Strengthening African Country Data Systems: The CAADP Biennial Review Toolkit

Event Information
Ownership and inclusivity are important features in a strong data system. The Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has created a process to increase ownership of data, inclusivity of data structures, and learning about agricultural progress amongst key stakeholders on the African continent. This process is called the CAADP Biennial Review (BR). The BR is a highly participatory data collection, analysis, and learning process. It captures the African continent’s agricultural progress based on country-level data, across 47 indicators collected every two years in a process coordinated by the African Union (AU). The BR is intended to spark dynamic dialogue, reflection, and action, primarily at the country level, but also at the regional and continental levels. The BR is now in its third cycle – the base year being 2015, data has been collected in 2017 and 2019. As part of this initiative, the AU has worked with Policy LINK and other partners to create a CAADP Toolkit (you can see the Toolkit here: www.au.int/caadp-toolkit). The purpose of the Toolkit is to help users engage more meaningfully with the BR data through visualizing and interacting directly with it.
During this webinar, representatives from the AU, USAID, and Policy LINK will share more about the BR Toolkit, how you can use it, how it has been used by various stakeholders, and ask for your feedback on ways to improve the platform. We look forward to seeing you there!
Speakers
Robert Ouma

Regional Director
USAID Policy LINK Project
Robert is currently the Regional Director for the Policy LINK project based in East Africa. He is a multi-skilled development economist, researcher, data analyst and facilitator with more than 15 years experience managing and implementing development projects in Africa. Most recently, Robert has spent time supporting national, regional and continental actors through agricultural policy processes, including close collaboration with the African Union Commission in the design and implementation of CAADP programs.
Katherine Haugh

Project Manager
USAID Policy LINK Project
Katherine Haugh is a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) expert with nearly a decade of experience designing and facilitating events that fuel co-creation and collaborative innovation among diverse stakeholder groups. She is a Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) specialist and is skilled in leading CLA activities, coaching individuals and teams on how to integrate CLA into their existing processes and team culture, creating actionable CLA resources, and conducting research on the impact of CLA practices on organizational effectiveness and development outcomes. Katherine brings together her expertise in the areas of facilitation, visual design, and evaluation to help individuals and teams learn and adapt more effectively together. She currently works as a Manager on the USAID Policy LINK project.
Chris Shepherd-Pratt

Policy Chief
USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
Chris currently serves as the Policy Chief in USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. In addition to this role, he also serves as the Bureau’s Transition Lead for Policy and Strategic Engagement (2019 - 2020) and Chair of the Development Partners Coordination Group and supports the Africa Union’s Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program. He currently sits on the Advisory Team for the Biennial Review (BR) Use Study and works closely with the AU and other stakeholders to better understand how the BR is being used and ways to improve the process and products to facilitate deeper engagement and more meaningful learning and adaptation.
Morgane Allaire-Rousse
Project Associate
USAID Policy LINK Project.
The tableau developer behind the CAADP BR Interactive Toolkit, Morgane is a system sensing and data visualization specialist. She is most recognized for her development of interactive dashboards, systems and stakeholder maps with live connections to data pulled from online surveys. Through sensitive co-design and implementation of effective, self-sustaining systems that encourage actors to collaborate and innovate, she seeks to work with actors to leverage the power of their networks. Her passion: Getting people talking! She currently works as an Associate on the USAID Policy LINK project.
Simplice Nouala

Head of Agriculture and Food Security
African Union Commission
Dr. Simplice Nouala is Head of Agriculture and Food Security at the African Union Commission with excellent professional training and seasoned expertise and experience of more than 30 years with 15 years at the AUC in agriculture and food security policies, programs development and implementation. He is in charge of the formulation and implementation of AU policies strategies and programs that promote sustainable agriculture growth and transformation on the continent. He oversees and coordinates the implementation of several continental programs and initiatives on sustainable agriculture systems, food security and food safety.
Panduleni Elago

Program Officer
Southern African Development Community Secretariat
A marine scientist by profession, Panduleni is currently working with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat. She is responsible for the Regional Programmes on Food Security, and leads several donor funded programmes/projects related to Food Security and Agriculture, supporting the 16 SADC Member States (Angola, Botswana, Comoros, DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South African, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). She currently sits on the Advisory Team for the Biennial Review (BR) Use Study and works closely with the AU and other stakeholders to better understand the challenges that users face when engaging with the BR and how to make the entire process more meaningful and actionable.
Anna Brenes

Senior Data Steward and Data Support Specialist
USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
Anna Brenes is a Senior Data Steward and Data Support Specialist with USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security working in cross-cutting sector development programs with a focus on data management best practices, innovative agriculture and rural livelihoods programs. Anna works with multiple partners, donors, and the private sector to build consensus on universal best data management and sharing practices to leverage success and build on lessons learned.
Related Resources
Webinar Presentation Slide Deck
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Webinar Recording