The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is the apex continental organization responsible for coordinating and advocating for agricultural research for development (AR4D). FARA serves as the technical arm of the Africa Union Commission on matters concerning agriculture science, technology and innovation. FARA was then voted into existence in 1997 by the Sub-Regional Organizations, including CORAF/WECARD, ASARECA and SADC-FANR, at the 17th Plenary of the Special Programme for African Agricultural Research (SPAAR), a precursor organization to FARA, situated within the World Bank. FARA has provided a continental forum for stakeholders in AR4D to shape the vision and agenda for this sub-sector, and to mobilize them to respond to key continent-wide development frameworks, notably the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) FARA also plays a key role in galvanizing the agricultural research for development sector, and brings a strong African voice to global forums such as the G-8 and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR).
FARA’s new Strategic plan (2014-2018) is designed to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges facing the continent and its quest to become food secure and improve the welfare of its people. As a coordinating body, FARA works through collaboration with its partners, an approach driven by the principle of Subsidiarity, which devolves the implementation of programmes to the Sub-regional organizations and the National Agricultural Research Institutes NARIs.

Currently, FARA is coordinating the following such initiatives
• DONATA Dissemination of New Agricultural Technologies in Africa
• PAEPARD: Platform for African – European Partnership on Agricultural Research for Development (link to description)
• RAILS: Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems
• SSA CP: Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme
• UniBRAIN: Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation

Going forward with the new strategic orientation, FARA is embarking on the following new continent-wide programmes in the context of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa:
• Adaptation for Future Demands in Agriculture (AFDA)
• Regional Mobility for Capacity Strengthening (ReMoCaSt)
• Africa Human Capital, Science Technology and Agri-preneurship for Food Security Framework (AHC-STAFF)
• Programme for Agricultural Intensification in Africa (PAINT)
• African Special Progamme on the Environment and Agricultural Research (African SPEAR)
• The African Food and Agriculture Policy platform (AFAPP

Through its new Strategic Plan, FARA has committed itself to deliver the following key results (KRs) by 2018:
KR 1: African agricultural stakeholders determining how the sector should be transformed and establishing the needed collective actions in a gender-sensitive manner
KR 2: Strengthened and integrated continental capacity responding to stakeholder demands within the agricultural innovation system in a gender-sensitive manner
KR 3: Enabling environment for increased AR4D investment, and implementation of agricultural innovation systems in a gender-sensitive manner

FARA expects itself to deliver these key results through interventions in the following three Strategic Priority (SP) areas:
Strategic priority 1: Visioning Africa’s agricultural transformation
Strategic priority 2: Integrating capacities for change
Strategic priority 3: Enabling environment for implementation