Namibia's State Presidential MANTLE hand over processes have started - as President Hifikepunye Pohamba prepares to step down.

It will on on the 21st of March 2015 that Namibia's seating President will hand over the State Presidential Mantle to his successor - the winner of the envisage Presidential elections scheduled for November 2014.

The process to the State Presidential handing over of instruments of power - amongst others start with the national assembly and Presidential elections. These are already prepared though. Political parties to content the elections will soon to announced which also signal the political campaign period.

One of the significant process leading to the 21st of March next year was President Pohamba's State of the Nation Address which was widely seen as his last as he prepares to round of his two term period of ten years in total after he succeeded Namibia's Founding President Sam Nujoma.

Once the National Elections are over, the next will be the announcement of the winning Presidential canditate who will be declared as Namibia's President -Elect until he is sworn in on the 21st of March 2015.

Once the President -Elect is officially declared - the seating President as he has confirmed in a local print media will start the process of coaching and taking his successor through the Presidential ropes, showing hiim where he will leave off and where the new President will take off....

It must be exciting moments - both for the seating President as he takes stock of what his team and hiim have achieved during their ten year tenure - the difference they made in people's lives - the upliftment of Namibians - and of course some challenges that must still be tackled by the incoming team.

It must be equally exciting for the incoming team - ready to serve Namibia's nation - great hopes and enthusiam to further improve on development for everyone.

At the moment, the seating President as he is travelling to various international events and for bilateral relations is surely also bidding good bye to his counterparts as she privately shares with them on Namibia's next developments in terms of State Power change. He will surely also request his counterparts to continue working excellently with the next State President and boost both trade and diplomatic related aspects.

State power transfer events are usually big events - attended by some seating and former President, not to mention by friends and local communities...... there is so much in story for that event - a rebirth of some political developments - an urshering of a new page and era - but hinged on the country's nationa vision - to grow an inspiring nation as per the slogan of the local national broadcaster.

I will rather end this post here for now - as I visualize what's lying ahead for the Land of Brave - ready to say thank you so much to President Pohamba and to welcome his successor - knowing that a firm path has been paved and made ready to further travel as we strive to achieve our human resource development, technology related matters and most importantly have improved quality of live for everyone with shelter, have access to education, health and all the relevant services. 

Till death do us part - some women, married women for that matter are such beautiful and persevering bodies, but most importantly strong souls.

I decided to express my thoughts following the developments at a South African High Court today. Former COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was suspended some months ago following allegations which included the apparently inappropriate relations with a junior fellow worker. The author of this post will not go into the case as to investigate its merits - but took note that the suspension was declared invalid and media report state that Vavi could report for duty tomorrow while COSATU officials, now at its helms will have a meeting on this matter in due course.

The author's interest is more on the strength of women and their perseverance - Vavi's wife, Noluntando today went to the high court to listen to the ruling which declared her husband's suspension as invalid. Vavi himself did not attend the court proceedings today. What is interesting in this case is the fact that Madam Vavi was at the court to support her husband - knowing that his former comrades - some of them of course were not there to support him - and this is despite the fact that reports had it that her husband her an extra marital affairs with the junior at the office.

Madam Vavi in an interview with one of the African broadcasting media described the feeling as a "sweet bitter one", but she knew that she would be standing there and support her husband despite some perception that her husband has looked down on her by having an extra marital affair with another woman.

This happening reminded me of Madam Hillary Clinton who also stood by her husband those years, when reports of Monica Lewinsky and alleged private links with former USA President Bill Clinton. Strong souls and persevering hearts in these kinds of women - despite what both Vavi and Clinton could be going through - media frenzy and exposure on the allegations -they remembered the vow they took - till death do us part..

The other day - I saw the former wife and now widow of the late SA President Nelson Mandela hugging and kissing her his memorial service and walking side by side at his funeral service. Strong women with beautiful souls indeed, mature and wise, having known so much about the world and its challenges.

The question that comes to mind now is, how many of us have such strong and beautiful souls to persevere such situation? What can we learn from these women - Graca, Winnie, Hilary and Noluntando?

Sharing information can just help us to prosper in our thinging and advance us to move on in life despite any  catch twenty two situtations that might face us. I will end her for now.
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A mobile phone fast becoming an effective political campaign tool?

