African countries have experienced a sustained period of economic recovery since the mid-1990s. This recent progress across African nations, however, has not yet compensated for the ground lost to poverty, hunger, and malnutrition over the previous 25 years of virtual stagnation throughout the continent. African economies are therefore under strong pressure to not only continue to grow swiftly and steadily but also to sustain their poverty-reducing impacts.

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) has created a strong platform for policy and partnership renewal in the agricultural sector, with the goal of raising investments and improving policy and strategy implementation and outcomes. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has actively worked with African governments and stakeholders to provide policy-relevant advice and knowledge products to facilitate implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) agenda. IFPRI currently spends more than half its resources on Africa and focuses its investments in two regions through the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the West and Central Africa Office (WCAO) in Dakar, Senegal.

By increasing the proximity to its clients and partners, IFPRI has been able to increase its effectiveness on the ground. The regional offices will provide local stakeholders broader access to IFPRI while allowing the Institute to better align its portfolio with the needs of the regions and individual countries.

The Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, covers the following countries:

Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The focus of ESARO will be to contribute to food security, poverty reduction, and improved livelihood for the people of the region by conducting research, capacity strengthening and advocacy activities on knowledge management and agricultural education; health and nutrition; provision and access to inputs and rural services ; access to output markets; and social protection and social safety net. Monitoring and evaluation and impact assessment will be emphasized to indicate the relevance of development policies and programs in the region.