RAEIN-Africa is an autonomous organization engaged in research, technology transfer and policy advocacy. RAEIN-Africa evolved on the basis of successful execution of a long term research program funded by the Government of the Netherlands (DGIS) between 1995 and 2010, on “Development of Pro-poor biotechnologies, through participatory, need driven research and institutional innovation” (referred to in literature as the DGIS Biotechnology Project” implemented in Columbia, India – Andra-Pradesh, Kenya and Zimbabwe.  The need for an African regional initiative was validated at a workshop held in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2001, organized to share the experiences and lessons from the DGIS Funded Programme. RAEIN-Africa was thus formed in response to the need for appropriate approaches for the development and dissemination of need driven technologies that benefit resource constrained communities.

RAEIN-Africa was established in February 2004 and registered as a Section 21 Non Profit Company. RAEIN-Africa’s Regional hub was hosted by the Government of Namibia, Department of Science Technology and Innovation, from 2004 to 2013. An external evaluation by development partners recommended that the Regional hub be moved to Pretoria, South Africa, to enable efficient access to other African countries. In 2013, RAEIN-Africa was registered in South Africa as a Non-Profit Company (NPC).