July 5, 2016, Nairobi Kenya: Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) has today announced the launch of TransformAgriculture.org, a knowledge and data portal containing data, research, reports, policy briefs and news on agriculture in Africa. The portal makes it possible to find, for the first time, data, research and news on Africa’s agriculture from multiple sources in one place. The portal is also the online home of a multi-stakeholder collective known as the Network for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (NATA).
Data and research on Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda currently resides in numerous locations spread out across the Internet. This makes discovery of insights, content and data for decision-making fairly difficult for the continent’s growing number of public, private sector and NGO experts.
TransformAgriculture.org is designed to solve this problem for members of the Network and any expert looking for data, research or news on Africa’s agricultural transformation journey. Organised along the categories used by the results framework for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), the portal will make it possible for those supporting or reporting on the CAADP Biennial Review to find the information they need. During the last quarter of 2016, additional functionality to accommodate the Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals will be provided to further improve discoverability of content within those frameworks.
Launching the portal, LDRI’s Executive Director, Muchiri Nyaggah said, “Numerous organisations at the multi-lateral or NGO level are producing data and research as part of efforts to end extreme poverty, hunger and reduce inequality in Africa. This data and research is vital for implementation of CAADP as well as the SDGs and Agenda 2063. Making it easier to find and share is therefore very important in empowering our continent’s experts to get their job done.”
Also speaking during the launch, Steve Nyumba Co-founder and Director for Technology reiterated that “TransformAgriculture.org will help to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio for those seeking data, research and news related to implementation of Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda. It is part of our commitment to support African Union member states in implementing programs such as CAADP that have transformative impact on the continent’s growing population”.
LDRI and its partners continue to add content to the portal on an almost daily basis and welcome data and content publishers wishing to use it as one of their dissemination tools.
About LDRI
Operational since 2015, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) is an action-oriented think tank whose work contributes to the efforts of African governments to end extreme poverty, end hunger and reduce inequalities. With 65% of Africa’s labor force employed in the agriculture sector (which contributes approximately 30% of the continent’s GDP), and the increasing need to achieve food sufficiency for 1.5 billion people by 2020, it is clear that agriculture will be pivotal to achieving these objectives.
LDRI is therefore focused on the role of agricultural transformation in ending hunger, poverty and inequality especially the capability of states to have and use data/statistics in decision-making on the continent.
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Contact
For more information, please contact
Wangui Muriu – Executive Assistant & Communications Officer
wangui@developlocal.org
Tel: +254 718610298
