Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development (PAIRED)

Over the past decade, the Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricoles (CORAF) has received support from United States Agency for International Development/West Africa (USAID/WA) that boosted the institution’s convening capacity to carry out research and development interventions and increased availability of improved technologies, including quality seeds, to millions of farmers. However, insufficient attention to its organizational sustainability caused a financial crisis to CORAF and threatened its mere existence beyond 2018, unless significant efforts were made to restructure the organization. CORAF and USAID partnership is underpinned by the conviction that regional approaches and interventions are efficient as an added value to national efforts in reaching out to millions of people whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and whose socio-cultural and economic circumstances are similar. The current program, Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development (PAIRED) in West and Central Africa, funded by USAID was designed to undertake the needed restructuring, with the aim of transforming CORAF into a structurally sound and financially stable organization to lead agricultural research and innovation in West and Central Africa. The specific objective of PAIRED is enhanced institutional leadership of CORAF in increasing agricultural productivity, which is pursued through the following three intermediate results (IRs, also called components) that are mutually reinforcing and addressing issues on enabling conditions for sustainable and efficient operation of CORAF as an institution: IR1 – CORAF’s Capacity strengthened for effective coordination of agricultural research and development in West (and Central) Africa, notably in building partnerships for delivering impact at scale; IR2 – CORAF’s leadership in scaling Agri-input T&Is established in West Africa and IR3 – Use of quality Agri-inputs in West Africa increased.

PAIRED NEWS

PAIRED SENSITIZATION VISITS

Wilhelm Kutah16/06/2020PAIRED207

PAIRED SENSITIZATION VISITS CSIR-SARI in its implementation of the PAIRED project undertook a sensitization visit to its project communities in the Savanna, Upper East, and Upper West regions. The visit was aimed at introducing the community members to the PAIRED project and its activities. Farmers were briefed on the concept of Innovation Platforms and the… ...