Realising the Potential of Africa’s Youth: Linking university education, research and business in sustainable agricult

Realising the Potential of Africa’s Youth:Linking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Ralph von Kaufmann Director for Capacity Strengthening, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) John Kuada Centre for International Business, Department of Business Studies, Aalborg University Danida Development Days Copenhagen 8 – 9 June 2009

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Background African agriculture presents good investment opportunities: • To take advantage of underperforming technologies cereal yields 2X higher in South Asia & 2.5 times higher in East Asia • To respond to the most assuredly growing global market African population 922 million 2005, 1 billion people 2015, 1.5 billion 2030 and 2 billion 2050 • To address the big issues of the 21st century, i.e., hunger and poverty through employment (especially of youths), climate change and water scarcity 2

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Failure to invest will have intolerable consequences: • Millions of unemployed desperate internally displaced people • Accelerated destruction of African forests, the world’s 2nd lung • Loss of irreplaceable plant, animal and insect biodiversity • Increased food insecurity if land is devoted to non-food crops without commensurate increases in productivity of food crops and livestock • Alienation of local populations if too much land is taken up by foreign investors • Africa missing its demographic bonus 3

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What Africa has in abundance for making good investment: • Sound technical opportunities in agriculture • Plentiful sources of potentially skilled workers • More capital than can currently be absorbed What Africa does not have sufficient of for wide scale investment? • High level human and institutional capacity • Entrepreneurs and problem solvers • Leadership in identifying and exploiting socially responsible opportunities for investment in agriculture and the environment A new approach is needed that will produce: • African agricultural and environmental entrepreneurs • Socially responsible profitable sustainable innovation in agriculture and the environment 4

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture The Facility for linking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture will support the following interventions: • Development and implementation of collaborative programmes between universities, research institutions and the private sector which foster innovation • Development and implementation of improved and better contextualisedundergraduate and postgraduate teaching and learning • Facilitating exchange of experiences and sharing of resources and knowledge The Facility will be managed by FARA 5

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What are the challenges of linking tertiary education, research and business in support of the agro-businesses in Africa? • Identifying innovations and business opportunities that will interest and attract the participation of the different parties • Identifying truly competent partners • Getting university agricultural and business faculties to work together • Respecting the different roles of the partners and the universities and agricultural research letting go when they are no longer required • Allocating resources between partners • especially to agro-business which is perceived to be rich • Respecting and sharing IP rights and commercial confidentiality 6

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Are African universities and researchers prepared to rethink their graduate and research programmes to better respond to the needs of agro-business? The need for change recognised in the Millennium Declaration of the Association of African Universities (AAU) and was a constant theme of the May 2009 General Meeting of the AAU But there will be hidden resistance: • There will be those who think they are ready for change but do not actually understand what the changes are really about • There will be clashes of cultures between universities, business and research and between public and private institutions • There will be those that will not like it when they see how it will affect them (Ethiopian proverb: slowly slowly the egg will walk) 7

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Are African universities and researchers prepared to rethink their graduate and research programmes to better respond to the needs of agro-business? Creation of Agrobusiness Research & Advisory Centres (Incubators) • Coordination & integration of business and agro-technical knowledge • One stop advisory services to existing & new businesses • Inform debate on new approaches to agrobusiness development • Training of entrepreneurs in collaboration with similar centres • Oppening opportunities for further support and investment through alliances with other centres 8

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What are the challenges of linking tertiary education, research and business in support of ago-businesses? The universities need to be persuaded of the following advantages: • Opportunities for career-enhancing research • Research opportunities for postgraduates • Opportunities for student placements • Access to up-to-date and contextually correct information and data for content of agro-business teaching and training • Funding for on-campus research related to the innovations • Access to private enterprise and research communities for advice on curricula reform to produce the kind of graduates that are needed for today’s industry, i.e. problem solvers and job creators 9

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What are the challenges of linking tertiary education, research and business in support of ago-businesses? Agricultural research institutions need to be persuaded of the following advantages: • Opportunity to contribute to innovation that will promote African agriculture and natural resource management • Chances to contribute to innovation that will scale-up their research results, products and outputs • Staff will benefiting from interaction with colleagues in universities and private enterprises for relevant high-impact research 10

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will it take to get the active involvement of private sector businesses in the initiative? Agro-businesses are sceptical about collaboration with not–for-profit players so they must be assured that: • the other partners are serious • the other partners are conscious of the cost of time • The other partners have the capacity and expertise to be of real assistance (need to engage both agriculture and business faculties) • IP and commercial confidentiality will be respected • there will be capital for investing in scaling up the innovations • the partnership will endure to help with emerging problems 11

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will it take to get the active involvement of private sector businesses in the initiative? Private entrepreneurs will need to be persuaded of the following advantages: • Competent assistance in conducting feasibility studies • Access to cost-effective problem solving expertise • Access to adequately equipped laboratories and field sites for multiplication and testing of technologies • Access to well qualified mentors • Support by effective advocacy in raising capital for up-scaling successful innovations • The ability to return for help with unpredicted emerging problems 12

