3rd RUFORUM Biennial Regional Conference

24 – 28 September 2012. Entebbe, Uganda. Once every two years, RUFORUM organizes a regional week-long conference with the aim of fostering networking among its member universities and linking the universities to the other actors in the agricultural sector and tertiary agricultural education to lesson learn. 

The conference was organized around five broad themes:

Day One: Collective / Coordinated Action for Agricultural Innovation
The Programme for this day includes official opening by the Ugandan Minister of Education and Sports, two lead papers that will touch on various issues related to building Innovation Capacity of Farmers, facilitating smallholder access to modern technology, strengthening value chains and key policy issues for Agricultural development and African Tertiary Agricultural Education (TAE).

Day Two: Enabling Environment for Agricultural Development
We are arranging for a key note plenary paper on “overview of agricultural development landscape in Africa”. This will help set the stage for a panel discussion and later two lead papers, one on China Experience and the second on Brazil experience. We have arranged for a follow-up round table discussion on fostering African-Brazil-China partnership on Higher Education.

Day Three: Assessing Impact
A lead paper on Assessment of Agricultural Programmes focused on whether or not the agricultural programmes are really working? This was followed by a panel discussion and field / Alumni experiences on impact of University Higher Education and Research.

A side event drew lessons from especially RUFORUM Alumni and Market actors on strengthening engagement of African Youth in rural transformation and Agri-business. The RUFORUM Board had its Annual Meeting in the afternoon of this day.

Day Four: The Future of African Agriculture
Two lead papers were presented:

1. the first on “Emerging and Future Trends and their Impact on African Development and Agriculture in particular - Foresight predictions”; and 
2. a second on “Climate Change and implications on Food and Agriculture in Africa”. We have in addition, included a follow-up programme, to show case what RUFORUM is doing using a Market Place approach. 

The afternoon involved two events, a meeting of the youth and the RUFORUM Annual General Meeting of Vice Chancellors and key stakeholders.

Day Five: Agricultural Tertiary Education and Training. Two lead papers were presented:

1. one on “Assessment of African Capacity Development in Agriculture” to be lead by African Capacity Building Foundation and 
2. a second on “An overview of Investments in Agricultural Research and Higher Education in Africa” led by IFPRI. 

A follow-up side event promoted partnership for TAE in Africa. This was followed in the afternoon with the formal launch of the TEAM Africa initiative, and prize awards for conference best presenters and for the RUFORUM IMPRESSA competition.

Informal stakeholder consultation on agriculture research in Africa

Prof. Monty JONES (FARA)

20-22 March 2012. Brussels, organized by the European Commission Directorate General for Development and Cooperation - DG DEVCO. Improving the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation with African agricultural knowledge organisations: Informal stakeholder consultation.

In order to improve the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation with African continental and sub-regional agricultural knowledge organisations, the European Commission organized an informal stakeholders consultation which brought together representatives of African agricultural knowledge organisations, of the Development Partners, and EC/EU experts.

Dan KISAUZI & Silim Mohamed NAHDY
(AFAAS) ; Paco SEREME & Harold
ROY MACAULEY (CORAF) ;
David NIELSON (World Bank)

David NIELSON, Melissa BROWN, Bremala
MALLI & Juergen ANTHOFER (WB)

The objectives of this meeting were to:

• share experiences of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education on how these organisations have contributed to the objectives of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) under the Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP);



Carolyn GLYNN & Philip CHIVERTON
(Swedish University of Agricultural 
Sciences)
Nicoliene OUDWATER 
(AgriCulture ETC Foundation)

• dialogue with representatives of African continental and sub-regional organisations, Development Partners organisations, and EC/EU experts on the key lessons learnt through such processes – what worked well and less well and why;
• looking to the future, discuss how such processes might continue to be strengthened into the future and scaled up where appropriate, share views of African organisations on their future role in their mandate areas and discuss this with representatives of the Development Partners organisations and EC/EU experts.

The outcomes were:

Aissetou Drame YAYE (ANAFE), Adipala
EKWAME (RUFORUM), Ramadjita TABO
& Adewale ADEKUNLE (FARA)

• raised awareness of the value of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education in support to the objectives of CAADP;
• shared experience on key initiatives of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education to advance African agriculture;



Patrick TAWONEZVI & Mwape
BWANALI (CCARDESA)

• deepen understanding of the challenges and opportunities of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education to support the objectives of CAADP;
• recommendations made to donors and Development Partners organisations on how to increase effectiveness of their support to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education in support to the objectives of CAADP.

Boosting Agricultural Higher education into CAADP

28th to 30th November 2011. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resource Education (ANAFE), ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Cooperation (CTA), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the NEPAD Coordinating Agency, CORAF-WECARD and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) held a Sensitization workshop for Engaging French Speaking African Higher Agricultural Education Institutions into CAADP.

