TSARA organizes its second General Assembly in Senegal

The second General Assembly meeting of the TSARA initiative, which now has 25 members (universities and research organizations) or associate members, was held on January 25 in Saly, Senegal. Under the co-chairmanship of ARC (South Africa) and CIRAD (France), the heads of 20 national and regional African research and training institutions and 2 French institutions shared the main advances made, and validated the scientific agenda and action plan co-constructed by the teams from these institutions. The aim is to promote food systems that are productive, resilient to climate change, autonomous and sustainable, contributing to food security and sovereignty, nutrition, creating quality jobs, preserving resources and global health. The initiative was joined by 3 associate members : AgroParisTech; Institut Agro (France) and Université Gaston Berger (Senegal). Finally, the meeting ratified the governance for 2024, entrusting Momar Talla Seck, Managing Director of ISRA (Senegal) and Philippe Mauguin, Chairman and Managing Director of INRAE (France) with the co-presidency for one year, and preparing for 2025.

The 2nd General Assembly was an opportunity to take stock of actions undertaken since the 1st General Assembly and to highlight activities carried out jointly by members. These activities contribute to a strong dynamic of information and exchange within TSARA, through joint participation in international highlights, field missions, project sequences and seminars.

TSARA's strength lies in its ability to support promising initiatives of all kinds and sizes, while at the same time creating new networks. Several start-up projects or incentive actions have been implemented, such as Soil Africao, a research and training network on soil functionality in West Africa, uniting partners from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and France; or Employae, dedicated to the Employment/Agroecological Transition nexus, bringing together partners from Ghana, Senegal, Burkina Faso and France. The initiative has led to the launch of two pilot projects led by CIRAD, INRAE and partners in 4 countries (South Africa, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia): FAMA on nutrition from microbiota to public policy, and MAHDIA on the water management-food-agroecology nexus.

The 2nd General Assembly was also an opportunity to validate TSARA's scientific agenda and action plan, in line with the initiative's objectives, in order to respond to global socio-economic and environmental challenges. It was also an opportunity to strengthen the organization of the scientific base, to validate the principles of opening TSARA to new members and synergy with existing members, and to prepare the setting up of a TSARA External Advisory Committee (EAC), which will be made up of experts from Africa and Europe, as well as multilateral partners. A round table of 5 experts gathered their recommendations and prefigured this governance body.