Agricultural Education News, Volume 18.3, October 2012

Transcription

1 African Network for Agriculture, Agroforesty & Natural Resources Education Agricultural Education News, Volume 18.3, October 2012 Entrepreneurship Focus Showcasing consortia activities under the UniBRAIN (Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation) programme IN THIS ISSUE... EDITORIAL 2 ANAFE Systems Audit 7 SASACID PI Kick-off meetings 2 NEWS and EVENTS 7 SA-RAFT PIs kick-off meeting 3 ECA-RAFT PI kick-off meetings 3 Funding Opportunities NorHED 8 West Africa PIs kick off meeting (Combined Sahel and AHT-RAFTs) Publications 8 4 Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) Consortia Operations 4 1

2 EDITORIAL Welcome to this third quarter of ANAFE newsletter for We are happy to bring to you the Strengthening Africa Strategic Agricultural Capacity for Impact on Development (SASACID) Pilot Institution (PI) kick-off meetings, Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) consortia operations and the official launching of the Tertiary Education in Agriculture Mechanism (TEAM-Africa) launch. The evolution of ANAFE network from 1993 culminated in the launching of the SASACID programme. The SASACID programme will serve as the springboard on which new ANAFE projects will be developed and launched. The 16 PIs have set up and agreed upon their work plans and have started in earnest on the implementation of the agreed upon activities. To enhance Programme Management skills of all PIs, RAFTs and the Secretariat, a Results Based Management (RBM) workshop has been scheduled from the 29 th November to the 1 st December 2012 in Niamey, Niger. The overall objective of the RBM workshop is to establish a common working understanding of Results-Based Management among participants (ANAFE Secretariat, Senior Education Fellows and leaders in the implementation of SASACID from 16 institutions) and to apply those concepts through hands-on training experience in RBM as it relates to the ANAFE/SASACID programme. The major output of the workshop will be agreeing on the 2013 workplans. TEAM Africa was launched at the RUFORUM 2nd biennial conference in Kampala, Uganda. The TEAM Africa joint implementing partners, the coordinator and the World Bank Representative attended the launching ceremony which was graced by the Minister of Education of Burkina Faso We bring to you also in this edition, other activities taking place in the network: systems audit, human resource and strategy review and highlighting funding opportunities. We wish you well as 2012 draws to a close and here is hoping 2012 has been as fruitful as you had hoped. SASACID PI Kick-off meetings The SASACID PI kickoff meetings were held throughout the four regions of ANAFE: Southern Africa (SA- RAFT), East and Central Africa (ECA-RAFT), Africa Humid Tropics (AHT-RAFT) and the Sahel (Sahel-RAFT). Those for the Sahel and AHT were held jointly. The objectives of the meetings were to: 1. Refine and customize the programme of work and budget (POWB) for the period September to December, Refine and clarify the roles of PIs, the RAFT and the ANAFE Secretariat in the implementation of SASACID projects 3. Agree on deadlines for submission of progress reports for activities planned for implementation during September to December 2012 period. For SA-RAFT, the meetings were held from the 30 th to 31 st August, while for the ECA- RAFT this was held from the 3 rd to 4 th of September and for the combined Sahel and AHT this took place from the 11 th to 12 th of September. The PIs agreed on the formulation of the programme of work and budget, modalities of scholarship offer and sensitization meetings to be conducted across each region. 2

3 SA-RAFT PIs kick-off meeting A ll Pilot institutions in the SASACID programme were represented at the kick-off meeting in SA-RAFT including the SA-RAFT committee. The meeting took place at University of Pretoria, South Africa. The PIs involved include: Mulungushi University in Zambia; Zimbabwe College of Forestry; Botswana College of Agriculture; and University of Pretoria, South Africa. Participants at the SA-RAFT PI kick-off meeting ECA-RAFT PI kick-off meetings T he ECA-RAFT PIs were represented at the kick-off meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya. Because of the language problem (Anglophone in a largely Francophone speaking region), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (PI in AHT-RAFT) participated in the ECA-RAFT kick-off meeting. The other ECA-RAFT institutions represented included Nyabyeya Forestry College, Uganda; Kordofan University, Sudan; Kenyatta University, Kenya and University of Nairobi, Kenya. Participants at the ECA-RAFT PI kick-off meeting West Africa PIs kick off meeting (Combined Sahel and AHT-RAFTs) T Participants at the West African PIs kick-off meeting 3 he combined AHT and Sahel-RAFTs kick-off meetings took place at the university of ENSA Thies in Senegal. Represented institutions were Sahel-RAFT institutions: Bobo Dioulasso University, Burkina Faso; University of Gaston Berger, Senegal; Abdou Moumouni University, Niger and ENSA university of Thies, Senegal and AHT-RAFT institutions: University of Abomey Calavi, Benin; University of Cocody, Ivory Coast; and University of Dschang, Cameroon.

