From 17-19 October, over 170 seed sector professionals from African and global organisations gathered in Kigali, Rwanda for the ISSD Africa Synthesis Conference.
The conference enabled attendees to harvest, share discuss and debate innovations in policy and practice that contribute to seed sector transformation in Africa.
Synthesising diverse insights from action research
As the synthesis event for this phase of ISSD Africa, the conference saw sharing and reflection on the key activities and outputs of the ISSD Africa action research topic teams. These teams were joined by partner initiatives, hosting sessions on specific insights and innovations from their own programmes.
The conference programme was based on a schedule of 15 parallel topical sessions and plenary synthesis sessions. Each session was based on the action research and project activities of the respective teams/organisations. All interactive sessions were designed to encourage attendees to test and validate shared insights against their own experiences and contexts.
Conference objectives
In plenary, conference attendees agreed that the conference objectives have been achieved, namely;
- Harvest, share and discuss the innovations in policy and practice from ISSD Africa and partner programme activities, exploring their application in various countries and regions, and discussing specific insights emerging from the topics;
- Contextualise innovations and emerging insights from ISSD Africa and partner programme activities and explore scaling modalities and barriers;
- Based on emerging insights, improve current and inform new perspectives guiding African seed sector transformation;
- Encourage connection, understanding and collaboration amongst diverse African and global seed sector stakeholders.
Outcomes and next steps
The conference deliberations have delivered a set of guiding perspectives for advancing seed sector transformation in Africa. Members of the conference synthesis commitee continue to refine and focus these, and together with the conference organisers and the ISSD africa coordination unit, these will be documented and shared.
These perspectives will form the basis for the Third ISSD Africa Communiqué. An online presentation event for this Communiqué is anticipated for February 2023, the closure of this phase of ISSD Africa. Between now and then, conference attendees will have the opportunity to give their input.
Downloads
Below you can access conference content, including posters, presentations, recommended reading and conference participant information.