The Pan African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) is an African research for development program comprising three regional networks operating in nearly 25 countries in eastern, central (ECABREN), southern (SABRN) and west Africa (WECABREN), the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture CIAT, donors and other public, private and non-governmental organisations. The goal of this program is improved nutrition and health, food security, a resilient production system able to recover rapidly from adverse effects of environmental stresses and market challenges and therefore contribute sustainably to better livelihoods and incomes of resource poor small holder families in Sub-Saharan Africa. Beans, grown on more than 4.5 million hectares annually and consumed and traded by more than 100 million households, are vital to Africa’s struggle in moving towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. PABRA continues to make contributions towards achieving these goals by developing and disseminating technologies that enhance food security, nutrition, income generation and mitigate environmental and natural resource degradations.
The proposal outlined for the period 2009 to 2013 (at the moment SDC will commit only for the first three years) has five major objectives: (i) developing strategies and technologies enhancing resilience to environmental stresses and improve bean productivity and product quality; (ii) improving food, nutrition security and health of vulnerable communities; (iii) linking farmers to equitable and sustainable markets; (iv) developing and implementing strategies to reach more than 16.5 million new households and other end users with bean based technologies; and (v) building capacities of PABRA partners in knowledge management, policy and advocacy.
In implementing these major objectives, PABRA will give emphasis to five cross cutting issues which include mainstreaming gender, HIV/AIDS, niche and targeted variety development, building strategic alliances and partnerships and participatory program monitoring and evaluation.
Expected major results and impacts include new bean varieties combining high micronutrient content with resistance to production stresses; micronutrient deficiency maps for iron and zinc to African research institutions; updated or new maps showing specific environmental stresses; new bean based health interventions for the malnourished, iron and zinc bioavailabity and bioefficacy data for beans; high value products for new niche markets, wider use on highly effective and efficient novel breeding methods in bean programs; cost-effective, equitable and sustainable methods of seed production and delivery; novel methods for demand creation and information sharing; massive expansion of partnerships for scaling up, and better human and physical capacities, skills and techniques for information, knowledge management and sharing among partners and improved advocacy for more favourable policies for bean subsector. PABRA partners expect to deliver products and services that will have positive impacts on the livelihoods of 16.5 million households (83 million people) in target areas between 2009 and 2013. Principal targets and primary beneficiaries will include women, children, the sick, people living with HIV/AIDS, rural poor especially those in high stress zones, urban and peri-urban producers and consumers and national program staff.
PABRA contributes to Switzerland’s development policy objectives as formulated in the dispatch on the continuation of technical cooperation for developing countries. Within this framework the project focuses on three areas of cooperation (1: support to poverty reduction strategies; 2: support to region with fragile states; 3: contribution to pro-development globalisation); addressing nutritional and economic constraints as well as the climatic change the project is in full conformity with the global issues and SDC’s development goals in Sub-Saharan Africa.
