COL SUCAPRI IAR4D PCF5 Preparations

  Welcome to COL-SUCAPRI IAR4D Content Development Portal Home | SUCAPRI Content Developers|  IAR4D Educational Content |  COL SUCAPRI IAR4D PCF5 Preparations This is an effort to develop the manuscript/proposal to the 5th Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF5). This is the abstract that was submitted earlier. The strategy is that we should collaboratively work on the manuscript. Makerere University, University of Nairobi ,  Egerton University ,   Jomo Kenyata University of 									          Agriculture and Technology Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO)            Commonwealth of Learning,   International Centre for development-oriented 						     Research in Agriculture in the Netherlands (ICRA)

Corresponding email address : tenywamakooma@yahoo.com

Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in sub-Saharan Africa are in a crisis. The capacities of institutions to maintain the quality is often undermined by declining funding, brain drain, deteriorating infrastructure, civil disorder, and massive expansion of undergraduate enrolment. The graduates are ill-prepared to meet the demands of the employers in the global market and to address the needs and priorities of the local communities. Past models (U.S. Land grant universities-1960s &1970s and State Agricultural University, India -1980s) introduced in African universities to overcome the persistent challenges facing agriculture higher education by increasing efficiency and effectiveness through enhanced connectivity between education, research and extension functions failed. This is particularly true for the agriculture sector that remains the major pathway to combating poverty, and African universities should play a major role in innovation-oriented agricultural research and development programmes. However, they are not sufficiently equipped for the complex outcomes expected from agricultural R&D teaching and research. A EDULINK project “Strengthening of university capacity for promoting, facilitating and teaching rural innovation processes (SUCAPRI)  has been conceived to address this issue through south-to-south and south-to-north partnership by strengthening the capacity of five African universities to participate in decentralised national agricultural research systems, and to prepare professionals with the competencies needed to promote agricultural and rural innovation. It involves a network of teaching and research staff in Makerere University in Uganda and four universities (Nairobi, Egerton, Kenyatta, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology) in Kenya and the International Centre for development-oriented Research in Agriculture in the Netherlands (ICRA). Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has been strategically coopted as a partner to bring along the strength of using ICT to enhance communication and partnership. Planning and training meetings have been held to identify appropriate platforms and mechanisms for collaboration, co-learning, curricula review and content development using free open libre source softwares.

Introduction