4 Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) Consortia Operations Within the UniBRAIN p r o g r a m m e, ANAFE is responsible for spearheading teaching and learning activities so as to achieve the programme objective of increasing the number of graduates starting enterprises. To this end, ANAFE has already carried out carried out surveys on agribusiness curricula in the four regions: Southern Africa, East and Central Africa, Africa Humid Tropics and the Sahel regions. A start has also been made in promoting internship in a few pilot universities. The results from these two initiatives are useful in supporting the UniBRAIN consortia. As part of the UniBRAIN implementation activities, visits were planned to each consortia to familiarize with what the consortia were doing, explore opportunities for partnership and strategize on how to work together. Visits were made to CURAD (Coffee value chain) on 26 th September; ABP (banana value chain) on 27 th September, SVCDC (sorghum value chain), 4 th October, CCLEAR (livestock products value chain) 11 th October and AgBIT (fruits and vegetables value chain) on 15 th to 16 th October. WAARI (Agroforestry value chain) in Mali is yet to be visited. The possible areas of collaboration across the consortia are given in Table 1. Therefore across the consortia key activities for collaboration include: attachment/internship models; Services to be offered to the consortia and capturing lessons learnt in the incubation process; Retooling staff and learning materials development and; curriculum review and development. Table 1. Possible areas of collaboration across the consortia CURAD ABP SVCDC CCLEAR AgBIT Development of selection criteria for incubates and SMEs Documentation of lessons learnt during incubation Collaboration in improving internships Strengthening the internship and attachment programme Working on joint research activities Capturing of improvements to the curriculum Improvement of internships Documentation of lessons learnt during incubation Curriculum development and review Strengthening the involvement of lecturers from the consortia universities in the incubation process Documentation of lessons learnt during incubation Collaboration in the internship programme MSc research support Improving attachments and internships Capturing the incubation process Skill enhancement of lecturers Selection of incubatees Development of learning resources CURAD: Consortium for enhancing university responsiveness to Agribusiness development limited coffee value chain; AgBIT: Agribusiness Incubation Trust; ABP: Afribanana products; CCLEAR: Creating Competitive Livestock Bias entrepreneurs in agribusiness consortium; SVCDC, sorghum value chain development consortium. 4

5 CURAD Consortium for enhancing university responsiveness to Agribusiness development limited coffee value chain visit Meeting with the principal College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Prof Samuel Kyamanywa, Makerere University. ABP Afribanana products consortium Some of the many products being produced by ABP consortia derived from bananas ABP refrigerated van used to transport the banana products. 5

6 SVCDC, Sorghum value chain development consortium The ANAFE team had the opportunity of meeting with the following staff members and held very fruitful deliberations: Prof. Kamau Ngamau; Prof Christine Onyango; Prof. Henry Bwisa; Dr. Daniel Sila; John Kinyuru; Mr. Vitalis Chokera; and Dr. J. B. Njoroge JKUAT CCLEAR Creating Competitive Livestock Bias entrepreneurs in agribusiness consortium Meeting with the CCLEAR Consortium AgBIT Agribusiness Incubation Trust Meeting with staff at University of Zambia; Meeting with the Deputy Vice Chancellor at Mulungushi University 6

