Is the European FP 7 programme a good model for Africa?

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Interview with Dr. Kevin Urama African Technology Policy Studies (ATPS Kenya) at the NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue FARA Secretariat 28 - 30 July 2009, Accra, Ghana.

He thinks that the modus operandus of the European Framework Programme is very useful because:

1. it is trying to forge partnerships and collaborations both between disciplines and across cultures and countries. Currently ATPS is working on a Manifesto for Science and Technology involving Indian, European and African partners.
2. Work packages allow African institutes to take the lead and in this they can set their own research priorities.
3. The multilateral research platform is a guarantee for quality control. Such types of collaboration should happen more in Africa.
   

He gives as an example the banana tissue culture which was developed in Kenya but now involves researchers from Cameroon, Nigeria and other places. The requirement of involving policy makers, researchers, the producers and the civil society allows for innovation to develop and forces researchers to think critically about their research.

Dr. Kevin Urama answers following questions:

• ATPS is currently developing a Donor Watch initiative. Will newcomers like Japan, China and Brazil foster Africa-Africa collaboration ?
  
• Will we have one day an African Union FP7 type of programme?

Investments in agricultural research highly depend on external partners

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28 - 30 July 2009, Accra, Ghana. NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue. Interview with Dr. Monty Jones (ED FARA).

Dr. Jones thinks this NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue comes at an appropriate moment. But he is worried by the fact that agricultural research is highly dependent on the support of external partners with very few of occasional support from the national governments.

He nevertheless trusts that as suggested by Dr. Mayaki (CEO of NEPAD) a paradigm shift is taking place where planning and planning is replaced by more operational activities. But he wonders when this will be fully realised

The NEPAD paradigm shift on agricultural research

28 - 30 July 2009, Accra, Ghana. NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue. Interview with Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki (CEO NEPAD).

According to Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki policies used to be defined by the binoom of African governments and external partners. Today there is a need to include the civil society, producers and research institutes/universities in the elaboration of sectorial policies.

He answers following questions:

• Is the lack of research done in the African universites not a problem?
• What are the present big challenges of agricultural research?

NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue

Participants at the NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue with Dr. Monty Jones (ED FARA) in the middle and Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki (CEO NEPAD) at the extreme right.

28 - 30 July 2009, Accra, Ghana. NEPAD Tertiary Institutions Dialogue. NEPAD, in collaboration with the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE), the Regional Forum for Agricultural Capacity building (RUFORUM), the African Technology Policy Studies (ATPS), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the University of Ghana, the Maseno University of Kenya, the University of Malawi and CTA, is organizing a workshop at FARA.

This workshop is a follow-up to the NEPAD-SADC Regional Stakeholder workshop held in Johannesburg (4-5- December 2008), which recommended the need for a “Road Map” to outline the interaction and collaboration between NEPAD and African Centres of Knowledge. While the agriculture core group has taken shape, interaction of this group with other disciplines at the forthcoming platform will assist in bringing them into motion for important objective of harnessing Africa’s human resource.

Objectives: This workshop aims to:

• Identify concrete ways to assist NEPAD to engage with universities and research institutions in Africa; and sensitize them on NEPAD and its programmes, with particular reference to the NEPAD/AU Capacity Development Strategic Framework (CDSF);
• Brainstorm on NEPAD and how regional Centres of Knowledge can effectively contribute to this vision “…to determine our own destiny and call on the rest of the world to complement our efforts”;

Kenynote speaker Dr Monty Jones (ED FARA) on "Championing the NEPAD vision for Africa's future through Science, Technology and Innovations"

• Develop strategies to create a collaborative platform to encourage a change of mindset toward training in capacity development, in a way that pays attention to both “tangible” (evident/hard) and “intangible” (Less evident/soft” skills) in order to consolidate and improve on the relevance of networks and institutions allowing them to work together in multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary ways, and to share knowledge at the local, national and global level;
• Support national governments, regional and continental organization to determine the capacity requirements and identify existing gaps necessary to provide technical expertise to implement CAADP more efficiently at all levels; and
  Identify the market (production) and non-market (policy; institutional) challenges necessary to create an enabling environment for countries in Africa to attain the critical mass required to deliver the desired output in enhancing sustainable development.

References:

• 12 August 2009 ScienceAlert Research must reach farmers
• 3 August 2009 SciDev.net Get agricultural research to farmers, universities told

Selection for the Women and Young Professionals in Science Competitions

CTA in collaboration with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) received 248 abstracts in response to the two science competitions that were launched in July 2008: Women and Young Professionals in Science Competitions.

The competitions seek to identify and recognize women and young professionals in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the Diaspora who are engaged in innovative and pioneering research and development and communicating the outputs (knowledge, technologies, approaches) for enhancing agricultural performance in SSA.

The entrants came from 34 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and Germany. The partners received 133 abstracts from women in science and 115 abstracts from young professionals. The expert group reviewed at FARA in Accra 1st to 3rd October the submissions and selected the top 40, who will be invited to present their full papers for final judging at the Ministerial Forum on Higher Education. Initially this was schedulded to take place in Lusaka, Zambia from 27 – 31 October 2008. but now this is postponed till February 2009 -place and date to be confirmed.

Hereunder an interview with Judith Francis of CTA on 03/10 who explains how the selection went and why it is important to give visibility to research of African Young porfessionals and Women in agriculture.