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As we shift our focus to the next programming period, it is increasingly clear that new solutions and new thinking are required to address evolving challenges. Even where FLAGs have been successful in achieving their goals in the 2007-2013 period, they will still have to reassess their situation and prepare new strategies that respond to the changing external environment,the new legislative framework, and take account of their own evolving capacity and maturity as agents of local development. Zoom: Integrating different funds in CLLD:intensive dialogue underway in Poland

The Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department of the African Development Bank Group (OSAN) is responsible for Bank's assistance in Agriculture and natural resources management in the Regional Member Countries. This assistance includes environmental concerns, promoting agro-industries development, enhancing production, productivity and competitiveness. The Department provides technical and managerial services as well as technical quality assurance to ensure development effectiveness of Bank financed interventions in Agriculture and related areas on the continent . In 2010, the African Development Bank Group started implementing its current Agriculture Sector Strategy (AgSS) covering the period 2010 - 2014. The strategy aims primarily at contributing to the broader development objectives of greater and sustained agricultural productivity, food security and poverty reduction. The strategy was designed with the view of enhancing Bank interventions through more focused, selective and innovative activities. These activities covered areas such as: i) rural infrastructure, including water management and storage, and trade - related capacities for access to local and regional markets; and ii) natural resource management. The strategy also supported selected research initiatives and a wide range of capacity building programs, with distinct features of gender sensitivity, with particular emphasis on fully mainstreaming gender appropriat ely on more than 50% of projects, and ensuring that a similar scope of beneficiaries are women. The Bank recently concluded a Mid-term Review of the AgSS (2010-2014), and will soon commence work on the new Agriculture Strategy to cover the period 2015-2019,and it will be formulated in line with the Bank's Ten Year Strategy ( TYS:2013-2022).OSAN therefore seeks to recruit a junior consultant to assist in : data collection,analysis, research,results reporting and support for the preparation of an approach for the new Strategy.

Europe-Africa Research & Innovation News n°9 - April 2014 [Delegation of the European Union to the African Union] In this edition: · Call for EU-SA Twinning Activities in Marine Sciences and Raw Materials · ERAfrica announces outcome of first call · Engaging SME's in EU-Africa STI Research Cooperation Language EN

"Europe's most visible forum for ICT research and innovation, ICT2013, will take place from 6-8 November 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The ICT 2013 event will be the first opportunity to learn the details of research funding for ICT-related projects under Horizon 2020, the EU's new research program for 2014-2020. The European Commission proposed an €80 billion package for research & innovation funding, as part of the drive to create sustainable growth and new jobs in Europe. Horizon 2020 will support the development of ICT in Science (in future and emerging technologies or e-Infrastructures); in industrial leadership (such as smart systems, robotics, photonics, etc.) and in societal challenges (such as eHealth, eGovernment and eSkills)."

"The "post-2015 development agenda" has become a hot topic in development circles in New York. This agenda refers to a potential framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals upon their expiration in 2015, as well as the articulation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisioned at the Rio+20 conference last year."

"AfDB, octobre 2016 Le 18 octobre à Abidjan, la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) a organisé une conférence ministérielle sur l'emploi des jeunes en Afrique. La rencontre a été l'occasion pour la BAD de dévoiler sa nouvelle Stratégie pour l'emploi des jeunes en Afrique, suite à quoi les participants ont exploré les pistes de solutions durables pour promouvoir l'emploi des jeunes et l'esprit d'entreprise dans la région. Lire le compte-rendu de la conférence en français : http://www.afdb.org/fr/news-and-events/article/if-youth-is-our-future-then-we-are-already-behind-schedule-afdb-president-tells-west-african-ministerial-conference-on-youth-employment-in-africa-16236/ Lire le compte-rendu de la conférence en anglais : http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/if-youth-is-our-future-then-we-are-already-behind-schedule-afdb-president-tells-west-african-ministerial-conference-on-youth-employment-in-africa-16236/"

"Bonn, 27 Nov 2013. Rethinking rural development__ Opportunities for new partnerships and territorial approaches in a changing rural environment is the lead theme for the Platform annual general assembly in Paris on 22/23 January. Important challenges and new opportunities for development agendas bring about a need for a more inclusive approach to agricultural development. At the moment donors are not always equipped to address the inherent complexity. Could a modern territorial approach be the solution?"

"The largest European Commission research project is being developed to enhance the European aquaculture production by removing production bottlenecks of emerging species, producing new products and accessing new markets. It is Diversify project, which is funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission and had its kickoff meeting at the Hellenic Center for Marine Research in Greece in January 2014. Coordinated by Dr. Constantinos C Mylonas of the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, a total of 38 partners from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Israel, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and Hungary have participated in this 5-year-long research. The Netherlands is represented by Wageningen University's DLO, The National Institute for Fisheries Studies and the Technical University of Eindhoven."

