Comments on the External Evaluation of the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace by its team in Brasilia, Brazil

Transcription

1 Comments on the External Evaluation of the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace by its team in Brasilia, Brazil Presentation In 2014, Thelos Serviços de Consultoria e Pesquisa (Thelos Consultancy and Research Services) carried out the external evaluation of the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace, as part of activities planned in an agreement between Fundação Arthur Bernardes - Funarbe (Arthur Bernardes Foundation - Funarbe) and the World Bank in order to develop this initiative. After analyzing the document, the team in Brasília noticed the need to add some additional elements in order to put it in context, complement information or clarify some points which were not included in the consultant s report. These comments reflect the views of MKTPlace team. Based on the indicators showed in these comments, we can verify that MKTPlace is a successful South South initiative with North support, with three sets of main results. 1- A new model to work with high demand for international cooperation; 2- An expressive set of results achieved by the research projects supported by MKTPlace in terms of capacity -building, technology, products and knowledgement generation, among others; 3- Mobilization of additional resources for the initiative and spin-offs, which allowed expansion of its impact at regional and sub-regional level in Africa and afterwards in Latin America and the Caribbean. Comments showed below are identified and numbered according to the the structure of the external evaluation document, prepared by Thelos, in order to facilitate the understanding and reading. 1. Characterization of the initiative, background and current state The MKTPlace conception Emerging economies have been using the South-South cooperation to leverage their progress, for being a mutual development mechanism and solving common problems. Due to the recognition of the scientific contribution to tropical agriculture, Brazilian research institutions, such as Embrapa, have been requested to strengthen this cooperation. In 2010, the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace MKTPlace emerged from discussions to improve and to make the collaboration among countries in this hemisphere more effective. The Platform is a mechanism which aims to group African and Brazilian researchers to work together seeking solutions for problems in African agriculture, in addition to other existing mechanisms at Embrapa Although not mentioned in the external evaluation report, contacts for creating this initiative began in mid-2008 and initially involved Embrapa, FARA,

2 the World Bank and the English government, through DFID (Department for International Development). At this time, the concept note of the project and a work plan to be applied up to its launch in the event The Dialogue Brazil-Africa on Food Security, Fighting Hunger and Rural Development, was elaborated, in May More than 40 African delegations led by agriculture ministers took part in this event, representatives of various foreign and international institutions, including the African Union, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), representatives of nongovernmental and private organizations, and Brazilian authorities. During this period, from concept and design to operation, thematic area of the MKTPlace projects, evaluation process of the proposals, hiring Funarbe as financial resources manager, as well as the selection of consultants to compose the team were set up. A time line with detailed information on the activities of the MKTPlace is available in annex The object of evaluation, material and methods DGF - Program Results Framework and Objectives When analyzing the MKTPlace under the perspective of its initial goals, according to the required in the Terms of Reference of the external evaluation, the group verified that the Platform was successful and presented results much superior to those formerly established. Although these considerations were not fully discussed in the external evaluation report, they are summarized below. According to the MKTPlace Program Results Framework the expectation was that by March 2014 at least 80 pre-proposals and 35 full-proposals were submitted to the initiative and that up to 15 proposals would be selected to be financed by DGF-WB resources. The document also foresaw the monitoring and following - up of the MKTPlace activities, as well as the maintenance and updating its website. However, as mentioned previously, results were further promising. From 2010 and 2014, the report highlighted that 384 pre-proposals were received, 185 full-proposals and 18 projects were financed using DGF resources (a total of 52 projects were funded for Africa during the period), which means, a value 335%, 428% and 20% superior, respectively, to the one considered in the Program Results Framework. Detailed information on these results is available in annex 2. With respect to the updating and maintenance of the website, an external consultant was hired in 2010 in order to perform this activity. However, due to the development of the Platform, the necessity to improve and expand the system was noticed. A new company, specialized and with wide experience, was hired in 2012 and, since then, the website has been constantly improved. Nowadays, the website ( holds the process of submitting proposals, reports and their evaluations. It receives an average of 805 visitors per month, mostly of researchers from Africa and Brazil. Other organizations have also showed interest in develop a similar system to the MKTPlace. In order to perform this activity, resources from several sources were used as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IFAD and DFID.

