For improving the living conditions and income situation for the rural population in Africa the project cooperation between ICRAF and GIZ builds on demand driven agroforestry science for development. The success of the project depends on its underlying political support from officials in various countries of Africa and the high potential for scalability to the large number of beneficiaries, farmers and households in Africa. The research is set up based on assessment of demand for innovation and matching supply within the International Agricultural research for development arena. The results of the project will be evaluated and principles, guidelines will be developed to support policy development as well as local capacities in further scaling. Conflict of interest is smoothened and mediated by integrating ICRAF as an international AF-research center and GIZ as a non-profit development cooperation agency. While these partners do maintain a long lasting cooperation already, there is certainly potential for improvement by including further development partners as well as the regional and local research expertise.

The “Scaling-Up the Science to Create an EverGreen Agriculture in African Countries” is an outstanding project. It intends to provide critical links between facilitators, implementers and researchers of sustainable agricultural development, in order to embed the science of EverGreen Agriculture within development efforts.  The EverGreen Agriculture Partnership draws together stakeholders from various sectors including policy and national government, education, farmer organisations, development organisations, donors and research.  Through this project, these stakeholders will be engaged in a range of activities that will fill strategic gaps to maximize the effectiveness of current scaling up efforts and to identify and develop new opportunities to take EverGreen Agriculture knowledge and experiences out further.  In so doing, the Partnership will continue to enhance cooperation between researchers and development practitioners to scale up EverGreen Agriculture.