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PD/A CRSP Principal Investigator Contributes to Sub-Saharan Africa Workshop

Nancy Gitonga, head of the Kenya Department of Fisheries and a PD/A CRSP principal investigator. Photo by: Gwyn Newcombe

Nancy Gitonga, a PD/A CRSP Principal Investigator and head of the Kenya Department of Fisheries, accepted an invitation from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) to attend the sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) Formulation Workshop 10–13 March 2003 in Accra, Ghana.

“Challenge Programs” in a wide range of fields are initiatives funded by the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) that are intended to “address global constraints to poverty alleviation and natural resource management.”

FARAs pre-proposal, entitled “Improving Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management in Sub-Saharan Africa,” was approved for full development in October 2002. The FARA Challenge Program will facilitate new partnerships between national agricultural research and extension systems, the CGIAR centers, advanced research institutes, nongovernmental organizations, farmer organizations and private enterprise. Program managers are taking the next step now—developing the full proposal. FARAs comprehensive approach to engaging stakeholders includes the Program Formulation workshop as one component.

The broad aim of FARAs proposal is to break “the unsustainability spiral that dominates agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa at the individual farmer’s level, local level and regional level.”

This goal closely matches those of the PD/A CRSP. Gitonga contributed significantly towards meeting the objectives of the workshop, which was entitled “Securing the Future For Africa’s Children.” Specifically, she was invited to prepare a position paper as a member of the FARA SSA CP taskforce. The draft position paper proposed hypotheses in three areas:
• integrated natural resource management;
• sustainable market chains; and
• aquaculture.

Attending the workshop were farmers’ groups, universities, and research organizations. The first two days of the meeting were occupied with discussion on how various interests were to be represented in the full proposal. Gitonga actively promoted the agenda for fisheries, including aquaculture, and is committed to ensuring that fisheries and aquaculture remain significant features of the final proposal.

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