Our work through this theme seeks to tap into more than 3 billion people who live in the rural areas of Africa, and is expected to increase over the next decades, given the projected population growth in the continent. With the increased unemployment, particularly in urban areas and rural economies, the rural transformation process stands as the pathway to finding the solution to this problem by identifying effective strategies for reducing poverty and inequalities, ensuring food security, and creating more and better jobs for this demographic. With currently a third of the world population, over a half in Africa food insecure, our approach will ensure we have built foundational knowledge and insights to develop evidence-based strategies that would provide solutions to challenges facing African rural-based economies. In line with Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, we will partner with government, non-governmental, and private sector actors to enhance agriculture-led productive units beyond subsistence farming, thus fostering policy and economic transformation processes to salvage people from starvation and health-related challenges.
It is always challenging moving from knowledge production to its application and utilization to guide everyday decision-making processes. There is a heightened expectation that knowledge