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ARIS — Strengthening Agricultural and Rural Innovation Systems: A Regional PhD Programme

The phenomenon of agricultural or rural development in Africa is complex and many initiatives have not been successful in changing the wellbeing of small-holder farmers. Low uptake of agricultural technology in Africa points to challenges in the interaction of socio-cultural and technical dimensions. .Universities which produce the professionals who generate and disseminate agricultural knowledge and technologies are central to this dilemma. The universities are criticised for producing graduates, who lack the competences to deal with complex and multi-dimensional challenges related to poverty and sustainability. Innovation systems approaches are more promising in addressing such challenges but their contextual conceptualisation and operationalisation are still problematic. There is a critical shortage of professionals with interdisciplinary orientation and possessing professional skills to support innovation systems that transcend technological and socio-political landscapes.

The ARIS project seeks to develop a regional PhD programme in Agricultural and Rural Innovation Studies to enhance application of science and technology in improving rural livelihood and economic growth of countries in the Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region. Specifically, the project will strengthen the capacity of universities in the ECSA region namely; Makerere University in Uganda, Egerton University in Kenya and Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania to train competent and relevant professionals for research and development of the rural sector.

Main Activities

  • Establishing a Steering Committee (SC) and secretariat to coordinate project activities. The SC will comprise of five persons: one representative of each of the partner universities, one from a regional organisation and the project coordinator. The secretariat will be hosted by Makerere University.
  • Consultative visit by members of the SC to the European partners to explore and concretise areas of collaboration in preparation for partnership agreements through Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
  • Designing and approving the curriculum. This is a process that will start with in-country stakeholder consultations in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to identify the priority needs that the programme should address. A regional consultative workshop will consolidate outcomes of in-country consultations, further prioritise the focus and define the programme course content and develop modalities and institutional arrangements for implementation of the programme with the European partners.
  • Developing the curriculum and learning materials. Following the consensus in the regional workshop regarding focal content areas, course decriptions and outlines will be developed by resource persons from the ECSA region jointly with the European partners. These will be used to develop documents for approval of the programme in the respective partner universities. Meanwhile the teams of resource persons will continue developing the modules for each of the courses described.
  • Developing M&E and quality assurance mechanisms to ensure continuous reflections and learning from experience in order to improve the programme implementation. Quality is paramount in these processes and a mechanism for assuring quality will be established and institutionalised.Marketing and popularising the programme at national, regional and international levels to attract potential candidates and sponsors. A variety of media will be employed including distribution of brochures/fliers, using the media and through conferences/ workshops.
  • Identifying and retooling resource persons in preparation for implementation. Skills gaps for lecturers on this programme will be identified and short courses developed and implemented to equip them with the necessary competences for effective programme delivery.
  • Recruiting candidates and implementing the programme. This will be preceded by putting in place the necessary facilities and infrastructures.

 

Project Coordinator
Makerere University

Partners
Egerton University, Kenya
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Montpellier SupAgro, France

Expected Results

One concrete result of the project will be the training of 60 students who will be ready to get their Ph.D. in mathematics and computer sciences in the joint doctoral training programme. These students will contribute to solving the big problem of lack of qualified professionals and professors in mathematics and computer sciences. The joint training programme will provide the opportunity for lasting cooperation relations between the participating ACP and EU Higher Education Institutions.

Anticipated impact 

The expected impact of the project will be disseminated among the intended beneficaries namely universities, communities, employers, and targeted candidates. Specifically, these impacts include:

  • Strategic partnerships and solidarity among the consortium of universities in the ECSA region and with European universities. The partnerships provide mechanisms for sharing capacities and resources to train relevant high calibre professionals to influence agricultural and rural development.
  • Increased capacity of the ECSA universities to engage with the communities and other development actors to better contribute to development while maintaining their academic roles. This brings universities into the mainstream of the national development agendas, where training and research directly contribute to solving real-life problems now and in the future.
  • Integration of disciplines and building change management skills. This is critical for professionals who will work with multiple stakeholders to solve complex multi-dimensional problems.
  • Improved programme design and service delivery for agricultural and rural innovation through the graduates of the programme and those they influence.
  • Higher employability of graduates and enhanced contribution to global knowledge systems and practices. The multi-skills of the graduates and their intellectual capabilities will enhance their opportunities for positions of high standing.
Grant:

197621
Project duration:

36 months (01/01/2009 to 31/12/2011)
EU funding: EUR 484,180
Total budget:

EUR 571,372
Project contact:

Makerere University

 Uganda

Paul Kibwika

pkibwika@agric.mak.ac.ug 

Richard Batte

aris@agric.mak.ac.ug 

ARI program
ARIS — Strengthening Agricultural and Rural Innovation Systems: A Regional PhD Programme
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Richard Batte
RICHARD BATTE
Paul Kibwika

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