The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) and its flagship Africa Centers of Excellence Project joined other leading regional and sub-regional organizations responsible for agricultural science, technology, innovation, and education across Africa at a side event during the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) meeting held on 9 – 11 January 2025 in Kampala, Uganda. Senior leaders convened to explore strategies for strengthening collaboration and forging stronger strategic alliances to build a sustainable African agricultural research and innovation ecosystem.

Institutions such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), African Union Commission (AUC), One CGIAR, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Sub-Regional Research Organizations (SROs), and other African Agricultural Research, Innovation, and Education Institutions (AARIEIs) pledged their commitment to work together under the framework of the Abidjan II communiqué.

The Abidjan II communiqué, the result of a yearlong consultation in 2022, seeks to strengthen Africa’s agricultural research and innovation ecosystem. It outlines eight action areas focusing on governance, partnerships, resource mobilization, scaling technologies, capacity development, foresight planning, and monitoring to enhance collaboration between One CGIAR, FARA-led AARIEIs, and development partners.

Speakers emphasized that these challenges cannot be solved by a single entity, highlighting the need for mutually beneficial partnerships. They underscored the importance of aligning overlapping frameworks, addressing the fragmentation caused by competition, and leveraging each institution’s strengths to pool resources and achieve greater impact.