As the 2026 African Food Systems Forum (AFSF) wraps up in Kigali, Rwanda, stakeholders have renewed efforts towards ensuring that Africa builds food systems that just don’t survive the next shock but are ready for it.

Held from September 1 to 4, 2026, the AFSF is the continent’s most important yearly convening – where heads of state meet scientists, capital meets projects and commitment becomes action.

Now in its 20th year, the Forum has catalysed billions in agricultural investment, shaped continental food policy through the Malabo Declaration, and built an unrivalled network of stakeholders committed to advancing Africa’s food systems.

The 2026 edition in Rwanda convened under the theme: Investing in Agri-Food Systems – brought together over 5,000 delegates from over 50 countries for four days of high-impact programming, deal-making and policy dialogue.

For the days the event lasted, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme was at the front and centre in two high-level events shaping how Africa invests in agriculture for the years ahead — one looking back at what worked during the continent’s most recent food security emergency, and one looking forward at how to scale proven science through the world’s development finance institutions.

In recent years, Africa’s food systems have absorbed shocks after shocks — the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, conflict, the disruption of the Russia-Ukraine war, and, most recently, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which sent food, fuel, and fertiliser costs climbing across the continent.

When the Russia-Ukraine conflict cut off roughly 30 million metric tons of cereal supplies from the Black Sea region, the African Development Bank (AfDB) moved quickly, launching the $1.5b African Emergency Food Production Facility (AEFPF). Across 35 countries, the facility pushed out improved seed systems, expanded fertiliser access, deployed technology, reformed policy, and built new partnerships — with TAAT technologies forming the backbone of the response.

With the intervention, more than 45 million metric tons of foods were produced; over 406,000 metric tons of certified seed and 2.9 million metric tons of fertiliser were distributed, and close to 15 million farmers were reached — 38.8 per cent of them women.

On September 2, a High-Level Side Event at the Kigali Conference Centre unpacked what made that possible and what it means for the future.

As AFSF 2026 brings together the continent’s agricultural leadership in Kigali, TAAT’s track record — from emergency response to long-term investment architecture — offered a clear answer to the question the forum keeps returning to: how does Africa build food systems that don’t just survive the next shock but are ready for it?

Titled “From Emergency Responses to Food Systems Resilience: Lessons Learned from the AEFPF for Africa’s Next Generation of Agricultural Investments,” the session brought together ministries of agriculture, national research systems, development partners, CGIAR centres, the private sector, financial institutions, and farmer and youth organisations to examine how the facility’s approach — grounded in TAAT’s proven technologies — can be built into national investment programmes rather than reserved for the next crisis.

Discussions focused on scaling what worked, strengthening the partnerships that enabled rapid deployment and building the monitoring and evaluation systems that will let a technology-driven response outlast the emergency that triggered it.

On September 3, TAAT’s model moved to the centre of a different conversation: how to get proven agricultural science into the hands of the international financial institutions that fund large-scale transformation.

CGIAR Scaling in Food Systems: Capital, Science, Partners brought leaders from international financial institutions, governments, and development partners into direct dialogue about what it actually takes to move innovation from the research station to a national investment programme.

The AfDB–CGIAR partnership behind TAAT was one of the session’s central case studies, alongside the Islamic Development Bank–CGIAR partnership — both offered as proof that long-term collaboration between science and finance isn’t just possible, it’s replicable.

The session made the case that the architecture for scaling already exists. Through mechanisms such as the ADB–CGIAR Clearinghouse Facility, CGIAR has shown it can help identify, validate, and package proven innovations, strengthen investment design, and remain engaged throughout implementation.

While TAAT demonstrated that architecture at work — the discussion explored how to extend it to more institutions and more countries, with catalytic support from partners like the Gates Foundation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Islamic Development Bank helping to de-risk adoption and unlock larger investment.

Together, the two sessions told a single story: TAAT’s technologies didn’t just help Africa respond to a food security crisis — they demonstrated a model for how proven science, strong partnerships, and development finance can work together at scale.