📋 Tender Overview
Smallholders in Africa need access to affordable quality seeds of the best varieties, especially in fragile and conflict affected states. The phase 2 of the Integrated Seed Systems in Africa, a successful Swiss supported network of seed professionals, focuses on Seed Systems in the Humanitarian, Development, Peace-Nexus, aiming to strengthen resilience to shocks via the development and mainstreaming of state of-the-art tools, methodologies, and policies, adapted to fragile and conflict-affected states.
Country/region Topic Period Budget
Africa
Agriculture & food security
Humanitarian Assistance & DRR
Agricultural development
Emergency food assistance
Agricultural services & market
01.11.2023 - 31.10.2027
CHF 2’000’000
The project in brief
Background Multiple, overlapping climate and conflict crises are undermining development progresses, plunging millions of people back to poverty and hunger. This is particularly true in fragile contexts, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa hindering smallholder farmers to access high quality, affordable and diversified seed of locally adapted varieties. The result is lack of resilience to shocks, lower farm income, reduced food and nutrition security and loss of agrobiodiversity. Humanitarian, development and peace-building initiatives are mostly disconnected, without synergy and contradictory objectives. What is needed to strengthen seed systems are the development, operationalisation, scaling up and institutionalisation of Humanitarian, Development, and Peace (HDP) Nexus approaches that enables awareness and understanding, collaborative joint action and complementary investments. This will be the key focus of phase 2 of the ISSD Africa project.
Objectives Impact: smallholder farmers in fragile and conflict affected states have improved access to sufficient, high quality, affordable, diversified seed of locally adapted varieties farmers prefer, resulting in increased resilience, higher farm income, improved food and nutrition security and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. The main objective of the ISSD Africa phase 2 project is to strengthen a Community of Practice (CoP) comprising humanitarian, development and peace stakeholders (HDP-Nexus), which is able to support, steer, and implement sustainable seed sector interventions particularly adapted to fragile and conflict-affected states in Africa.
Target groups Direct beneficiaries: HDP-Nexus partners working in the Seed Sector in Africa; African Governments and the African Union End beneficiaries: small-scale farmers in Africa and particularly women and youth benefitting from improved seed aid
Medium-term outcomes • Outcome 1: An enabling structure for the effective facilitation of the CoP is operational and tailored to support the HDP-Nexus • Outcome 2: An African-grown solution to boost the HDP-Nexus in the seed sector has been developed • Outcome 3: The integration of ISSD Africa derived insights into HDP-Nexus seed sector interventi
