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News
FARA: putting inclusive research partnership into action
FARA convened a week-long multi-stakeholder consultation workshop during 3-7 October 2005 at the FARA headquarters at Accra, Ghana. The meeting brought together representatives from NGOs, farmer organizations, private sector, the Sub-regional Research Organizations (SROs) represented by CORAF/WECARD, Centre for Innovation in Development (Novafrica), and the CG Centers in the region represented by IITA. The objective of the meeting was threefold: i) to develop an inclusive regional ARD agenda; ii) to provide the stakeholders with an opportunity to share and exchange information and knowledge; and iii) to sensitise the participants on recent developments in the ARD in the region.
Participants in the Multi-stakeholder Consultation meeting
held on 3rd-7th Oct. 2005 in Accra, Ghana
The first two days were dedicated to the development of a program of work by NGOs. On the third day the group were joined by Farmers Organizations and Private Sector representatives to collectively devise a CSO Program of Work by identifying areas of collaboration. Representatives from CGIAR Centers and SROs joined the group on 4th and 5th day to share experiences identify, and take stock on lessons learned and plan the next steps. Discussions focused on how CSOs can effectively participate in the planning, development, execution and evaluation of ARD programs at all levels, particularly at the regional level.
Some of the issues raised and discussed in-depth include:
- Weak research-extension-farmer linkage due to lack of appropriate capacity of farmers and their institutions to effectively engage with researches
- Poor access to, and use of knowledge and information
- Need for genuine participation, transparency and accountability in partnerships
- Need for a strong biosafety policy, and regulations, as well as capacity development
- Inadequate infrastructure for the delivery of goods and services
- Lack of capacity of NGOs to collaborate and participate more effectively in the ARD process and resource mobilization
- Lack of incentive mechanism to encourage Small and Medium Enterprises (S&ME)
Some of the recommendations of the meeting were:
- Inclusive SROs: Implementation of active participation and representation of the different categories of civil society groups (farmer, private sector, NGOs) in sub-regional agricultural research organizations.
- CSOs as equal partners: FARA should with immediate effect, ensure a level playing field for participation, buy-in and ownership of all civil society groups in African agricultural research for development. - Capacity building: FARA and GFAR should negotiate with CG Centres to contribute to capacity strengthening of civil society groups by supporting fellowship placements for their personnel at their respective centres. Also there is an urgent need to strengthen CSO group's capacity in international trade negotiations so that African stakeholders can perform better at such negotiations. - Inducive environment: National governments should implement favourable policies that encourage and support agricultural productivity and raise incomes of farmers.
The meeting was co-sponsored by the GFAR and FARA secretariats.
The Proceedings of the meeting are available here:
egfar.org../pdf/FARA_inclusiveness.pdf
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