Combating Desertification with Knowledge: the African Initiative (AI-CD) Knowledge Hub

There is a critical need for improved South-to-South exchanges of knowledge about climate change adaptation in the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions. Knowledge management and sharing are recognized as key enablers to build capacities and promote ownership of development processes. With the launch of the new collaborative knowledge platform, the African Initiative for Combating Desertification to Strengthen Resilience to Climate Change in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa (AI-CD), in partnership with the CGIAR, innervate information in a pivotal effort to tackle desertification.

The African Initiative (AI-CD) Knowledge Hub has been formally launched on 30 April 2019. Behind the platform are partners engaged in the AI-CD - an initiative co-organized by the Government of Kenya, the Government of Senegal, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) - namely the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS).

The new collaboration between AI-CD partners and the CGIAR will facilitate the systematic transfer of valuable knowledge to the target African countries. The knowledge will also be made available through Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL), the collaborative online platform for knowledge employed by six CGIAR Research Centers and three Research Programs to manage their activities and results: ICARDA, International Potato Center (CIP), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), WorldFish, Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC), Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), FISH.

Relevant knowledge products are now published at http://aicd-africa.org/knowledge, set up within the AI-CD portal http://aicd-africa.org/ through a real time sharing process using a communication protocol - the Application Programming Interface or API - and an advanced agri-semantic clusterization based on a pool of AGROVOC terms combined with keywords brought in by the experience of the implementing partners. This methodology has been developed and employed successfully thanks to the synergy of specialised knowledge and technical teams.

The AI-CD approach sets a milestone in FAIRness, making the knowledge properly systematized and without need of manipulation, as promoted by ICARDA within several initiatives funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank (WB).

The knowledge shared in partnership with the AI-CD is indicative of the research for development efforts made by the CGIAR Centers in the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and with the aim of improving livelihoods and ecosystems services, enhancing local capacities, supporting gender equality, and endorsing the role of youth in transforming the African countries.