3 With the respect of the Marketplace s evaluation and monitoring, also mentioned in this same document, it is emphasized that this is done regularly through annual progress reports; evaluations carried out by independent consultants, audits, scientific papers published in journals, meetings, reports drawn up by the Executive Committee, among others. Finally, other issue which is of great importance and deserves to be highlighted, considering it also exceeded the initial expectations of the MKTPlace, is the amount of resources leveraged after the donation of the World Bank. For this period ( ), additional amount of resources mobilized was US$ 10,092, involving both donations to the initiative in Africa as in Latin America and the Caribbean. Annex 3 specifies resources and their sources. Given the above, the document shows that the MKTPlace can be considered an efficient cooperation mechanism, aligned with The World Bank s goals, specifically to those planned on the donation done via DGF (listed below): The primary development objective of the Program is to catalyze cooperation and knowledge exchange between Brazilian and African organizations in agriculture. It is designed to bring African and Brazilian organizations to partnership fora in Brazil, and use sub grants to help fund the agreements for collaboration ( or partnerships ) that will result from fora interactions. 4. Results Indicators and statistics The contract established between Funarbe and The World Bank via Development Grant Facility (DGF) for the subsidy of financial resources to the MKTPlace establishes a set of indicators to be verified after completion of the planned activities. In the absence of these indicators, any analysis on the initiative becomes shallow and not very accurate, as actual results and impacts can not be verified. Besides, through these data is also possible to analyze if the project management process is allocating resources properly. In the MKTPlace situation, the report highlights that for the most evaluated indicators the result was superior to those established. Summarizing the results: researchers (co-leaders) submitted pre-proposals to the MKTPlace; researchers took part in the MKTPlace s research projects; - 35 foreign institutions had their projects approved; - 35% of African institutions which co-lead projects are educational institutions; 40% are public sector institutions; private sector institutions and 17% are international institutions; - 24% of the Platform researchers are female; - Fora organized by the MKTPlace involved over 380 participants, 150 of these participants being Africans;

4 Annex 2 has detailed information of data listed above. 5. Analysis in the light of planned goals 5.1 On goals, achieved results and impacts The MKTPlace Spin-offs Another aspect which is worth mentioning in Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace is that this program stimulated the creation of new projects and/or initiatives, such as expansion of the Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean and Building on the Successes project. These spin-offs of the MKTPlace allowed the project to expand in area of operation, increased the capability to aswer the demands on agriculture in the southern hemisphere, besides allowing greater investment of resources by the accession of new members to the Steering Committee. All these factors contributed to the strengthening of the Platform on international scenario and allowed the intensification of its initial impact. The MKTPlace expansion to Latin America and the Caribbean was motivated initially by new Brazilian guidance for cooperation actions which prioritizes dialogue with countries in the southern hemisphere and mainly due to the success of the initiative in Africa. In addition, the strong interest of Latin-American and Caribbean institutions and researchers to establish partnerships with Brazil, especially with Embrapa, also served as a catalyst for this expansion process. However, the financial investment for projects in Latin America and the Caribbean is lower than for financed projects in Africa. This is due to the emphasis given to cooperation with African countries by the Brazilian government and because a great international interest to promote development in Africa is noticed. That is the reason why the resources to be mobilized for projects on this continent is higher. Regarding the Building on the Successes project, the purpose of the initiative is to further strengthen, deepen and institutionalize research collaboration between Embrapa and African partners. The project builds on the emerging partnership between Embrapa and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) and FARA. Specifically, the initiative builds on the success to date in the rounds conducted up to 2012 of competitive research funding through the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace. Additionally, beyond proposals from the MKTPlace, a set of strategic collaborations could be financed under the project. The project identifies and scales-up promising results (policies, technologies, products) obtained in the MKTPlace-supported Agricultural Innovation Marketplace research for development projects R4D - ( and up to 20% of the efforts and resources may be devoted to foster new impact initiatives through either: (a) joint new projects, or (b) scaling-up/out results obtained from non-mktplace-supported projects of interest to African countries and Brazil, through Embrapa.

