2024 Year in Review

I am grateful to the farmers, researchers, NGOs and businesses we serve around the world. And always grateful to the amazing individuals at Emerging ag who make all our work possible. With issues like soil health, rangelands, and DSI really taking centre stage the global policy sphere, it was a particularly fulfilling year.
– Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging ag inc.

Major Events and Programmes focused on Gender and Capacity Building

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)

The 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women was held in-person at UN headquarters in New York in March 2024 under the Priority theme: “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”. In the margins of the event, Emerging coordinated a side event on behalf of AWARD titled “Exploring the nexus of gender-responsive policies and equitable agrifood systems”. The event focused on the need for resources to close gender gaps, encouraged appointing women to leadership roles, and highlighted the need for innovations that work for women. With over 65 attendees and 13 speakers, discussions highlighted the need to ensure gender-based policies complimented each other, with a focus on policy implementation. High Level participants included Ms. Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director, Rural Transformation and Gender Equality at FAO and Ms. Brenda Behan, Director for Gender Equality at WFP with the latter making an intervention.

FAO-IAFN SME Accelerator Programme

Through the 2024 year, the 2^nd cohort of the SME Accelerator programme saw continued success, fostering 50 women entrepreneurs across Africa’s agrifood sector. The programme is estimated to have positively benefitted 500,000 people – employees, farmers, value chain participants and customers. As Secretariat to the International Agri-Food Network (IAFN), Emerging collaborated with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to develop and coordinate the programme. Spanning 9 months, the programme included one-on-one mentoring, 3 workshops, and additional capacity development through tailor-made trainings to enhance hard skills. The success of the programme has resulted in a 3^rd cohort launched in October during the Science and Innovation Forum at the World Food Forum in Rome. The 3^rd year of the programme began with its first workshop in November 2024 and will continue through 2025.

AWARD Knowledge Festival – One Planet Fellowship

Emerging supported the hosting of the AWARD Knowledge Festival and Graduation Ceremony, held on October 17th and 18th, 2024, celebrating the achievements of the One Planet Fellowship program. The event brought together African scientists, mentors, and government representatives to address climate-related agricultural challenges and culminated in the graduation of 128 One Planet Laureate Candidates, who will now serve as ambassadors for climate solutions across Africa.

Major Events on Global Food Systems

NY Climate Week

During the opening of the UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week, Emerging was on the ground addressing equity in food systems and advancing efforts towards building climate resilient agriculture. The week included 4 side events, coordinated by our team on behalf of multiple clients, with over 300 attendees and 39 speaking slots from across NGOs, academia, farmers, and the private sector.

Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Summit

Emerging supported a side event at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit (AFSH) 2024 in May titled “Soil Matters: Cultivating Change for Africa’s Food Systems Transformation through Evidence-based Policy and Practice.” This side event highlighted the critical role of soil health in driving comprehensive transformation within Africa’s food systems. The AFSH Summit was held under the theme “Listen to the Land”, bringing together over 4,000 stakeholders to assess Africa’s fertilizer use and soil health progress since the 2006 Abuja declaration. The Summit endorsed a 10-year African Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan, as well as the Soils Initiative for African (SIA), to be taken by African Leaders and stakeholders to establish a framework for implementing new policies and investments.

African Conference on Agricultural Technologies 2025 Launch

In September, Emerging supported two events in Kigali, Rwanda, including the Strategic Dialogues on Agricultural Technology in Africa (SDATA) Researchers dialogue and a Ministerial dialogue that was within the AFSF program as a build up towards the launch of ACAT 2025. Under the theme “NextGen Ag-tech Solutions for Africa’s Farmers,” the Government of Rwanda and AATF will host the second edition of ACAT at the Kigali Convention Centre from June 9 to 13, 2025. ACAT is the foremost agricultural technology transfer platform that facilitates structured dialogue and consensus-building on game-changing novel technologies, ideas, and policies to foster agricultural transformation.

World Food Forum (WFF)

The 2024 World Food Forum also took place in October and attracted a PSM delegation of 70 persons who participated in all three Forums across the week. PSM’s participation in the 2024 World Food Forum reinforced the critical role of private enterprises in transforming food systems, tackling global hunger, promoting responsible investment, and supporting innovations that drive sustainable food production and consumption.

Key highlights for the participation of PSM at the World Food Forum included 6 Bilateral meetings with senior FAO Officials and the hosting of 6 separate Side Events.

Committee on World Food Security 52 (CFS52)

With Emerging as the acting Secretariat, the Private Sector Mechanism (PSM) was well represented in October at CFS52, with a delegation of 124 representatives from 27 countries. Key outcomes from the session include the endorsement of the Policy Recommendations on Reducing Inequalities for Food Security and Nutrition, the Global Thematic event on uptake of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food and the Forum on the uptake of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls Empowerment. In addition to these outcomes, Emerging coordinated, on behalf of the PSM, 7 side events with over 480 attendees in person and virtually.

2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP29)

Through November, the Emerging team was in the beautiful city of Baku coordinating multiple engagements at COP29. With an emphasis on climate action, finance, food systems, soil health, fibre crops like hemp and cotton and the new set of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Emerging managed 15 events with over 93 speakers and arranged an additional 43 speaking slots for agri-food. These activities resulted in rich conversations with over 1,200 delegates, shaping the COP discussions and outcomes, agreeing on priority actions and strengthening of partnerships.

Major Events on Public Health and Biodiversity

Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Society 8th Pan-African Malaria Conference

In April, the MIM Society 8th Pan-African Malaria Conference – a cornerstone event in the malaria research and policy field – took place in Kigali, Rwanda. As the Secretariat of the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research, Emerging organized the symposium “Integrating genetic approaches in the malaria toolkit” in the margins of the event. The session contributed to broader conversations on gene drive technologies that took place that week. A number of sessions considered gene drives as a potential tool to fight malaria, underscoring its potential role in expanding the toolkit towards a malaria free world.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

In September in Paris, the OECD hosted its Global Forum on Technology (GFTech), a space for dialogue on directions of technology governance and how to best maximize technologies’ desirable socio-economic impacts. The event gathered policymakers and biotechnology experts from around the world to discuss how biotechnologies can contribute to food security, health and sustainable production. The Secretariat of the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research was invited to speak about potential contributions of gene drive technologies to control vector-borne diseases and reverse biodiversity loss.

16th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP6)

The Emerging team supported members of the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research attending CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia, in October. The group engaged in discussions on several agenda items relevant to gene drives, such as synthetic biology, risk assessment, biodiversity and health, and indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Among the positive outcomes was the adoption of new voluntary guidance for risk assessment of living modified organisms containing engineered gene drives, which aligns with international best practices in the field. In addition, CBD will develop a capacity-building action plan to enhance countries’ capacity to research and use synthetic biology to further the goals of the CBD.

Market Development

Promoting Canadian Oats on behalf of the Prairie Oat Growers Association

Since 2014, Emerging has been supporting the Prairie Oats Growers Association’s (POGA) in promoting the consumption of oats to Canadian, Japanese, and Mexican consumers. The success of the campaigns has resulted in the launch of additional Latin American audiences in 2024, with the inclusion of Peruvian and Ecuadorian consumers. The 2024 campaign included:

• A cumulative average monthly reach of 5 million consumers
• The development of over 25 new oat-based recipes from local bloggers and chefs, available in Spanish, Japanese, English and French, shared to the various social platforms throughout the year
• A 10^th Annual Recipe Contest with 13 winning recipes launched in May
• A ceremonial video launched in June, showcasing the winners of the contest reaching over 140k people and garnering over 44k engagements
• A cooking workshop launched in July, in collaboration with the Mexican Diabetes Federation (FMD) and the Diabetes Association of Peru, which garnered over 33,000 video views.
• A second cooking workshop for World Diabetes Day in November, in collaboration with the Mexican Diabetes Federation (FMD)

Industrial Hemp: Advancing Africa’s BioEconomy

The National Hemp Association (NHA), on a project funded by USDA, is working to expand  the sustainable cultivation, harvesting, processing, and utilization of industrial hemp in a number of countries in Africa. Industrial hemp is versatile and can be used for a wide range of products, from food and textiles to biofuels, construction materials. The rapid growing plant helps to sequester carbon dioxide, improves soil quality and is drought-tolerant making it a perfect rotational crop. With a global Total Addressable Market (TAM) of $15 trillion dollars, a well-developed industrial hemp industry in Africa would go a long way towards addressing systemic poverty, food insecurity and climate change.

