PAFO, ACADEMIA2063 launch a digitally enabled resilience and nutrition project

By Elias Hakizimana.

The Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO) in partnership with AKADEMIA2063 have launched a digitally enabled resilience and nutrition policy (DERPIn) to develop an innovative and integrated digital infrastructure to curate, customize and deploy relevant evidence to support planning and decision-making across food systems value chain segments.

The launch of this project took place in Kigali on February 22, 2023, bringing together various stakeholders in technology and agriculture sector.

Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO) is a continental organization with a membership base composed of Regional Farmers Networks. AKADEMIYA2063 mission is to provide data, policy analysis, and capacity-strengthening support to enable African countries to achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 goals of inclusive and sustainable food systems.

The three-year project will operate in five African countries is expected to build more holistic and ambitious disaster resilience framework for agriculture and ensure sustainable development.

The project goal is also to leverage data analytical evidence, digital resources to bolster capacity of governments and value chain actors to design impactful solutions for the sustainable transformation of African food systems.

Speaking at the event, Dr Olivier Kamana, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) said that they expect a lot from this initiative in line with boosting food security and nutrition in the country.

“We currently have ‘SMART NKUNGANIRE’, e-Soko and social media use in general, but what will come out of this project is about improving nutrition through technology. The new thing that will come from this project that started today is that now the focus will be to see if in the produce can fight malnutrition using technology.”

Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Founder and Executive Chairperson of AKADEMIYA 2063 says that they are happy to implement this project in Rwanda that is advancing in digital transformation.

“We are proud to launch this project here in Rwanda as a country chosen for technological development and efforts will be made to create innovations in agriculture, to find solutions to the effects of climate change, with the aim of improving nutrition and combating malnutrition with the help of technology.” he said.

Local Agriculture enterprises welcome the move.

Marie Ange Mukagahima, the representative of a value-adding industry of napkins said that this project will help the value-adding industry of agricultural products to get enough production.

“This project is meaningful towards supplementing the efforts our country made in transforming agriculture through value addition, we expect to produce more in quality and quantity for both domestic and export markets,” she said.

About PAFO

The Organization is a voice of more than 80 million African farmers integrated into nearly 70 national organizations, unions, federations, cooperatives, and associations. It is present in more than 45 countries on the continent, and united in five regional networks operating at the heart of African agriculture.

About AKADEMIYA2063

AKADEMIYA2063 is an Africa-based non-profit research organization with headquarters in Kigali, Rwanda and a regional office in Dakar, Senegal. Its mission is to provide data, policy analysis, and capacity-strengthening support to enable African countries to achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 goals of inclusive and sustainable food systems.

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