5 The funding for projects financed through the Scale-Up fund, in both areas, is likely to be three years in duration and around US$ k in size. To ensure beneficiary participation and ownership, this project will have a governance set up as follows: 1) A joint oversight and initiative selection committee (OISC) will be established with BMGF, African representation (FARA) and Embrapa s participation. Each of the three participating institutions will have two members in the committee; 2) Independent technical sub-project specific peer reviewers to provide reviews to the selection committee. Reviewers will be identified and invited to assess proposals by the OISC; 3) Individual initiatives (sub-projects) will rely on tailor-made governance structures, presented as part of the sub-project document, and which will have a minimum composition established by the oversight and selection committee potentially formed by the beneficiary African institution/government, Embrapa, and the selected operations/administrative handler in Africa. In Africa, FARA provides support to specific subprojects and in Brazil, Funarbe continues to provide project and sub-project support. So far, Building on the Successes project has already mobilized USD 7 million through a partnership with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is predicted to last until March, Other institutions participations have been analyzed internally which may result in additional resource mobilization for the project, such as DFID which joined the partnership recently. The MKTPlace impacts Under the researchers point of view Part of the analysis of the external evaluation report was carried out based on the survey of the project co-leaders, two African and nine Brazilian, which resulted in a report with greater focus on Brazilian perspective than in African perspective. In this sense, this report sought to conduct further analysis in order to discuss better the African point of view about the Platform. For this purpose, three evaluations carried out in the MKTPlace fora in 2010, 2012 and 2014 were taken into account. These evaluations had the participation of about 380 participants, 40% from Africa. According to these evaluations, under the MKTPlace participant researchers point of view, the initiative is also considered a successful mechanism to promote the South-South cooperation. An average of 79% of participants strongly agreed with the statement: The MKTPlace contributes to improve African-Brazilian- Latin American and Caribbean collaboration An average of 8 of participants shows interest in taking part in a new proposal selection call of the MKTPlace. Detailed evaluations are available in annex 4. Results obtained through the first 10 projects financed by the MKTPlace also allow measuring the main impacts and benefits on African continent. Ten agricultural technologies, products and services were generated; 20 technical publications, 64 exchanges of genotypes adapted to tropical agriculture; 13 great events organized by the project co-leaders; besides generating 15 specific knowledge produced. Next, some examples of results obtained by the projects:

6 Technologies, Products and Services - New technology for Rizhobium (Bradyrhizobium) inoculation in Caupi; - New technologies and policy for honey bee production in Ethiopia. Specific Knowledge Generated - Identification that cotton volatiles are responsible for the attraction of A. grandis; - Level of soil and groundwater pesticide contamination in Togo. Germplasm Exchanged - 51 genotypes transferred from Embrapa and 9 from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) of Napier grass elite lines; - 4 cotton varieties transferred from Embrapa to LZARDI-Ukiriguru. Events Organized - InPaC-S Workshop Mozambique - Project 120; - Training on Ecosystem Processes Kenya - Project 167. Publications - BODDEY, R.M.; ATAKORA, W.K., FOSU, M., GUIMARÃES, A.P.; XAVIER, G.R. (2013) Sucesso na inoculação do feijão caupi com rizóbio na África ocidental. Poster presented at the Brazilian Congress on Cowpea (CONAF), Recife, April CAVALCANTE, A.C.R, OGILLO, B.P, AKUMU, J. GLUECKS, I.V. Evaluation degree of degraded rangeland on grazing communities in Kenya. In: Annual Meeting of Brazilian Society of Animal Science, Annals, 50, Campinas: SBZ. CD ROM. - HANSON, J; LEDO, F.J.S Introduction of Napier grass elite lines for further screening as feed for improved smallholder dairy productivity. Poster presented at the Monitoring Workshop, Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace, November 2011, South Africa. - MAGALHÃES, D. M. ; BORGES, M. ; LAUMANN, R. A. ; SUJII, E. R. ; MAYON, P. ; CAULFIELD, J. C. ; MIDEGA, C. A. O. ; KHAN, Z. R. ; PICKETT, J. A. ; Birkett, M. A. ; BLASSIOLI-MORAES, M. C Emiochemicals from Herbivory Induced Cotton Plants Enhance the Foraging Behavior of the Cotton BollWeevil, Anthonomus grandis. Journal of Chemical Ecology. - MIDEGA, C.A.O. ; NYANG'AU, I. M. ; PITTCHAR, J.; BIRKETT, M. A. ; PICKETT, J. A. ; BORGES, M. ; KHAN, Z.R Farmers' perceptions of cotton pests and their management in western Kenya, Crop protection.

7 5.4 On sustainability strategies Sustainability and financing sources The MKTPlace was conceived so that the capture of its resources would be achieved through technical cooperation and concessions of non-repayable donations from its partner institutions, which nowadays include development funds, ministries, humanitarian foundations, research institutions, departments for international cooperation of European countries, among others. With regard to sustainability, the report highlights regular access to resources and, mainly, the quality of executed activities. The initiative has already mobilized over 11 million dollars for financing research projects, hiring consultants, operating activities, promoting international events, among others. Of this amount, 1,180, obtained by the partnership with DFID, is still available, which garantees continuity of activities at least until Moreover, another donation from the International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD is being negociated with the Executive Committee of the MKTPlace. Other partners such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank have been participating directly in decisions of the Steeering Committee, as well as they have showed interest in the MKTPlace spin-offs, or acted as a supporter and a catalyst to search for new funding sources. One of the main challenges when the MKTPlace financial sustainability is analyzed is related to exchange rate fluctuations. As mentioned in progress reports, a considerable devaluation of the Brazilian currency (Real) in relation to the US dollar could be noticed in recent years. Thus, when the resources were received from the partner institutions, they were internalized and converted into Brazilian currency, by fiscal agent, Funarbe, at a lower rate than the current rate. As these resources need to be converted in dollar again before being sent to African institutions, a great budget loss occurs. No initiative following a model similar to that developed by the MKTPlace can be found in Brazil so far. This fact shows that the program had not been completely absorbed by the national public sector. Internationally, a new use of the MKTPlace initiative model for largescale use has been discussed, with the participation of countries as China and Brazil. Today, the initiative or its model of cooperation has been used in Embrapa as an efficient instrument of Brazilian foreign policy and great interest and mobilization for the continuation of the Platform is observed. Recently, in a meeting carried out in Brasilia, cooperation agreement with FARA was extended until 2020 and, with the same purpose, Embrapa had already begun discussions with IICA aiming to extend cooperation activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. As long-term strategies for its continuity, the Executive Committee of the MKTPlace has sought to strengthen its image on the international scene and the diversification of sources of support, both in number and in type of creditors. Due to the current crises in Brazil it is not expected that the country will take over the financing of the Marketplace.

