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Last update: 13 March 2024

The DISSEM-INN project concerns a set of eight projects* launched under the DeSIRA initiative. A look back at the emergence of the DISSEM-INN project in the context of this global programme.

The DeSIRA initiative
Launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris in 2017, the “Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA)” initiative is supported by European Commission’s Directorate for International Partnerships (DG INTPA). By funding more than sixty projects worldwide, this program aims to promote innovation in agriculture and transformation of partner countries’ agri-food systems to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change. Through the original concept of “action-research” for a “development smart innovation”, it seeks to promote a science in partnership that meet development challenges.

The joint AFD-CIRAD commitment to the DeSIRA initiative

The first wave of the DeSIRA programme, an EU initiative launched by DG INTPA (formerly DEVCO) at the One Planet Summit in Paris in 2017, includes a set of 32 projects aimed at promoting innovation in the transition of agriculture and food systems to more climate-resilient models. It is the subject of a global envelope of approximately €140 m, mainly financed by the EU and the BMGF. France, through AFD, is contributing €5 m to this budget.

  • Across the whole DeSIRA programme, CIRAD is involved in 11 projects, in other words a third of the projects selected for this first 2018 wave. This commitment is particularly strong in West Africa, where CIRAD is coordinating five flagship projects in the fields of agroecology, agroforestery, animal health and bioenergy: FAIR, IRRINN, COCOA4FUTURE, LIDISKI and BIOSTAR.
  • This specific interest in West Africa is shared by AFD, which has chosen to finance an additional budget of €5 m (bringing its overall commitment to DeSIRA to €10 m). 
  • By mutual agreement with CIRAD, the aim of this additional budget is to provide direct support to three of the six flagship projects coordinated by CIRAD in West Africa, namely: FAIR, COCOA4FUTURE and BIOSTAR.

Focus on the Sahel: the launch of the DISSEM-INN project

In addition to a joint interest in West Africa, CIRAD and AFD, both MEAE operators, share the strategic orientation framework established by the French Interministerial Committee on International Cooperation and Development (CICID), which in its last statement, confirmed a renewed commitment to the Sahel zone. CIRAD integrated this provision into its own Contract of Objectives, as did AFD, through the adoption of its regional strategy, "Grand Sahel 2020-2024".

AFD decided to allocate 10% of the €5 m additional direct support for the three projects selected by mutual agreement with CIRAD to cross-cutting activities covered by a separate, independently managed project entitled "Dissemination of innovation in the Sahel region (DISSEM-INN)". The aim of this project is to capitalize on cross-disciplinary knowledge relating to the innovation dissemination experience and practices developed within eight DeSIRA projects*  taking place in the Sahel.

* Originally, the DISSEM-INN project involved a total of nine DeSIRA projects, including INV-Niger, but due to the discontinuation of its activities, DISSEM-INN has capitalized on only eight projects since 2023.

Last update: 13 March 2024