Presentation made by Prof. Adipala Ekwamu at the Africa-U.S.Higher Education Initiative Meeting Addis Ababa, Ethiopia February 13-15, 2012

1. Higher Education Regional Initiatives and
experiences in sub-Saharan Africa
Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative Meeting
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia February 13-15, 2012
Prof. Adipala Ekwamu

2. Presentation Outline
Presentation Outline
1. The Case for HE in Agriculture: Current
capacities
2. Highlights of Selected HE initiatives in Africa
3. Lessons from the RUFORUM Model
4. Opportunities – How we see USA and other
partners contributing to HE in Africa
5. Conclusion and Take Home Messages

3. The Hypotheses
 Achieving rapid and sustainable agricultural
productivity growth is essential to raising overall
economic growth and meeting the MDGs
 The welfare of smallholder farmers throughout
much of Africa remains linked to agriculture.
 Food Security achievable through support for
smallholder driven research
 Broad but practical training of post-graduate
students is key
 Capacity for responsive research and training
of high performing graduates is critical

4. But Critical TAE Challenges exist in Africa
• Demand increasingly exceeds capacity- improved
primary, secondary education programmes;
• Quality Issues: lack of resources, human capacity –
proliferation of TAE institutions; burgeoning private
programmes
• Inequity: gender, socio-economic
• Missing linkages with labor markets- growing private and
civil society sectors;
• Mis-match with development needs- skills mix
• Inadequate incentive structure, lack of financing
4

5. Renewed Global Interest to Strengthen HE in
Africa
CHEA - 2010
 Renewed emphasis by African governments on
restoring the quality of higher education in agriculture.
 Call to support local and international partnerships
which address critical capacity needs for sustainable
agricultural development.
 Call to increased investments in higher education in
agriculture in Africa and to be included as an integral
agricultural development investment in CAADP
 World Bank, HED, Partnerships to Strengthen
HE in Africa, African own Initiatives & others

6. Examples of leading Agricultural Capacity Building
Networks in Africa
Regional Universities AERC: Collaborative AGRA: Education Biosciences eastern Partnership to Enhance
Forum for Capacity MSc in Agricultural & for African Crop and central Africa Agriculture in Rwanda
Building in Agriculture Applied Economics Improvement (BecA) through Linkages
(RUFORUM) (CMAAE) (EACI) (PEARL)/Sustaining
Partnerships to Enhance
Rural Enterprise and
Agribusiness
Development (SPREAD)
University network: 29 Network of departments: Network of Hub and nodes model : Alliance of Rwanda univs.
univs. in 15 East, Central & 18 univs. in 12 countries departments: 10 univs. One hub & 5 institutional Gov’t, Rwanda/foreign
Southern Africa countries •MSc (242) & 2 regional hubs for nodes for 17 countries industry, local NGOs
•Competitive MSc (375) •Shared electives facility 13 countries •Top expertise & facilities targeting cooperatives in
research grants •African & external subject •Redeployment to •Visiting scientists (60) niche agriculture initiative
•Collaborative PhD training specialists national programs of •MSc/PhD students (100) •MSc training (19) at Texas
(85) • PhD (11) support PhD (80) and MSc •Alumni lead research A&M & Michigan State U.
•Community-action research •department building (170) crop scientists programs at home •Graduates work with
program. & institutional grants and breeders universities; return to BecA producers in new
grants • professional peer review •Cornell U. back-up as visiting scientists production techniques
•National stakeholder supervising own grad •U.S. land grant model
forums students
Major Agri. Results: Major Agri. Results: Major Agri. Results: Major Agri. Results: Major Agri. Results:
•Multiple initiatives put in •Executive policymaker •Released 125 new •Over 29 bioscience •400,000 coffee farm
place new crop varieties in guidance crop varieties with projects on crops & families making over six
cooperation with NARS, •Policymaker career national/international livestock times what they earned
farmer associations & pipeline research institutes for •Patented discoveries & prior to these projects
private sector •Management hub of farmer cultivation over 40 cutting-edge •Over 160 U.S. European,
•Examples: Cowpea project World Food Program’s •Related projects: publications that feed the Asian & Australian
in Uganda, Soyabean Purchase for Progress start-up capital for 35 work of CGIAR, NARS, companies like Starbucks,
project in Zimbabwe; Cereal project to address small‐ seed enterprises & other research institutes in Costco buying almost
Banking in Kenya scale farmers’ market training 9,200 agro- Africa 5,000 tons annually,
access dealers for input directly from the growers
provision

