Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: How can Universities in Africa better engage to Nurture and Sustain partnerships?

The African European Partnerships on Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD) presents a unique opportunity for African Universities to meet the increasing demand to join multi-stakeholder platforms. Based on the theory of innovation process, that defines innovation as “the application of novelty (idea, technology or process) in new ways that generate economic and social benefits to those involved and to wider society” and that “innovation results from a process of networking and interactive learning among a heterogeneous set of actors”, PAEPARD has launched 2 calls to which 14/81 and 7/69 were led by Universities. A total of five have been selected to date for PAEPARD support. Two possible processes were considered; Seeding and grafting but a hybrid involving four broad process of Brokering partnerships, Inception workshop, Writer shop, and Applying for funding was adopted. Between the first and second cohorts, Agricultural Innovation Facilitators (AIFs) were introduced as neutral and more objective external facilitators. Several lessons and issues have emerged that African Universities can help shade more light and propose possible solutions. The purpose of this paper therefore is to solicit the input of African universities on how best to engage them as stakeholders, to and generate discussions about the key lessons and issues emerging.