Case Studies / N2Africa Project
N2Africa Project
Building out knowledge and communications management for a US$21.9 million agricultural research programme across Africa.
Taskscape served as communications partner for the first phase of N2Africa, a research and development project seeking to improve crop yields for African smallholder farmers through nitrogen fixation. MD Alastair Simmons was retained throughout as Communications Officer and served as interim Project Manager.
Brief
N2Africa was an international research project coordinated by Wageningen University, focused on putting nitrogen-fixing technologies to work for smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa. Its first phase (2009–2013) was funded by a US$21.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Taskscape was contracted to provide communications and knowledge management consultancy and content to share with project participants, stakeholders, and funders and to build a lasting knowledge bank for people seeking increased yields through legumes.
Activity
- Produced videos covering agronomy, farmer stories and community value chains across eight African countries
- Created N2Africa TV, a dedicated online video hub bringing together over 50 films for knowledge exchange and stakeholder engagement
- Provided strategic consultancy and project management support throughout the project’s four-year phase one, with MD Alastair Simmons serving as Communications Officer for the duration and as interim Project Manager for a year
Watch
Outcomes
- Content helped shape the project’s knowledge exchange narratives, feeding into academic reports and papers
- Videos gained over 26,000 views and continue to be watched today
- Taskscape’s work helped position the project to successfully bid for and win phase two funding, identifying key areas of focus for the second phase