7 TEAM: Tertiary Education in Agriculture Mechanism in Africa Officially Launched The genesis and objectives of TEAM Africa were highlighted in Agricultural Education News, volume 18.2 of TEAM Africa was officially launched following the RUFORUM Biennial conference in Kampala Uganda. The official launch was represented by the key stakeholders: ANAFE, RUFORUM, World Bank, FARA. The Guest of Honour was the Minister of Education from the Burkina Faso, Mrs Boly. ANAFE Systems Audit A system-based audit was carried out by a team of two consultants focusing on analysing ANAFE s internal operational and financial management control systems. It assessed ANAFE s organisational structure and relevance and dimensioning of this structure in relation to its functions and duties and whether it has the competence, capacity and routines to direct its operations towards its own goals and to contribute to the fulfilment of the over-arching development cooperation goals. It also assessed the internal communication mechanisms through the whole cooperation chain. Results from the systems based audit were an eye-opener giving recommendations to 1. Organizational structure, 2. Management of operations, 3. Financial management and control, 4. Aid effectiveness and 5. Current developments within ANAFE. The systems audit will be a useful input as we refresh the ANAFE strategy and focus more on the human resource elements. NEWS and EVENTS Strengthening Interinstitutional collaboration between ANAFE regional chapters: The ANAFE supported HAAGRIM project selected as one of the six intra ACP mobility projects funded by the European Commission for 2012 ANAFE facilitated the development of a proposal involving the following institutions under the Intra-ACP mobility scheme which has received support of up to US$2 million. The project is entitled: Improved harmonization of Masters and PhD Programmes in Agribusiness for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development through Mobility across West, East and Central Africa. The main objective of this programme is to produce and equip professionals with the knowledge and skills essential for transforming and 7 confronting the challenges common in the agro-food sectors and rural economies. In doing so, the program aims to produce research scientists with adequate research skills and knowledge of to deal with the challenges and needs within the agribusiness theme. The Lead Institution is UNIVERSITÉ GASTON BERGER, Senegal. Other partner institutions are: Universite d AbomeyCalavi, Benin; Universite Polytechnique de Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso; Universite de Masuku, Gabon; Universite de Cocody, Ivory Coast; ANAFE; Kenyatta University, Kenya; University of Mauritius, Mauritius; Universite de thies, Senegal. Dr. Saidou Nourou SALL is the project leader. We congratulate these institutions for winning this grant and for being able to put together a project of this magnitude. We wish them well in the project implementation.

8 News Updates Mulungushi University gets new Administration Mulungushi University in Kabwe Zambia, a member institute of ANAFE recently appointed the Vice Chancellor (Professor Ngambi) and the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Dr. Judith Lungu). We take this opportunity to congratulate them both. This is more so for Dr. J. Lungu who as the ANAFE family, we have been associated with for a long time from her days at University of Zambia, Faculty of Agriculture. We wish them well in their new assignments at Mulungushi University and as we network with them in new project activities. Dr. J. Lungu Newly appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor at Mulungushi University, Zambia Prof Anthonia Achike Promoted to Professorship position Prof Anthonia Achike was recently appointed to a Professorship position in Agricultural Economics at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Prof Achike has had a close association with ANAFE over the past five years and currently is leading an Agribusiness theme at the university of Nigeria, Nsukka under the SASACID programme. We wish Prof. Achike all the best in her new position. Prof Anthonia Achike on a recent ANAFE workshop on Agribusiness Education Prof. Mary Teuw Niane apointed Minister of Higher Education and Research in Senegal Prof. Mary Teuw Niane, Rector of University of Gaston Berger of St Louis, Senegal was recently appointed Minister of Higher Education and Research in Senegal. We congratulate him in his new position and we know he will always remain a strong suporter of ANAFE. We with him all the best in his new position. Prof. Mary Teuw Niane (Right) posing with the Executive Secretary of ANAFE Dr. Aissetou Drame Yaye at a recent proposal development workshop (HAAGRIM) To God we will all return: ANAFE Agribusiness Intern Passes on PATRICIA JERONO KURUI at our workshop in Mombasa in February, 2012 Patricia Jerono, a student at Chepkoilel University College in Kenya who served as an intern under an ANAFE sponsored programme in 2011, attached at Moi s Bridge Dairies passed on after a short illness on 1 st of September. She attended the Agribusiness Education Workshop at Whitesands Hotel Mombasa in February, It is with great sorrow that we learnt of Patricia s passing on. She was among the success stories in UniBRAIN. May her soul rest in eternal peace. NorHED This announcement invites collaborative higher education institution partnerships to submit proposals for seed funding for NORHED partnerships projects. More information available at: norad.no/en/front-page The ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Science and Technology II (S&T II) Call for Proposals launched The ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Science and Technology II (S&T II) Call for Proposals, was launched on Funding Opportunities 08/10/2012. This second Call for Proposals under The ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Science and Technology, builds upon the lessons learnt from the first Call for Proposals launched in In line with the ACP Group of States priorities and the EU Agenda for Change, the Programme prioritises Actions in the fields of Energy Access and Efficiency as well as Agriculture and Food Security. Visit: for more information. Publications Value Chain Value chain toolbox: The toolbook is a concise operational document aimed at providing value chain practitioners with an easy to follow set of tools for value chain analysis, focused on poverty reduction. The valuechains4poor virtual library contains a wealth of resources for value chain analysis practitioners including non-formally published material. Here you will find value chain publications as well as practical examples and templates for value chain analysis. More information can be accessed on: United Nations Avenue, Gigiri. P.O. Box Nairobi, Kenya Tel: , or 4128 Fax: ; .: a.yaye@cgiar.org or s.chakeredza@cgiar.org Website: 8 This document has been financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Sida does not necessarily share the views expressed in this material. Responsibility for its contents rests entirely with the author.