The BvAT team led by its Executive Director, Dr. David Amudavi hosted Christophe LAROSE of European Union and Mr. Amine Belhamissi of IFAD on 10^th May 2024 at their offices based in icipe campus Kasarani Nairobi.

The meeting revolved around the interest of EU- IFAD to join other development partners to catalyze the growth of the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative within the Africa continent. This comes after several impactful interactions that BvAT has had with EU over time. Recently during the Soil Health and Fertilizer Summit (SHFS) that was held in Nairobi from 7^th– 9^th May 2024, Dr. Amudavi participated as a panelist in an EU parallel side event that was held on 8^th May on ‘Emerging opportunities with organic ad bio-fertilizer for soil health in Africa. Other panelists for the session included Ms. Carla Montesi- EU DG, INTPA, Dr. Abdou Tenkaouano- DG Icipe. Dr. Amudavi talk focused on AU Ecological Organic Agriculture initiative and its contribution to the post-Malabo Declaration, and role for organic and bio-fertilizers in the EOA initiative.

During the meeting, Ms. Venancia Wambua, Head of Programmes (EOA-I and KCOA) presented the road map and status of EOA-I and the milestones achieved since its roll out in 2011. Mr. Alex Mutungi the EOA Secretariat Coordinator of the CSC presented the CAADP achievements. Other BvAT members who participated in the meeting were Mr. Amos Meme, Fundraising & Resource Mobilization Officer and Ms. Lisa Nixdorf, Integrated Expert Resource Mobilization and Organizational Capacity Strengthening expert.

The outcome of the meeting was for the BvAT team to share the GAP proposal for EOA-I planned to cover a period of 1.8 months from July 2024 to December 2025 and a full proposal for Phase III of EOA that EU would support in approaching possible donors to fund the continuity of EOA-I that ends in June 2024. The EOA-I is currently funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The meeting also agreed for BvAT to initiate discussions with Southern Africa stakeholders to collect information for the development of a concept note for the roll out of EOA-I in Southern Africa region.

Prepared by  Venancia Wambua.