Conferences and Workshops

Permanent URI for this community

http://10.29.1.53:4000/handle/10570/90

Browse

Browsing Conferences and Workshops by Subject "African universities"
  • Item
    Coming of age: RUFORUM strategic business plan 2015 - 2020
    (RUFORUM, 2015-08) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    In July 2014, we celebrated 10 years of our existence as a regional network of African Universities led by Vice Chancellors. At the celebration, we reflected on the road travelled guided by our 10 year Strategic Plan, 2006-2015 and two Business Plans, 2006-2010 and 2011-2016. We concluded that we had met the vision of the 10 founding Vice Chancellors, that there was great benefit for universities to collaborate, and to put in place a platform for catalyzing the close engagement of African Universities in Africa’s development agenda. The regional Secretariat that we had established in 2004 to coordinate activities and provide support and guidance to the universities in terms of institutional reforms, particularly the institutionalization of participatory research processes and improved graduate training to serve smallholder agriculture had exceeded our expectations. This initiative was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and subsequently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other agencies. After 10 years, we have been able to establish a dynamic regional platform that fosters collaboration, coordination and learning among the member Universities. We grew from a membership of 10 Universities in five countries in East and Southern Africa to today (August 2015) a membership of 46 Universities in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Today we are a voice for Higher Education in Agriculture, and indeed Science, Technology and Innovation, and we are emerging as a regional knowledge hub for Higher Education in Agriculture. A key lesson we learnt was that the strong ownership and engagement of our Universities, led by their Vice Chancellors, was key to our success. We also learnt that in whatsoever we did, we needed to link closely to the grassroots, especially in terms of addressing the needs of smallholder farmers, and this required strategic partnership with a diversity of actors, both within and outside Africa. Further, sustainability of the RUFORUM initiative would eventually hinge on securing funding support from African governments and regional bodies. Looking ahead, we recognize that the landscape is changing with renewed interest in higher education in Africa. Moreover, the African Union sees higher education as critical for achieving its Africa Vision 2063. Further, food and nutrition security will remain a key challenge across the continent, especially with the intensification of climate changes and variability, rural –urban migration linked to a growing youth population, and their impact on human and environment health. We also have an emerging agribusiness sector and agro-industry, requiring new sets of skills and enterprising graduates. Fortunately, we have renewed commitment by African governments on sustaining the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) momentum; and a Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A) and the African Union Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA 2024) are in place. RUFORUM must position itself to respond to these opportunities, making clear the network’s value to its different market segments. Our consultations with key stakeholders in and outside Africa confirm that our Strategic objectives are still valid, but operation modalities need to be refreshed to respond to the emerging landscape. This is the basis of our new five year Strategic Business Plan (2015-2020). The Plan envisions a RUFORUM that is financially stable in 2020, with significant financial input from its members, African governments and reimbursement of services and operations. The Plan is adaptable, with a scheduled mid-term review in 2017-18.
  • Item
    The fifth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-09) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This is a programme for the pre-events for the fifth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016.
  • Item
    The Fifth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-10) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, RUFORUM
    This is a detailed program book for the RUFORUM conference and biennial conference.
  • Item
    Results-focused capacity development strategy
    (RUFORUM, 2016-03) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    Capacity is a critical aspect of development. Capacity development (CapDev) has been at the core of RUFORUM’s mandate and one of the most important result areas for the network. A key approach of the network is to facilitate engagement of universities to current and emerging challenges facing rural communities and in building capacity of young people to be part of the accelerated African agricultural growth and transformation (3AGT) agenda through developing and implementing relevant curricula driven by learning needs. From a capacity development perspective, RUFORUM aspires to be an important actor for CapDev in its areas of work in higher agricultural education and learning (HAEL) and agriculture and rural development (A&RD), playing a catalytic and facilitation role to deliver high-quality CapDev support grounded in national, regional and global plans and strategies, to partners and customer/client institutions.
  • Item
    RUFORUM annual report 2013 - 2014: training the next generation of scientists for Africa
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08-18) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    The RUFORUM annual report for the period 2013 to 2014 includes a message from the Executive Secretary; introduction to RUFORUM; high quality regional collaboration degree programme; innovative research through competitive grant mechanisms; cross cutting support through monitoring and evaluation and information and communication technology; strengthening the secretariat; the board and its committees; and financial report.
  • Item
    RUFORUM annual report 2014 - 2015: Building capacity in Africa
    (RUFORUM, 2016) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    The RUFORUM annual report for the period 2014 to 2015 includes a message from the Executive Secretary; and an introduction to RUFORUM. It discusses other topics on: demand driven research, community action and institutional strengthening grants; regional training programs; information and communication technology; planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL), strengthening RUFORUM governance; and resource mobilization and financial overview.
  • Item
    RUFORUM is transforming agriculture in Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Africa
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This is a RUFORUM flyer on the theme: RUFORUM is transforming agriculture in eastern, central, western and southern Africa, training the next generation of scientists for Africa
  • Item
    RUFORUM summary of progress on activities for the financial year 2015/ 2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08-18) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This report presents a summary of progress, key achievements for the year 2015/2016 and targets for the coming period for the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 60 African Universities with a Secretariat at Makerere University in Uganda. The work is anchored on the recently approved RUFORUM Strategic Business Plan (2015-2020) which guides overall RUFORUM activities along its mission.