Africa Lead FY 2018 Quarter 3 Public Report

Africa Lead also contributes to the Feed the Future (FTF) goals of reduced hunger and poverty by building the capacity of Champions — i.e., men and women leaders in agriculture — and the institutions in which they operate to develop, lead, and manage the policies, structures, and processes needed for transformation. Africa Lead is in its final months, preparing to close in December 2019. This Program Year Six (PY6) summary of Africa Lead covers the Program's key accomplishments from October 2018 through September 2019 – the project's final year – and serves as the report for the fourth quarter (Q4) of Africa Lead's Fiscal Year 2019 (FY2019). The report highlights Africa Lead's support, facilitation, and training to improve institutional capacity and broader systems and institutional architecture to manage agricultural transformation as well as to promote the effective, inclusive participation of non-state actors in policy processes. During its sixth and final year, Africa Lead activities also worked to promote and sustain a culture of learning and continued to build a process by which evidence can play a greater role in determining policy directions and programs in agriculture. The program supported a workshop with UNACOIS to share and validate an economic model of contracting in horticultural sectors. Africa Lead also facilitated a five-day PREG annual learning event for more than 90 participants from PREG implementing partners, national government representatives, county government representatives, various USAID Kenya technical offices, USAID South Sudan, and USAID Washington. Africa Lead is committed to a culture of learning as a strategy for ensuring steady and incremental improvements in leadership, organizational, and systems strengthening in Africa for agriculture and food security. The program strives to ensure that its Final Report will also provide a learning function – to inform its strategic approach, provide an evidence base for best practice, and reveal insights into how to better accomplish its goals. At its core, Africa Lead is a learning project, and one of its greatest assets is relevant, timely, and valuable input for adaptive management and learning for its agricultural policy partners and stakeholders. The program supported the development of a CAADP Toolkit to support communication and advocacy of the AUC's 2018 Biennial Review and preparation for 2020 Biennial Review. Africa Lead also provided funding and management support for the CAADP Development Partners Coordination Group (DPCG) Secretariat toward an improvement in the effectiveness of the platform among development partners, international financial institutions, UN technical agencies, and research and technical partners for the coordination of implementation of the CAADP agenda. The program facilitated multi-stakeholder advisory committees (MSACs) in three countries to support the improvement of value-chain related policy dialogue to increase private sector investment in agriculture.