IITA begins P4D week, as DG advocates greater partnership for development

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a member of the CGIAR, on Monday, began its Partnership for Development (P4D) Week 2018, drawing members of the institute’s Board, staffers, academics and agricultural experts from across the globe.

The week-long conference, apart from being the avenue for its Board Members to meet, will feature several activities including presentation of reports of the institute’s activities across the African continent, Research for Development session, meetings with individuals, unit representatives, town hall meeting as well as the commissioning of projects.

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At the opening ceremony of the P4D Week held at the IITA Conference Centre, Ibadan, on Monday, the Director-General of the IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga, welcomed the institute’s Board Members led by its Chair, Dr Amos Namanga Ngonge and other participants, emphasising how the IITA has continued to achieve excellence in research for development and impacting lives across Africa.

Sanginga, however, stressed the need to move beyond research by engaging in greater partnerships for development to enable the institute’s impacts on farmers and people across over 13 countries in the African continent to reach more people.

According to Sanginga, in his presentation entitled: “Preparing IITA for the future: Implementing the Last Phase of the IITA Strategy; 2012-2020,” it had become imperative for the organisation to look beyond its many achievements of the past into the future by engaging in new projects and avoiding complacency, while also charting a fresh course of exploring new sources of funding.

Speaking earlier in his opening remarks, the Deputy Director-General in charge of the P4D Directorate, Ken Dashiell, stated that the meeting was important because it would allow participants to reenergise themselves and to build the momentum for the future, adding that the IITA was “being highly innovative in Research for Development and Partnership for Development” and that a lot of institutions were watching.

Dashiell added that the institute was already recognised as a top CGIAR Centre in Africa, with investors requesting that it should lead both the R4D and P4D efforts of groups of CGIAR centres in the continent, a position that was corroborated by the IITA DG, Sanginga, who listed the scorecard of the institute for the year 2018, reliving how it won the Africa Food Prize Award in September 2018, among other excellent recognitions being accorded the institute for its impact in agriculture, food security and reduction of poverty in the African continent.

Other speakers at the day one of the event including Alfred Dixon, Evelyn Ohanwusi, Mary Thiong’o and Robert Asiedu, among others, touched on several topics bordering on scaling out of technologies and knowledge for sustainability, enhancing the growth of youth-led agricultural initiatives and technology delivery in West Africa hub.