Together with INTERFACES project partners IDOS and FARA, Tina Beuchelt (ZEF) organized a well-visited side event „From agricultural innovations to implementation: pathways to impact“ at the 8th Africa Agribusiness and Science Week (see also https://aasw.faraafrica.org/). The conference took place 5th- 8th June 2023 in Durban, South Africa.

The side-event discussed how implementation research can be a useful tool to improve the adoption of agricultural innovations for sustainable land use. While the one or other way of assuring pathways to impact is already adopted by many projects, systematic research related to implementation, up- as well as outscaling of innovations to achieve social change (implementation research) is rare. We wanted to discuss with key African organizations involved in the implementation of agricultural research - researchers, implementers and users - what their lessons from practises of agricultural innovation processes are and how to better achieve social change.

Keynote speeches were given by Dr. Tina Beuchelt (ZEF) on “The INTERFACES project and pathways to impact” and by Ms. Nsama Nsemiwe Chikolwa from the African Union Commission (AUC) on the “The African Union Land Governance Strategy “. This was followed by a panel discussion with four distinguished panellists:

• Dr. Frank Kayula  - Executive Director, National Association of for Smallholder Farmers, Zambia
• Karen Munoku - Gender and Agribusiness expert, FARA
• Dr. Richard Kasuga - Communication and Knowledge Management Specialist, Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, Tanzania
• Clemens Khaiseb - Director of Research and Training, Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Namibia