Agriculture, food and nutrition security remains a key concern in Africa yet it contributes significantly to employment, exports and on average a quarter of Gross Domestic Product especially in Sub-Saharan Africa economies. There is still rampant hunger in Africa and the continent spends on annual food imports, a bill of $35 billion with projections of up to $110 billion by 2025. This is compounded by existing challenges such as climate change, locust invasion, conflict and emerging crises such as COVID 19. Africa and Europe continue to face relatively similar challenges in the agri-food sector and this has shaped their partnership since the first Africa-Europe Summit in 2000 with emphasis on application of science, technology and innovation in the agriculture sector and related sectors. The focus on science, technology and innovation lies within the mandate of universities to train the human resource required to deliver on Africa’s aspirations such as Agenda 2063, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (STISA-2024) among other frameworks. Universities are thus well placed to provide technical expertise in generating evidence for policy making, implementing and co-creating evidence from practice for improvement of future Africa-Europe partnership strategic frameworks, policies and programmes.

RUFORUM has been running Webinars during the COVID-19 lockdown period to galvanise dialogue on how different actors can engage with African Universities to explore response to existing and emerging development questions. Webinar 10 held on 7th September, 2020 focused on Engaging African Universities in Advancing Agricultural and Food and Nutrition Security in Africa: Policy Perspective. This report covers points of action and emerging issues from the dialogue.

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