Event Date
The MRR Innovation Lab hosted a session at the University Global Coalition 2021 Annual Forum on Tuesday, September 28th at 8am PT.
Strengthening the Local Value Chain of Research to Boost Development and Overcome Global Underrepresentation
How can locally-led research capacity be supported to boost development impacts and increase the presence of African research in global discourse? Focusing on how to create a sustainable and robust value chain of research for development, this session brought together researchers and research administrators to discuss why locally-led research is important, what barriers face researchers from the Global South, and introduce an innovative solution that seeks to break those barriers down.
This session highlighted a new research initiative, the Feed the Future Advancing Local Leadership, Innovation and Networks (ALL-IN) research program, a scalable and sustainable example of how the traditional US-led model of research collaborations can be redesigned to support the emerging research capacity of local partners, with supportive collaboration from US universities. ALL-IN researchers at African institutions are the leaders within these collaborations, leveraging their local knowledge, skills and ideas to build actionable evidence for promoting resilience and empowering rural families and communities to share in inclusive agricultural growth. Through lively conversation, this session delved into how a restructuring of the value chain of research will lead to transformative impacts through locally-produced evidence and policy and draw the research community closer to achieving the SDGs.
Session Panelists:
- Jane Mariara, Executive Director of the Partnership for Economic Policy
- Charles Amoatey, Program Director at Development Impact West Africa (DIWA), Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration
- David Ameyaw, President/CEO International Centre for Evaluation and Development (Co-manager of the ALL IN Research Initiative)
- Tara Chiu, Associate Director, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience (Co-manager of the ALL IN Research Initiative)
The University Global Coalition seeks to use their 2021 Annual Gathering to empower individuals and universities to act upon the SDGs and connect to others in the field, with a focus on increasing accessibility, rebuilding a more just and equitable world, and growing future generations of leaders.