Tanzania Launches GCRF funded Agricultural and Food Systems Resilience Program
19 September 2018
The Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) in partnership with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), the University of Leeds, Chatham House and the UK Met Office launched the Agricultural and Food Systems Resilience: Increasing Capacity and Advising Policy (AFRICAP) project funded by the United Kingdom’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) on the 19th of September 2018, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The AFRICAP programme was officially launched by Tanzania Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Charles J Tizeba at the meeting attended by over 40 participants representing relevant government departments, non-government organizations, farmer organizations, universities, researchers, civil society organizations among others. The main objective of the workshop was to introduce the four-year project to key stakeholders working within the food, agriculture and development space. AFRICAP seeks to develop pathways to address challenges in the future.
The GCRF-AFRICAP is an £8m program led by the University of Leeds, a leading international university in the north of England, in partnership with FANRPAN, a pan African multi-stakeholder policy network whose regional secretariat is based in Pretoria, South Africa. The program is focused on generating evidence-based policy to transform agriculture and food systems in Africa with a view of identifying key steps towards a more resilient food system for 2050. AFRICAP also aims at improving productivity of farming systems, and their resilience to shocks emanating from climate change impacts. Research will be conducted in selected African countries including Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia and the UK, thus enabling the project to provide a multi-country synthesis and lessons.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Tausi Kida, ESRF Executive Director, highlighted that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing African economies in the 21st Century and that some of the available options for the African countries to address the impending pitfalls of food shortages triggered by climate change include integration of climate change with trade policies as well as agro processing.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister, noted the timeliness of the launch of the AFRICAP programme given that in June, this year, the Ministry of Agriculture unveiled the Agriculture Sectoral Development Programme II, with the main objective of transforming the agricultural sector (crops, livestock & fisheries) towards higher productivity, commercialization level and smallholder farmer income for improved livelihood, food security and nutrition.
He welcomed the project and congratulated the ESRF and the entire GCRF-AFRICAP project team for their interest in contributing towards agricultural sector development through research and capacity building with the ultimate aim of reducing the impacts of climate change to the most vulnerable in society.
The launch of the project was followed on the 20th of September by a Scenario Participatory Workshop from in which stakeholders deliberated on a number of key questions regarding the future of agri-food systems in Tanzania in the wake of climate change. Outputs from the Scenario Participatory Workshop will be packaged into a range of publications aimed at unpacking what will be needed to get Tanzania to develop sustainable, productive, climate smart agricultural systems to attain food security, nutrition and economic development.
As FANRPAN’s node host in Tanzania, ESRF will coordinate program activities, including providing support to the research team working with researchers in Tanzanian Research Institutions; and the administration of a bursary scheme for African and UK scholars to attend bespoke research training courses. ESRF will partner with several government departments and civil society organisation to develop and run applied research projects and will jointly generate and disseminate research outputs through joint research-policy forums.
For more information on AFRICAP project activities in Tanzania contact:
ESRF-Vivian Kazi (TanzaniaAfricap@fanrpan.org)
University of Leeds – Dr Susannah Sallu (S.Sallu@leeds.ac.uk)
Visit www.africap.info