Biotech Updates

Africa Needs Strategic Partnerships to Build Scientific Capacity for Agriculture

January 27, 2012

A report Strategic Partnerships to Build African Scientific Capacity for Agriculture from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonprofit policy organization based in Washington, DC, identified four key approaches to benefit renewed appreciation for the role of science in U.S. assistance and in African political leadership. These approaches are:

  • Focus on key problems in African agriculture and solve them in a coordinated way in local settings. Encouraging partners to formulate and articulate national research priorities will help guide U.S.- African partnerships and lead to greater coordination and synergies across multiple actors and institutions.
  • Prioritize individual capacities to improve institutions.
  • Foster collaboration within national scientific community. 
  • Promote institutional coordination and communication.

An overview of agricultural science cooperation within the African research system; the university system; and the role of partnerships with the private sector are tackled in the report.

Download a copy of the report at http://csis.org/files/publication/120118_strategicp_agriculturereport.pdf.