4th RUFORUM Biennial Conference

19 - 25 July 2014, Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. Over 600 delegates attended the Fourth Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture Biennial Conference.

The Regional Universities Forum for CapacityBuilding in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is celebrating its 10th anniversary under the theme, "African Higher Education Week: Transforming Agricultural Education - a Platform for the Way Forward."

See further RUFORUM conference blog.

RUFORUM organized a side session where it interacted 

with the Alumni students who have been in the field to 

listen to them in order to know the changes needed in the 

approach to the career path.

FUFORUM's 10th anniversary celebrations coincides with the AU annual theme of Agriculture and Food Security, as well as the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive AfricanAgricultural Development Programme (CAADP), a blue print agreed upon, and signed in Maputo in 2003, by African Heads of Statesand Governments for achieving 6% economic growththrough agricultural transformation.

In her keynote address Dr. Dlamini Zuma said that Agriculture over the last decade grew by 4% per annum, lower than the target of 6% as envisaged by CAADP. 

"African agriculture should and must do much better, to ensure our collective food security, to reverse the trend of being a net importer of food, to create jobs and to contribute towards industrialisation." 

Another keynote address was delivered by Mrs. Graca Machel, a Member of the International Panel of Elders and Former Mozambiquan Minister of Education. The event was officially opened by the Minister of Science and Technology, and representative of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique.

Dr Wanjiru from AWARD fellowship

Related:

• AHC-STAFF, FARA Side event
• EDULINK II FIT FOR PURPOSE Side Event
• EDULINK On-line Platform Side Event
• RUFORUM-ADECEA Side Event
• RUFORUM-SAFE-AFAAS Side Event
• RUFORUM-CABI Side Event
• ICT Side Event
• innovATE GCFSI Side Event

FARA and partners (e.g. NPCA, SROs, ANAFE, RUFORUM and other key regional agencies) are jointly implementing a project known as the Africa Human Capital in Science, Technology and Agripreneurship for Food Security Framework (AHC-STAFF). 

• The AHC-STAFF seeks to undertake exhaustive studies to determine current and future capacity needed to propel Africa’s agriculture and recommend appropriate capacity strengthening actions to address the identified needs. 
• The project has adopted a technology capital (within the wider value) chain’ approach to elucidating requisite capacity for technical change needed to uplift Africa’s agriculture. 
• The project will assess the overall national capacity needs for knowledge/technology generation, knowledge/technology diffusion, and knowledge/technology adoption and utilization in priority program areas of the NAFSIPs. 
• The assessments will be conducted in all the CAADP post-compact countries over a three-year period, and will furnish credible grounding for comprehensive human capital formation and institutional strengthening. 

In the first year, the following countries will be targeted:

• ASARECA: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Djibouti
• CCARDESA: Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia
• CORAF/WECARD: Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia
• NASRO: Tunisia, Mauritania