Over 100 people from fourteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as well as the USA, UK, Germany and Peru, convened in Nairobi, Kenya on 24 September to 27 September 2018, for the 9th Annual Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) at the Concord Hotel in Parklands, Nairobi. The theme of this year’s SPHI meeting was ‘Progress in Research for Development for Sweetpotato in Africa’.

Over the three-day period, participants engaged in discussions on progress made across sweetpotato value chains such as seed systems, production, post-harvest technologies and marketing in sub-Saharan Africa, in line with the meeting theme. Dr. Julius Okello from the International Potato Center (CIP)-Uganda gave an update on the status of sweetpotato in Sub-Saharan Africa which opened the floor to presentations and discussions on lessons learnt from the various aspects of sweetpotato delivery projects and the way forward for the SPHI.

On day two of the meeting, participants had the opportunity to participate in one of four deep dive workshops. The workshops covered the following topics:

• Learning to be an Effective Biofortification Advocate led by Tumaini Mikindo, Hilda Munyua and Joyce Maru

• Creating Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato Products with Chef Arnold Mawala, Daniel Mbogo & Vivian Atakos

• Are you ready for scaling? Learn about the new “scaling readiness” tool and how it’s been used for scaling Triple S” led by Margaret McEwan

• Developing an Effective Consumer Panel for Evaluating Root Taste and Quality Traits with Tawanda Muzhingi & Eric Dery