The objective of the Local Government Support Program Project for Morocco is to set up a lasting program to provide local governments in the project area with access to decentralized support services and assistance to institutionalize inter municipal cooperation. There are three components to the project, the first component being de-concentrated Local Governments (LG) support centers. This component will design and pilot a support mechanism, through local single window support centers for LGs in the project area that will provide LGs with technical assistance to prepare and manage projects. These may include infrastructure projects, the improvement or introduction of a new public service or the contracting of a public service to the private sector. Based on the results of the pilot, the support mechanism is expected to be rolled out at a national level. This roll-out is outside the scope of this project. The second component is the inter-municipal cooperation and institutional reform for local service delivery. This component will include specific consulting services and incentives towards accelerating the formation of inter-municipal cooperation structures and the creation of new public asset companies on a pilot basis in the project area that the inter-municipal cooperation structures will establish for planning and financing their infrastructure investments. Finally, the third component is the program management.

"The African Higher Education Summit to be held in March 2015 in Senegal will provide an energising space for African political and university leaders, experts and organisations - and friends of the continent - to revitalise interest in the sector and talk about the future. "This is a call to action. The summit will mark the beginning of a new agenda for higher education in Africa," says Dr Tendai Murisa, director of the summit's lead organiser TrustAfrica. "At TrustAfrica we do not claim expertise on higher education. We claim expertise in bringing Africans and friends of Africa to a space where they can talk," Murisa says. In this case, it will be a gathering of all higher education actors."

"There is a great new opportunity to attend COP21 as one of 3 funded representatives of the Global South! COP21 looks likely to be the biggest Environmental conference ever, and it's critical that young people from all over the world make their voice heard. If you are from the Global South, this is your chance."

Development institutions are learning new ways to share knowledge. The traditional hierarchical model of training, in which information is passed down from teacher to student, or donor to recipient, is not always the most effective. Instead, partnerships are emerging through which experiences can be shared.

"[KUALA LUMPUR] New approaches to agricultural research and development (R&D) that support local innovation are needed in order to tackle global poverty, say agriculture experts. At a conference, Re-imagining Agricultural Research in Development Dialogue, held in Penang, Malaysia last month (29-31 January), experts from the agricultural sector convened to discuss how agricultural research could best be used to benefit the 870 million people still living on less than US$1.25 a day. "The [conference] was motivated by the realization that agricultural research was not benefiting the poorest of the poor," Boru Douthwaite, Knowledge Sharing and Learning theme leader for the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS), tells SciDev.Net. "

"IT News Africa-. The mobile application space is set to boom across Africa, as enterprises and developers lead the world in bringing to market unique mobile applications suited to a developing market. There are several reasons for this - crucially, Africa is a mobile continent. Mobile devices are becoming smarter, faster and more affordable; smartphone adoption is growing by around 15% year on year across the continent, and mobile bandwidth has become better and more affordable."

"Addis Ababa, March 24, 2013 - The African Union Commission (AUC) and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Agency have launched a Journalists Network, to promote agricultural development in Africa. The Network, which was launched today on the eve of the 9th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, aims to equip African journalists with a better understanding of CAADP, and the broader issues and debates related to agricultural development on the Continent."

"[LONDON] Smallholder farmers in Africa must participate in research to ensure higher crop yields and to fend off hunger as the continent's population grows, according to a report published today (18 April). A combination of traditional knowledge and modern science will be key to achieving higher productivity at lower ecological cost - known as 'sustainable intensification' - the report says. 'Sustainable Intensification: A New Paradigm for African Agriculture' was written by the Montpellier Panel, a group of international experts from the fields of agriculture, sustainable development, trade, policy and global development. "

"The 2016 annual meeting of the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD), organised in collaboration with the Platform for African-European partnership on Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD), brought together research and non-research professionals from Western, Central/Eastern Europe and Africa, to debate on the future of Users'-led research and innovation partnerships (MSHIP)."

"L'ONU rend hommage au rôle des fermes familiales dans la réduction de la faim et le développement durable 22 novembre 2013, New York - L'ONU a lancé l'Année internationale de l'agriculture familiale (AIAF) 2014 afin de souligner le vaste potentiel détenu par les agriculteurs familiaux dans l'éradication de la faim et la conservation des ressources naturelles. Dans les pays développés comme en développement, plus de 500 millions de fermes familiales - exploitations faisant essentiellement appel aux membres de la famille pour la gestion et la main-d'œuvre - produisent les aliments qui servent à nourrir des milliards d'êtres humains. Dans de nombreux pays en développement, elles constituent en moyenne 80 pour cent de toutes les exploitations agricoles."

"Guillaume GAROT, Ministre délégué à l'agroalimentaire, s'est rendu les 26, 27 et 28 septembre à New York, pour participer, avec Laurent FABIUS, Ministre des Affaires étrangères, à l'événement de promotion de la gastronomie française, Taste of France."

"'Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations'. Senator William Fulbright As the debate on internationalisation of higher education grows stronger, so does the interest in mobility not only of students, but also of staff. This is likely to intensify in the coming months, as the European Commission's new Erasmus+ programme, starting in 2014, promises more opportunities and funding for higher education and teaching staff to study, train and work in another country. Indeed, higher education staff will account for a significant percentage of the 1 million beneficiaries of a mobility period funded by the programme between 2014 and 2020. Staff mobility is seen as a vital and often cost-effective means of creating 'internationalisation at home' - enabling students to (in)directly experience another higher education culture on site. It is also widely believed that staff mobility has an additional value in acting as a catalyst for student mobility. "