Transforming Economies Through Advanced Innovation Technologies

The blueprint is meant to assist African countries to accelerate agricultural productivity using Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Led by the Zimbabwe Government, the blueprint was developed by Smart Africa with technical assistance from a consultancy firm, Science and Advanced Global Innovation Technologies (SAGIT). SAGIT was appointed the as the consultant to develop the Continental Agritech Blueprint and Zimbabwe’s National AgriTech Strategy. As part of the operationalisation of the blueprint.

SAGIT in partnership with the Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services and the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement is working on a Transnational AgriTech pilot to commercialise rural homesteads transforming them to productive business units. A methodology which was derived from African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), was followed for this project. The developmental phases and iterative stages are:

Development Phases

1. Situational Analysis (Africa)
2. Benchmarking to Best Practices (Global)
3. Adoptable Continental AgriTech Blueprint – National Strategy and Transnational pilot projects

Iterative Development Process/stages

1. Literature review
2. Bench-marking on Global best practices
3. Guided Outcomes by Working group and Smart Africa Secretariat
4. Validation workshops 
5. Progressive evaluation (relevance check to the AgriTech blueprint)

Throughout the project execution process, a co-construction approach with Smart Africa, SAGIT and the key partners was adopted. Thus, the involvement of partners was ensured through a full consultative cycle with stakeholders. The stakeholder workshops served at the level of both data collection and validation.