Trilateral Agri-Tech Research Program

Trilateral Agri-TechChallenge

The U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID) was considering the development of a fund to promote trilateral research collaboration on agricultural technologies to address Africa’s future agriculture needs. The Agency financed a Scoping Study to identify the potential program’s thematic and geographic scope, governance, and overall design options.

With well below average investments in Africa’s agricultural research and development (R&D), significant gaps still exist that can be addressed by mobilizing Africa, Britain, and China’s public, private, and academic research expertise. Britain and China bring complementary research expertise to Africa’s deep understanding of needs on the continent in order to develop and scale up new agricultural technologies that support critical value chains in Africa. The potential trilateral agri-tech research program could support a strong and growing agricultural sector which will in turn help feed Africa’s growing population and contribute to an expected $1 trillion agri-food industry by 2030.

Approach:

DFI® co-led a consortium with two partners to conduct a Scoping Study to: i) define the scope of the potential program, ii) assess feasibility and receptivity of a potential trilateral program, and iii) develop program design options. The Consortium successfully accomplished this through desk based research, 150+ stakeholder consultations across the public, private, and academic sectors, and four regional workshops in London, Beijing, Accra, and Nairobi.

Outcomes:

Created four $75M-150M program design options with distinctions across six areas for consideration: technical, political, financial, governance, private sector engagement, and administrative


Identified potential relationships and initial co-funding opportunities with the public, private, and academic sector for further vetting and engagement upon program selection


Links:
Full Report: http://r4d.dfid.gov.uk/Output/212793/Default.aspx
Annex 1: http://r4d.dfid.gov.uk/Output/212794/Default.aspx
Annex 2,3,5: http://r4d.dfid.gov.uk/Output/212795/Default.aspx