Higher education and rural development in Africa: Building a new institutional framework

To achieve the much needed transformation in higher agricultural education in Africa, Universities have central roles in building an enabling environment. One of such roles that always requires limited attention is that of advocacy for favourable policies. In a contrast where resource attention are short and skills are scarce to service a key sector of the economy (the agricultural sector), the careful shepherding through effective policy decisions that are supportive is Africa’s top talent efforts to contribute to socio-economic transformation. Universities in Africa and their stakeholders are increasingly making significant progres with reference to advocacy and engagement with policy-decision makers. This article is premised on messages shared in a Resolution issued at a convening in Kampala, Uganda that addressed the theme “Strengthening Human and Institutional Capacity for Agricultural Development”. The convening event was organized in November 2010 by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) as part of activities in the realm of advocacy for higher agricultural education (HAE) in Africa. This event marked a process of engaging policy and decision-makers in efforts to initiate reforms that would revitalize higher education and in particular HAE in Africa and the resolution constituted a key output endorsed by the Ministerial Conference on Higher Education, Finance and Agriculture. The Ministers resolved to address priority issues related to higher education and agricultural development and recognized that human and institutional capacity remains a fundamental and essential component of agricultural development. They agreed that Agricultural development, strategy should give particular attention to the role of higher education, and to facilitating needed changes in higher education policy to address Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) priority issues. The Ministers committed to respond to these challenges and recognized the need for multistakeholder engagements. They thus, made the following requests 1. We ask for the full support and cooperation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme; 2. We call upon Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Governing Boards and Senates of our higher education institutions to facilitate and support the calls for action set out in this resolution; 3. We ask Africa’s development partners, foundations and private firms and investors to support these efforts and the process of carrying out the actions set out in this resolution.