MIASA Policy Conference “Policies for a Sustainable Rural Transformation in Africa”

Wednesday, 22 June 2022 | 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. (UTC – Accra time) | 12:00 noon–8:00 p.m. (CEST – Hamburg time)

Thursday, 23 June 2022 | 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. (UTC – Accra time) | 11:00 noon–8:00 p.m. (CEST – Hamburg time)

Concept and contents 

Africa’s rural areas have been in a process of continuous change in particular since the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. In a context of rapid population growth and rural-urban migration, rural livelihoods in many places have changed significantly. They have diversified and farming has become much more commercialised. Yet, smallholder agriculture remains the mainstay of the rural economy and, despite some progress, poverty remains widespread and food security is often not guaranteed. With the population projected to double by 2050 demographic pressure will be reinforced and climate change will massively aggravate the pressure on natural resources, be it land, water or forests. Accelerated rural development, including increased agricultural productivity, that uses natural resources sustainably and protects the environment, in particular remaining forests, is needed. 

In other words, a sustainable rural transformation is required. Achieving such a transformation will require developing a vision of this transformation, setting the right priorities, and managing well the potential trade-offs between rural economic progress, on the one hand, and social progress and environmental objectives, on the other hand. It also requires inclusiveness and gender equality. Often, the policy-relevant evidence that research provides on key questions of rural development in Africa is fragmented and comes in bits and pieces. One aim of this conference is therefore to bring together bigger research projects and initiatives and put together a programme that goes well beyond a series of paper presentations. We target in particular policy-makers and development practitioners. 

The conference will feature coherent thematic sessions that include one or several contributions from larger research efforts/projects or are organised by one institution or project. We might then “fill” these sessions with contributed papers. We will have keynotes, a high-level policy panel, and a poster session with designated discussants for each of the presented posters. 3. These are the sessions of the conference: 

• Policies for a sustainable commercialization of African agriculture 

• Rural development interventions  

• Youth, National Service and the Transformation of Agriculture in Rural Africa 

• Oil Palm and Rural Transformation in Africa 

• Toward an inclusive agriculture development policy in Sub-Saharan Africa informed by robust methodologies and Earth Observation data 

• Changes in rural livelihoods 

• Policy effects, Challenges, and Performance of the West African Poultry Value Chain: Evidence from Ghana and Senegal 

• Chocolate and the cocoa value chain

Keynote speeches by: Awudu Abdulai, University of Kiel, Germany Eva-Marie Meemken, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland

Programme Committee: Fred Dzanku, ISSER   Jann Lay, GIGA and University of Goettingen   Robert Darko Osei, ISSER   Charlotte Wrigley-Asante, MIASA   Joseph Yaro, University of Ghana