Increasing the synergies and coherence between actors, Research and Innovation (R&I) projects, initiatives and programmes, through the development of institutional alliances and clusters of projects:
Two regional alliances were piloted; the West Africa-Europe Alliance and the North Africa-EU Alliances that piloted a private sector cluster of African and European farmers, private sector, start-ups and their funders. The elements of the PIMC meta-governance have been tested. These experiences contributed to the design of a Cluster Mechanism. Emerging lessons and documents including; Situation Analysis, Roadmaps, TCIP are expected to inform the envisaged Platform.
Implementation of the Project Dissemination and Communication Strategy, led to a wide FNSSA audience reach. The website, Agora and social network accounts achieved KPIs multiple fold beyond Project targets. 8 newsletters and 8 studies were published with 19 citations on google scholar. These channels together with a large number of engagements reaching 2000+ stakeholders, led to a high publicity and growing interest in the AU-EU IRC-FNSSA.
Developing a learning environment and a knowledge base, including monitoring and evaluation activities, creating communication and links between different initiatives to improve STI cooperation:
A database containing 447 FNSSA projects, was created and is publicly available and being updated. An associated database of organisations participating in the projects was also created for navigating active organisations at national and regional levels. The knowledge management tool KEOPS was developed with an enhanced Knowledge Visualisation module exploitable by FNSSA actors. These KM tools are to be tailored to IRC stakeholder needs. A large network beyond the Project consortium was created including decision makers, researchers, funding institutions, international organisations, farmers’ organisations, industry and agribusinesses, women and youth leading to a learning environment and added value in raising awareness and disseminating the IRC.
Establishing a long-term and sustainable governance and funding mechanism for the Platform:
A roadmap and action plan to guide the establishment of the AU-EU IRC-FNSSA was developed and implemented. The roadmap and the Project Theory of change guided an effective transition towards developing the structures of the IRC. The IRC draft manuscript benefited from wide global discussion including 300+ entities that had expressed their interest to join it. After a successful final write-shop, the final Project General Assembly endorsed the IRC leading to its launch under the aegis of the HLPD Working Group of the FNSSA in September 2022. The IRC is the main “long-term AU-EU bicontinental sustainable platform for FNSSA from partnership project to a Sustainable Platform”. The AU-EU IRC-FNSSA, currently with 46 signatories (40% European and 60% African legal entities), within the R&I space and managed on LEAP4FNSSA D-group.
Supporting to the HLPD Bureau in particular to the work of the HLPD FNSSA WG:
Six studies were completed to advance the work of the HLPD FNSSA WG and the FNSSA Partnership. Systems and processes for undertaking the M&E have been established. Significant data collection was undertaken and the FNSSA Partnership M&E framework developed by the Project. Through these actions and the secretariat services provided to the FNSSA WG and other HLPD policy structures (Bureau, SOM, Ministerial meetings), the Project established a viable mechanism for linking the science and policy communities to advance the Partnership on R&I. LEAP4FNSSA has extended its presence at global events and strengthened strategic linkages to other networks.
