Canada Fund for African Climate Resilience call

The Canada Fund for African Climate Resilience
will co-finance Canadian organizations or coalitions to address climate change effects and adaptation needs that restrict or have negative impacts on food security and/or economic growth in Africa.

The focus countries are Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania. Projects in certain other Sub-Saharan countries are also eligible (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Dem Rep Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zambia). CIDA will provide 85% of project funding; eligible applicants in Canada's private sector and/or civil society (or their coalitions) contribute the remaining 15%. The deadline for applications is 19 April 2012.

• Objective of the Canada Fund for African Climate Resilience
• Review process
• Eligibility
• Application process
• Key documents
• Deadline
• Proposal assessment

Intra-ACP mobility scheme - Call for Proposals

The second Call for Proposals under the Intra-ACP academic mobility scheme was launched on 10/02/2012, with a deadline of 10 May 2012.

The Intra-ACP academic mobility scheme promotes cooperation between higher education institutions (HEIs) and supports mobility in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) regions. The Programme aims to increase access to quality education that will encourage and enable ACP students to undertake postgraduate studies, and to promote student retention in the region along with mobility of staff (academic and administrative). In doing so, the Intra-ACP Programme is expected to increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of the institutions themselves.

COLEACP at Fruit Logistica 2012

FRUIT LOGISTICA 2012 Ghana

8 to 10 February. Berlin. This trade fair was characterized by the presence of the industry's key decision-makers as well as by excellent reviews from exhibitors and trade visitors who praised the commercial results achieved at the exhibition. The event also registered a record number of exhibiting companies, 2537 in all. More than 56,000 trade visitors from 139 countries were in Berlin to view the full spectrum of products and services across the entire fresh produce value chain. Around 80% of the visitors at this year's exhibition came from outside Germany.

COLEACP, PIP and EDES teams facilitated contacts between ACP exporter and EU importer Members at the Fruit Logistica 2012. You will find more information on the COLEACP entry on the « Fruit Logistica Virtual Market Place »

Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters. Ghana is focusing on the extremely tasty pineapples that it grows and harvests all year round. "Many Europeans are not aware of this. We are at FRUIT LOGISTICA to make this fact known", says Antony Sikpa, President of the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters. Ghana is represented with four exporters, whose produce, in addition to pineapples, includes papayas and mangos.

FRUIT LOGISTICA 2012 Mairitius
(with a breadfruit)

Mozfoods S.A., Mozambique: "This was our first appearance at FRUIT LOGISTICA and it was very valuable for our business. We had a chance to meet with our customers and build new contacts with prospective buyers in Europe. The current demand clearly exceeds our production capacities". Carlos Henriques, Chief Executive Officer.
Enterprise Mauritius: "We are very satisfied with our first appearance at FRUIT LOGISTICA.  The trade fair is an excellent platform for maintaining existing contacts and finding new customers. We had visitors from Brazil, China, Britain, France and the Middle East at our stand. In the coming months, we will see what specific orders will arise from this". Yogesh O. Amoroo, Business Development Officer

Related: Extract from Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from multiple-stakeholder approaches

Ghana’s pineapple industry. This case study concerns the rehabilitation of the pineapple industry after loss of valuable export markets to Europe as new country producers provided sweeter varieties favoured by consumers. Pineapples now account for more than 50 percent of Ghana’s total horticultural exports and the crop is a source of income and employment for 15,000 people. Increased production has led to significant poverty reduction in pineapple-growing areas with farmers reporting a 10 percent increase in income (World Bank, 2006), largely due to increased production and higher prices for the commodity.

Lessons learned for scaling up. The strong commitment of all stakeholders – donors, national partners, NGOs, Government, exporters, importers, individual farmers and research institutes – has played an important role in the success achieved in the pineapple industry. Linkage with export markets has clearly been a driving factor. However the emergence of large-scale farmers and processors has made them the major beneficiaries at the expense of smallholder farmers.Meeting this challenge will require additional support to raise their production levels.

AfDB-IFPRI stakeholder consultation on agricultural biotechnology in Africa

15-16 February 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya. in June 2011, the AfDB Group commissioned IFPRI to conduct a comprehensive and evidence-based study on agriculture biotechnology in Africa to assist African countries to address their agriculture and food security problems.

This consultation meeting discussed the findings and recommendations of the study for broad stakeholder validation, prioritize key areas which need to be addressed, and identify and agree on roles, responsibilities and resources needed to implement priority actions.

Some of the main recommendations from the study included the need to enhance support for the following: data collection, capacity building; renewed cooperation on biotechnology with sub-Saharan African countries, and outreach and communication to the public at large. In this regard, the report is an important step in the right direction.

Approximately 80 representatives of development organizations, senior African policy makers, private sector officials, scientists, researchers, and farmers organizations participated in the meeting.

