P4D Week reiterates IITA’s commitment to go beyond research
IITA Director General, Nteranya Sanginga, addressing the participants during the opening session of P4D Week.
More than 200 scientists, development experts, and researchers from all IITA hubs, along with members of the IITA Board of Trustees, convened at IITA Headquarters in Ibadan for the 2018 Partnerships for Delivery (P4D) Week, on 26–30 November.
The 5-day event, themed, “Beyond Research,” provided an opportunity for the participants to interact, exchange ideas, and reflect on the progress made by the Institute especially on the implementation of the 2020 strategy, which led to the creation of the P4D Directorate, Youth in Agribusiness program, and the Business Incubation Platform (BIP).
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, P4D, applauded the participants for their contributions to ensure that the Institute advances in its research and delivery activities to attain impact at scale. “Even though P4D presents an opportunity for new sources of funding, R4D is the heart and soul of IITA. Therefore, the success of IITA in the future depends on results obtained from R4D and how the Institute will be able to deliver to end-users and achieve impacts.
“There is need to strengthen IITA’s capacity on the science of scaling and delivery within the Institute. To achieve that, we need to work closely with the scaling scientists, and also start mainstreaming institute-wide strategies, tools, and protocols to guide projects and increase impacts at large,” he added.
In his presentation, IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga commended the enormous progress made by the Institute in the face of limited resources, and assured participants and staff of a better and stable 2019. According to him, IITA will continue to respond to the needs of Africa by developing innovations that will provide answers to Africa’s food insecurity. To this end, IITA has been demonstrating, and will continue to demonstrate its scientific leadership not only in terms of qualitative research in the lab, but also impact in farmers’ fields.
Twenty-six presentations were made during the plenary session with focus on partnerships, delivery activities, and outscaling R4D technologies for greater impact. In addition, two panel discussions were held — the first was titled “Criteria for scaling” and the second, “Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo, powerhouses of agriculture, or hubs of poverty?”
Furthermore, there were individual and side meetings, and campus tours to the BIP, Semi-Autotrophic Hydroponics lab or the tissue culture lab, Aflasafe factory, and youth-led enterprises. The P4D Week culminated in the opening of the Tissue Culture Building that will house the commercial operations to produce clean and healthy seeds, a town hall meeting where the Board Chair, Amos Namanga Ngongi, addressed the ITA community, awards were presented to best posters in different categories, the first-ever Twitter competition organized by the Communication Unit, and the presentation of the BoT annual awards of excellence.
