AFAAS contributes to the Africa Union’s Agenda 2030 and 2063. To deliver to this goal, AFAAS is supported by European Union through its initiative called ‘Development of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA).
The objective of DESIRA is to enable agricultural research and innovation including extension services, to contribute effectively to food and nutrition security, economic development, and climate mitigation in Africa. DESIRA supports the CAADP XP4 project of which AFAAS is one
of the key organizations. For AFAAS and its members, the CAADP XP4 is intended to (i) strengthen the operational capacity of AFAAS and its sub regional partner organizations; (ii) improve collaboration within and among the national, sub regional and continental agriculture research and extension organizations; (iii) promote policy enhancement in agricultural research and innovation; (iv) create climate-relevant
innovations; (v) promote investments and market linkages; and (vi) enhance knowledge generation and dissemination in support of decision making, advocacy and innovation sharing.
With the EU support, and in line with the AFAAS Strategic plan 2018-2027, AFAAS commissioned an assessment to identify the gaps on AEAS policy analysis, formulation and advocacy as well as in its resource mobilization. The assessment targets the AEAS country fora of AFAAS, in particular, the initial eleven countries active in CAADP XP4 initiative namely, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. Eleven additional countries were included namely, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania,Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Botswana. The regional AEAS fora: The West and Central Africa Network for Agricultural and Rural Advisory Services (RESCAR-AOC) and Southern Africa Regional Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (SARFAAS) were also included.
