Quick Takes

AfDB Partners AGRF

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has returned as a top-tier partner of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) – Africa’s largest agriculture conference – to be held online for the first time. The event holds from September 8th to 11th, 2020, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tenth annual AGRF will be headlined by African Heads of State and Government, and will bring together delegates from governments, civil society, the private sector and research communities. AGRF 2020 is hosted by the Government of Rwanda and the AGRF Partners Group. “As COVID-19 causes disruptions across Africa, we must prioritise policy support, especially for small and medium enterprises that produce, process and market 60 per cent of food consumed on the continent”, the Bank’s Acting Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Wambui Gichuri said. “We need to enhance movement of input sand food, increase production of and access to healthy and nutritious foods, establish food security task forces in countries, as well as strengthen regional organisation capacity to monitor multi-country initiatives. AGRF is the platform to move these policy conversations forward”. Gichuri leads the Bank’s “digital delegation” to AGRF, which also includes Atsuko Toda, Director for Agricultural Finance and Rural Development; Martin Fregene, Director for Agriculture and Agroindustry; Esther Dassanou, Coordinator of the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for the Women of Africa initiative( AF A WA ), and Ed son Mpyisi, Coordinator of the Bank’s Enable Youth program. The Bank delegation will take part in nine AGRF sessions. “Feeding Africa’s growing population is not just about producing more food. It’s also about getting food to people who need it most. We support entrepreneurs along food system value chains helping to make that happen”, Toda said.