Feed the Future Innovation Labs’ Regional Partners Meeting has been scheduled for 6-9 February 2017 in Dakar, Senegal.
The Bureau for Food Security, Office of Agricultural Research and Policy, invites Mission agriculture, food security and nutrition staff to participate in the meeting, which will be held at the King Fahd Palace Hotel.
The meeting will kick off in Dakar on Monday, 6 February for two days of plenary and breakout sessions, followed by a half day of smaller meetings with USAID staff and Innovation Lab Directors on Wednesday, 8 February. There will be an optional field trip to visit Innovation Lab research and Mission value chain partner field sites on Thursday, 9 February.
While the meeting will focus on activities in West Africa, Mission staff throughout Africa are welcome to attend.
With the passage of the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) and a number of the Innovation Labs nearing the end of their programs, BFS will be both redesigning and developing new Innovation Labs. The Senegal meeting provides an opportunity for strategic reflection about the future of the Innovation Lab programs and the role they will play in addressing key agricultural and nutrition constraints in West Africa.
It will also provide a venue for Missions, regional programs, local and international collaborators to present a vision of the strategic directions for research and the development needs of each, to be taken into consideration as new Innovation Lab programs come on board and as BFS realigns the Feed the Future Research Strategy to meet the goals of the GFSA. At the same time, this visioning exercise has the potential to identify new modes for interdisciplinary and inter-Innovation Lab collaboration responsive to the demand of local and regional programs.
The meeting will generate a report synthesizing:
- Key agricultural and nutrition research and development needs for West Africa and the role of the Innovation Labs and their partners in addressing these needs;
- Key human and institutional capacity development needs in partner institutions;
- Opportunities for inter-Innovation Lab and interdisciplinary collaboration to meet the above needs in addition to Innovation Lab-specific contributions;
- Visioning on the role of the Innovation Labs in the realignment of the Feed the Future Research Strategy and how the Labs will contribute to the new strategy.
Contact Carole Levin, clevin@usaid.gov with questions.