The African Development Bank (AfDB) returns as a leading partner of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) – the largest Agriculture Conference in Africa – to be held, for the first time, online from September 8 to 11, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 10th annual edition of the AGRF will be hosted by African Heads of State and Government and will bring together delegates from governments, civil society, the private sector and the research community. AGRF 2020 is organized by the Government of Rwanda and the AGRF Partner Group, under the theme "Feeding Cities, Developing the Continent. Leveraging urban food markets to build sustainable food systems in Africa."

"As COVID-19 causes disruption across Africa, we must prioritize policy support, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that produce, process and market 60% of the food consumed on the continent," said Wambui Gichuri, the Bank's Acting Vice President for Agriculture, human and social development.

"We need to improve the flow of inputs and food, increase production and access to safe and nutritious food, set up working groups on food security in countries, as well as strengthen the capacity of regional organizations to monitor multinational initiatives. Agrf is the platform to move these political conversations forward."

Mr. Gichuri leads the Bank's "digital delegation" to AGRF, which also includes Atsuko Toda, Director of Agricultural Finance and Rural Development; Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agribusiness; Esther Dassanou, Coordinator of the Bank's Positive Financing Action for the Women's Initiative in Africa (AFAWA), and Edson Mpyisi, Coordinator of the Bank's Enable Youth Program. The Bank delegation will participate in nine sessions of the AGRF.

Mr. Gichuri is expected to deliver remarks at a plenary session on the theme of nutrition: Building Back Better – Developing the Continent. This policy symposium to be held on Wednesday (16:00 CAT) will discuss the state of food security and nutrition in the world, the ongoing pandemic and the continent's food.

Mr. Toda will host a side event organized by the Bank on agrf on Monday, September 7 (15:00 CAT). The session entitled "Integrating African Food Systems through the Lens of SME Champions" will echo small and medium-sized enterprises in the sub-sectors of production, processing, logistics and cold chain solutions.

"Feeding Africa's growing population is not just about producing more food. It is also about providing food to the people who need it most. We support entrepreneurs along the value chains of the food system to help them achieve this," said Toda.

Mr. Fregene will participate in a panel discussion at an AGRF pre-event, "Development", which will start at 15:00 on Monday, and he will speak at another pre-event session, "Agriculture Technologies for Feeding Cities AGRF", at 17:00 on the same day.

Mpyisi will be part of the jury on Tuesday during the parallel session of the final of the AGRF Agro-preneurs competition. The competition brings together young entrepreneurs, innovators and "decision-makers" from the African agri-food sector. Mpyisi will also participate in the session "Strengthening the Ecosystem for Young African Entrepreneurs", which will examine action plans to better meet the needs of young agricultural entrepreneurs.

AFAWA Coordinator Ms. Dassanou will join a panel of experts to discuss optimizing gender-based financing on Wednesday, September 9.

The session will look at the methods needed to identify and finance women entrepreneurs who are part of the hidden environment that connects farmers to the value-added processing, retail and foodservice sectors in the continent's urban centres.

"Agriculture and strengthening food systems are the cornerstones of Africa's plan to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic," said Ms Fregene. "Agrf Online will bring together the most senior government officials in the same digital space as grassroots actors throughout the the agricultural value chain – we are proud at Bank level to be part of it," Fregene said.