The Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) is an Africa-wide network of regional nodes supporting the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Africa-based centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), to facilitate the implementation of AU/NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The ReSAKSS nodes offer high-quality analyses to improve policymaking, track progress, document success, and derive lessons for the implementation of the CAADP agenda. The goal of the ReSAKSS Working Paper series is to provide timely access to results of preliminary research and data analysis that relate directly to strengthening ongoing discussions and critical commentaries on the future direction of African agriculture and rural development.
The guidebook primarily builds on the experience of IFPRI and its country support programs which have been in operation for at least one to three years. It also builds on the experience of the regional programs which have been in full operation for a lesser period of time. Both sets of programs offer a real-world opportunity to test the application of the SAKSS concept, draw comparative lessons, and guide future efforts at establishing similar systems elsewhere in Africa and the developing world. Moreover, as it is being applied in different countries (and regions) and under a different set of initial conditions, a review of experiences to date will also help improve our understanding of how such systems can become more effective at linking the suppliers of knowledge, the knowledge itself, and the users of knowledge during the design and implementation of strategies.