About

ReSAKSS’ Mission Statement

The Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) supports the successful implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) by providing policy-relevant data; facilitating dialogue among stakeholders; monitoring progress in reviewing goals; and strengthening mutual accountability processes at continental, regional, and national levels.

Download the ReSAKSS Brochure

Overview of ReSAKSS’ Work

ReSAKSS’ work is organized around four primary functions, outlined below.

   1. Knowledge Management and Policy Dialogue

This area of ReSAKSS' work involves building on existing data, developing analytical tools, expanding the knowledge base, and enabling timely access to these resources by Africa’s regional economic communities and African countries in order to facilitate evidence-based decisionmaking. Key elements of this work include the following:

  • Malabo Declaration Indicators under CAADP 

A core ReSAKSS activity is tracking CAADP’s Malabo Declaration Indicators though ReSAKSS website. ReSAKSS is currently in the process of upgrading its website with new features and tools to enhance functionality and accessibility. ReSAKSS’ Mapping Tool allows data on the status of CAADP’s indicators to be accessed, viewed, compared, and downloaded with ease and flexibility.  

​Each year, the three-day ReSAKSS Annual Conference, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) and NEPAD Planning Agency, provides the opportunity for high-level dialogue and information sharing, particularly focusing on issues of topical strategic importance.

ReSAKSS has developed an agricultural e-Atlas as a planning and decision-support tool focusing on agricultural productivity and food security, with the intention of assisting country-level analysts, policymakers, and other stakeholders in implementing the CAADP Agenda.​

  2. Strategic Analysis

This aspect of ReSAKSS’ work focuses on filling knowledge gaps and assessing policy and investment options to accelerate agricultural growth and reduce poverty and hunger. Key aspects of this work include the following:

  • Featured ReSAKSS’ Annual Trends and Outlook Report Topics

Since 2011, ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlook Reports (ATORs) have featured topics of strategic relevance to CAADP to help guide its planning, implementation, and dialogue processes. These topics also inform the agenda of ReSAKSS’ Annual Conference.

  • Analysis of emerging and strategic issues

​ReSAKSS provides additional analysis of emerging and strategic issues, such as food price volatility, trade and resilience, agricultural investments, and agricultural input delivery

​In addition to its core publications, ReSAKSS collaborates with partners in the preparation of a variety of materials that share information of relevance to CAADP’s implementation, including lessons learned and progress made.

  3. Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a fundamental aspect of ReSAKSS’ facilitation work and features the following core components:

ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlook Reports (ATORs) are CAADP’s official M&E reports. They assess trends and progress on 30 core indicators, including agricultural growth, agricultural public expenditure, agricultural prices and trade, poverty and hunger, as well as the implementation of the Agenda itself. In addition, since 2011, the ATORs have featured topics of strategic and topical relevance to the Agenda to help guide its planning, implementation, and dialogue processes. ​

​One of the guiding principles of CAADP is mutual accountability. Country-level joint sector review (JSR) assessments are a key instrument for realizing this accountability and for implementing the CAADP Results Framework. JSR assessments advance mutual accountability through comprehensive, inclusive, and technically robust dialogue and reviews and progress toward achieving targets and goals.

  • M&E for CAADP’s 2015–2025 Results Framework

​CAADP’s Results Framework is intended to ensure standard, tangible parameters for benchmarking progress in national agricultural performance. ReSAKSS tracks progress on CAADP indicators outlined in the Results Framework. 

  4. Capacity Strengthening

This area of ReSAKSS’ work focuses on generating and disseminating knowledge products supporting CAADP’s implementation, particularly in terms of shared standards and protocols for collecting data and conducting analysis in ways that effectively contribute to informing policy and decision making processes in Africa. Capacity strengthening activities are currently centered around the following:

  • Establishing country-level SAKSS

While ReSAKSS operates at the regional level, country-level SAKSS are now being established to support the ongoing implementation of CAADP, particularly in terms of putting national agricultural investment plans (NAIPs) into operation. SAKSS platforms are structured networks of knowledge generators and users coordinated by a Secretariat hosted within existing relevant national bodies. In addition to establishing the necessary personnel and infrastructure, preparatory steps for each country include a capacity needs assessment, capacity strengthening strategy, concept note, terms of reference (for the SAKSS’ coordinator), and workplan for the SAKSS platform.

  • Training and collaboration with local analysts and experts

ReSAKSS provides regular technical training to local researchers, statisticians, analysts, and other stakeholders on the CAADP agenda, SAKSS concepts, methods of assessing capacity needs, frameworks for monitoring and evaluation, as well as geographic information system and agricultural policy analysis and knowledge management tools.

 

ReSAKSS’s Organizational Structure

ReSAKSS is a multi-country network, structured around four “nodes”—one at the Africawide level, and three within each of Africa’s major regional economic communities (RECs): East and Central Africa (ECA), West Africa (WA), and Southern Africa (SA). In addition, each node comprises a network of national, regional, and international partners.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) coordinates ReSAKSS Africawide under a governance structure chaired by the African Union Commission (AUC) and NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA). Each regional node is governed by a steering committee chaired by its representative REC and comprising representatives of major CAADP stakeholder groups. The steering committees ensure that ReSAKSS’ activities remains rooted in Africa’s agricultural development priorities, the CAADP agenda, and regional strategies.

ReSAKSS’s Partners

ReSAKSS stakeholders and partners include government agencies, domestic and international policymakers and analysts, donors, research institutes, the academic and research communities, civil society, farmers’ groups, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.

International Partners

CGIAR Centers

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, United States

International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (ILTA), Ibadan, Nigeria

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya

International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pretoria, South Africa

Donors

Donor

Period

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation   

November 2010– March 2016;  November 2016– October 2019

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

July 2015– January 2017

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)     

April 2004–March 2007; February 2008– January 2010;  January 2015–December 2017

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)  

June 2012–December 2016

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands

June 2012– June 2017

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

December 2006– December 2009

UK Department for International Development (DFID)

August 2006– August 2009

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

September 2010– December 2016; March 2017–December 2021

 

Africa-wide Partners

African Union

African Union Commission (AUC)

Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA)

Other Organizations

Africa Lead II

CAADP Nonstate Actors Coalition (CNC)

Center for Development Research (ZEF), Department for Economic and Technological Change, University of Bonn

Regional Partners

Regional Economic Communities (RECs)

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Farmers’ Organizations

East African Farmers Federation (EAFF)

Reseau des Organisations paysannes et des Producteurs agricloles de l’Afrique de l’ouest [West African Network of Farmers’ Organizations and Agricultural Producers] (ROPPA)

Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU)

Other Organizations

Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI)

National Partners

National partners comprise a wide array of government, higher education, and farmers’ organizations, including national ministries of agriculture, national agricultural research institutes, and agricultural and related universities.

 

ReSAKSS’s History

ReSAKSS was established in 2006 under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) for the purpose of supporting evidence- and outcome-based policy planning and implementation under the CAADP agenda. ReSAKSS was a direct response to the growing demand for credible information and analyses during the design and implementation of agricultural-led development strategies in support of CAADP.

 

Host Institutions