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture How does FARA view its role in facilitating the initiative? FARA has a continental mandate to catalyse, encourage and facilitate networking amongst its stakeholders to build critical mass, avoid duplication and fill gaps FARA’s roles in managing the Facility will include: • Coordination, reporting and accounting • Managing the calls for and reviews of grants applications • With the SROs, facilitating the agricultural research contribution • Supporting the university and agro-business facilitating partners fulfil their roles, i.e. ANAFE, PanAAC • Facilitating awareness generation and interaction between Danish and African partners • Supporting African higher agricultural education networks in strengthening Africa’s capacity to build capacity • Facilitating cooperation and collaboration between African and non-African agro-business incubators 13

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will it take to get the active involvement of private sector businesses in the initiative? Entrepreneurial Motives 14

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will it take to get the active involvement of private sector businesses in the initiative? Agrobusinesses to be supported 15

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What could Danish universities, agricultural research institutions and businesses contribute and how could the potential African partners be made aware of what they have to offer? • Co-creation of knowledge in areas of • agroBUSINESS • agrobased technical knowledge • environmental & sustainable energy • Sharing Danish experience in PBL with African agrobusiness centres • Support research capacity enhancement in African universities • joint research and PhD supervision 16

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture How could other Danish development research networks complement the initiative? Danish Development Research Network (DDRN) pulls together researchers with a focus on development issues • Provides Danish data base for expertise on various agrobusiness issues • Can enter into partnership with proposed African agrobusiness centres Association of Danish Universities • Has established a development group with 7 themes including agrobusiness, innovation and entrepreneurship. • Can invite its members to partner with proposed African agrobusiness centres 17

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to sustain the incubators and would the prospects for scaling-up the innovations be improved by prioritising global issues such as youth employment, water, and climate change with a view to engaging social enterprise funding? • The mission of the incubator is to facilitate the creation of competitive agri-business enterprises through technology development and commercialization • The incubator, helps new entrepreneurs / enterprises with handholding services starting from business conceptualization to implementation and scaling up • It is up to the entrepreneur / enterprise to choose the kind of service the want from the incubator Source: Amr Farouk Abdelkhalik pers comm. 18

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to sustain the incubators.....? • Access to qualified research and development personnel in the areas of knowledge in which the park has its identity • Ability to market its high valued products and services • The capability to provide marketing expertise and managerial skills to firms, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, that lack such a resource • Embedded in a society that allows for the protection of product or process secrets, via patents, security or any other means • Ability to select or reject which firms enter the park. The firm's business plan is expected to be coherent with the park’s identity • A clear identity, quite often expressed symbolically, as the park's name choice, its logo or the management discourse Source: Amr Farouk Abdelkhalik pers comm. 19

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to sustain the incubators....? • A management with established or recognized expertise in financial matters, and which has presented long term economic development plans • Stable political, economic and regulatory regimes, providing a sound business infrastructure, initial funds, to facilitate venture creation despite the inherent risks • Competitiveness strategy which has analyzed and identified the sub-sectors of advantage, selected the change agents and markets • Human resources development which helps build the full range of specializations needed, from trainer to technician, innovator to manager • Functioning institutions for banking, insurance, stock markets, tax, intellectual property and environmental protection Source: Amr Farouk Abdelkhalikpers comm. 20

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to sustain the incubators....? Social Considerations: • Emphasis on development and support to female entrepreneurs • Emphasis on development and support to youth entrepreneurs • Emphasis on rural participation in agro value chains • Emphasis on sustainable energy and agro-water management schemes (e.g. harvesting rain water for agrobusiness) 21

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to sustain the incubators....? Value chain perspective: National value chains • Low end values (enrichment required) • Fragmentation, disconnections Regional value chains? • Absent, but new prospects are emerging Global value chains • Lead firm constraints • Limitations to few product lines, countries and regions 22

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to sustain the incubators....? Conditions for scaling up: • Support high growth agrobased entrepreneurs, and develop new generation of entrepreneurs, • Supporting rural agriculture through outreach facilitation • Out-growers • Cooperatives 23

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Would there be an advantage to linking the Scheme to global issues, employment, water climate change with a view to engaging social enterprise funding • Social enterprises are profit-making businesses set up to tackle social or environmental needs often combining revenue-generating with social-value-generating • They could help attract venture capital and create opportunities for scaling-up Three common characteristics of social enterprises are: • Enterprise orientation: involved in producing goods or providing services to a market and seek to be viable trading organisations • Social Aims: They have explicit social aims such as job creation, training or the provision of local services • Social ownership: They are autonomous organisations with governance and ownership structures based on participation by stakeholder groups 24

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture What will be required to ensure that the incubators will be sustained? • a tertiary education network with Africa wide coverage that is committed to the initiative • Early success in commercialising innovations • Association with other incubators such as at Aalborg University and Egypt-ICRISAT • As sources of knowledge on managing agricultural innovation incubators • As venues for training in managing incubators • As sources of scientific and technical expertise • To widen the opportunities for supporting innovation development and up-scaling 25