With the internet revolution almost at the door step of everyone, including the poor and jobless individuals,  easily available web and online space free for everyone to use, one of the internet gadgets, the mobile phone seems to fast becoming an effective political campaign tool.

For those who follow media reports, a high court judge has  today (04 April 2014) reportedly ruled that a message that one political party used again another seems to be fair comment although the complaint is probably to review the court outcome even though the particular political respects the ruling.

This post is not focusing on whether the high court ruling is fair or not, that is another matter which deserves a separate interrogation, but on the campaign message channel or medium or the conduit, the mobile phone in this case. The message was reportedly forwarded to over one point six million target recipients or electorates in this regard.

The traditional campaign media tools like in my country Namibia have always been radio which reaches over 90 percent of the 2.1 million people and conveys the message in almost all indigenous languages spoken by all diverse language groups. The next second traditional campaign platform is the TV which whose foot print is over 67 percent of the population. And of course print media and now the social media  as we now live in the world of multi-media platforms with online messages. While the campaign messages are disseminated via free airtime –news and current affairs, some political campaign messages are paid for as political parties reinforces their manifesto priorities and why the electorates must vote for their leaders.

While many communities and some parts of even Namibia are yet be connected to the rural electrification grid via the various energy sources including solar energy – and mobile networks, a significant number of the country’s population has access to mobile phones. A few years back, a local mobile telecommunication through its mixa-live event announced that its data base had over 1.5 million mobile phone owners and the country ‘s population is just over two million. What does that tell you, that more Namibians seem to have access to mobile phone. Others through the information talk say that every second person in the street seems to own a cell phone including those looking for jobs at street corners.

The good thing about mobile phones is that the holder, owner or user carries these in his or her hand or pocket or just with him or her, making it possible for the user to be reachable at any time. Unlike portable radios that do not have additional benefits, mobile phones have radio services, they have social media platforms  most of them which are freely available and at no cost. Nowadays people even talk about Whatsup, or Viper – other software that  have added value to such gadgets as users can send message at minimum or no cost compared to traditional short message service.

A political party using mobile phones as platforms to distribute its campaign messages therefore stands to gain so much in terms of having the message reaching the recipients in real time – on instantly – and could do so at a minimum cost compared to for instance a TV platform. Unlike radio and TV platforms that only refer to such a message once unless it is repeated, the mobile phone user who receives the message has a chance to read it over and over again and understand it, and has a chance to also get in touch with the sender of the message right away. Mobile phone platforms also have opportunities to convey messages in various languages although some phones or softwar are yet to be fully developed in order to cater for local languages especially those with clicks.

This post did however not look at the challenges of sending political campaign messages through mobile phone users. The question of who the dedicated political supports or potential suppers and members is another challenge.. But for political parties must develop their members’ data bases in order to ensure that their messages will reach the intended recipients.  However, the other question is, what about sending the messages to members of other political parties with the aim to convert them?

While the focus of this post is not on which electorates to target via mobile phones, the idea was to make us think about the new way of political campaigning and appropriate and available tools  to use. In America and Europe, we have heard how President Barack Obama’s political campaign was partly successful due to social media related platforms and the involvement of the creative minds – the youth.

Now that you scanned through this post, it is now up to you to judge as to a mobile phone is an effective political message campaign too l. I am sure you have been following the debate on the political campaign message disseminated to voters in one of the African countries – and hopefully that can be a spring board to think about this subject. Good luch.

Namibia tops the list of the most food insecure population in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Countries in 2013

This information was made known through a presentation to the stream-work of the climate change related discussions at the International Convention Centre, ICC in Durban, KwaZulu Natal in South Africa during the Comprehension for Africa's Agricultural Development Programme Partnership Platform during the 17-22 March 2014.



The platform was an opportuity to review CAADP's last ten years of performance, plan for the next decade and align the process to the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa to accelate the realization of CAADP's Framework outcomes which include increased food production and productivity, access to markets and trade, availability of food and sustainable use of nature resources. At the same time, participants who were mostly high level officials and agricultural scientists, policy makers, investors and farmers had to plan for the climate change adaptation and mitigation alongside the CAADP momentum.

