Dr. Agnes Kalibata – President of AGRA, and Beverley Postma – Executive Director of Grow Asia, at the signing of the agreement
AGRA and Grow Asia have signed a collaboration agreement to accelerate food system transformation in Africa and Asia.
Grounded in the spirit of South-South Cooperation between the leading agri-food platforms in Africa and Asia respectfully, the agreement will pave the way for the co-development of knowledge exchange and training programs, joint case studies, and research, and, where appropriate, the pooling and sharing of tools and resources.
South-South cooperation is characterized by technical collaboration by developing countries in the Global South. It is a tool most typically deployed by international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to share knowledge and skills in specific areas such as agricultural development and climate change mitigation.
This collaboration agreement between AGRA and Grow Asia was announced during the Grow Asia Forum in Singapore on Tuesday 18 October, Grow Asia’s annual summit co-hosted with the World Economic Forum.
“Grow Asia provided us with the opportunity to bring our continents [Africa and Asia] together to take advantage of the best they each have to offer. This is the perfect time to strengthen South-South Cooperation and to learn from each other. We are going to demonstrate that international cooperation continues to be an important pillar to help us feed more people and take better care of our planet. This meeting serves as the launch pad for a series of commitments between our two institutions and countries across continents in the south,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President of AGRA.
“South-South Cooperation is at the heart of how Grow Asia operates, bringing together over 600 partners across Southeast Asia to co-develop, pilot, and scale solutions to some of the region’s most pressing food system challenges,” says Beverley Postma, Executive Director of Grow Asia. “Food systems in Africa and Asia share many similarities and challenges. We know that intra-regional cooperation serves as an important enabler of economic development, resulting in increased trade, technology transfer, foreign direct investment and, critically, trust. We welcome AGRA’s partnership and look forward to the many synergies this agreement will bring.”
