The Executive Director of CORAF has said the research and development solutions designed to tackle emerging and existing agricultural and development challenges should be regional.
Dr. Abdou Tenkouano was speaking at a side-event organized by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) at the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) indicated that “problems cut across countries.”
“So, I believe the solutions should also cut across countries,” he said.
CORAF, with the support of regional economic communities, has successfully experimented programs of regional scale such as the West Africa Agriculture Productivity Program. Using a regional approach, this program reached out to over 9 million direct beneficiaries and about 56 million indirectly. About 40 percent of these were women.
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“We Need Solutions that Cut Across Countries,” CORAF Executive Director
The IDRC event was focused on making research and innovation work for women and youth in Africa.
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The Executive Director of CORAF further highlighted CORAF work towards targeting youths with the ongoing Agripreneur TV which seeks to promote youth entrepreneurship. The Islamic Development Bank funds it.
CORAF Engages Global Partners
The AGRF is one of the leading global forum bringing together major agriculture actors. Each year, Head of States, businesses, development actors, and civil society actors gather in a selected African capital to discuss and advance African agriculture. This year’s iteration is holding in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.
The AGRF is also an opportunity for donors and other funders to commit investments to programs. As the largest annual gathering of agriculture players, the AGRF represents the best meeting place to advance existing networks and expand strategic partnerships.
As part of efforts to continuously position CORAF to raise enough resources to fund its 2018-2022 Operational Plan, the Executive Director met with some global organizations in Accra. This includes notably officials of the West Africa Mission of the United States Agency for International Development as well as senior management of the Bureau for Food Security.
USAID currently funds the PAIRED program which seeks strengthen CORAF as well as make available quality seeds to poor farmers as well as scale up proven technologies.