Mr. Masozi Kachale from SADC's' RVAA Programme Management Unit addressing the climate change stream work members at the CAADP PP

According to the Livelihood Information Management Specialist at the Regional Vulnerability Assessment Analysis, RVAA ( SADC),  Masozi Kachale, 11 countries that underwent the assessement, Namibia is the country with most food insecure population as also confirmed in the statistics he shared with the participants. Out of Namibia's about 2.1 million people, over 778 thousand people were categorized to be food insecure, which is more than 37 percent of the total population.  The survey was conducted mainly in rural areas.



During an annual organization meeting, which usually takes place in December, RVAA Programme mandates for the formulation of the national level and regional budgets. It coordinates annual assessment and analysis in member states during April to June, actually starting next month. And it holds the annual disemination forum in July.



Kachale informed the participants that the programme assessed household level food security focusing on food availabilty and access, hazards (prices, droughts and floods) affecting access to different souces of food and income, and monitoring expenditure patterns. It also provides information on early warning, such as the rainfall forcasting and rainfall performance, crop assessment and market assessments and price monitoring. It also monitors regional level crop - with regard to regional food balance sheet, livestock production, regional and prices, population at risk to food security and nutrition trends. It also offers specialised training as part of regional capacity building.



According to Kachale's presentation, SADC established the RVAA Progarmme Management Unit in 2006, The RVAA's mandate is to strengthen national and regional vulnerability analysis systems in order to inform policy formulation, development programmes and emergency interventions that lead to reduction of vulnerabilty in the country. Its objective is to keep abreast and encourage coordinated development in the field of vulnerability and livelihood assessment in the SADC region.

Kachale also shared the RVAA findings on the prevelance of malnutrition among the children of under five years of age in the region including stunting, a sign of chronic food and nutrition insecurity which he said still remained very high.



Factors that contribute to vulnerabilty and food insecure according to Kachale include, poor rainfal patterns, which include delayed on set of planning rains, erratic rainfall patterns, prolonged drought periods which were experience during the past 2-3 years in Namibia, Botswana and some southern part of Zimbabwe.




Other factors include reduced casual labour opportunities and high unemployment, outbreak of livestock diseases such as foot and mouth diseases, high food prices, high prevelence of poverty in the region affecting the population to cope with shocks. And although decreasing, HIV and AIDS prevelence remains high in across the region and the civil strife in the DRC.



The unit has however also provided recommendations as part of the intervention actions - on short, and medium to long term basis.


Short term interventions



Short term interventions continuation



Medium to long term interventions



Short term to long term recommendations continuation



Some of the programme achievements include the establishment of 12 National Vulnerability Centres in 12 member states, development of livelihood maps for 11 member states, baseline assessment done in 9 member states, capacity building strategies being implemented successfully, strengthening or research and innovation in the region by supporting academic institutions, governments, donors and stakeholders making use of the assessment findings to design orogrammes and policy interventions and reduced levels of food insecurity as of result of the availabilty of the information.



RVAA works closely with various tertiary/academic institutions in the region, which include the University of Namibia, UNAM on the GIS and profiling, building spatial data sets. The University of Zimbabwe deals with Climate Change, Harzards VAA: meteorological, disease and pests, fire and wind as well as tsunami. The University of KwaZulu Natal coordinates food and nutrition security and vulnerability, market access and smallholder farming as well as sustainable livelihood options. University of Malawi, Bunda College deals with poverty measurement and VAA, HIV and AIDS, and livelihoods nutrition.Chancellor College works on house hold economy approach and individual household model. The Sokoine University of Agriculture is responsible for the community nutrition assessment. All this information was contained in the powerpoint presentation of Kachale.

Mr. Kachale (in a shirt) speaking to a colleague after his interesitng presentation.

Another expert, from the International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI, Regional Programme leader Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security, CCNFS, Dr James Kinyangi also presented the related situation mainly from the Western and Eastern African part of the continent. I could however not obtain his presentation copy at the time of posting this content.

ILRI, Regional Programme leader Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security, CCNFS, Dr James Kinyangi 

The vulnerability situations in the various parts of Africa were critical to proper planning of improved livelihoods of the continental citizenry - and more so to the alignment of the next ten years of CAADP Framework results.