In August and September 2024, NHA met with leaders in Malawi and Rwanda, including President Chakwera to identify opportunities for collaboration, partnerships and market development.

Campaign Advocacy

World Milk Day

On June 1, over 100 countries participated in the World Milk Day.  Supporting Global Dairy Platform with farmer videos, in-person events, farm tours, virtual campaigns, and new partnerships, Emerging helped showcase the role of farmers and ranchers in delivering nutritious and sustainably made dairy products. The campaign achieved over 924.4 million impressions and over 2.7 million engagements, compared to last year’s 1.8 million. The substantial increase in engagement is a great win for the industry, and we anticipate this trend will continue to grow in 2025.

World Mosquito Day: Tackling Mosquito-borne Diseases in a Warming World

To celebrate World Mosquito Day in August, the Outreach Network for Gene Drive Research, for which Emerging acts as the Secretariat, carried out a social media campaign spotlighting 15 researchers and experts working on innovative approaches to step up the fight against mosquito-borne diseases. The campaign was aimed at raising awareness of different mosquito species and the diseases they transmit, as well as highlighting the growing impact of climate change on disease transmission. Online engagement for the campaign was overwhelmingly positive, with over 25,000 organic impressions reached over the week it took place.

Visual Communication Products

Showcasing Target Malaria’s approach to stakeholder engagement

Target Malaria is a not-for-profit research consortium working to develop new genetic technologies to reduce malaria transmission. Emerging led the creative and conceptual development of two video series focused on showcasing the project’s commitment and approach to engaging stakeholders affected by its research activities. The first is series of animated videos designed to explain Target Malaria’s engagement approach and activities in an accessible and compelling way. The second is a collection of interviews with local stakeholders in Burkina Faso, showcasing their perspectives on malaria and the project’s work. Released in February, the videos have garnered nearly 40,000 views on Target Malaria’s YouTube channel.

Visualizing Digital Sequence Information (DSI)

In June, Emerging, as the Secretariat to the DSI Scientific Network, a global network of researchers speaking out for responsible policies on Digital Sequence Information (DSI) developed a series of visual briefs aimed at exploring global patterns of DSI use and provision and the importance of Open Access to DSI. The briefs were designed to translate complex scientific information into accessible visual content for audiences of policymakers and interested stakeholders. Later in the year, Emerging also developed a brief on the global landscape of DSI databases.

NDC Guidelines for Blue Foods – Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions

Completed in August, as part of our continued engagement with the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, Emerging designed a Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Guideline document which assists in setting targets and developing policies related to blue foods in climate action. The work resulted in a 60-page document outlining relevant policy options for policy makers to easily review and adapt.

Website launch for the African Centre for Excellence in Molecular Engineering (ACEME)

Emerging worked to develop a new website for the African Centre for Excellence in Molecular Engineering (ACEME), a new research and training centre which is in the process of being set up at the University of Sciences, Techniques, and Technologies of Bamako, in Mali. The centre’s vision is to place African scientists at the forefront of developing innovative solutions to control vector-borne diseases on the African continent. The website was launched in December, and we look forward to seeing the ACEME team leverage its new website to reach out to key audiences in the new year.

Looking ahead

In 2025, we have the opportunity to work on several projects related to science, innovation and technology that make us so excited for what can be done.  Whether it is innovations in soil data collection, new technologies for smallholder farmers, or solutions to advance conservation, we hope you will join us on the journey to advancing work on the ground.

Thank you to our valued clients for your trust in us to help support your work. We look forward to another year of progress!

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Interested to learn more about the issues we care about? Take a moment to read additional moments of reflection from our team members: