Translating Research to Action: Opportunities for Evidence Based Scaling of Agri-Food Systems Innovations

The Regional partner meeting focused on identifying opportunities and strategies for evidence-based scaling of agri-food system innovations (individually and/or in bundles). Scaling of innovations requires a shift to a systems perspective. Successful scaling thus needs the support of sound policies and a pro-active private sector.

The meeting began with a session to set the stage followed by a series of panel sessions, in the form of science and policy dialogues, aimed at prioritizing knowledge needs and deepening understanding of actions to enable scaling. The topics ranged from inclusive and sustainable agriculture led economic growth to strengthened resilience and food systems transformation actions including reducing food loss and waste and ensuring food safety and making nutritious foods accessible and affordable with the goal of supporting a well-nourished population, especially women and children.  This meeting also served as an opportunity to identify avenues for aligning agri-food system actions to climate actions as recommended in the BIFAD commissioned report on operationalizing USAID’s climate strategy

We anticipate that the discussions and learning at this Regional Partners’ Meeting will set the stage for a deeper dive, during and potentially in the run-up to the Annual Meeting, on how ILs collectively can organize their work to have greater scaling impact.