The transformative force and potential of agriculture to attain the Sustainable Development Goals in Agenda 2030; focus on eliminating hunger

Held in Stockholm on April, 26th 2019 and financed in part by SIANI, Swedish International Agriculture Network Initiative; SLU Global, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; and the Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry’s Fund, this round-table discussion follows up KSLAs previous one from 17 October 2017 “The role of agriculture in Agenda 2030 – focus on Africa. How does Agenda 2030 affect Swedish development cooperation and how can KSLA contribute?”

The aim was to give cause for reflection in preparation for the yearly follow up of Agenda 2030 at the New York High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July. This year’s meeting focused on SDGs that deal with education, working rights, economic growth, reduced inequality, climate change, peaceful and inclusive communities as well as partnership.

During the discussion Philippe Petithuguenin, head of Research and Strategy, CIRAD (France) and lead for the DG AGRI project LEAP4FNSSA – Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture Philippe presented how multi-stakeholder partnerships with key actors from EU and Africa work with a knowledge-based approach to provide advisory services to the High Level Policy Dialogue on Agriculture for the African Union and the European Union.

Among the three points raised by our project coordinator, he talked about our project and the history of the process to build the Europe Africa partnership on research and innovation for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture:

In 2009, the EU AU policy dialogue (“college to college” level) identified Research and Innovation as one of the area of the Joint Africa Europe Strategy.

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In parallel, bottom up approach: launch in sept 2012 of the “IntensAfrica initiative” by institutions involved in AR4D activities with Africa, from 11 European countries.

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There is a convergence between the two streams of activities.
Maybe FNSSA would not have been selected as the first priority without IntensAfrica initiative (and without SCAR ARCH). Also institutions would not have engaged without political backing from higher authorities; and funds would not have been mobilized by European and by African institutions for a Cofund initiative.

This convergence is made effective in LEAP4FNSSA (4 year project, 35 partners): it is building a bi continental partnership platform (with three pillars: alliances of stakeholders; KMS; innovative funding mechanisms), and also supporting and informing the EU AU dialogue.