7. RUFORUM
 Established in 2004;
Formerly a Rockefeller
Funded Project which was
called FORUM (1992-2003)
 29 Member Universities in
17 countries
 Secretariat based at
Makerere University,
Kampala Uganda

8. RUFORUM Vision
Sphere of interest
A vibrant agricultural sector linked to African Universities that can produce high-performing graduates and high quality research
responsive to the demands of farmers for innovations, to generate sustainable livelihoods & economic development
RUFORUM impact statement
High performing African universities that produce quality graduates, research output and innovation in response to national agricultural
development priorities.
Agriculture sector outcomes
Sphere of influence
RUFORUM/ RUFORUM Network Outcomes
Preconditions within universities
Sphere of control
Preconditions within the Secretariat: the Secretariat performs well
Strategies/Activities

9. RUFORUM Model
RUFORUM MODEL
• The type of FORUM that engages all the stakeholders
that must be on board:
• The farmers engaging with faculty and students
• Government agencies, NGOs, the private sector and
other development agencies engaged in research and
interacting closely with universities on policy and
curricula
• MSc & PhD graduates with the right experience
• Universities that act collaboratively to share ideas and
resources
• Unique participation by university Vice Chancellors who
pay their own costs of participation in board meetings.

10. Harnessing Regional Capacity: RUFORUM
Network of Specialisation
Leaders
Longer-term Univ A Univ B
professional Facilitators
expansion
curriculum development
Univ C
staff exchange & real time E-
M&D graduate conferencing
sandwich programs curriculum
production Univ D
Univ E E-learning and Near-term Improved
curriculum instruction for
reform RUFORUM graduate
Univ F student population
Needy
RUFORU
Univ G Univ I Less-needy
members
RUFORUM
members
Univ H Univ J

11. End-User Driven Collaborative Agricultural
Research for Food & Nutrition Security
Community Action Research Projects (CARPs)
- $300,000 Grant Value
 Purpose is to demonstrate innovative approaches
that strengthen engagement between universities,
farmers, communities and development agencies on
problems with relevance throughout ECSA.
 Designed to encourage universities to develop
partnerships and invest in sustained action research
over time within a particular community or in a
selected commodity along the full value chain.

12. End-User Driven Collaborative Agricultural
Research for Food & Nutrition Security
• The RUFORUM
Graduate Research
Grants US$60,000
(GRG) - a tool for
stimulating and sustaining
a ‘business unusual’
action research and
training orientation in
African faculty; providing
incentives for increasing
the relevance and quality
of research. Over 130 CG’S awarded since 2004

13. TEAM Africa Opportunity
• Through TAE Networks leadership:
 Mechanism for improving tertiary agricultural education
in Africa has been set up - TEAM Africa (Tertiary
Education for Agriculture Mechanism )
 Includes RUFORUM, ANAFE, and FARA and
participation by a number of partners including NPCA,
Development Partners, higher education associations
from outside Africa including APLU, AGRINATURA
and others.

14. RUFORUM Contribution to the USA
Initiatives
 Providing entry to 29 universities in ECSA, & through
TEAM Africa to Universities across SSA
 Linking US Universities into the Agricultural Higher
Education dialogue in Africa
 Platforms for collaborative research programmes that
link USA faculty and students with African faculty and
students in food security action research with
relevant stakeholders in rural areas.
 Opportunities to support effective graduate research
and training facilities in countries emerging from war.

15. Potential Themes for USA-Africa HE
Partnership
 Linking the RUFORUM Networks of Specialization to US
Universities: dual role of knowledge generation (research)
and outreach (service)
 Support for food security research through the
Community Based Research (CARPs) and Competitive
Grants to address smallholder farmer needs and closely
link universities to rural areas
 Strengthening platforms for joint learning
 Support to the TEAM Africa Initiative/dialogue

16. Potential Themes for USA-Africa HE
Partnership
(II)
 US researchers as partners in the educational
system that develops researchers in an innovative
Food Security initiative.
 Development of younger university faculty: field
research, skills enhancement and reinforcement of
teaching capacities at our ‘weaker’ universities.
 Fellowships for twinning US universities with African
Universities. Particular attention to be given to 3
way links which bring together a young university,
US university and an established African University.

17. Conclusions & Take Home Message
1. We welcome the US support: HED, Feed the Future
Initiative & other US-based initiatives on HE
2. We are already working with strategic partners including
APLU, Agrinatura and African Partners
3. RUFORUM provides a platform for universities to
innovate on agricultural post-graduate training and
research targeting small holder farmers
4. We have a model that has been tried and tested: we need
wider networks to help us scale up our efforts