PABRA seed actors registry: Technical report on design, implementation, and development pathway

The PABRA Seed Actors Registry is a public, web-based platform that maps the organizations that make up seed systems across Africa for three value chains: sorghum, common bean and groundnut. It addresses a practical problem faced by seed-sector programmes: information about seed companies, cooperatives, traders, offtakers, research institutes and other actors is usually scattered across spreadsheets, duplicated, quickly outdated and difficult to share without exposing personal data. The registry replaces these files with a single governed database, a searchable directory, an interactive map of Africa, a discovery dashboard with data download, and a public self-registration process with human review. Its defining design principle is consent-based disclosure: an organization becomes visible only after it has consented to publication, and its contact details are shown only on its own profile page, never in lists, maps or downloads. Consent can be recorded by an administrator with its evidence, given by an applicant during registration, or given online by the organization through a private link sent by email. The platform began under the ACCELERATE project in Tanzania, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) with funding from the Gates Foundation, and is now a PABRA product covering all 54 African countries and 949 official regions.