Other key partners of the organization are the University of Ouagadougou, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), the Association of African Universities (AAU), the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES), the Conference of rectors of Universities of Francophone West Africa, Central and Indian Ocean (CRUFAOCI), the Network of Institutions of higher Education in
Fishing (Afri-FishNet), the European Alliance on Agricultural Knowledge for development (Agrinatura) and the French consortium Agreenium.

During the three days conference, a number of papers were presented, followed by debates and discussions, and propositions made. This led to the following results:

• An increased awareness about the objectives, the constants and the expected outputs of the CAADP;
• A better understanding of the role to be played by Universities and other agricultural higher education institutions in cooperation with their supervisory ministries and those in charge of agriculture;
• The massive presence at the meeting of Universities, other higher education institutions and technical and financial partners, is a testimony of their willingness to be involved in actions undertaken for the attainment of the CAADP objectives;
• Important activities were formulated which will lead to a stronger involvement of agricultural training institutions;
• Concertation frameworks were proposed with CAADP, ANAFE, RUFORUM and FARA which will be able to serve for interaction between Universities and Agricultural training institutions.

Resources:

• Boosting Agricultural Higher education into CAADP
• Relance de l’enseignement supérieur Agricole à travers le programme détaillé de développement de l’agriculture en Afrique(PDDAA)

EU-ACP Proposal Writing Training Course with focus on neglected and underutilized species of plants

When: August 29th – September 2nd, 2011
Where: Lilongwe, Malawi
Deadline: June 3rd, 2011
For whom: Prospective applicants for IFS Research Grants from: Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya & Uganda

The International Foundation for Science (IFS), Bioversity International, RUFORUM, and the University of Malawi – Bunda College, will conduct a Proposal Writing Training Course with focus on neglected and underutilized species of plants (NUS) in Lilongwe, Malawi, between August 29th and September 2nd, 2011. Young scientists (prospective applicants for IFS Research Grants) from Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda are hereby invited to submit a Research Note and apply for participation in this training course.

Read the detailed document, including information on the priority research themes and species for NUS research and the application form, on the IFS website.

Ministerial Conference on Higher Education in Agriculture in Africa (CHEA)

15th – 19th November 2010. Kampala. The Government of Uganda and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), with support of national, regional and international partners hosted a regional meeting of African Ministers, Members of Parliament, senior officials responsible for education, agriculture, science and technology, finance and planning, private sector, civil society, and farmer representatives, to discuss strengthening higher education in agriculture, so that African universities and other education institutions can contribute more effectively to the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) processes. The conference aimed to consolidate recent developments by strengthening high level partnerships and policy support for re-engineering African higher education in agriculture and science.

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) has earmarked US$23m for agriculture research in Africa. The move was announced by the forum’s Executive Director, Prof. Monty P. Jones, on the sidelines of the just-concluded regional forum meeting of African agriculture ministers in Kampala, Uganda. “For the next three to five years, we shall give up to 23 million dollars to help in research extension as well as promoting new innovations through higher education,” Jones said in an interview. Read the full article

The faculty of Computing and IT was invited to exhibit innovative student projects aimed at solving different challenges to people in the Agricultural sector. Some of the projects exhibited included the ‘Integrated Farm Management System’ – which largely avails data to farmers about their products on a mobile phone, and the ‘Cloud Enabled Mobile Financial Management System’ – which helps farmers monitor their income and expenditure by entering daily data into their mobile phones.

Download the conference program, theme background papers, and Ministerial Communique in English [click here] and in French [click here]

Building capacity of African University Graduates to foster change through Agricultural Innovations

An ACP-S&T supported regional project aimed at building capacity of African University Graduates to foster change through Agricultural Innovations. It is coordinated by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). The partners are Egerton University - Kenya, Makerere University - Uganda, Bunda College of the University of Malawi and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) – Netherlands while the Associate Partners are CTA, FARA, ASARECA and SADC/FARN. 

To kick-start the project implementation, an inception planning meeting was held in Entebbe Uganda between 10 - 12 February 2010. The meeting which was attended by representatives of all partner institutions was meant to chart the detailed implementation plan for the meeting. 

The meeting was held parallel to those of two other ACP-S&T project that RUFORUM currently coordinates, namely:

1. Shifting from Outreach to Engagement: transforming Universities response to current development trends in agricultural research and training in Eastern, Central and Southern AfricaOUTREACH)
2. Poverty reduction and greater food and nutritional security in West Africa, and Eastern and Southern Africa through enhanced conservation and use of neglected and underutilized species (NUS). (BIODIVERSITY)

Reference:

15/02/2010 RUFORUM meeting proceedings

Contributing to the NEPAD agenda of agricultural research networking

Click to Play

Interview with Professor B.K. Ahunu, Provost of the College of Agriculture & Consumer Sciences of the University of Ghana in Legon/Accra. Professor Ahunu explains how the University of Ghana contributes to the NEPAD agenda of agricultural research networking with some concrete examples. He answers the questions

• Whether the prestige of studying abroad is not an impediment for regional PHD programmes
  If present agricultural research is relevant for national needs

Investments in agricultural research highly depend on external partners

Click to Play

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?