The author of this post was one of the members of the CAADP PP, and values so much the information shared with the participants and as usual, she loves to share what she learnt with especially her colleagues and friends as well as the general public. Again information is power and can assist anyone in making informaed decision, that's why she makes it her duty to empower the followers of this blog and their connctions. Kindly share this information as wide as possible as it might just help improve an African's situation or any human being on the planet as we are all citizens of the globe, indeed for improved quality of life.

Mr. Kachale and the author of this post, Namibia's Ms Menesia Muinjo after a brief interview short after his presentation.

Compiled by Menesia Muinjo - acknowleding the efforts made by Mr.Masozi Kachale - the author of the pressentation on which she based this post content.

Meet the African Food and Agricultural Policy Platform (AFAPP) establishment planning workshop members consisting of high-level policy experts and economists drawn from a wide range of national, regional and international policy institutions, including universities from the African continent and beyond.

My love for information sharing motivated me to work out this post for my followers and especially those who might not have gotten a chance to receive the AFAPP booklet or information on that subject. We have to continue sharing information thereby empowering one another. I was one of the fortunate few from Namibia who had a chance to be part of the AFAPP event and that also inspired me to elighten fellow Namibians and followers of this blog to learn more about AFAPP. More information on this subject can be obtained from FARA's Director of Policy and Advocacy, Dr Emmanuel Tambi at etambi@fara-africa.org or 233 302772823 in Accra, Ghana.

AFFAP as a continental platform seeks to enhance the effectiveness of evidence-based policy support to increase food productivity and agricultural transformation in Africa. It's vision is to be a lead continental platform of influencing policies that contribute to increased food and agricultural productivity in Africa. AFAPP's mission is to promote evidence-based policies that support food and agricultural productivity and competitiveness in Africa. The mission and vision will be accomplished by supporting the development of a robust economic research policy community in Africa, facilitating the engagement of the economic research community with policy makers over economic issues affecting food and agricultural development in Africa and promoting networking among African economic policy research institutions.

According to the document compiled by FARA on AFAPP'S establishment the platform will accomplish its objectives by catalysing the production of high-quality economic policy  research to deliver  emprical evidence for food and agricultural policy formulation and decision-making, connecting economic policy research institutions, policy makers and the science and development community, and communicating economic policy research results and policy options to decision-makers through workshops, seminars and conferences.

It says the founding of AFAPP within FARA's Advocacy and Policy Networking Support Function, NSF marks a significant milestone in FARA's efforts to deliver policy support to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme CAADP. AFAPP will collaborate with the African Union Commission, AUC's Policy Analysis and Knowledge Support, PAKS Programme to the AUC's PAKS programme, but will also complement  and add valu to the work of the African economic policy research institutions by harnessing their collective knowledge, information and skills to support increased food production and agriulctural transformation in Africa.

This situation is fitting in well with the 2013 Global Food Research Report by IFPRI - chapter five which highlighted the concern of poor quality research experienced in some countries based on the research it carried out in 36 countries which found various factors contributing to that. Some of the reasons included the fact that most researchers were above the age of 50% and retiring, while others included recruitment restrictions and poor conditions of services which resulted in high turn over of agricultural scientists at PhD level mainly. As a result, some countries made use of junior scientists or researchers whose work was yet to be of high standard. Through the AFAPP opportunity, a lot can be done to improve the research policy situation in Africa.

 The African Food and Agricultural Policy Platform, AFAPP, was established by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA in collaboration with the Centre for International Agricultural Policy, CIFAP of the university of Minnesota in USA and a panel of senior policy experts and economists drawn from within and oustide Africa.

The lack of critical mass of PhD-qualified scientists poses significant constraints to conducting high quality research and attracting external funding.

 This is one of the crtical findings of the 2013 Global Food Policy Research.To substantiate this finding, the report referred to the fact that "no researchers with PhD and MSc degrees are active in Gunea-Bissau, for example. And in 2011, the National Agricultural Research Institutes in Burundi and the Gambia employed just one and two PhD level scientists respectively.

You are probably wondering as to how many Agricultural PhD holders in your country are employed or doing research. Indeed, that's how I felt when I came across this interesting piece of reading from one of the documents I collected from the CAADP @10 stock-taking event in Duban, South Africa from 17-21 March 2014.

 This interesting piece of reading wealth is from "Chapter 5 from 2013 Global Food Policy Report, International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI". And as someone who loves sharing information with many friends, professionals and general public at large, especially those who did not have a chance to attend the event in Durban or those who might not get an opportunity to obtain the IFPRI report, I decided to work on this post. Information as they say is power and I need to empower fellow world citizens, especially those who need this empowerment.

