By a Correspondent
The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) has a new Executive Director.
Dr. Aggrey Agumya, a Ugandan national was named by the FARA board of directors to lead the think tank as from June 2023.
“On behalf of the FARA Board of Directors, I am honoured to present Dr Aggrey Agumya as the Executive Director-Designate as we await further details of the imminent leadership transition at the FARA Secretariat,” Dr. Alioune Fall, chairman board of FARA says
Dr. Fall notes during FARA’s 31st Session of the Board of Directors that was held in Accra, Ghana that the board wishes Dr. Agumya a fruitful tenure as he takes the institution to the next level.
Dr. Agumya replaces Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, who has been the Executive Director for a 10-year term, which expires in June 2023.
An alumnus of the University of Melbourne, he holds a doctorate degree in Geo-Information Sciences.
Dr Agumya has been closely associated with most of the significant achievements of FARA, wherein he has served at the Director level for half as long as he has been a staff of FARA.
Dr Agumya has been a part of the FARA for the last 17 years when he joined the Secretariat as a Programme Officer of the sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA-CP), a well-recognized continental Flagship programme of FARA.
Thereafter, he served in key programme and leadership positions in FARA, including as Technical Advisor to the two Executive Directors.
In 2020, he was appointed as the Director of Research and Innovation at the Secretariat, where he also serves as the de facto Deputy Executive Director.
He comes ready with an intimate understanding of the context, configurations, corporate philosophy and partnerships of the agriculture research and innovation institutions in Africa.
Dr. Agumya will become the third Executive Director and Head of Mission of FARA coming after Monty P Jones and Yemi Akinbamijo.
He will take over office in June during the FARA General Assembly that will be held in its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.
FARA is the apex continental organization responsible for coordinating and advocating for agricultural research for development (AR4D).
FARA serves as the technical arm of the African Union Commission (AUC) on matters concerning agriculture science, technology and innovation.
It was conceived in the late 1990s by a core group of committed champions, including both African scientists and enlightened donor aid officials, who believed in agriculture’s potential to lift the continent from poverty.
It was aimed at helping achieve the continent’s weak and fragmented agricultural research systems by bringing them together and strengthening them under a common banner.
It serves as the entry point for agricultural research initiatives in Africa designed to have a continental reach or a sub-continental reach spanning more than one sub-region.
FARA has provided a continental forum for stakeholders in AR4D to shape the vision and agenda for this sub-sector and to mobilize them to respond to key continent-wide development frameworks, notably the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
FARA also plays a key role in galvanizing agricultural research for the development sector, and brings a strong African voice to global forums such as the G-8 and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR).
