Written June 2009
Countries: pan-Africa
Dr. Rudolf Guyer, executive president of CropLife Africa Middle East, and Dr. Marjatta Eilittä, director of IFDC’s North and West Africa Division (NWAFD), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a renewable five-year term. This partnership will build on the previous accomplishments of the first MoU between CropLife and IFDC (signed in April 2004). The partnership will provide support for farmers involved in agro-processing.
“We are pleased to work with IFDC toward global sustainability based on the targets put forth by the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development,” Guyer said. “Substantial progress has been made in bringing the theme of agriculture back to the development agenda.”
“The original collaboration with CropLife five years ago came from the shared conviction that the safe and appropriate use of inputs is the key to increasing agricultural productivity in Africa,” said Eilittä.
Some highlights of the previous five years include:
- 13 Training of Trainers (ToT) and follow-up courses were facilitated.
- 8 Master Trainers were trained to facilitate ToTs in English, French and Arabic in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria and Tunisia.
- A ToT manual and an agro-dealer manual on the safe use of crop protection products (CPPs) and integrated pest management (IPM) were developed.
- Agro-input dealer associations were strengthened.
- There was collaboration on harmonization of regulations at the regional level.
Plans for the future partnership include:
- One IFDC staff member will work 50 percent of the time for CropLife as an association specialist to coordinate training programs, evaluate training efforts, coach Master Trainers and assist in starting IPM courses in Africa and the Middle East.
- IFDC will support national CropLife associations to be more active in the Africa Stockpile Program (ASP). The ASP is a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to clean up obsolete pesticide stockpiles in Africa, prevent future toxic threats from such stocks and protect livelihoods and the environment. Partners include participant countries, CropLife International, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, PAN-Africa, PAN-United Kingdom, the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund.
Guyer expressed his thanks to Rob Groot, IFDC’s director for East and Southern Africa, and CropLife’s Yves Demeure, who pioneered the initial cooperation. Appreciation was also expressed to Bama Yao of CropLife and to IFDC’s Manon Dohmen.