8 5.6 - On the success and risk factors The MKTPlace Governance structure Another superficially discussed issue in the evaluation in the external evaluation report is about the MKTPlace governance structure. The Platform fits in the network governance model in terms of its elaboration, development, and implementation and, possibly, this characteristic can be pointed out as one of the reasons of its success. The interest in network governance is growing, mainly from 2007, when this theme was pointed out as one of the main causes of the global financial crisis. Failures and weaknesses in governance arrangements as a misguided choice of organizational strategies, risk management systems and inefficient accounting standards, low-skilled councils, among other factors, have been the major motivators of this economic collapse. The configuration of the MKTPlace governance allowed the initiative to overcome difficulties that naturally emerge during the implementation of any program. The Steering and Executive committees were agile in discussing ongoing as well as future risks, which greatly contributed to the smoothness of the operation. The Steering Committee, when requested by the Executive Committee, acted promptly and that allowed participating institutions and particularly Embrapa to recognize the mobilization capacity of the initiative, its relevance, and the need to respond adequately to the concerns expressed, as observed in the MKTPlace Forum Thus, as positive lessons to be learnt from the MKTPlace governance model, there is the strong commitment from the interested parties, meaning, the active participation of the Executive Committee members in decision-making process, as well as in the implementation of some activities, besides leadership profile, as already mentioned in the report carried out by Thelos. Other relevant issues are sustainability and the consistency of actions taken by the MKTPlace, besides of free-flowing communication and transparency in reporting (accountability) and information/result availability for the partners and society. The great experience of the MKTPlace team in managing large projects and its ability in working with partnerships, makes the access to resources, to power and control easy, and yet, reduces transaction costs. Given the above, the MKTPlace has an outstanding position in the international technical cooperation at Embrapa and it has been the key element for external fund-raising for other projects such as the Technical Reference Units TRU in Africa and the Building on Successes MBOSS. Financial Management - the role of Fundação Arthur Bernardes In respect of the MKTPlace financial operation, management is done by Fundação Arthur Bernardes Funarbe in close collaboration with Embrapa. This foundation is a non-profit private institution. The institution allocates and manages the financial resources invested by the Platform partners and, makes these resources available to finance research projects. Besides these activities, the Foundation is in charge of submitting the accountability report for each partner institution on the expenses of each project and other purposes supported by the funds deposited by partners.

9 The Platform counts on the support of several partner institutions and each of them has their own way to manage their investment in this initiative, including particularities as indications of how the resource invested will be available, that means, for what countries and/or regions. Therefore, agreements with Funarbe are individual with each institution and linked to a larger contract which Funarbe has with Embrapa. From the moment that the contract is signed between institutions (Funarbe and Partner Institution), the number of projects to be contemplated by this contract is also determined. Thus, approvals of research projects are determined based on financial resources available. After the project selection process, a Technical Cooperation Agreement is made among Embrapa (Brazilian researcher), Funarbe and the Benefited Institution (foreigner researcher) containing details agreed by the parties, including the amount of money requested in the project budget. Part of the budgeted amount will be transferred to the foreign institution and the rest of it is in an account, under the care of Funarbe, to be used by Brazilian counterpart. In order to manage this account, the Brazilian researcher has a profile on the Foundation website. Moreover, Funarbe is responsible to run the process of purchasing orders, refund requests, perdiem and tickets, applications for import, outsourcing service requests, consulting, besides providing banking statements, balance and release dates on the various donations, when requested by the Platform managers or by the project leaders. The MKTPlace Lessons for other South-South cooperation initiantives Since the beginning of its activities, the MKTPlace has been standing out as an important and innovative mechanism to promote the southern hemisphere countries cooperation, due to the large number of participating researchers and projects approved, and by the significant contribution of resources mobilized or the promising results of its research projects. MKTPlace consolidation as one of the main international collaboration mechanisms in agriculture and livestock became evident since the World Bank Innovation Award received in 2010 and because it had been an important part of the agenda of discussions between the vice president of Brazil, Michel Temer, the British prime minister as well as Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, organization responsible for significant investments in Africa and that seeks to face critical challenges in the development of this continent. According to a specialist in international cooperation, the MKTPlace success lies in several reasons; among these reasons is the treatment in wholesale given to the request for cooperation, which means, in each call for proposal, lots of partnership requests in several different areas are met, in a relatively short period of time. This characteristic greatly increased the efficiency of Embrapa in carrying out technical cooperation and led all efforts to the same instrument. Other major aspect pointed out is that the researcher himself/herself is the one to take care of partnership request, research subject, budget and the needs of the project itself. Moreover, all project management is also done by the proponent researcher and not by the institution. Those characteristics are relevant because they reduce bureaucracy and make the use of resources easier. In a simple way, we can say that the Platform makes the link between the basis, and the parties themselves are directly in charge of executing the project.

