reviews the literature on ‘sustainable intensification’ (SI) in particular at what differentiate the concept of 'sustainable agriculture' from the one of 'sustainable intensification', only to find a 'crisis' narrative. Scoones notes that a social and political analysis is absent, a fact that undermines the approach. He concludes: 'For SI to be anything more than a rather odd collection of technical solutions, the questions of socio-technical choice and direction must be put at the forefront. This means having a political debate, and bringing in people more centrally, something that may jar with the rather bland techno-economic prescriptions offered to date.'    (Futures Agricultures, 16/06/2014) 28/07/2014
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Governance of Science, Technology and Innovation for Food and Nutrition Security - CTA FNS Forum 2014

by John Mugabe, Professor at Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM), University of Pretoria, South Africa
Key message: FNS and STI policies need implementation and evaluation mechanisms 24/10/2014
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