Our History
Background
AKADEMIYA2063 was established to continue and expand the portfolio of policy research and capacity-strengthening support for the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), initiated and previously incubated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). This portfolio included three main programs: the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), the African Growth and Development Policy Modeling Consortium (AGRODEP), and the Malabo Montpellier Panel (MaMo Panel).
Building African capacity and institutions has long been a goal of the African Union Commission (AUC), IFPRI, and development partners. From the outset, the ultimate objective was to transfer and institutionalize the ReSAKSS, AGRODEP, and MaMo Panel programs within an Africa-based organization. The initial target was 2014; however, at that time, the AUC and its partners were immersed in renewing commitments to CAADP. In consultation with the AUC and with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a new target was set to transition the programs by 2020. AKADEMIYA2063 was launched in July of that year to advance the vision of “an Africa with the expertise we need, for the Africa we want,” culminating in the successful transfer of the programs from IFPRI.
About AKADEMIYA2063
AKADEMIYA2063 is a pan-African non-profit research organization with headquarters in Kigali, Rwanda, and a regional office in Dakar, Senegal.
Inspired by the ambitions of Agenda 2063 and grounded in the recognition of the central importance of strong knowledge and evidence systems, the vision of AKADEMIYA2063 is an Africa with the expertise we need for the Africa we want. This expertise must be responsive to the continent’s needs for data and analysis to ensure high-quality policy design and execution. Inclusive, evidence-informed policymaking is key to meeting the continent’s development aspirations, creating wealth, and changing livelihoods for the better.
AKADEMIYA2063’s overall mission is to create, across Africa and led from its headquarters in Rwanda, state-of-the-art technical capacities to support the efforts of the Member States of the African Union to achieve the key goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063: transforming national economies to boost growth and prosperity. Following from its vision and mission, the main goal of AKADEMIYA2063 is to help meet Africa’s needs at the continental, regional, and national levels in terms of data, analytics, and mutual learning for the effective implementation of Agenda 2063 and the realization of its outcomes by a critical mass of countries. AKADEMIYA2063 strives to meet its goals through programs organized under five strategic areas—policy intelligence, knowledge systems, data intelligence and governance—as well as partnerships and communication and outreach activities.
Flagship Programs
AKADEMIYA2063 houses seven Africa-wide programs—the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), the African Growth and Development Policy (AGRODEP) Modeling Consortium, the Malabo Montpellier Panel, Africa Agriculture Watch (AAgWa), the African Mitigation and Adaptation Review (AfMAR), the Africa Trade Outlook Portal (AfTOP), and the Food System Crisis Observatory and Response (FS-COR) mechanism—to support implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and advance effective, evidence-based development policies across the continent. Our flagship programs, projects, and outreach activities strengthen knowledge systems, promote evidence-informed policymaking, drive agricultural and economic transformation, and ultimately contribute to achieving the aspirations of the African Union’s Agenda 2063—The Africa We Want.
ReSAKSS—Established in 2006, the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) supports efforts to promote evidence- and outcome-based policy planning and implementation. ReSAKSS provides data and related analytical and knowledge products to facilitate CAADP benchmarking, review, and mutual learning processes. AKADEMIYA2063 leads the work of ReSAKSS in partnership with AUC, AUDA-NEPAD, and leading Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
ReSAKSS provides technical support to the CAADP BR process, including tracking progress on over 40 CAADP core indicators to facilitate benchmarking, review, and mutual learning through an interactive website and a flagship Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR), the official CAADP monitoring and evaluation report, which presents analysis on a feature topic of strategic importance to the CAADP agenda each year. In addition to strengthening data systems to improve BR data quality and capacities, ReSAKSS also supports the establishment and strengthening of comprehensive agriculture joint sector reviews (JSRs).
AGRODEP—The African Growth and Development Policy (AGRODEP) Modeling Consortium is enabling a critical mass of world-class economic modelers across Africa to take a leading role in addressing the continent’s strategic development issues, including helping meet the analytical needs of CAADP. AGRODEP facilitates the use of economic modeling tools, promotes access to data, and provides training, research grants, and networking opportunities to a group of Africa-based experts, equally supporting collaboration between these experts and their peers outside the continent to build a dynamic research community that can respond to the continent’s emerging and long-term needs.
AGRODEP network members also contribute to the Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM), an annual flagship report dedicated exclusively to African agricultural trade and policies, which is produced and published under the AGRODEP and ReSAKSS programs.
Malabo Montpellier Panel—The Malabo Montpellier Panel convenes 13 leading experts in agriculture, engineering, ecology, nutrition, and food security. It aims to facilitate policy choices by African governments to accelerate progress toward food security and improved nutrition. The Panel identifies areas of progress and positive change across the continent, assesses what successful countries have done differently, and highlights institutional and policy innovations, as well as program interventions that can best be replicated and scaled by other countries.
The associated Malabo Montpellier Forum provides a platform to promote policy innovation; it uses the evidence produced by the Panel to facilitate dialogue among high-level decision-makers on African agriculture, nutrition, and food security.
Africa Agriculture Watch—Launched in 2021, Africa Agriculture Watch (AAgWa) is a web-based platform that employs cutting-edge machine learning techniques and satellite data to predict agricultural production for 11 crops across nearly 50 African countries, supporting monitoring, crisis management, and effective intervention planning at the local community level.
Harnessing and deploying AI and remote sensing provides opportunities to leverage innovative tools to fill the data gaps across Africa’s agrifood systems in terms of quality, accessibility, and timeliness. The capabilities embedded in AI and remote sensing for tracking and measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other geo-biophysical parameters are crucial for well-informed mitigation and adaptation policies.
AfMAR, AfTOP, and FS-COR—AKADEMIYA2063 recently transitioned three initiatives into its flagship program portfolio. These include: the African Mitigation and Adaptation Review (AfMAR) digital platform, which provides a unified and comprehensive tracking system to monitor countries’ progress in implementing climate change initiatives; the Africa Trade Outlook Portal (AfTOP), a centralized, user-friendly, and interactive online platform that provides data and analytics on global and regional African trade in agricultural and food commodities; and the Food System Crisis Observatory and Response (FSCOR) mechanism designed to provide insights on high-risk and vulnerable communities to assess the potential impacts of shocks on their nutritional status. These programs aim to provide policymakers and other stakeholders with high-quality data and analytics to support climate action, strengthen responses to market shocks, and facilitate better-targeted policy interventions to improve resilience.