10 Resource management is also considered one of the MKTPlace strong characteristics, once they are jointly managed by Fundação Arthur Bernardes, accountability report being independent and according to the specificities of each contract of the partner institutions.this management is outsourced and autonomous by the Foundation, which makes the use of the resources much less bureaucratic than in public sector. Another characteristic to point out is that due to its innovative conception and because it is managed almost exclusively online, the MKTPlace model can be adapted and applied to other countries and in different areas of knowledge such as health, education among others. We should mention that other organizations have already expressed interest in the cooperation model developed by the MKTPlace. In this sense, Embrapa, as an Executive Committee member, and considering the Platform management is carried out in its technical/administrative structure, could work as a catalyst in this process. The corporation could make available the knowledge of the MKTPlace s researchers and technicians, empowering the stakeholders through courses and/or workshops. Embrapa could also provide the management system of the Platform, whether physical or virtual, and provide technical assistance if the project was actually deployed. EMBRAPA could also take part in the project if it were developed in agricultural research area. 6. Problems verified and sensitive themes for the future External Evaluation Considerations Finally, with respect of the external evaluation carried out by Thelos Consultancy and Research Services, the MKTPlace team has some considerations and disagrees with some specific comments below. First, the report mentions that the research projects financed by the Platform are not innovative and they are, in most of the cases, technology transfer. Second, the report says that the MKTPlace is too technical and it does not consider other dimensions besides agriculture and livestock. In this sense, it should be noted that these claims have no documentary support and are premature if considered the scope of the projects supported by the initiative. Another important point is the fact that MKTPlace operates by means of the opening of bids within broad thematic areas (formerly stablished by the Steering Committee), and that demand for cooperation is set by the researcher (not by the Platform). We should also stress that the MKTPlace, since its inception, has been concerned with the innovative character of the research projects so that the innovation of the project in Africa (or LAC) is one of the criteria for the proposal evaluations. Moreover, the MKTPlace projects can be considered innovative, mainly considering the African point of view, sincea change to a more complex technological paradigm is brand-new in part of the countries of that continent. Annexes

11 Annex 1. MKTPlace Timeline Jan-Feb 2009 Feb-Apr Jul May May May to 30 Jul Jul 2010 Embrapa, FARA, DFID and The World Bank discussed the Innovation Marketplace proposal and developed a more detailed proposal of the initiative. Fine-tuning and final selection of thematic areas. Negotiation and hiring of Funarbe, transfer of financial resources to Funarbe and identification/hiring of consultants. The 13 th African Union Summit is held in Sirte, Libya. During the event, the Brazilian Government proposes holding a Dialogue Brazil-Africa on Food Security, Fighting Hunger and Rural Development in Brazil. The Dialogue Brazil-Africa on Food Security, Fighting Hunger and Rural Development is held in Brasília, Brazil. The basis of a broad cooperation program between Brazil, the Pan- African organizations and the African countries, based on the execution of projects through partnerships, are defined. The Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace is launched at Embrapa, in Brasília, during The Dialogue Brazil-Africa on Food Security, Fighting Hunger and Rural Development. First call for pre-proposals for collaborative projects between African-based Institutions and Embrapa Research Centers. The Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace is launched in Africa during the General Assembly of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the 5 th African Agriculture Science Week in Burkina Faso. 17 Aug 2010 Announcement of the pre-proposals selected. 23 Aug to 2 Sep Oct 2010 The top ranked pre-proposals are invited to the next step of the competitive process and present fully developed proposals. The Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace Forum is held at Embrapa, in Brasília. 6 Oct 2010 Announcement of the approved proposals. Six proposals were accepted as projects Dec 2010 A second round is held for the proponents of the 55 proposals not approved in the first round. A new opportunity is given to refine and resubmit the proposals. Thirty-four proposals are resubmitted. 20 Dec 2010 Contracts are signed with the first six projects approved. Jan Feb Feb 2011 Implementation of the first six projects begins. The report of the first phase of the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace program is published. 28 Mar 2011 The approval of four additional projects (from the second round) is announced. 12 Dec 2011 to 29 Feb 2012 A third round of project pre-proposal presentations was held, open to Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. A total of 249 pre-proposals are submitted Mar 2012 Pre-proposals evaluation and selection. 22 Mar Mar to 18 Apr 2012 Announcement of the 194 pre-proposals eligible and invitation for submission of full proposals. Period for the presentation of full proposals by the proponents whose pre-proposals had been accepted during the third round. 7 May 2012 Announcement of the 66 selected full proposals. 4 Jun 2012 Announcement of the results of the third round, with 25 full proposals approved.

