Mainstreaming Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) into the Agricultural Systems in Africa

Project Duration: 2019-2023
Grantor: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
Principal Investigator: Dr Nicholas Ozor
Contact Email: executivedirector@atpsnet.org
Grant Amount: USD 684,310

Project Description/Background

Garnering supports and legitimacy for programs and initiatives run in Africa from continental bodies such as the African Union Commission (AUC), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Regional Economic Commissions (RECs) as well as the relevant National governments could undoubtedly lead to ownership, high visibility, success, and sustainability of such programs and initiative. However, the process of engaging with these high-level bodies and governments is not straightforward. It requires strong champions who have established longstanding relationships both formal and informal with these bodies and governments to achieve the desired objectives. The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is one rare organization in Africa that has established working relationships and goodwill with these aforementioned bodies and governments for over 30 years. In most cases, ATPS provides human resource supports to these bodies in a win-win situation that has led to the development of trust and high integrity between ATPS and the continental bodies and governments.

Development Goal

The EOA-I aims to transform and create sustainable food systems through promoting ecologically sound strategies and practices among diverse stakeholders in production, processing, marketing and policymaking, to safeguard the environment, improve livelihoods, alleviate poverty and guarantee food security.
The overall goal of the initiative is to mainstream EOA into national agricultural production systems by 2025 in order to improve agricultural productivity, food security, access to markets and sustainable development in Africa.

Our Approach

Our approach for engaging AUC, NEPAD, UNECA, RECs and other national governments in the EOA-I will be through lobbying and advocacy for them to legitimize Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) in Africa. We shall work with them and other stakeholders to co-design all the activities that ATPS will be engaged in and co-organize all the events such as workshops, annual regional dialogues, and meetings. We shall influence them to make formal statements in favour of EOA in Africa as well as mainstream some programmes and activities into their own programmes and activities. In all, we shall pursue to ensure that they endorse EOA-I to become a continental initiative for all African countries by mainstreaming it into regional agricultural programs and policies.

At the national levels and working with all the EOA country lead organizations and stakeholders, we shall ensure that governments adopt EOA as one of the strategies for ensuring sustainability in food and nutrition security through our coordinated advocacy approaches and campaigns. We shall deploy our national champions in each country to mainstream EOA into the national agricultural research and extension systems as well as in policies and programmes. 

Key Objectives and Activities

1. Stakeholder Mapping and Analysis
2. Policy Reviews and Analysis focusing mainly in West and Southern Africa
3. Policy Sensitization on EOA-I
4. Advocacy and Lobbying to mainstream EOA-I into national, RECs and Continental policies, programmes and strategies
5. Development, Publication and Dissemination of Policy Briefs
6. Development of Partnership Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with regional and continental bodies, e.g. NEPAD
7. Targeted Communication Activities

Expected Outputs

• A comprehensive stakeholders’ report showing different categories of actors, roles and linkages in the EOA-I value chain in the countries, regions and continental level
• Status of EOA policies and institutions report in the target countries, what works, what doesn’t and why
• Proceedings report from the national workshops
• Partnership agreements with key institutions on EOA at the national, regional and continental levels
• Report of the Roundtables/Forums
• 13 Policy briefs bordering on national, regional and continental issues published and disseminated
• 13 Partnership agreements with relevant stakeholders at national, regional and continental levels
• Communication strategy 

Expected Outcome

The overall outcome from mainstreaming EOA-I into the AUC, NEPAD, UNECA, RECs and National Governments’ Agenda will be a visible and well-integrated EOA-I programme at continental, regional and national levels that are capable of providing high quality and nutritious food for improved health outcomes on the continent. 

Project Outputs

1. Policy Review and Analysis of EOA in selected African countries by ATPS
2. Stakeholder Mapping and Analyses of EOA in selected African countries by ATPS
3. Policy and Institutional Landscape of Ecological Organic Agriculture in Rwanda-Policy Brief 55
4. Advancing Ecological Organic Agriculture in Nigeria-Policy Brief 56
5. Policy and Institutional Landscape for Ecological Organic Agriculture in Senegal-Policy Brief 57
6. Institutional Framework for Ecological Organic Agriculture Development in Kenya-Policy Brief 58
7. Policy and Institutional Landscape for Ecological Organic Agriculture in Benin-Policy Brief 59