Australian International Food Security Centre

A young boy standing amongst his family's maize crop in Ethiopia involved in ACIAR's SIMLESA program. Photo: M. Gyles An African smallholder and her daughter feed their cattle on an Ethiopian farm involved in ACIAR's SIMLESA program. Photo: M.Gyles Kenyan farmers are set to benefit from the new Centre. Photo: M.Gyles

New Director appointed

The AIFSC has appointed its first Director, Ms Mellissa Wood comes to ACIAR from the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust, where for two years she was Director of Operations, and for the three years prior was their Director of Program Development. In these roles she has worked with many partners, in Africa, and engaged with global institutions, including the CGIAR/World Bank System-wide Genetic Resources Program. Prior to joining the Trust Mellissa worked as Program Leader, Information and Risk Sciences, in the Bureau of Rural Sciences within the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In that role Mellissa managed the establishment of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis. She holds a BSc in Resource Environmental Management from the Australian National University. Mellissa has experience working on natural resource management issues, through the analysis and modelling of spatial data (GIS), particularly in progressing forest and vegetation monitoring and sustainability reporting. She has worked with international Governments, the Australian Commonwealth and state governments, the forest industry and with national NGOs and farmer groups. This key appointment is an important step, and one that is welcomed, in the successful delivery of the AIFSC.

Centre development

The AIFSC is undertaking consultations with African and Australian stakeholders to identify priorities for its programs. In February an ACIAR-led delegation visited a range of African regional and national research institutes in South Africa, Kenya and Ghana. The key objectives were to open a dialogue on the scope of the centre, and to obtain views on preferred thematic research priorities from African agricultural research representatives. The delegation was enthusiastically received by African counterparts who welcomed the new initiative and its ability to link the strengths of Australian agricultural research capacity to African food security challenges. A broad range of issues were discussed identifying a number of common threads and concurrence of views on thematic research priorities between agencies. This broad concurrence of views will facilitate early action by the new AIFSC within ACIAR to commence collaborative research undertakings and partnerships in the next few weeks as a first stage action.

Consultations

The joint FARA-ACIAR consultation in Accra comprised a selected range of senior representatives covering pan-African and sub-regional agricultural research organisations, farmer organisations, universities, NGOs and regional economic organisations. It was a focussed event which helped to identify high-impact cross-cutting agricultural research themes. These can now be progressed by AIFSC to deliver early research partnerships, while also developing longer term collaborative arrangements with African and other partners under the broader thematic research priorities, including capacity building at research, extension and farmer levels. More widely the delegation members met with selected individual country research institutes (NARS), a number of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres, the Jomo Kenyatta University, New Partnerships for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and several bilateral donors including USAID and DFID. A separate meeting was also held with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya

Next steps

The next steps will be to consolidate the feedback from the mission to Africa to further develop the thematic research priorities communicated by African organizations in relation to different farming systems and country groups, together with Australian comparative advantages and capabilities as a basis for early research action and partnerships. In March 2012 members of the ACIAR Commission on International Agricultural Research will meet with African (and international) research institutions contributing to food security in Tanzania and Kenya. In April-May 2012 follow up thematic working group meetings will be held in Africa to develop research focus and confirm operational partnerships, followed by an International Conference on African Food Security which will be held at a suitable location to formalise at senior levels the directions and systems for future ongoing Australia/Africa research partnerships.

How the centre is operating

Food security remains a challenge in many African nations, particularly in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. The new Centre is linking Australian researchers, tertiary education institutions and international experts to focus on the needs of African partner countries. Priority areas are emerging through consultation processes. An initial Australian stakeholder workshop endorsed the broad approach of the centre, fostering ‘hands-on’ research and learning partnerships, with wider ranging partnership arrangements, longer term research commitments based on principles of cooperative contribution and collaboration linking Australian, African and international research and development agencies. Capacity building of agricultural research institutions is examining a mix of short course, postgraduate and other tertiary education options, to provide training for African researchers and research institution managers. The first major activity for the Centre, an international conference on African food security will bring together the outcomes of consultations on the research priorities the Centre is currently identifying. This process is bringing together a range of Australian and African research partners, together with international experts to identify opportunities for cooperation. The Conference will be held in the second half of 2012.

Presentations

Dr Nick Austin presentation to FARA workshop 10 February 2012  CAADP presentation at Fara Feb 10 2012  FARA-ACIAR consultation slides  Priorities for Research to Improve Food Security in Africa  The Case for Capacity Building: Towards Agricultural Development in Africa  

View more presentations from ACIAR

More Information

The Centre is established through ACIAR. Until the new Centre begins operations, ACIAR is the contact point for the Centre. ACIAR telephone: + 61 2 6217 0500 ACIAR email: aifsc [at] aciar [dot] gov [dot] au Download the official media release from the Prime Minister below. Click on the related links for more information of the Australian International Food Security Centre. Register your interest in the new Food Security Centre