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Where we go from here? Extending our activities

FAC continues to build on our achievements and we are now beginning a new phase to deepen and extend our activities. In particular, weare:

  • Locating the Consortium within Africa, Before 2013, FAC will move its secretariat to Africa and FAC Africa will be launched.
  • Extending the FAC network to West Africa. We aim to link with both Anglophone and Francophone countries facilitating new partnerships for regional policy dialogues and national level policy engagement. In our new phase of work, FAC will be working in over ten countries across Africa, involving over 50 researchers from African and UK institutions.
  • Seeking greater alignment of FAC activities with CAADP (Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme)processes, including linking directly to Pillars 2 , 3 and 4 with our theme research. Also linking local-level policy dialogues with ongoing CAADP roundtables and implementation follow-up.
  • Complementing our existing research on policy processes, agricultural growth and social protection, commercialisaton pathways and science technology and innovation, with the launch in 2010 of new research in four new areas: pastoralism, land and tenure, climate change and agriculture and future farmers: youth and agriculture.
  • Expanding our communications and policy engagement work with Communications Officer who works with FAC partners developing and refining key policy messages emerging from FAC work, and ensuring these reach diverse audiences using different media, including the FAC website, policy briefings and workshops.[WU1]

  • Building the capacity of younger African researchers to carry out high-quality research and policy and engage in policy through a series of FAC Fellowships , initially coordinated through the Collaborative Masters Programme in Agricultural and Applied Economics in Eastern, Central and southern Africa(CMAAE)
  • Initiating FAC co-hosted annual events to highlight key issues related to FAC work in Africa. The first was a collaboration with the Salzburg Global Seminar that focused on ‘Towards an African Green Revolution?’ and was chaired by Kofi Annan, chair of AGRA. In late 2008, FAC co-hosted a major international workshop on farmer-led innovation for agricultural research and development. In 2009, weheld a major conference on ‘Seasonality Revisited’, looking at the influence of changing patterns of seasonality on production and livelihoods. Future events will include one focused on the future of pastoralism in Africa.