Events

This year, from the 25^th to 31^st May, various institutions and organisations will come together to celebrate a Week on Agricultural Innovation in Africa (WAIA). The week will offer participants the opportunity to explore approaches that enhance knowledge-to-action linkages among actors in agricultural innovation systems in Africa.

The week is the result of a collaboration between the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) research programme, the Joint Learning in Innovation Systems in African Agriculture (JOLISAA), the Promoting Local Innovation in Ecologically Orientated Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (PROLINNOVA) international network, and the Food System Innovation for Food Security (FSIFS).

The week will begin with an Eastern African Farmer Innovation Fair (EAFIF) which will celebrate and call attention to the creativity of Eastern African smallholder farmers, and bring policymakers, workshop participants and the general public in contact with farmer innovators. The fair will be hosted by PROLINNOVA and co-organised with the AgriProFocus (APF)-Kenya network and other organisations concerned with smallholder agricultural development.

The fair will be immediately followed by an International Workshop on Agricultural Innovation Systems in Africa (AISA). During the workshop, various institutions and initiatives will share their experiences in order to increase understanding of multi-stakeholder innovation processes in agriculture. The focus will be on recognizing the role of smallerholder farmers – both men and women – in innovation. The workshop should lead to the identification of priorities for research, practice and policy to strengthen innovation process in smallholder agriculture.

To maximize synergies and minimise costs in terms of travel, time and ecological footprint, a number of side events will be held simultaneously including:

• The annual PROLINNOVA International Partners Workshop (IPW)
• The PROLINNOVA Oversight Group meeting
• The internal meeting of the JOLISAA Consortium
• The international coordination meeting of the Local Innovation and Experimentation for Climate Change Adaptation (LINEX –CCA) initiative
• The international coordination meeting of the Combining Local Innovation Capacities with Scientific Research (CLIC-SR) initiative
• The International Livestock Research Institute(ILRI) and the CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) Innovation Platforms Writeshop (IPW)

Please note this is a closed, by invitation only, event.