About Us
ICRAF-Southern Africa
ICRAF-Southern Africa operates the importance “Chinyanja Triangle” which encompasses parts of Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Apart from being a hunger hotspot, the common language, market, and culture among rural dwellers in this area make it an important target for agroforestry.
The Southern Africa region has been in a downward spiral of food and nutrition insecurity and poverty due to soil fertility depletion, population pressure, and natural resource degradation. These problems have been made more unpredictable by climate change.
Research and development activities of ICRAF – Southern Africa began in 1986, in all the countries except Mozambique, the latter was added in 2001. The regional office began first at Chitedze, and then moved to Makoka (1997), Harare (1999), and Maputo (2005) before returning to back Chitedze in 2007. Until 2006, Southern Africa was the second-biggest region in ICRAF with over 60 regular employees in five countries; the restructuring exercise that began in 2005 reduced the number to 19 employees by 2007. Funding fell from US$3.5 million annually to US$600,000 during the same period. It was in the midst of that dilemma that the regional office in Malawi started. Two scientists had just moved from Zambia to Malawi in 2006.
In 2007 a regional Innovation Bazaar was held to revitalize the activities of the region following the downsizing. Thanks to Tony and Dennis, a funding increase followed a grant from Irish Aid in January 2007.
In spite of this setback, ICRAF – Southern Africa has made a significant contribution to R4D during the past two decades. The regional goal has been to generate agroforestry knowledge and foster its use and impact on livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the environment through improved livelihood and environmental strategies (see figure below). The regional objectives related to these strategies align with the six global research priorities of ICRAF.
Figure 1: ICRAF -– Southern Africa Goals
The region has gone through a sequence R4D since the 1980s. It started diagnostic design (D&D) which involved surveys, brainstorming, and analysis, and then shortlisted the best bet options. Afterwards there was a divergence in views, and answered questions on all the technologies. The first generation of research took place on-station; the second took place on-farm.
During 2000 to 2007 pilot scaling-up projects were implemented in the region. The impact assessment showed that there was significant up-scaling in the countries, and hundreds of thousands of farmers had tested or used diverse agroforestry technologies in the region. With the advent of AFSP, we have initiated massive scaling up in Malawi at district level, and 200,000 farmers are targeted.
Human resource capacity has also increased from 19 in 2007 to currently more than 30, with possibility of further increase in the next years, although it is not hoped that every country will grown to its previous levels, but rather to a strategic capacity. Approach has also shifted from our direct implementation to leveraging partner’s capacity.
The core value of the centre is quality science and impact. The region excels in the two areas. ICRAF’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has continued to recognize the work in the region. The region was visited by the BOT in April 2010, for the first time in the last 12 years! Total publications increased. The increase in publications/US$ and per scientist is not the result of the reduction in the number of scientists, but rather due to a determination by the team to increase corporate performance in number of IPG and science quality. There is need to focus on quality research that contributes to impact. Both impact factor and citations! GRP alignment is compulsory: everything must contribute to one or more GRP. All scientists, NRS and support staff are encouraged to think science in whatever we do; and must consider the essentials (relevance, salience, credibility) of our work.
The purpose of research is to achieve impact on the beneficiaries. By end of 2006, the CIDA end of project report indicated that 480,000 farmers had used various AF technologies in five countries (Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi). More than 60 postgraduate students were supported by the region in the last decade. More than 150 publications were produced, of which 50% were produced in the last 4 years. Starting from 2007, massive scaling up was initiated in Malawi through support from the Irish Aid on Food Security. The project targets 200,000 farmers in Malawi by 2010.
Looking Forward
The region has witnessed two extremes of financial overflow and austerity in the last decade, now it is stabilizing gradually. The science has continued to be solid and has greater potential for impact than ever before. Attracting scientists with scientific reputation in their portfolio as visiting scientists, volunteers, secondment and very good postgraduate students will help deliver quality IPG. There is increasing opportunity to attract new funding in the region—we need to capture development funds without compromising science quality. The strong partnership built in the region over the years can provide a strong platform for mega-initiatives. We need a proactive way of enthusing policy makers in mainstreaming agroforestry.