12 1-3 Aug 2012 A join Forum Africa, Latin America, Caribbean and Brazil is held at Embrapa in Brasília. 4 Jan 2013 The fourth call for proposals is opened 4 Jan to 28 Feb 2013 Mar to Jun May 1 Oct 2013 Period for the submission of pre-proposals Four projects from the first round where evaluated by three MKTPlace Team members and two external evaluators. Period when researchers sent their final reports May Oct 2013 The first and second rounds and the first 10 projects of the MKTPlace were finished. 28 May Jun Jun 2013 Due to operational/logistical issues within the counterpart organization in Africa, the 2013 Forum and policy dialogue planned to take place in August, in Brasilia, Brazil, was postponed at the last minute. Paulo Duarte, from the MKTPlace Team - Brasília, presented the MKTPlace initiative at Agropolis International (Montpellier, France). During his stay, Paulo Duarte will discuss successful models of French international cooperation and he will also explore the possibility of new partnerships. Meeting between the president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates and Brazil s vice-president Michel Temer at the Unilever Headquarters (London) where Gates remarked his interest in partnerships with Brazil and through technical cooperation to gain agricultural productivity in Africa. 6 Aug 2013 Policy dialogue among the Steering Committee took place through a videoconference. 28 Aug 2013 The website was handled to the MKTPlace Team in Brasilia-Brazil The International Development Committee (IDC), represented by three members of the British Parliament, visited CENARGEN in Brasília Brazil. During this visit, the 9 Sep 2013 MKTPlace Team at Brasília had the opportunity to present the initiative and discuss its main results with the IDC members Sep 2013 The MKTPlace Team was trained on how to run the website and its other details. 3 Oct 2013 An additional major contribution from DFID was received which allows the MKTPlace to fund additional projects in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. 30 Oct 2013 The Building on Successes project is approved and signed by the B&MGF 1 Oct Oct Dec 2013 Presentation of the latest results at a meeting organized by IFAD aiming to discuss the results of the various initiatives supported by IFAD s program in Brazil. The meeting was attended by representatives of the various partnerships between IFAD and Brazilian institutions. The MKTPlace has received an additional major contribution which allows it to fund additional projects in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. The MKTPlace team organized skype conferences from December 11 to 13 with the co-leaders of the newly approved projects. The objective was to raise awareness to common issues and answer questions related to project implementation to promote a smooth and successful implementation. 17 Dec th Call for Pre-proposals opened Jan 2014 The DFID organized a Partners Meeting at the British Embassy where the Brazilian MKTPlace Team had an opportunity to present the MKTPlace initiative, its achievements and impacts to African Embassies and development partners.

13 19 Feb 2014 Representatives of the MKTPlace Team and Embrapa, Paulo Duarte and Alfredo Alves, presented the Agricultural Innovation Marketplace at the event Brazil - UK Cooperation: prosperity and development in the African continent held at Armando Penteado Foundation (FAAP) in São Paulo by the UK Embassy and DFID in Brazil. The event had the participation of the UK Minister of Foreign Affairs, William Hague, private sector representatives, academics and students Apr 2014 MKTPlace 2014 Forum Annex 2 Statistics and graphs Pre-proposal information (n = 348) AFR Pre-proposal per Gender Male 78% Female Pre-proposals: 348 AFR Pre-proposal per Thematic Area % Productivity Enhancing Technologies 2 Natural Resource Management Improvement 5 Smallholder and Poverty- Alleviation Targeted Technologies 18% Policy, Institutional and Market Strengthening and Knowledge Management Pre-proposals: 348