Related: In November 2011, FARA hosted the 1st Pan-African Conference on Stewardship of Agricultural Biotechnology

Related: A lively [still ongoing] debate on fara-net in February resulted in an exchange of a number of reports on the GMO theme:

1. Vitale, J.D., Vognan, G. Ouattarra,M.  and Traore, O. (2010). “The CommercialApplication of GMO Crops in Africa: Burkina Faso’s Decade of Experience with BtCotton,” Agrobioforum, 13(4): 320-332.
2. The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (2011) Complete Text of The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (765K PDF)
3. Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa's Development. Report of the High-Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology. (2007) Full text of this publication is available
4. A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001-2011) (2011)
5. How to engage with farmers over GM crops, Obidimma Ezezika and Justin Mabeya, SciDev, 22/02/2012
6. CTA Policy Brief on Harnessing Biotechnology (also available in French)
7. Ghana Business News 28/02 Biotechnology crucial to global food security – Prof. Alhassan

A video on biotechnology was produced by young professionals in the Caribbean for our 2010/2011 science and video competition. It raises some interesting issues and can be used to fuel interest and mobilize young people on this important issue.

The Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA)

FOSCA was established by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in 2010, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (BMGF) in order to develop the managerial, organizational and technical capacity of farmer organizations (FOs) by linking them with service providers (SPs) that focus on demand driven and income-enhancing services. FOSCA is expected to contribute to the overall AGRA vision of increasing smallholder incomes and livelihoods through effective FOs capable of delivering on the needs of their members by:

1. identifying and engaging a robust network of FOs in target countries and identifying income-enhancing needs of their members
2. Increasing and improving the supply of relevant services available to FOs to respond to their needs
3. Linking FOs with service providers and private sector players in value-chains to enhance their capacity for effective service delivery (market-driven income gains) for their members
4. Evaluate outcomes, document lessons, and build the knowledge base on FOs that would promote learning and best practice in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA).

Mercy Karanja works with extension and farmer organizations at
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and guides the strategy and
grants for the foundation’s work with small holder farmers.

Expected Outcomes
During this initial four-year program, FOSCA plans to:

1. Reach 220,000 smallholder farmers with income and production improvements services
2. Improve the capacities of at least 70 FOs based on a set of criteria around gender, market-orientation, smallholder membership, and income generation.
3. Expand the smallholder membership of 50% of the target FOs by 25-50% during the project term.

Target Countries in First Phase
In order to maximize opportunities for collaboration and synergies, FOs prioritized by FOSCA are partners or potential partners in existing AGRA and Bill Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) grants. The initial pilot activities will be those working with World Food Program’s (WFP) Purchase for Progress (P4P), AGRA’s Markets Access and Soil Health Programs.

Geographic Coverage:
FOSCA will focus on the 4 Priority One countries of AGRA in this initial Phase:

• Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania

FOSCA will gradually expand its activities to other AGRA target countries as opportunities to collaborate emerge:

• Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda and Zambia (Partnership with Swedish Cooperation),
• Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria (Partnership with BMGF)

Addressing Climate Change Challenges in Africa: A Practical Guide towards Sustainable Development

This manual (272 pages) aims to translate available climate science and current international climate policies into the tools for practical action in Africa, in the context of sustainable development. In this regard the guidebook focuses on the potential climate change impacts on key sectors in Africa and appropriate adaptation and mitigation options. It outlines the governance, technological, financial and capacity building opportunities available to the continent to work effectively towards sustainable development.

The manual is self-contained and stands alone, but provides guidance to intended users to other relevant materials in the form of links and annexes. The primary audiences for the guidebook are policymakers, decision makers, practitioners from public and private sector, civil society organizations, environment and climate change negotiators and experts.

Organization: 

UNEP

Partner(s): 

African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, African Union Commission

ENG

Partner Inception Workshop Enhancing Soybean and Cowpea Value Chains

Facilitator Patrick Egessa (left) and
EC evaluator of PAEPARD Hubert Cathala (right)

13th – 17th February 2012Kampala. Partner Inception meeting. Enhancing Soybean and Cowpea Value Chains for Increased Productivity, Incomes and Nutritional Security of Smallholder Farmers in Eastern and Central Africa.

Soybean and Cowpea Value Chains for Increased Productivity, Incomes and Nutritional Security of Smallholder Farmers in Eastern and Central Africa consortium is holding its inception meeting in Kampala- Uganda with support from PAEPARD and RUFORUM. The objectives of this meeting are;

1. To bring together all partners of the consortium.
2. Explore and design a framework of engagement in response to targeted calls.
3. Gain an insight into all partners areas of expertise, skills and commitment.
4. Explore linkages and collaborations

Criteria for assessing the competitiveness of the Crops

The meeting agreed to develop a criteria that would be used to assess the competitiveness of the legumes.

• Potential to increase employment
• Number of SMEs within the sector
• Potential for Value addition
• Potential to increase income
• Number of women and Youth – are their studies?
• Government involvement in the sector
• Research opportunities along the chain.

Day 2 discussions focused on the requirements for the AU call, which this consortium is targeting. Looked at broadly, the discussion was guided using the following  questions

      What were the call requirements?

      What should be our priority sector

      What was expected on  partnerships

      What was the evaluation criteria?

      What was the  selection criteria?

      What was the award criteria?

Issues raised in response to discussion on call

      How  we demonstrate capacity/ expertise.

      How we demonstrate that we were involved in the process.

      Technical expertise in the required sectors

      Sustainability of the results

      And  the Management structure