The title of the reading piece is "increase in researcher quantity but not quality. It is says, Africa, South of the Sahara, SSA needs talented and well trained and highly motivated research staff to generate the high quality research outputs that are necessary to accelerate growth in the agricultural sector. It referred to the fact that during 2000-2011 research capacity increased by roughly 50% to an estimated 14 300 agricultural researchers in full time equivalents (FTEs). It says the participation of women scientists has increased in so many countries, the number of researchers with Doctorates (PhDs) and Masters of Science (MSc) degrees has also risen considerably in absolue numbers though average research qualifications varied across countries. The chapter confirmed that PhD holders in only five of 36 countries for which a complete set of degree level data was available (Botswana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar adn Senegal) exceeded 40% of the total number of researchers, whereas another 6 countries reported PhD shares of 10% or lower

Based on the findings that some smaller countries, Gunea Bissau for instance did not employ a PhD holder during the research or that Burundi and the Gambia only employed up to two PhD holders at the Agricutural Institutions, these findings highlight the necessity of the regional initiatives focussing on the needs and vulnerabilities of these countries and those facing the same situation but might not have undergone the same research that time.

This issue was among the key points that CAAP Partnership Platform in Duban emphasized and made a deliberate call to african leaders and the private sectors in various countries to invest in the science - innovation and technology - and not to allow the Science for Agriculture in Africa to be outsourced to international partners.

Another key point raised in the IFFRI report is the fact that long term public sectors recruitment restrictions have resulted in ageing pool of researchers in a number of countries. This trend has reportedly left many agencies in these countries highly vulenerable. As many senior staff approach retirement, mid-level researchers who can take on seniority roles and mentor the next generation of junior scientists are often lacking. In additional, low salary levels, poor conditions of service and subpar facilities have led to high staff turnover in some countries although evidence on the exact nature and scope of the turnover is sketchy.

But, to help address this information, the IFPRI report cited ASTI's collected detailed information on the age distribution of researchers by degree for 36 countries. And in 17 countries, then half of the researchers holding PhD degrees were older than 50, where as in 9 countries, the share of PhD holders older than 50 was higher than 70%. This situation is particularly worse in West Africa. This situation particularly highlights the needs to recruit and train the next generation of scientists.

When the author of this post read about this development, she thought about Namibia's Founding Father, Dr Sam Nujoma who has been advocating for young Namibians to study science - and he even use to mention the various fields that the young ones need to enrol for. At the same time, I also thought about Dr Nujoma's word that history must be told and documented so the young generation benefit from it - I was then thinking that aging scientists too need to share their knowledge with the young ones and prepare the upcoming scientists as part of succession planning for the various countries. This situation is however not only prevelent to the science community, it cuts accross the board, even to parastatals where training and development has been dormant over the years, signaling the death of new knowledge development at the institutional level as only individuals who attempt to get out of this situation manage to improve their skills and competencies at their own peril. Just look at the Namibia's situation according to the IFRI report. The share of PhD holders in total number of research % is 13.And the share of PhD holders older than 50 is 61%, the same as that of DRC. What does this tell Namibians, especially in the Science sector focusing on agriculture? The youth must also take up this matter serious as much as the seniors - because it is teamwork.

The good thing however is that fact that the drivers of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa as the author of this post heard them clearly in Accra last year and in Durban this year are very clear about including young people and women in this process so that they can get a buy -in and subsequently for them to own the process.

Coming back to the IFPRI report, it mentioned that given the high staff turnover, large numbers of retiring reseearchers and various recruitment restrictions, the radio R and D capacity growth over the past decade ahs largely been driven by the recruitment of junior researches, often only having a bachelor's degree, BSc particuarly during 2000-2008.

Do you know your country's total Agricultural PhD % holders and do you know their age category especially in view of succession planning - or next generation PhD holders' preparation? Have you infact thought about this situation that IFPRI has just outlined? I am sure as a compatriot and caring citizen of your country - you should be concerned for the future especially of science and agricultural development as many of the inhabitants of the world depend on this economy.