Participants at the NEPAD Tertiary Dialogue

Overview of the participants at the NEPAD Tertiary Dialogue: FARA, Accra 28-30/07

Dr. Monty Patrick Jones
Executive Director
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
Accra, Ghana
Remi Kahane
Global Hort
Arusha Tanzania



Lynette Chen
Chief Executive Officer
NEPAD Business Foundation ( NBF)
South Africa





Abdirahman Ismail
Deputy CEO
NEPAD Kenya Secretariat
Nairobi, Kenya

Prof. Richard Nkandawire
Head of Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme
(CAADP) NEPAD Secretariat
Midrand, South Africa
Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki
Chief Executive Officer
New Partnership for Africa’s Development
( NEPAD) Secretariat
Midrand Johannesburg , South Africa


Leo Pekkala
Faculty of Education, University of Lapland. Rovaniemi, Finland









Joyce Maina
Department of Animal Production,
Ccollege Agriculture & Veterinary Sciences,
University of Nairobi

Angelinna Rudabukana
AU-NEPAD Johannesburg

Sheryl Hendricks
African Centre for Food Security :
University of Kwa Zulu-Natal
Pietermaritzburg , South Africa

Charles Mkoka
Science and Development Network London(SCIDEV.NET)
Regional Correspondent
Lilongwe, Zambia

Sloans K. Chimatiro,
Senior Fisheries Advisor,
NEPAD Secretariat,
Midrand, South Africa

Benjamin Ngatunga
Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute
Dar es Salaam , Tanzania

Thomas Theisohn Learning Network on Capacity Development (LenCD)
Vauvenargues, France

Ekaya Wellington
Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM)
Makerere University
Kampala, Uganda


Florence Nazare
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
Capacity Development : Coordinator
Johannesburg, South Africa

Millicent Seganoe
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
Johannesburg, South Africa

Samuel Cudjoe
NAPRM – Governing Council Secretariat
Accra, Ghana




John Makumbe
Mass Public Opinion (MPOI)
Board Member
Harare, Zimbabwe

Samira Hotobah-During
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
Accra, Ghana


Emmanuel Tambi
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
Accra, Ghana

Kevin Urama
African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS)
P.O. Box 10081, Nairobi, Kenya


Elizabeth Omino
Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA)
Nairobi , Kenya

Odularu Gbadebo
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
Accra, Ghana

Tetsuji Oya
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)
Accra, Ghana


Unami Mpofu
InWent Capacity Building International
Johannesburg , South Africa

Arne Schuffenhauer
German Technical Cooperation Pretoria , South Africa


Rawda Omar Clinton
United Nations Economic Commission For Africa (UNECA)
Addis Ababa , Ethiopia

Kane Alioune
University Cheikh Anta Dior (UCAD)
Dakar , Senegal

Ashagrie Gibtan
Addis Ababa University (AAU)
Department of Biology
Addis Ababa , Ethiopia


Rufaro Madakadze
Alliance for A Green Revolutions in Africa (AGRA)
Nairobi , Kenya
Prof. Ben Ahunu
University of Ghana
Legon,Ghana
Panduleni Elago
Inland Aquaculture Centre Ministry of Fisheries & Marine Resources (IAC)
Namibia
Jurgen Hagmann
Institute for People,Innovation and Change in Organizations (PICO)
Pretoria, South Africa

Professor Wilson A. Rajerison
Université d’Antananarivo – Institut of Water
UA-LISTE
Antananarivo, Madagascar
Eddie Kofi Abban
CSIR-Water Research Institute
Accra , Ghana

Isabel Omar
National Institute for Aquaculture Development- Ministry of Fisheries Mozambique (INAQUA)
Maputo, Mozambique

Antoine Chikou
Faculté Des Sciences Agronomiques Université D’Abomey-Calavi (FSA/UAC)
Cotonou, Benin

Kachaka Sudi Kaiko
University of Kinshasa/ DRC Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
Kinshasa , Democratic Republic of Congo

Christophe Lesueur
HUB Rural , Platform for Rural Development in West and Central Africa
Dakar , Senegal

Edosa Omoregie
Department of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences , University of Namibia
Windhoek, Namibia


Hlami Ngwenya
SA Institute for People Innovation and Change in Organizations (PICOTEAM-SA)
Pretoria , South Africa

Irene Frepong
SCARDA progam officer
FARA
Accra, Ghana
François Stepman
Communication Expert FARA
Accra, Ghana