A Pilot Study on Institutional and Organisational Changes in Selected National Agricultural Research and Education Institutes in Sub-Saharan Africa

This report (September 2012, 80 pages) summarises the results of a pilot study commissioned by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) to test a methodology for monitoring institutional and organisational change in selected agricultural research and education institutes across sub-Saharan Africa currently implementing the Strengthening Capacity for Agricultural Research and Development in Africa (SCARDA) programme.


The following Focal Institutes were included in the present analysis:

1. Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA), Botswana
2. Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), Botswana
3. Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), Burundi
4. Crops Research Institute – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CRI-CSIR), Ghana
5. Faculty of Agriculture, National University of Lesotho (FA-NUL), Lesotho
6. Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER), Mali
7. Natural Resources Development College (NRDC), Zambia
8. School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Zambia (SoAS-UNZA), Zambia

An important lesson learned from using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) methodology is that the change captured by this survey instrument for the different SWOT factors requires careful interpretation. It is less straightforward than may be originally perceived.