RESEARCH AND INNOVATION - 19th RUFORUM Annual General Meeting successfully concluded in Yaounde, Cameroon

RUFORUM (Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture) is a consortium of African universities with the aim to address the needs of small-holder farmers by fostering innovation and collaborations between stakeholders. The 19th RUFORUM Annual General Meeting took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 28 October until 2 November 2023. Alongside this meeting, two events related to the AU-EU HLPD´s Research and Innovation Partnership FNSSA (Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture) also took place.

date: 03/11/2023

The 19^th RUFORUM Annual General Meeting on “Transforming Higher Education to sustainably feed and create prosperity for Africa” successfully concluded in Yaounde, Cameroon

The 19^th RUFORUM (Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture) Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, between 28 October and 2 November 2023.

RUFORUM is a consortium of universities in Africa, that aims to foster innovation, responding to the needs of small-holder farmers. It does this through training researchers and students, supporting and promoting impact-oriented research, and by fostering collaborations among researchers, farmers, national agricultural research institutions, and governments.

The 19th RUFORUM AGM hosted insightful plenary sessions, engaging panel discussions, and capacity-building workshops, all aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural practices and advancing higher education in Africa.

Back-to-back with the AGM, two events related to the AU-EU HLPD´s Research and Innovation Partnership on FNSSA (Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture) took place:

Operationalising the International Research Consortium (IRC)

Brought together the 50 IRC signatories, as well as potential members and other interested R&I partnerships, to discuss the IRC’s CEA-FIRST Project. The side event served as an opportunity to enlarge the membership of the IRC and update the directory of focal persons representing the current signatories of the IRC. This Consortium is expected to play a key role in the implementation of the actions of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda pertaining to FNSSA. Learn more about the IRC.

AU-EU HLPD Working Group Meeting on FNSSA

The working group (WG) meeting proposed and discussed the new membership mandate of the WG and reflected on and provided updates on projects and programmes including: ‘Systems Africa’, ‘Horizon Europe’, the ‘Africa Knowledge Platform’, ‘Soils4Africa’ and ‘CEA-FIRST’. It also provided the opportunity to continue exploring mechanisms to promote the further de-risking and scale-up of completed FNSSA projects with great business and innovation potential. Learn more about how the African Union and the European Union aim to unlock and scale up tangible growth through the AU-EU Innovation Agenda.