Poster prepared by Edward Baars for the Capacity Development Workshop of the CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April–2 May 2014

1. Overview of N2Africa research for
development platforms in Ethiopia, Uganda,
Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana
Edward Baars
Context and platform
background
Activities will focus on cowpea, groundnut and
soybean in Ghana and Nigeria, on common
bean, cowpea, groundnut and soybean in
Tanzania and Uganda, and on common bean,
soybean, chickpea and faba bean in Ethiopia.
Opportunities and constraints
Opportunities: Bring various levels of
expertise and interdependent areas of
interest together to improve on key aspects
of a particular Industry (crop) as well as
cross cutting issues between Industries.
Constraints: Prior consent from key
decision makers is needed
Issues that can obstruct the functioning of
the platform are lack of focus, preparatory
work, people pursuing (only) own agendas
Constraints can be addressed to follow up
on personal levels and meet when the time
is ripe to share relevant information –
findings that can benefit the members.
Structural issues that may need to be
addressed to ensure platform sustainability
is trust and compatibility of members.
Pictures
Conclusions and ways forward
Overall platform performance will be enhanced if meetings
are short, sweet, well prepared for the right target audience
with prior basic consent of key decision makers that see the
clear benefit to collaborate, improve on focused issues.
The support needed to sustain or enhance the effectiveness
of the platform is a task force designated to a platform that
keeps itself well informed at all levels and cross Industries,
countries and themes, and meets participants individually.
Platform progress
Platform initiation for N2Africa Phase-II expected in May 2014,
so far project launch workshops brought potential members
together for the 5 countries, no Phase-II meetings so far as the
project was launched from Feb-March 2014.
Platform facilitation and
learning
Key bottlenecks in terms of
facilitating the platform is bringing
the right blend of decision makers
together and to ensure follow-up
on action points and next meetings
Documentation is via minutes,
sharing of presentations and
progress before a next meeting
The platform is able to steer
research/ development/ policy
agendas when sufficient prior
consultation on individual -
informal level is taken, no surprises
Edward Baars
e.baars@cgiar.org ● IITA, Nigeria.
Prepared for a capacity development workshop of the
CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics, Nairobi, 29 April – 2 May 2014
http://humidtropics.cgiar.org/
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-
Share Alike 3.0 Unported License April 2014
April- May 2014
Platform characteristics
Research for development, Technology
Adaptation & Adoption, Dissemination and
Public Private Partnership platform.
Farmers, Traders, Processors, Agro-Input
Dealers - Manufacturers, Seed Companies
Service Providers (ICT), Research,
Government Institutions , NGOs, Interest
Groups and other Development Partners
The platforms are operating at national,
regional and provincial levels, led by
Industry specific Interest groups and
facilitated by N2Africa or NGOs, co-funded
by the interest groups (Associations)