14 Tunisia Togo Zimbabwe 4% AFR Pre-proposal per Country Uganda 10% Algeria Angola Botswana 0%Benin Burkina Faso Chad 0% Congo 0% Cameroon Democratic Republic of the Congo Egypt Tanzania 8% Ethiopia 16% Sierra Leone 0% South Africa 4% Rwanda Senegal Ghana 8% Nigeria 1 Mozambique 4% Mali Malawi Madagascar Kenya 1 Ivory Coast Countries: 28 Pre-proposals: 348

15 AFR Pre-proposal per Embrapa Center Technological Information South Livestock Roraima Rondônia Pantanal Soils Semi-Arid Rice & Beans 5% Temperate Agriculture Technology Transfer Swine & Poultry Southern Region Studies and Animal Training Husbandry 0% Soybean Tropical Agroindustry Western Region Agriculture Vegetables 4% Agriculture Informatics Agrobiology Acre Agroenergy Amapá Agrosilvopastoral 0% Beef Cattle Cassava & Tropical Fruits Cocais 0% Cerrados Coastal Tablelands Coffee Cotton Dairy Cattle Eastern Amazon Food Technology Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Mid-North 1 Maize & Sorghum 5% Goats & Sheep 6% Genetic Resources & Biotechnology 6% Forestry Instrumentation Embrapa Centers: 41 Pre-proposals: 348

16 AFR Pre-proposal per Brazilian Region South Region 10% Northeast Region 30% Central-West Region 28% North Region 10% Southeast Region 2 Pre-proposals: 348 Full-Proposal Information (n = 185) AFR Full-proposal per Gender % Male Female

17 AFR Full-proposal per Thematic Area Productivity Enhancing Technologies 20% 7% Natural Resource Management Improvement 18% 55% Smallholder and Poverty-Alleviation Targeted Technologies Policy, Institutional and Market Strengthening and Knowledge Management

18 Tunisia Togo Tanzania 6% AFR Full-proposal per Country Uganda 10% Algeria Benin Burkina Faso Congo Angola Rwanda Zimbabwe Botswana Cameroon Egypt Democratic Republic of the Congo Ethiopia 16% South Africa 4% Nigeria 1 Ghana 9% Cote d'ivoire (Ivory Coast) Mozambique 4% Mali Malawi Madagascar Kenya 17% Countries: 25 Full-proposals: 185

19 Soybean Southern Region Animal Husbandry Soils Semi-Arid Roraima Rondônia AFR Full-proposal per Embrapa Center Western Region Agriculture Vegetables Tropical Agroindustry Technology Transfer 5% Temperate Agriculture Studies and Training Swine & Poultry Acre Agriculture Informatics Agrobiology Agroenergy Amapá Beef Cattle Cassava & Tropical Fruits Cerrados Coastal Tablelands Coffee Cotton Dairy Cattle 5% Rice & Beans 5% Pantanal Mid-North 1 Goats & Sheep Maize & Sorghum Instrumentation 4% 6% Genetic Resources & Biotechnology 8% Eastern Amazon Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Food Technology Forestry Embrapa Centers: 37 Full-proposals: Approved Projects Information

20 AFR MKTPlace Participating Researchers Male Female Call for Proposal

21 AFR Project per Foreign Institution Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Aga Khan Foundation Ahmadu Bello Univerity Centre Régional de Recherches Environnementales et Agricoles(CRREA) Makerere University University of Dar es Salaam University of Buea Université d Abomey-Calavi United Universite de Nations Lome, Ecole Universit Superieure y - d'agronomie Institute for Natural Resource s in Uganda Africa Christian Uinversity University of Ghana University of Sciences Tumbi Agricultural Research Institute 4% Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) 4% Pipal Limited Techniques and Technology 6% Crops Research Institute 4% CSIR-Food Research Institute 4% Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) 6% Federal University Oye Ekiti Institute of Agricultural Research for Developmentt (IRAD) 4% International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) 4% PICO-Eastern Africa Ltd PICOTEAM Obafemi Awolowo University National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) 8% International Institute of Tropical Agriculture - IITA 6% International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) National Crops Resources Research Institute 4% Mekelle University 6% Kenya Agricultural Research Institute International Livestock Research Institute International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications - ISAAA Foreign Institutions: 34 Projects: 52

22 AFR Institution Type per Project (n=52) Academia International NGO Private Public 3 1 AFR Approved projects -Percentage of Nationalities from Academia (n=18) Togo 6% Uganda 1 Benin 5% Cameroon 5% Tanzania 6% Ethiopia 17% Nigeria 2 Ghana 1 Mali 17%

