AfroGrow

AfroGrow (‘Informed decision-making for agroforestry systems in Africa through a network of living laboratories’) is an initiative funded by the Horizon Europe programme that promotes sustainable agroforestry practices across Africa. The project is based on a network of six living labs, real-world spaces where local communities, public authorities, researchers and other key stakeholders jointly create solutions tailored to the specific ecological and socio-economic context of each territory.

AfroGrow has six living labs spread across Senegal, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Botswana and Zambia. These act as centres for innovation and training, promoting technology transfer and collaborative governance to address challenges such as biodiversity loss and soil degradation, and to foster climate resilience.

AfroGrow’s main objective is to promote sustainable agroforestry systems in Africa through participatory, digital and evidence-based approaches. The project is based on six key objectives:

1. Establish agroforestry Living Labs as open innovation ecosystems in six African countries to jointly design, test and adapt agroforestry practices and technologies with local actors through a multi-stakeholder and gender-sensitive approach.
2. Identify plant and animal species and varieties with high potential for agroforestry systems, taking into account ecological, cultural, market and planetary health criteria.
3. Assess the environmental, socio-economic and health impacts of agroforestry systems using a harmonised monitoring framework.
4. Develop open and accessible digital tools that facilitate data-driven decision-making, carbon management (including carbon farming practices), participatory data collection and practical training for stakeholders in agroforestry.
5. Reduce social inequalities and promote social cohesion by strengthening local capacities, fostering entrepreneurship, facilitating the inclusion of women, young people and vulnerable groups, and promoting co-creation and knowledge sharing in networks.
6. Support evidence-based policy-making and strengthen collaboration between Africa and the European Union by contributing to the High-Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD) between the African Union and the European Union on Science, Technology and Innovation, with a focus on the Green Transition, and by expanding the European Adaptation Strategy.

Through these objectives, AfroGrow aims to make a real impact on the transition towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive food systems.

Coordination: ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (Cyprus).

Partnership: AfroGrow brings together 25 partners from 15 countries (9 European and 6 African), including universities, research centres, NGOs, SMEs and representatives of the public sector from both the African Union and the European Union.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-10).