Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora, AAAPD Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora The Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora (AAAPD) is a new organization that aims to strengthen the human and institutional capacity of African agricultural RET institutions and build strong linkages between these institutions and counterpart institutions worldwide. Specifically, AAAPD will help catalyze Africa’s agricultural transformation by facilitating agricultural information and technology exchange; encouraging public-private RET investment and collaboration; and advancing agricultural policy dialogue that enhances smallholder farmer productivity and rural business development. African professionals in the Diaspora are increasingly being recognized globally for their skills asset, financial resource transfer and impact, and better articulation of Africa’s development strategies that are both transformational and sustainable. Many of them are ready to give back to the continent, and AAAPD is leading the way in harnessing the skills, resources and networks of agricultural professionals. The current global food, fuel and financial crises as well as recurring droughts and flooding in parts of Africa have revealed the daunting task the continent faces of feeding an increasing population on dwindling arable land and fiscal resources. Weak agricultural research, extension and training (RET) institutions can no longer cope with increasing demands to develop and disseminate appropriate technologies that would raise agricultural productivity and income especially for smallholder farmers. As a result, Africa’s food and agriculture sectors have performed poorly and basic food security and rural livelihoods have deteriorated over the past three decades. During the same period, African governments and donors have spent billions of dollars in agricultural programs that were short-term, fragmented, and uncoordinated, or project-based while relying on expertise that is often not in tune with the sociopolitical issues on the continent. Experience worldwide shows that investing in agriculture is critical for economic development as was demonstrated by Asia’s Green Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s. The African predicament calls for urgent measures to stimulate agricultural productivity in food and export commodities, including better policies and significant increases in long-term agricultural investments by local governments, donors, foundations and the private sector. It is clear that short-term strategies focused on the current crisis will not suffice. AAAPD’s specific objectives are: To make AAAPD a premier resource network that will support human and institutional capacity building in Africa’s RET institutions. This includes hosting an active, accessible agricultural human and technology resource database. To create strong and effective linkages between African agricultural professionals in the Diaspora and African RET and policy institutions and associations such as the AU/NEPAD; FARA; Regional Economic Communities (RECs); Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); smallholder farmer and agribusiness associations; African governments and local universities to serve as an effective bridge, catalyst and platform for knowledge transfer and human resource development between Africa and the rest of the world in a manner that is consistent with African priorities and programs on the ground. To focus creatively on mainstreaming gender into Africa’s agricultural development and help strengthening women smallholder farmers as a strategic business of AAAPD. To define and develop the core competencies of AAAPD and form thematic networks in areas of comparative advantage and priority focus for long term engagement. This includes recruiting AAAPD members and establishing networks in Europe, Asia and the Far East for the purpose of creating a global network resource of African agricultural professionals that can be harnessed for effective African development. To expand the management of information systems of strategic influence to the core business of AAAPD