Africa-Arab partnership to build youth capacity in agriculture

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) has initiated an Africa-Arab partnership aimed at supporting youth skills development for employability and entrepreneurship in Africa.

At a recent consultative forum convened by the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD) in collaboration with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and RUFORUM held in Kampala, the parties explored opportunities for collaboration to promote higher agricultural education and business prospects in agriculture while applying and utilising science, technology and innovation (STI) for RUFORUM member universities and Arab-Gulf states universities.

Organisations participating in the forum include African Development Bank, OCP Group, Trade and Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB); and the Uganda Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Participants deliberated within the context of youth as active participants in both higher education and agricultural value chains, acknowledging that several of Africa’s youth originate from small-holder farms where technologies would boost production and productivity to create upstream employment for graduates and out-of-school youth.

“At RUFORUM we broker partnerships and we want African universities to work together. When we open our doors we try and explore new forms of partnerships using African universities to participate,” said Professor Adipala Ekwamu, executive secretary of RUFORUM.

Graduate unemployment

Setting out the nub of the problem, Ugandan State Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (General Duties) Dr Gabriel Ajedra Aridru said: “The expanded higher education sector has generated many graduates, yet the notion of graduate unemployment and the lack of appropriate skills persist in most African countries.

“The Government of the Republic of Uganda requests that all the partners present in this meeting support the cause of increasing opportunities for youth employability and entrepreneurship for social and economic transformation of the African continent through the RUFORUM Network,” he said.

BADEA, which focuses on supporting infrastructural development; agricultural value chains; small and medium enterprises; entrepreneurship development and private-sector development, offered to work with African member states in three main areas: strengthening infrastructure capacity of higher agricultural education and STI institutions; strengthening agricultural value chain development in national prioritised commodities and supporting human resources development with trans-disciplinary skills to champion agriculture sector development.

STI for economic development

It also undertook to support efforts by African governments to harness capacities in African universities to support development efforts in the continent and to harness advances in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for economic development in Africa.

“We would like RUFORUM to scale up and work with us but this has to come from governments. We give our support for bigger interventions through governments,” said Dr Osman Mahgoub Ahmed El Fiel, the technical advisor to the director general of BADEA.

El Fiel urged national governments to support and facilitate RUFORUM engagement with development partners, especially those that operate through bilateral and multilateral lending instruments, in strengthening Africa’s capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship.

BADEA promised to develop a bankable project they could mobilise support in the context of building Africa’s Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Capacity (BASTIC) and strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation, especially among youth and women.

Professor Ibrahim El-Dukheri, AOAD director general, called for increased investment in Africa’s Universities Agenda for Higher Agricultural Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (AHESTI) to strengthen Africa’s science capacity and, in particular, investment in university education to expand Africa’s innovation and capacity. AHESTI was developed by RUFORUM out of concern that Africa was lagging behind in high-level skills, technologies and innovation capacity.

“We are drafting a framework document to outline the key thrusts and possible investment areas for partnership and collaborative support,” Ekwamu said. “We have followed up the offer by BADEA and developed a concept paper for possible discussion with the government of Uganda and government of Zambia. We are going to follow up to seek buy-in and support from African governments and the African Union Commission."

The dialogue in Kampala held from 30 September to 1 October followed an earlier meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, in March when a tripartite collaboration between the African Union, RUFORUM and AOAD was created and a memorandum of understanding signed to create a framework for collaboration to mobilise resources.