14/09 + 15/09 LEAP4FNSSA Final writeshop, General Assembly and IRC Launch – towards an AU-EU International Research Consortium on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture https://paepard.blogspot.com/2022/09/science-and-partnerships-for_15.html

1. International Research Consortium
for Food and Nutrition Security and
Sustainable agriculture:
an EU-AU partnership
Supported under the EU Horizon 2020 Instrument
Stéphanie Truillé-Baurens
Governance, coordination
and clustering aspects
September 14th 2022
CIRAD

2. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Which governance and coordination
mechanisms should be in place to
enable an inclusive participation of all
stakeholders and support an efficient
implementation of the functions and
services?

3. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
General Assembly
The proposed IRC Governance structure
Strategic function
Council
Secretariat
Support function
External Advisory
Committee
Advisory function
Operational arm
Working group Working group Working group
A light
governance
structure
with 4 key
functions
(strategic,
advisory,
operational
and support)

4. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Area for discussion: which clustering approach for
the operational arm?
“Clustering” should facilitate collaboration among various partners/actors through providing
information and knowledge required by each actor, facilitating sharing and interaction among
different actors, creating synergies and an environment that will allow identifying needs, realising
possibilities and finally building collaborations that will provide answers to the identified needs
Question for discussion
Which approach to clustering?
A simple classification…
• Theme / expertise / research interest or goals
• Geographic zone
• Type of stakeholders
Or a more multidimensional approach:
• Cross-sectoral based on impact
• Stakeholder categories across the value chain/system
• Polycentric cluster approach
• Multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary groupings
Important principles:
• Information sharing
• Engage all stakeholders and
foster complementarity
• Transparent decision-making
processes
• Develop frameworks for
consultation and proposal of
ideas to be taken up

5. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Area for discussion: coordination aspects
The Secretariat will play a central
coordination role
• The Secretariat will ensure the
linkages between the GA, the
Council, the EAC, the Working
Groups and the clusters
• It will serve as a glue, pulling
together all the different activities
of the IRC
The overall objective of the IRC is to improve coordination and create synergy between the
many R&I programmes, initiatives, and actors with the aim of improving the FNSSA agenda
in Africa and Europe
Question for discussion
Which kind of coordination should be
foreseen at other levels
• Decentralised coordination hubs?
• Subsidiary system of cluster coordination
hubs?
• Coordination hubs in the different regions?

6. EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on
Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA Partnership)
Area for discussion: a rotating system for the Secretariat
Rotating coordination cycle
• A 3-6 year rotating coordination
cycle is proposed
• For 4 institutions (2 African and 2
European) per cycle
A rotating system of responsibilities is proposed for the Secretariat in order to ensure
continuity while avoiding coordination monopoly by organisation/country
Question for discussion
Is this system realistic?

7. Supported under the EU Horizon 2020 Instrument
Thank you for your attention and your
contributions to the debate