Accelerating digital solutions for the Agroecological Transition in Senegal. A networking and collaboration event between the ‘AgriTech’ and ‘Agroecology’ innovation communities | Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) – Yurika.R

On 30 and 31 July 2024, FAO is organising a networking and collaboration event between the ‘AgriTech’ and ‘Agroecology’ innovation communities with the aim of accelerating digital solutions for the Agroecological Transition (AET) in Senegal.

The event is being organised with the financial support of the FAO as part of the TAP-AIS project.

The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in nine countries (Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Pakistan and Colombia), in close collaboration with the countries’ technical ministries, national, regional and sub-regional organisations and networks. The project supports the implementation of the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) Action Plan 2018 – 2021 and its main objective is to strengthen the innovation capacities of key organisations and platforms or networks, which provide innovation support services, as well as to strengthen the enabling environment for agricultural innovation.

In Senegal, the TAP-AIS project is coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Equipment, Food Sovereignty and Livestock (MASAE) with technical support from FAO Senegal and the FAO Innovation Office in Rome. The TAP-AIS project supports several ongoing initiatives by MASAE and its partners to strengthen the National Agricultural Innovation System (NAIS). In particular, the aim is to strengthen collaboration between agricultural research, agricultural consultancy, agroforestry financing, higher education, and representatives of the agricultural world and civil society, to support innovators with high potential for the sustainability of agriculture. The aim is to develop the capacity of these organisations to work together, boost competitiveness, intensify agricultural innovations that meet the challenges of sustainable agricultural transformation and accelerate their scaling-up.

On a national scale, the TAP-AIS project aims to support Senegal in implementing the agroecological transition (AET), which has been on its political agenda since 2019. It will support the development of a national strategy for responsible digital innovation to accelerate the agroecological transition. The project focuses on the appropriation and deployment of methods and skills to support responsible digital innovation within key organisations in the agricultural innovation system and research and development. Priority will be given to supporting innovation communities in the fields of digital technology and agroecology, so that they can work together more effectively to design priority innovations that will enable agricultural production systems to be intensified sustainably in response to the challenges of climate change.

By bringing together a wide range of participants, including decision-makers, experts, programme designers and innovators, the event also provides a better context for connecting Agritech and AE innovation communities to initiate collaborations and structure the ecosystem for supporting digital innovations for AET.

Organizers:

FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the specialized agency of the United Nations leading international efforts to eliminate hunger. The FAO’s objective is to achieve food security for all and to ensure regular and adequate access to good-quality food to enable all people to lead an active and healthy life. With 195 members – 194 countries and the European Union – the FAO is active in 130 countries around the world.

Jengalab

Jengalab is a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates the inclusion of digital for development projects by supporting innovative partnerships between international players and local technology entrepreneurial ecosystems in partner countries. Jengalab operates in a wide range of sectors including agriculture, circular economy, climate change, disaster risk reduction, education, emergency response, health and natural resource management. Jengalab supports its partners in designing and implementing sustainable initiatives tailored to the contexts in which they operate, while at the same time harnessing the creative and entrepreneurial wealth of the communities it works with to improve their living conditions through digitalisation. JengaLab is co-organising and facilitating the event to bring together the Agritech and TAE communities, and will be responsible for consolidating all the discussions, conclusions and recommendations made at the event.

DYTAES

The ‘Dynamique pour une Transition Agroécologique au Sénégal’ (DyTAES) is a network of producers‘, consumers’ and rural women’s organisations, NGOs, research institutions, civil society networks, a network of local elected representatives and businesses, with the aim of promoting agroecological transition in Senegal through advocacy, awareness-raising, experience-sharing and support for areas in transition.

YEESAL AGRI HUB

YAH is the first hub in West Africa specialising in support and innovation in sectors such as agribusiness, Agritech and the green economy, with a team 60% made up of women and with an average age of no more than 30. Since 2017 YAH aims to create a space for sharing and stimulating the creation of innovative projects led by young people and women, and thus support the emergence of future African unicorns in these sectors.

Objectives of the event:

Part of the TAP-AIS intervention strategy is based on holding networking events between key players in the NAIS with a view to sustainability, i.e. ensuring that certain players can replicate these events beyond the TAP-AIS project to maintain a collaborative dynamic between different innovation networks and players.

The aim of the event to bring together the Agritech and AET innovation communities is to initiate collaboration and structure the ecosystem supporting digital innovations for AET and to create a space for exchange and coordination between the structures supporting digital innovation and innovations for AET to:
a) Create a shared understanding of the potential of digital innovations for AET and the obstacles to scaling them up.

b) To make visible the diversity of support structures (NGOs, banks, incubators, public services) and the various support services they offer to innovators (collaborative design, multi-actor facilitation, technical advice, pre-incubation, incubation, testing, financing, marketing, political advocacy, etc.).

c) To co-construct joint interventions between these support structures to facilitate the scaling up of digital innovations for AET.

d) Discuss policy actions that would help to better structure the ecosystem of support services for innovations in AET and provide it with effective resources for its operation.

e) Identify the challenges facing AET players and understand how digital innovation players can respond to them in a concrete way.

f) Share the results of the study on the current state of innovative initiatives in the field of digital agriculture in support of AET, and existing frameworks for supporting innovators (policies, funding, patents, incentives, etc). The aim of the study, conducted by JengaLab, is to consolidate a body of knowledge on the diversity of digital innovations in support of AET and their level of maturity in the Senegalese context. This study is part of Activity 2.6, which involves supporting a policy dialogue process to put in place a national digital innovation strategy for AET and to support promising innovation communities (ecosystems) with dedicated investment and facilities for experimenting and scaling up innovative initiatives.

The event takes place over two days. The first day is dedicated to all the players in the ecosystem, who will take part in presentations, round tables and a co-creation workshop. The second day is dedicated to AET players and Agritech innovators, to draw conclusions from the first day and work on a Guide for future collaboration.

Expected outcomes of the event:

– Examples of digital solutions for AET are presented and discussed, the challenges of scaling up are explained and approaches are proposed.

– Identification of the types of support required and existing support structures.

– Sharing good practice in collaboration between the two communities and capacity-building needs.

– Identification of coalitions of players that can come together within an integrated services platform to support promising innovations.

– Drawing up a roadmap for the Agritech community to start collaborating with AET players.

– Structuring elements for the political dialogue to set up a national digital innovation strategy for AET.

Target audience:

The event will provide a space for exchange, reflection and creation for organisations involved in the agroecological transition in Senegal, digital innovation carriers for AET, public institutions, innovation financing and support players and research centres. This is a real opportunity to focus on the issue of agroecological transition in Senegal and strengthening the digital ecosystem that can support it, to lay the foundations for future collaboration and co-construction of the entire ecosystem.