23 Budget per Category - WB/DGF part Africa Equipment 25% 15% Supplies Travel Services Others Administrative Costs 4 Projects fully or partially funded by DGF-WB contribution to the MKTPlace ID Title Country Partners Amount US Institution Embrapa Center Institution Embrapa Center Total AFRICA / 1º Round 162 SWEET SORGHU VARIETAL ADAPTATION FOR ETHANOL PRODUCTON Kenya Pipal Limited Embrapa Maize and Sorghum REHABILITATION OF DEGRADED RANGELAND USING PLANNED GRAZING AND ANIMAL IMPACT IN THE ARID AND SEMI ARID LANDS OF KENIA Kenya Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse Embrapa Goats &Sheep PESTICIDE LEACHING AND LOSS TO GROUNDWATER IN COASTAL VEGETABLE GROWERS IN TOGO Togo Universite de Lome Ecole Superieure d'agronomie Embrapa Western Regional Agriculture COTTON VARIETIES AND PEST MANAGEMENT IN TANZANIA Tanzania University of Dars es Sallam Embrapa Cotton STUDY OF THE ECOLOGY AND NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF NATIVE FOOD TREE SPECIES USED BY LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN BURKINA FASO AND BRAZILIA AMAZON: A FOOD SECURITY AND CONSERVATION STRATEGY IN THE ONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE Burkina Faso Centre Régional de Recherces Environnementales et Agricoles (CRREA) Embrapa Amapá Subtotal

24 AFRICA/2º Round 166 ENCHANCING SMALL-HOLDER COWPEA LEGUME PRODUCTION USING RHIZOBIUM INOCULANTS Ghana Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) Embrapa Agropibology DEVELOPING A PUSH-PULL IPM STRATEGY FOR SMALLHOLDER COTTON FARFEMALE IN AFRICA AND NORTHEAST OF BRAZIL Kenya International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) Embrapa Genetic Resources & Biotechnology BEE DIVERSITY AND CROP POLLINATION FOR FOOD SECURITY Ethiopia Mekelle Institute Embrapa Acre Subtotal Africa / 3º Round 154 PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION AND PROMOTION OF IMPROVED PEPPER CULTIVARS (CAPSICXUM SPP) AMONG SMALL HOLDER FARMERS Nigeria Federal University Oye Ekiti Embrapa Vegetables DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABLE BREEDING OF LOCAL CHICKEN FOR IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY UNDER LOCAL ALTERNATIVE FEED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND HEALTH CONTROL Cameroon Faculty of Science, University of Buea Embrapa Pantanal SWINE IMPROVEMENT IN ETHIOPIA THROUGH GENETIC AND SOCIO- ECONOMIC CHARACTERIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF A PRODUCTION SYSTEM Ethiopia Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) Embrapa Swine & Poultry PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OPTIONS FOR IMPROVED SMALLHOLDER GOAT PROFITABILITY Benin Université d Abomey-Calavi, FSA (UAC-FSA) Embrapa Goats & Sheep CHARACTERIZATION, CONSERVATION AND DOMESTICATION OF INDIGENOUS EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS ON AGRICULTURAL RESIDUES Ghana CSIR-Food Research Institute Embrapa Genetic Resources & Biotechnology FACILITATING LOCAL LEVEL DAIRY INNOVATION PLATFORMS FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMERS Kenya PICO-Eastern Africa Ltd (PICOTEM) Embrapa Dairy Cattle SUSTAINABLE IMPROVEMENT OF SWIDDENS FOR LIVEHOODS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (SISLES) Cameroon Institute of Agricultural Research for Developmentt (IRAD) Embrapa Eastern Amazon UTILIZATION OF HYDRAULIC RAM PUMPS FOR PROMOTING SMALL- SCALE IRRIGATION Uganda Agricultural Engineering and Appropriate Embrapa Mid-North Tecnology Research Centre COFFEE GENETIC DIVERSITY IN 415 RELATION TO DROUGHT TOLERANCE (COFDRONET) APPLICATION OF DNA-MARKERS 466 FOR DEVELOPMENT OF DROUGHT TOLERANT POTATO GERMPLAM Subtotal Total Geral Cameroon Kenya Institute of Agricultural Research for Developmentt (IRAD) Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Embrapa Genetic Resources & Biotechnology Embrapa Temperate Agriculture

25 Annex 3. MKTPlace Budget Em US$ PARTNER Budget AFRICA DFID / WB IFAD / Africa ABC / Africa WB/DGF I-III BMGF DFID FARA Embrapa Subtotal (1) Africa LAC IFAD / LAC ABC / LAC DFID Subtotal (2) LAC IN NEGOTIATION IFAD/LAC Subtotal (3) Total (1+2+3) Partners Contribution for Projects IFAD 14% DGF 20% DFID 38% GATES 28% Annex 4. MKTPlace evaluation Forum 2010

26

27 Forum 2012

28

29 Forum 2014

30

31