Tuesday July 24, 2018: African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) has signed a partnership agreement with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) to promote and support different interventions geared toward gender-responsive agricultural research for development in Ethiopia.

This is AWARD’s newest partnership under its Gender Responsive Agricultural Research and Development (GRARD) initiative. Through GRARD, AWARD seeks to catalyse transformative change in African agricultural research by supporting African research institutions and scientists to; conduct research that is more inclusive, better targeted and better designed to respond to needs and priorities of both men and women across agricultural value chains.

The agreement was signed at EIAR in the presence of the EIAR Director General, Dr. Mandefro Nigussie, AWARD Director, Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg and  EIAR’s Gender and Research Deputy Director, Lemlem Abebe Azage, who is also a 2018 AWARD Fellow.

This partnership is a significant boost to AWARD’s mission of  creating a vibrant network of institutional actors committed to gender responsiveness in African agricultural research.

The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) aims to conduct research that will provide market competitive agricultural technologies that will contribute to increased agricultural productivity and nutrition quality, sustainable food security, economic development, and conservation of the integrity of natural resources and the environment.

African Women in Agricultural Research and Development works toward inclusive, agriculture-driven prosperity for the Africa by strengthening the production and dissemination of more gender-responsive agricultural research and innovation. We invest in African scientists, research institutions, and agribusinesses so that they can deliver agricultural innovations that better respond to the needs and priorities of a diversity of women and men across Africa’s agricultural value chains.