1. Theme 4: An Evolving Organizational Architecture for
African R&D
John Lynam
IAAE Symposium on Improving Returns to Agricultural
Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Foz do Iguaçu | 20 August 2012

2. African R&D: The Small Country Problem
 Economies with an agrarian structure
 Characterized by low research capacity and vulnerability
to funding volatility
 8 of the larger countries have driven recent growth in the
performance of agricultural research, accounting for two-
thirds of investment and capacity during the 2001–08
period.
 For the remaining countries—most invest less than $25
million PPP dollars per year and employ fewer than 300
FTE researchers each.
 Lack of economies of scale and scope in agricultural R&D

3. Comparison of research systems
Sub-
Saharan United
Africa Brazil China India States
Indicators 2008 2006 2007 2003 2008
Arable and permanent crop area
(million hectares) 205 69 122 170 166
Population (million) 821 188 1,317 1,064 304
Agricultural labor force (million) 186 12 505 249 3
Agricultural GDP (billion 2005
PPP dollars) 285,567 72,735 743,538 396,585 151,928
Number of public agricultural
research agenciesa 353 130 1,105 131 51
Number of public agricultural
researchers (FTEs) 12,120 5,376 70,000 13,089 9,965
Share of researchers with a PhD
degree (percent)b 30 75 <30 55 100
Annual public spending on
agricultural R&D (million 2005
PPP dollars) 1,741 1,307 3,626 1,426 4,825
Source: Flaherty et al. 2011

4. The Theory in Organizing Regional Research
 There are scale economies to be had from regional
cooperation given many small countries (& many that are
landlocked)
 Given similar resource endowments and constraints,
investments in one country have the potential to
generate externalities (spillovers) in neighboring
countries, and
 Many applied research themes extend beyond national
boundaries
 Diverse economies in the region offer great potential to
spur growth through greater trade linkages

5. Building Blocks of the Regional Architecture
CGIAR All 15 CGIAR centers have activities in SSA, four of them
have their hq in SSA. Nowadays, half of the CGIAR budget
is spent on SSA.
FARA Established in 2001 with the SROs as the founding
members. FARA took over from SPAAR, which operated
under World Bank auspices between 1987 and 2001.
ASARECA Established in 1992.
CARDESA Established in 2011, but preceded by SADC-FANR (2001-
2011) and SACCAR (1984-2001).
CORAF Established in 1987. Initially only covering French-speaking
countries. Since 1995, however, membership also open to
English and Portuguese speaking countries in West Africa.
NARS Some 48 – varying very strongly in size and strength

6. Expenditure on Agricultural Research
Research Organization 2010 Expenditure
(Million US Dollars)
NARS 1,700
CGIAR 336
FARA 20
ASARECA 15
CORAF 9
Source: Roseboom 2011

7. The Reality in Organizing Regional Research
 Well functioning NARI’s critical to generating spillovers
and adapting spill ins
 Testing networks and functional institutional linkages
necessary for organizing and targeting regional research
spillovers
 Financing is essential for regional research
 A degree of sub-regional, NARI specialization required to
generate benefits from regional research
 History of national governments investing in regional
research is limited by free rider problem, eg WARDA

8. A Vision for Regional Agricultural R&D
 A functional division of labor at international and
national level (research capacity at SRO level?)
 Sub-regional research networks provide a platform for
adaptation and targeting of research outputs
 Efficient adaptive research system linked to private sector
and civil society innovation capacity
 Commitments of national governments to sustainable
funding of effective research capacity
 The CAADP process provides a framework for donor
funding of agricultural R&D

9. Three Approaches to Regional Research
 Prior to 2007, SRO’s coordinating CGIAR research
networks
-- Commodity-based sub-regional networks fostered
division of labor and capacity for spill ins
 Post-2007, SRO’s programmatic structure organized
around competitive grants
-- Competitive grants do not address capacity constraints
nor sub-regional division of labor
 World Bank regional EAAPP/WAAPP funding to “centers
of excellence”
-- Mandated “centers of excellence” have a checkered
history and sustainability of funding a question mark

10. NARI Capacity and Differentiation
 Effective and differentiated NARI capacity is essential for
regional approaches
 Differences in country investment leading to 8 large
national systems and “the rest”
 Large countries more successful in competitive grant
programs and as centers of excellence
 Large donors, eg USAID, BMGF, AGRA, have specific
country priorities, mostly large countries
 Still minimal capacity to organize spill ins to smaller
countries

11. The CGIAR and Regional Strategies
 Closing of regional research networks, CGIAR reform
process in 2008, and focus on other partners than NARI’s
has weakened international-national research links
 Reform based on 15 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs)
which are global and no defined regional strategy for SSA
 Shift in focus to production systems within benchmark
sites may provide basis for new NARI linkages
 Performance monitoring based on intermediate
development objectives may shift focus to downstream
development partners rather than NARI’s
 An efficient system to facilitate sub-regional spill ins is
still lacking

12. Global Public and Private Agricultural R&D, 2000
Investments, 2000
Region Expenditure Percent Public
(Million US $) Expenditure
Asia-Pacific 8,186 91.9
Latin America 2,578 95.2
Sub-Saharan Africa 1,486 98.3
Developing Country Sub-Total 13,682 93.7
High Income Countries 22,277 64.0
Source: Pardey, et al, 2006

13. Private R&D Expenditures SSA, South Asia
Measures Kenya Senegal South Tanzania Zambia Bangla- India
Africa desh
Private R&D 1.6 -3.2 3.6-4.7 41.0 – 0.9 -1.8 1.3-2.5 10-20 251.0
(In 2008 50
Mill.US$)
Private R&D 0.25- 0.18- 0.49- 0.015- 0.05- 0.07- 0.12
as % of Ag 0.05 0.24 0.60 0.03 0.09 0.13
GDP
# of Scientists 12 61 201 32 25 119 2190
– Seed industry about 40% of R&D
– Processing industry 30% of R&D
Source: Pray et al. 2011
13

14. Towards a Regional Research System
 Differentiated but effective NARI capacity is essential for
a sub-regional research system
 With CAADP, the CGIAR reform, and increasing donor
investment in agriculture there is a window of
institutional flexibility in designing such a system
 An increasing private sector role will partly depend on
the development of sub-regional markets
 A sub-regional research system still depends on donor
funding and needs to be matched by national
government commitment to funding NARI capacity
 As in the colonial period, eg EAAFRO, some sub-regional
research capacity is needed (SRO’s or CGIAR)

15. THANK YOU