Tropentag 2025:

Science-policy interfaces for food security, agriculture and rural development in Africa – an exchange

The Corona pandemic has reminded once more and very visibly how important scientific advice can and must be for policy making and public goods; yet, it has also shown that the science-policy interface entails many challenges. Some challenges from the policy side include: Which expertise and experts to consult, how to recognise and deal with limitations of science? From the science side: What is consolidated knowledge, which specific knowledge does match which policy needs, when should one establish specific recommendations and when more generally show up consequences of alternative decisions, how to translate complex issues and expert language into “policy speak”? And at the interface: How to organise the exchange, how to embed such complex and specialised issues in broader public dialogue, how to deal with special interest groups, how to organise a pipeline of relevant knowledge for the future?

In research related to African countries, challenges may even be bigger because much of that research is commissioned from developed countries, so that additional mismatches of priority setting, governance and choice of experts and dialogue may arise.

This panel will discuss some of these challenges and questions related to the topics of the Tropentag: food security, agriculture and rural development, with a regional focus on Sub-Sahara Africa. The panel is composed of scientists, advisors and policy makers from Namibia, Benin and Germany. They will explore some important lessons from personal and professional experience in relation with development cooperation, and will react to questions and comments from the audience as to what should be paid attention to for channelling scientific knowledge into policy advice.

The panel is composed of:

• Dr. Johanes Agbahey, Advisor at the global project “Agricultural Policy and Innovation Fund” in Bonn, GIZ, a project of BMZ’s ‘ONE WORLD – No Hunger’ special initiative.
• Hendrik Denker, Deputy Head of Division “Food and nutrition security, global food policy, fisheries” at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
• Dr. Thinah Moyo, Senior lecturer in the Department of Agric and Natural Resources at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Co-Director for the Agriculture Trade Policy Institute (ATPI).
• Vehaka Tjimune, Senior Policy Advisor and Team Leader in the Agricultural Policy Advice Project (ECAP) of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Namibia.
• Prof. Dr. Christine Wieck, Head of Chair “Agricultural and Food Policy” at University of Hohenheim with a longer track record in policy advise in agriculture (trade) policy for development.

Moderation: Dr. Michael Brüntrup, researcher and policy advisor at German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

When: Tuesday, September 14th, 17:00-18:30,

Where: Virtual event at the Tropentag 2021 at: link will be published in due time - access also via the whova application