P4D workshop West Afrika The development of new partnership models for agricultural research is at the heart of this initiative. These new partnerships consider sustainable institutional arrangements between farmers, farmer networks, researchers and other key stakeholders, to jointly setresearch priorities, build capacities and conduct action to adapt and improve existing crop varieties, develop new ones and increase the access and use of crop diversity to smallholder farmers in different settings. It is a partnership formed byOxfam, the French Agricultural Research and Cooperation Organization (CIRAD) and the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP)

This long-term collaboration therefore aims to focus on:

• Experimental research partnerships in which new models of collaboration can be explored. The idea is for farmers, researchers and other stakeholder to strengthen their capacities to jointly develop and increase the availability of crop varietal diversity that serves the needs of smallholder farmers and their communities.
• A paradigm shift to promote a change in policy makers’, researchers’, and farmers’ attitudes,  and ways of working to contribute to mutual understanding, respect and collaboration as a basis for institutional innovation.
• Policy and institutional reforms that lead to changes in the governance of agricultural research and markets to enable an increased access and use of varietal diversity.

Timeline of expected project stages:

1. Exploratory phase (8 months. Late 2022 to Mid-2023): Map systems and stakeholders and co-create proposal for a pilot phase.
2. Pilot phase. (Duration to be decided. Expected start by late 2023): Carry out an initial test of collaboration models and collect lessons for longer term project phase.
3. Long-term project (2024 -2029 and beyond): Work together towards achieving changes in crops, policies and paradigms.

The current project refers to stage 1, the exploratory phase. The exploratory phase is intended to identify regional partners, organizations and networks in Senegal, Uganda and neighbouring countries (tbd) and to jointly map seeds systems and their challenges. Two regional workshops will be held in Uganda and Senegal to understand existing tools, methodologies, and ways of working and to design innovative models of farmer-research partnerships. This will provide the foundation for a pilot phase.

A main outcome of the workshops will be a project proposal for a pilot phase to test innovative models of collaboration among the coalition members, their partners and other stakeholders. The hypotheses and models for collaboration validated or revised in the pilot phase should then provide the framework for a multi-year project involving the consortium institutions and their partners.

The exploratory phase will focus on Uganda and Senegal, while keeping a regional emphasis: similarities in agroecological, geographical,cultural, socio-political, and institutional contexts are seen as an opportunity to spread innovations and reach scale. Senegal would provide an entry point to the West Africa region, and Uganda for East Africa. Findings will be shared on a regional level with other partners and, where possible, implemented in coalition members’ existing programs.