Digitally Enabled Resilience and Nutrition Policy Innovations (DERPIn)

The Digitally Enabled Resilience and Nutrition Policy Innovations (DERPIn) project was a three-year initiative implemented by AKADEMIYA2063, a pan-African non-profit research organization headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda in partnership with the Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO) of which EAFF is a founding regional member. The project was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), supported through the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag) and implemented by AKADEMIYA2063 on behalf of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

DERPIn aimed to foster the capacity and agility of government planners and private sector operators, including smallholder farmers and their organizations to craft adapted, gender-sensitive, impactful policies and programs to advance food systems transformation and enhance resilience to shocks. It did so through a combination of digitally-enabled, customizable tools, data and analytical products to cater to the needs of a broad range of stakeholders including government, the private sector and food systems actors including smallholder farmers.

At the heart of the project was AKADEMIYA2063’s Africa Agriculture Watch (AAgWa) platform a web-based platform that employs cutting-edge machine learning techniques and satellite remotely sensed data to predict agricultural yields and production levels of several crops across Africa to support decision-making, monitoring, crisis management and effective intervention planning in local communities. The project adapted and expanded this platform for country-specific needs, coupling crop production data with nutrition and vulnerability indicators to inform strategic decisions at policy level.

The solutions proposed in this project derived from participatory approaches that involved local stakeholders and beneficiaries in the content and format of services and products to ensure relevance and increase accessibility and use. PAFO’s collaboration was central to ensuring that farmers’ organizations including EAFF and its member networks could use these digital tools to engage more effectively in evidence-based policy dialogue, investment planning, and mutual accountability processes.

Funding Amount

• Total Budget: EUR 4,079,180 (EU funding via GIZ i4Ag)

Implementation Period
October 2022 – December 2025

Target Countries

DERPIn was implemented across five African countries:

• Benin
• Ghana
• Malawi
• Senegal
• Uganda

Implementing Partners

• AKADEMIYA2063 (Lead Implementer)
• Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO)
• National Institute for Agricultural Research, Benin
• University of Development Studies and Farmers Organization Network in Ghana (FONG)
• Malawi University of Science and Technology and Farmers Union of Malawi
• Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research and National Council for Rural Consultation and Cooperation
• Makerere University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and National Alliance of Agricultural Cooperatives in Uganda (NAAC)

Project Objectives

The overall objective of DERPIn was to empower stakeholders in the agri-food sector to develop gender-sensitive and resilience-building strategies through data-driven decision-making and digital innovation.

The project aimed to:

1. Develop and deploy digital platforms for agricultural and nutritional decision-making

• Adapt and expand the open-access AAgWa platform for country-specific needs, coupling crop production data with nutrition and vulnerability indicators.
• Enable comprehensive, data-based decision-making through an integrated digital infrastructure accessible to a wide range of actors.
  2. Build capacity for data use and evidence-based policy
• Train government representatives, private sector actors, and farmers’ organizations to incorporate platform data into strategic decision-making.
• Develop country-specific analytical products and policy briefs to guide resilience-building strategies.
  3. Promote gender-sensitive resilience policies
• Integrate gender-disaggregated data to support the early identification of vulnerable communities.
• Enable the development of differentiated prevention strategies and response measures for women and marginalized groups.
  4. Establish country partner networks and foster inclusive dialogue
• Build national partner networks in each target country.
• Organize scientific symposia and inclusive policy dialogues linked to national agricultural and food systems processes and the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS).

Key Areas of Intervention

DERPIn worked across three interconnected areas:

• Digital Platform Development:Adaptation and expansion of the AAgWa and Food Systems Crop and Outlook Report (FS-COR) digital platforms at national and sub-national levels, incorporating additional crops and country-specific datasets.
• Capacity Building and Training:Development and implementation of training programmes for government institutions, private sector actors, farmers’ organizations, and research partners to build skills in digital data use and evidence-based planning.
• Policy Dialogue and Evidence Generation:Development of policy briefs, country-specific analyses, and scientific publications, combined with national and regional dialogue processes to translate digital evidence into policy action.

Achievements and Results

Digital Platform Deployment:

• The AAgWa and FS-COR digital platforms were successfully adapted and launched in all five target countries Benin, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda through dedicated national launch events held in October 2025 in partnership with in-country research institutions and farmers’ organizations.
• The AAgWa platform provides production and yield forecasts for up to 11 major crops across nearly 50 African countries, with country-specific enhancements developed under DERPIn at national and sub-national levels.
• The project contributed to the availability and accessibility of agricultural, environmental, and nutrition data targeted to help policymakers, planners, farmers and their organizations, researchers, and the private sector to make informed decisions, foster evidence-based planning, and drive innovation within national agrifood systems.

Country-Level Platform Launches:

• In Ghana, AKADEMIYA2063 collaborated with the University of Development Studies and the Farmers Organization Network in Ghana (FONG) to launch the AAgWa and FS-COR digital platforms, exploring policy implications for Ghana’s agrifood system.
• In Uganda, AKADEMIYA2063 collaborated with Makerere University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the National Alliance of Agricultural Cooperatives in Uganda (NAAC) to launch the platforms and reflect on opportunities for strengthening Uganda’s agrifood system.
• In Malawi, AKADEMIYA2063 partnered with the Malawi University of Science and Technology and the Farmers Union of Malawi to launch the platforms, building on analyses carried out by the DERPIn Malawi team.
• In Senegal, AKADEMIYA2063 collaborated with the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research and the National Council for Rural Consultation and Cooperation to launch the platforms, discussing implications for Senegal’s agrifood system.
• In Benin, AKADEMIYA2063 worked with the National Institute for Agricultural Research and the National Platform of Farmers’ Organizations and Agricultural Producers of Benin to launch the platforms.

Capacity Building and Training:

• Training sessions were delivered in all five countries, building the skills of government officials, private sector actors, and farmers’ organizations to use digital platforms in strategic planning and policy engagement.
• The project targeted 250 selected actors (50% women)to confirm productive use of digital platforms regarding gender sensitivity and resilience building.
• At least 80%of selected actors were expected to confirm that women’s specific needs were considered in the development of gender-sensitive resilience-building strategies.
• At least 10 private sector actorswere supported to use platform data for the development of gender-sensitive resilience-building strategies.

Policy Engagement and Knowledge Products:

• DERPIn was featured in the 2025 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR 2025), demonstrating its contribution to the broader evidence base supporting Africa’s agrifood technology frontier and the Kampala Declaration goals.
• Policy briefs, country-specific analyses, and evidence products were developed and disseminated across all five target countries to support national policymakers in designing resilience-enhancing agricultural strategies.
• National partner networks were established in each country, connecting research institutions, government agencies, farmers’ organizations, and private sector actors in collaborative, evidence-driven ecosystems.

Institutional Collaboration with PAFO and EAFF:

• The collaboration between PAFO and AKADEMIYA2063 facilitated the improvement of the policy environment for the agricultural sector and built the capacity of African farmers’ organizations to make evidence-based agriculture and investment decisions and to engage effectively in policy dialogue, mutual learning, and accountability processes under CAADP.