However all is not as doom and bleak despite what you just read now because according to the same report, there have also been many positive developments in various countries to address the matter. In an attempt to for instance half the staff turnover some countries have put up new measures including large scale recruitment after years of neglect, the boosting of scientists and support salaries to more competitive levels, increases in retirement age, improved benefit packages and the establishment of performance appraisal systems and promotion opportunities based on merit rather than seniority. And the list of positive developments continues.

The report is packed with interest and must-read information - and I am recommending that you google it and get the full insight package as I was basically teasing you and creating your appetite in this area which directly affect all of us.


IFPRI's flagship report examines the major food policy issues, developments and decisions of 2013. It puts into perspective the year's food policy successes and setbacks and suggests how to advance policies that will improve the food situation for poor people in developing countries. For more information on the 2013 Global Food Policy Report, go to http://www.ifpri.org/gfpr/2013

Dr Irene-Annor Frempong - deserves to be the Ambassador for the Science Agenda For Agriculture in Africa (S3A).

As a follower of this blog, you are probably wondering as to who is Madam Irene-Annor Frempong and why am I saying she is the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa Ambassador?

You are probably wondering as to who I am to declare her the Science Agenda and what qualifies her to be the choice for this distinct honour. Yes, indeed I have no authority and neither any power to do so, but I am just using my own thoughts and hope, that if I had that chance, I will definitely do so. I am also advancing this idea to have Madam Frempong as the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa as its BRAND because of her vision for Africa in this regard. Yes, I know that she will say the agenda was not formulated by an individual and she has infact already acknowledge all those who worked tirelessly to bring the project at the level where it is today - under the umbrella of FARA. But still, I have seen the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa Ambassadorship in her.

FARA's Dr Irene-Annor Frempong. Photo taken from FARA's website.

Well, apart from the fact that she is senior FARA official and a scientist as well as one of the strong women Africa has to offer, I do not know Madam Frempong personaly and neither did I had quality time to discuss this matter with her, but having been a meber of the  Forum For Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA's Community Network Practice on this subject, I have listened to her and saw her passionately articulating the Science Agenda For Agriculture in Africa.

Her Science Agenda For Agriculture in Africa resilience and commitment as well as CONVICTION registered more in my mind during the CAADP Partners Platform - particularly at the streaming work on this subject when she explained why this agenda will transform agriculture on the continent.

During her powerpoint presentation which summarized FARA prepared 73 pages Science For Agriculture in Africa document to the participants of the side event of this agenda, Madam Frempong outlined the various processes that led to the formulation of the agenda. She said a 12 member eminent experts who were selected in their individual capacity and not necessarily institutions were the drivers of the processes with four of them assigned to actual formulation of some aspects of the agenda. Referring to what is known as the Accra Consuses of the Science Agenda - since this project was heavily deliberated on in Accra, Ghana in 2013, Madam Frempong outlined the objectives of the agenda and how it would be aligned to CAADP's framework to realize the envisaged results. There were various dialogues and consultations among experts, regional economic groupings, national chapters with specific emphasis on farmers who are the end users of the research that is carried out to improve farming trends and other stakeholders including partners/investors.

Dr Irene Annor Frempong addressing participants of the Science Agenda For Agriculture in Africa streaming work side event.

Participants were requested to give their input in special guided topics as part of further consultations of the agenda that was being prepared for the next stage of the Joint AU  Conference of Ministers of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries in April 2014. The final stage - for the purpose of this agenda will be at the AU Summit - for the debate on theme in June/July in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Some of Group 4 members

Each group consisted of a Facilitator and a Rappoteur. For some reason, Madam Frempong and I ended up in the same group of that discussed the sharing of resources, facilities, personal, knowledge and information at regional level and how that would benefit the science agenda in achieving the set goals. She was the facilitator. Madam Bongiwe Ndjobi, another extra ordinary senior official was the Rappoteur. The team was so enthusiastic, I believe the zeal of Madam Frempong and passion as well as the energy when talking about the science agenda engulfed the team.

