Gates to fund African agriculture and nutrition consortium

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to fund a grouping of researchers to integrate nutrition into agricultural programmes in Africa. A call for letters of inquiry, aimed at gauging the interest of academics, was issued on 11 April.

The foundation said it was looking to invest in an organisation that can build a consortium in Africa to optimise nutrition outcomes from investments in agriculture. The project is expected to run for at least five years.

Ideally, a mix of research and evaluation experts in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda are wanted for the grouping. But groups of researchers that include only four of these countries will be accepted. Regional or language-based consortia such as East or West Africa, anglophone or francophone countries, will also be considered.