FANRPAN: Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network

The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is a multi-stakeholder, multi-national policy network that supports the development and implementation of better food, agriculture and national resources (FANR) policies in Africa.


The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) was established  in 1994, when the Ministers of Agriculture from Eastern and Southern Africa saw the need for an independent policy input to address chronic food insecurity and the challenges of managing natural resources.  

In 2003 FANRPAN was officially registered as a private voluntary organization (PVO) in Zimbabwe, although it has since moved its regional secretariat office to Pretoria, South Africa where it operates as a fully-fledged international office with diplomatic status.

Since 2005, FANRPAN has pioneered regional learning and knowledge sharing and acquisition in agricultural and food security policy analysis and advocacy, as well as research and formulation of priority Africa agricultural research themes, initially in Southern and Eastern Africa, and latterly extending its contribution and reach to continental and global levels.

FANRPAN achieves this through facilitating linkages and partnerships between government and civil society, building the capacity for policy analysis and policy dialogue in Africa and supporting demand-driven policy research and analysis.

Currently, FANRPAN is present in 17 African countries and has a network that includes universities, research institutes, the business sector, farmer groups and other civil society organizations that have a stake in FANR policies. These latter are promoted by: 

1. facilitating linkages and partnerships between government and civil society;

2. building the capacity for policy analysis and policy dialogue in Africa;

3. supporting demand-driven policy research and analysis.

The cornerstone of FANRPAN’s distinctive approach to innovation and learning for policy and capacity development at regional and national levels includes the following:

promotion of the development of appropriate food and agricultural policies in order to fight hunger and food insecurity and to reduce poverty;

enhancing of action cycle of food security in Africa;

promotion of sustainable agricultural development in Africa.

In February 2016 FANRPAN has been ranked 13 out of 92 in Sub-Saharan Africa and 55 out of 175 globally in the 2015 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (TTI), led by the University of Pennsylvania through its Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP).

FANRPAN - as a member of the Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA) - is conducting Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) case studies in Tanzania and Malawi under a broader project on  Perspectives on Climate-Smart Agriculture from Across the Globe: Climate-smart Case Studies. All reviewers will be appropriately acknowledged in the final case study report that will be published by the GACSA coordinating unit at FAO.

In December 2015, FANRPAN – together with CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) – presented its ideas and work in progress at the side event: From farmers’ fields to landscapes: Food security in a new climate regime? and during other sections of the  Global Landscapes Forum: Launching the new climate and development agenda.

At the 6th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (28 October, 2015, Kampala, Uganda),  FANRPAN and Consortium partners announced its new regional initiative Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU) which focuses on how agricultural programs can improve nutrition outcomes through optimized agricultural investments.

Other projects with participation of FANRPAN could be viewed here.

Different resources types – such as Annual Reports, Events, Newsletters, Policy Briefs, Press Releases, Reports, Resources,  Video, Workshop Reports  – produced by FANRPAN could be viewed here.


Sources:

Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) website:
http://www.fanrpan.org/
PHM-SSA Newsletter, FANRPAN, 10 February 2016
@FANRPAN on Twitter

See also:

The  Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA)  hosted by FAO
The AFRICA PORTAL - online library collection, holding over 5,000 books, journals, and digital documents related to African policy issues

Save the date:

5-8 April 2016, GCARD3 Global Event: Global conference on agricultural research for development, South Africa
26 April 2016, Global Food Security Symposium 2016, Washington, DC