The VASES-MAPPES Project is a multinational and transcontinental consortium that brings together the institutional and academic capacities of Makerere University in Uganda, St. George's University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in Rwanda. These three Partner Institutions share knowledge and expertise to improve the ability of policy makers, University managers and academic staff to better "vocationalise" the animal sector education and to produce graduates who will offer the much needed entrepreneurship, trade and safety skills.
It is rooted in the fact that the global economy, trade, public health and animal production system are seriously threatened by the underdeveloped ACP States animal production and veterinary systems. Also, the share of Africa and Caribbean in the global livestock and animal products market has dropped, mainly due to failure of these products meeting international standards. For long, the tropical Afro-Caribbean animal industry has depended largely on primary animal production implemented by a fleet of small holder farmers and labile pastoralists especially in Sub Saharan Africa. These practices can be transformed into modern production systems if service providers are well equipped with the skills to tackle the realities of the day.
The high relevance of VASES is enshrined in the contribution of the animal sector to the Afro-Caribbean livelihood systems, and its potential to offer real opportunities to major pressing challenges of hunger, poverty and unemployment. This project builds capacity for value addition, processing and marketing of animal products; thereby impact directly on animal productivity and entrepreneurship. It is therefore much in conformity with the international macro-economic policies and strategies to eradicate poverty. The prevalent raw and unprocessed animal product status of Afro-Caribbean countries places pivotal constraints on trade possibilities. However, the Universities are deficient in meeting these objectives, and a potential contribution of such a magnitude should therefore be supported by productive educational curricula and institutional arrangements through VASES.
VASES-MAPPES strives to build capacity of the Afro-Caribbean Higher Education Institutions network to deliver vocationalised, international & impact-oriented animal sector education and this will be achieved by training various education sector stakeholders, right from Education Managers to students. It is our obligation to produce a new generation of entrepreneurial, vocational & all-round graduates. It is our principal aim to equip academic staff from the partner institutions to train and mentor students. The vocationalised and internationalised academics, intellectuals and experts will train trainers in international animal product development, value addition and entrepreneurship, as well as improving their understanding of Blended Vocational-Entrepreneurial (BVE) education, policy in the sector and globalisation considerations. This will promote employment, rural development and safe trade thereby contributing to the eradication of poverty.