Madam Bongiwe Njobe, (wearing a black jacket) Group4 Rappoteur 

After various groups worked on their input as per the sub-themes - the stakeholders were asked - throgh their Rappoteurs to share their points with the rest of the bigger group. The outcome was so marvelous - and the drive was amazing as each table wanted to voice its agreed upon recommendations. As if that was not enough, each group was asked to put the overall recommendations in a sentence or two which must be said in less than a minute. All the teams were so excited to do - and group four led by Madam Frempong was extra charged with positive energy of excitement and managed to put across its overall statemnt in less than 30 seconds or 28 seconds to be exact. The idea to cut down on the wording of the recommendations was to prepare the Science Agenda team to find the way to sell the idea to the Ministers and mainly the Head of State to get a buy in - but such a message must be in a language that is easily understood but with realistic impact and hope on the agricultural transformation in Africa.

Dr Irene- Annor Frempong - Group 4 Facilitor in a blue dress. The author of this post, Ms Menesia Muinjo is next to her.

Some of the displayed Science Agenda text in Hall 4A

As explained by Madam Frempong as also as highlighted in the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa green document (2014) on page 11 the S3A is defined as referring to the science, technology, enstension, innovations, policy and social learning Africa needs to apply in order to meet its evolving agricultural development goals. The agenda identifies the key strategic issues that will impact on science and agriculture and presents a suite of high level actions/options for increasing and deepening the contributions of science to the development of agriculture at the local, national, regional and continental levels in Africa. Its purpose is fundamentally about the strategic investments in science, technology and innovation that are needed to contributed effectively to productivity, equitable development and sustainable productive environments. The principal focused on target populations, themes and production environments.

Some of Group 4 members

The theme for the agenda is "Transforming Africa's Agriculture for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, through harnessing opportunities for incluvise growth and sustainable development. The sub-themes include increased agriculture production, productivity and value addition, functioning agricultural markets at country and regional markets and trade, increased investment fianncing, public and private along the agriculture value chains, towards ending hunger in Africa by 2025 and building resilience and managing risks.

Dr Frempoing and some of her Group 4 members

All these points came out so clearly as Madam Frempong shared them with the participants. Previous participants referred to her as the person who kept on reminding fellow scientists that there was no country to successfully tranformed the agricultural development without applying science. On the other hand, there was a quote that was used now and then both verbally and in the FARA documents and branding that Africa's Agricultural Science was too important to be outsourced to partners, and that african leaders and investors needed to rather invest in this noble efforts and manage this project in-continent.

The pillar thought on which Africa's Science mut be based.

That's why I am saying without having been with Madam Frempong outside FARA platforms, something in me rang a bell that she indeed was the "brand of Africa's Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa". When you see Madam Frempong, you see the Agricultural transformation in Africa - her passion and conviction is so obvious and the influence she continues to impart on many including non-scientists like the author of this post.

Once again, I do not know Madam Frempong personally and neither has she promised me anything or I am not intending to get any favour from her - but once you see and hear her articulating the science agenda, you will definitely get a cue as to why I took this line. You will not need the whole day to get what I am adovacting for - as her commitment for science and agriculture and improved production and farmers' livelihoods is sponteneous.

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For the information of those following this post, I googled Madam Frempong's professional and academic background and came across this information on FARA's website, that state that Dr Irene Annor-Frempoing is the Director of NSF4, responsible for developing and implementing FARA’s capacity strengthening strategy. A Ghanaian by birth, Dr Annor-Frempong holds a PhD from the University of Bristol, UK, and an MSc in Animal Production Science from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She worked as a graduate research assistant at the Reckenholz Research Station in Zurich, Switzerland, and as a lecturer at the College of Education, Benue State, Nigeria. In 1988, she joined the Meat Quality Group at the Animal Research Institute in Zeist, the Netherlands. In 1989, she was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast and was later promoted to senior lecturer. In 2004, as head of the Department of Animal Science in 2004, she pioneered development-oriented curricula and facilitated the new post-graduate program in Livestock Systems Management. She developed the first prototype of the local-closed meat kiln in Ghana in collaboration with Food Research Institute. In 2005, she joined the National University of Lesotho as a senior lecturer and was also tasked with coordinating training of research supervisors in the use of the Genstat statistical package. She has supervised numerous undergraduate and postgraduate research work. Dr Frempong is a Technical Committee member of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and a member of a number of professional bodies. She has authored several refereed papers. After joining FARA in 2008, Dr Annor-Frempong oversaw the development and implementation of Strengthening the Capacity of Agricultural Research and Development for Africa (SCARDA).

You get more information from www.fara-africa.org