Advancing Africa’s Bio-innovation ecosystem towards Agenda 2063 aspirations
As 2025 draws to a close, we extend our sincere appreciation to our partners, collaborators, and stakeholders across Africa and beyond for walking with us through another defining year.
It was a year marked by both urgency and opportunity – one in which science, policy, and society converged more visibly than ever to shape Africa’s bio-innovation future. Together, we strengthened evidence-based governance, amplified African science voices, restored public trust in innovation, and deepened community engagement across food, health, and environmental systems. What follows is a glimpse of how that shared ambition translated into tangible progress.
Shaping Africa's Research and Innovation Landscape
In the year, ISAAA AfriCenter played a catalytic role in shaping Kenya’s first coordinated National Masterplan for Research Financing and Capacity Strengthening (2026-2036), in partnership with the National Research Fund. Developed through a nationwide consultative process involving over 1,000 stakeholders, the policy-aligned Masterplan lays the foundation for sustainable and coordinated research financing in Kenya. In his 2025 State of the Nation Address, Kenya’s president Dr. William Ruto reaffirmed his government’s commitment to progressively increase national research investment from 0.8% to the 2.0% of GDP target.
Strengthening One Health (OH) Governance Across Africa
From Uganda to Zambia, Namibia to Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia to Kenya, we strengthened One Health (OH) leadership and governance through stakeholder net-mapping, regional peer learning, leadership training, theory-of-change designs, decolonization dialogues, and media engagement. Monthly cross-country webinars provided a platform for comparing national governance pathways and institutionalization models. Theory of Change workshops strengthened accountability frameworks for seven country teams, ensuring that One Health initiatives are driven by measurable outcomes, systems thinking, and sustainability logic.
At the Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication symposium (ABBC2025), decolonizing One Health leadership training challenged long-standing structural barriers while amplifying the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge systems within environmental and health governance. In Rwanda, we supported the launch of national One Health Reporting Guidelines, equipping journalists with tools for accurate, ethical, and responsible OH reporting. By yearend, One Health in Africa was visibly shifting from aspiration toward institutionalized practice.
Restoring Public Confidence in Agri-biotechnology
Amid rapidly increasing misinformation and disinformation, we significantly strengthened science communication on agri-biotechnology. Through targeted county-level misinformation sensing trainings and national media science café, county leaders, university faculty, early-career professionals, nutritionists, journalists, and editors were equipped with critical skills to promote accurate, evidence-based conversations. A National Dialogue on GM Foods and Planetary Health saw the Government of Kenya reaffirm its commitment to advancing biotech crops as part of its national food security strategy. To enhance regulatory clarity and catalyze co-created, industry-led solutions, we provided convening opportunities for regulators, feed millers, traders, and partners who proposed practical interventions on how to address GM food and feed trade constraints.
From Digital Innovation to Farm-Level Impact
We translated digital innovation into tangible farmer impact through the Goats Offering AMR/AMU Teaching (GOAT) mobile application. Over 170 dairy goat farmers in central Kenya were onboarded onto the platform, strengthening mastitis surveillance, responsible antibiotic use, and real-time linkage to paraveterinarians and diagnostic services. Community awareness activities complemented the digital platform by embedding antimicrobial resistance communication, a One Health issue, within culturally grounded knowledge products. Together, these interventions demonstrated how data-driven tools, behavior change communication, and community engagement can converge to strengthen resilient livestock systems
Africa's Voice in Global Biosafety and Animal Biotechnology Conversations
Under our leadership and with the support of partners, Africa’s regulatory leadership took center stage at the 17th International Society for Biosafety Research (17-ISBR) and the 6th International Workshop on Regulatory Approaches for Agricultural Applications of Animal Biotechnologies (6-IWRAAAAB) in Ghent, Belgium. African regulators and scientists showcased the continent’s rapidly maturing, science-based biosafety and genome editing policy frameworks. Importantly, regulators signaled a clear continental shift toward risk-proportionate, increasingly harmonized regulatory pathways for genome-edited animals – positioning Africa among global leaders in animal biotechnology governance.
Advancing Evidence for Policy, Investment, and Public Trust
We deployed BiotechAfrica, an open-access continental resource that systematically curates biosafety policies, regulatory status, and biotech product pipelines across African countries. By providing real-time regulatory clarity, the platform de-risks private-sector investment, strengthens transparency, and accelerates Africa’s biotechnology competitiveness. Similarly, under the Virus-Resistant Cassava for Africa initiative, we significantly expanded public engagement around the improved KingaKUU cassava. Hundreds of stakeholders, including farmers participated in Kenya’s public consultation process on the cultivation of disease-resistant cassava, reflecting growing public awareness, inclusivity, and confidence in national science-based regulatory engagement.
ABBC 2025: Overcoming the Burden of Misinformation and Disinformation
The ABBC 2025, held in Lusaka, Zambia, emerged as one of our most consequential convenings. With 150 participants from 21 countries – including researchers, regulators, policymakers, farmers, communicators, community leaders, private sector actors, and early-career scientists – ABBC 2025 resulted in a continental declaration committing stakeholders to institutionalize science communication as a core function of governance. The symposium situated misinformation and disinformation not as a peripheral challenge, but as a developmental risk requiring a coordinated continental response. We are pleased to announce that ABBC 2027 will be held in Senegal, under the theme “Rebuilding Trust in Science: Strengthening Communication Ecosystems in Africa.” For more information on how to participate or support the symposium, contact the Secretariat at abbcsecretariat@isaaa.org.
Connecting Africa’s Science to Society
Through our monthly e-newsletter, The Drumbeat, we reached over 4,000 global subscribers, translating research and policy developments into accessible, evidence-based insights. This was complemented and amplified by The Africa Science Dialogue podcast and webinar series, which surpassed 100,000 listeners and viewers. Social media engagement also surged, with more than 190,000 impressions recorded across various platforms – demonstrating a rapidly expanding public appetite for credible African science narratives.
Looking Ahead
If 2025 has shown us anything, it is that Africa’s biosciences’ momentum is truly in full gear. From Ghana’s President John Mahama’s commitment to support mass production of biotech cowpea seed and fair distribution to farmers, to research-financing reforms, to consolidating One Health governance, and from digital tools to biotech commodity trade facilitation and global biosafety leadership, our work at ISAAA AfriCenter is actively shaping a resilient bio-innovation future.
As we enter 2026 and beyond, we remain committed to strengthening and expanding partnerships that will ensure science, technology, and innovation transform Africa into a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy, addressing urgent challenges and fostering sustainable growth in line with the African Union Agenda 2063 aspirations.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, management, and staff, we sincerely thank you for walking with us throughout the year and look forward to strengthening our collaboration into the future.
My best wishes for a peaceful festive season and every success in the year ahead.
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