1. News & events

StEPPFoS inception meeting – promoting policy coherence

From February 15^th to 17^th, 2024, FARA hosted the inception meeting and launch of the "Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy Practice for Sustainable Food Systems under the AUEU Partnership" (StEPPFoS) project.

The project’s main goal is to enhance policy coherence and alignment across PANAP and the Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) to reduce the fragmentation of policy initiatives in the agri-food sector at national and regional levels. Additionally the project will provide funding and support to PANAP activities, contribute to enlarge the PANAP network, offer additional capacity building opportunities and strengthen connections between researchers and policymakers.

Link to the news.

Regional Multi-Actor Research Network (RMRN) - Support to Regional Centres of Excellence related to Green Transition

From March 13^th to 15^th, 2024, FARA and RUFORUM organised the Regional Multi-actor Research Network (RMRN) Project Inception Meeting.

This initiative complements the StEPPFoS project and aims to create Sub-regional PANAP units to support the continental focal point at FARA established under the StEPPFoS project. The RMRN project will also facilitate further training of researchers and scientists on economic models for policy analysis, in particular to support agroecology.

Link to the news.

2. Spotlight

GTAP Virtual Seminar Series - GTAP and CGE Modelling in Africa - April 9^th, 2024

PANAP colleagues from the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Nigeria and COMESA secretariat will deliver short presentations at the upcoming Virtual Seminar on GTAP and CGE modelling in Africa, organized with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Attendees who are registered for the seminar will receive access to a free Africa-focused release of the GTAP 11 Database after the event.

If interested, please register for free by 07/04/2024 here.

3. Partners activities

Ghana - Workshop on the potential impact of AfCFTA on agri-food sectors and food security

On 14 February, 2024, the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) organised a validation workshop exploring the potential impacts of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Ghana's agri-food system and security at their premises at the University of Ghana in Accra.

The workshop, well attended by local stakeholders, featured engaging discussions and helped strengthen collaboration between researchers, policymakers and the private sector. Andrew Agyei-Holmes (ISSER) presented the impact assessment conducted by ISSER, with the support of the JRC, to analyse the effects of AfCFTA in Ghana. Valuable feedback from local stakeholders will enhance the quality of the final report.

Link to the news.

Nigeria - Workshop on the potential impact of AfCFTA on agri-food sectors and food security

On 21 February, 2024, a workshop, held at the headquarters of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS - the only recognised body providing evidence for the Nigerian National Assembly) in Abuja, discussed the impacts of AfCFTA on the Nigerian economy.

After stakeholder interventions by representatives of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Agriculture, exporters associations, women’s employment associations and ECOWAS on the unfolding of the AfCFTA in Nigeria, Oluwasola Omoju (NILDS) presented the impact assessment led by NILDS with the support of the JRC. A session was dedicated to an overview of the 2019 Social Accounting Matrix for Nigeria.

The workshop showed how AfCFTA policy can help address the economic challenges in Nigeria, and helped increase ownership of the results within the country.

Link to the news.

4. Upcoming events

The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit

The Summit will be jointly organized by the African Union Commission and the Republic of Kenya on May 7-9, 2024 at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC).

As a part of the Summit, opportunities are created for 35 side events over the two days on topical technical and policy subjects related to soil health and fertilizer in Africa.

To apply for hosting a side event or exhibition, visit https://sia.faraafrica.org/afsh-summit/.

5. Recent publications

PANAP recently launched the JRC Working Papers on Economic Analysis of Policies in Africa to collect works supporting continental, regional and national policymakers in Africa in designing, assessing ex-ante and evaluating ex-post the impacts of policies. It also includes works on the construction and analysis of databases and model developments to provide evidence-based policy support to partner countries among others. The series serves the objective to share the knowledge produced within PANAP.

If you are interested in publish your work, please contact us: JRC-PANAP@ec.europa.eu

Working papers:

• 2024-01 - The AfCFTA Tariff Offers: Current State and First Insights
• 2024-02 - Empowering the modelling for Policy with the 2015 Social Accounting Matrix for Tanzania
• 2024-03 - The contribution of agricultural Inputs in reducing undernourishment

Journals:

• The impacts of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the Kenyan economy: Evidence from an economy-wide model, African Development Review, 1–14.
• Agro–economic determinants of violations of protected areas in Western Africa, Land Use Policy, 138.

Policy briefs:

• Implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the Kenyan economy

For Further information

PANAP Secretariat

European Commission - Joint Research Centre

Email: JRC-PANAP@ec.europa.eu

Website: https://datam.jrc.ec.europa.eu/datam/area/PANAP

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