Strategy to Strengthen Higher Education in Agriculture Africa

30 September 2015. New York. Side Event at the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York (UNGA), on ‘AStrategy to Strengthen Higher Education in Africa for implementation of the SustainableDevelopment Goals’. The event attracted Government leaders and representatives, development partners, regional organisations and higher education stakeholders.

The meeting noted that Africa is experiencing strong economic growth averaging around 5% and that studies in several sub-Saharan African countries have demonstrated that investment in Higher Education is a good economic investment, producing a rate of return of over 20%. More public and private sector investment in Higher Education is therefore justified. The low participation of African youth in Higher Education (<1 access="" agreed="" among="" and="" be="" better="" disparities="" do="" education="" from="" gender="" higher="" in="" it="" lower="" nbsp="" needs="" noted.="" p="" quintiles="" representation="" social="" that="" the="" there="" those="" to="" was="" wealth="" who="" women.="">
Background:

• The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is a network of 55 African Universities with mission to ‘strengthen the capacities of Universities to foster innovations responsive to demands of small-holder farmers through the training of high quality researchers, the output of impact oriented research and the maintenance of collaborative working relations among researchers, farmers, national agricultural research institutions’.
• The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) was a joint project of Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation.