Frequently asked questions

The objective of the AATI is to build, and help to coordinate, effective and sustainable delivery mechanisms that can implement policies to facilitate agricultural transformation and prioritize food systems transformation, inclusion and sustainability in sub-Saharan African countries.

The AATI approach is based on partnership. The main focus of AATI support lies on close on-the-ground collaboration with government stakeholders in partner countries to jointly accelerate or enable sustainable and inclusive agricultural transformation. Whilst partner countries will also receive funding through the AATI, countries must be willing to commit resources themselves to join a partnership with the AATI.

The initiative involves establishing national delivery units, with support from a central AATI coordination unit. The central unit works with national delivery units to identify priority areas for inclusive and sustainable agricultural transformation, and assist them in designing policies and projects in these priority areas. National delivery units, independent of the AATI coordination unit, are hosted by governments to increase ownership and are intended to become the main drivers of their countries’ food systems transformation.

Support from the central AATI coordination unit will eventually cease, leading to complete ownership of the national delivery unit by each government. Additional coordination and knowledge management will be provided by an institution in Africa, which will be selected based on an evaluation by the AATI coordination unit to determine suitability and readiness. As a result of knowledge management and communications of results achieved, demand for national delivery units is expected to increase in other countries in Africa and beyond, leading to an expansion of national delivery units, informed by insights on what works best in each context.

Countries are selected for the initiative based on their needs and potential for performance, as well as opportunities for learning from other initiatives. The governments of selected countries are required to demonstrate adequate commitment and readiness for transformation.

Strong delivery infrastructure can be defined as a local institution which helps to set and articulate goals and outcomes, coordinates along local actors, monitors progress against these goals, and works closely with and reports directly to the government to ensure aligned transformation activities towards one ultimate strategic goal. They also play a key role in convening actors for implementation and communicating results to ensure ongoing government support and buy-in for jointly established objectives. Finally, they can play a key role in evidence generation and analytics to advise on priority policies based on real evidence.