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture How will it work? Governance of the Facility • Governed by FARA under agreement with the African Union • FARA’s Executive Board with representatives of the four African Sub-Regional Organisations, farmers’ organisations, and the Pan African Agro-business Consortium will be responsible for the overall strategies of the facility • FARA Board’s Programme Sub-Committee, supplemented by a few experts, will receive progress reports, approve work plans and decide on grant allocations based on competitive applications • FARA’s Executive Director will be responsible to FARA’s Board for management of the Facility • To ensure quality assessments of the grant applications, the Committee’s decisions will be informed by a peer-review mechanism, involving experts drawn from Africa and other regions 26

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Making it happen The university aspects will be facilitated by a tertiary education network. This will include: • Raising and maintaining awareness of the initiative & its products • Supporting the universities in curricula change • Advising agricultural research and agro-businesses on the prospects and modalities of working with universities • Being a knowledge centre for university capacities that agro-business and agricultural research can refer to when seeking partnerships • Quality assurance of university contributions and products • Fostering linkages and interactions with non-African universities and capacity building institutions • Ensuring engagement with universities that are not directly involved 27

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Making it happen The agro-business aspects will be facilitated by an agro-business (or business) consortium or association. This will include: • Raising and maintaining awareness of the Programme and its products and outcomes • Facilitating agricultural agro-business participation in the Programme’s competitive grants • Advising universities and agricultural research institutions on the prospects and modalities of working with agro-businesses • Being a knowledge centre and directory for agro-businesses capacities and performance records • Quality assurance of agro-business contributions and products 28

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Making it happen The agricultural research aspects will be facilitated by FARA in conjunction with the relevant SROs. This will include: • Raising and maintaining awareness of the Programme and its products and outcomes • Facilitating agricultural research institutes’ participation in the Programme’s competitive grants • Advising universities and agro-businesses on the prospects and modalities of working with agricultural research institutions • Being a knowledge centre and directory for agricultural research capacities and performance records • Quality assurance of agricultural research contributions and products 29

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Making it happen The Danish university, agro-business and agricultural research communities will identify an institution to facilitate their participation. This will include: • Raising and maintaining awareness of the Programme and its products and outcomes • Ensuring that African institutions can access information on the interests and capacities of Danish universities, agricultural research and business Advising universities and agro-businesses on the prospects and modalities of working with agricultural research institutions • Facilitating Danish institutes’ participation in the Programme’s competitive grants 30

Thank you To get bi-monthly news on African agriculture research for development visit www.fara-africa.org

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture 1. Fostering agricultural innovation • facilitate innovation by establishing better linkages between universities, research and agro-businesses in addressing constraints and opportunities in agricultural value chains. • Collaborations that foster innovation, by supporting collaboration with businesses in research, facilitating start-ups by graduates through establishing “innovation camps” or enabling universities to link-up with businesses in local communities and at national or regional levels. • Holistic supporting measures including assistance with the initial concept, financing, business skills, mentoring and access to knowledge and tools for self-learning; and support to inter-disciplinary and multi-agency research teams that include students, farmers and rural communities in action-oriented research and development projects

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture 1. Fostering agricultural innovation (cont.) • Engaging universities in agricultural development and, together with the CAADP, new thinking, and for investment in improved facilities • A number of PhD fellowship grants (gender balanced) on topics that emphasise: • Innovative problem-solving relevant to the needs of the rural poor • climate change mitigation • sustainable economic growth

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture 2. Improving agricultural teaching and learning at graduate and postgraduate level • Support will be provided to enable universities to engage with research institutions and the private sector in developing improved, up-to-date and contextually relevant teaching and learning approaches, and resources for graduate and postgraduate programmes. • Three-way university-research-business engagement in revising curricula

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture 2. Improving agricultural teaching and learning at graduate and postgraduate level • Development and implementation of improved open access teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with the emphasis on: • Problem-based learning; practical and experiential training with internships; agro-business; analytical skills; systems skills for teamwork relating to diverse stakeholders; and managing interdisciplinary and multi institutional programmes that address emerging issues such as climate change, water scarcity and energy • PhD training with focus on agricultural value chains and innovation systems designed to strengthen the capacity of less well-resourced universities and women candidates in particular • The available resources will be leveraged through collaboration with NATURA and other networks

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture 3. Exchanging experiences, resources and knowledge for agricultural development • Support will be provided to further develop and sustain one or more successful tertiary agricultural educational networks to extend collaboration beyond the member universities themselves. This will enable them to collaborate with agricultural research institutions and private enterprise firms. • Strengthening a successful tertiary agricultural education network to facilitate the exchange of experiences and dissemination of knowledge. The aim is to promote change and sensitise recipients to the need for change and innovation • Sharing of human and physical resources to build critical mass in quantity and range of capacities to address critical issues, including improving teaching and learning and capacity to respond to challenges emerging from climate change and globalisation • Documenting experience and the impact and exchanging lessons learned

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Competitive grant applications Calls for competitive grant applications will be issued by FARA that will attract applications from consortiums comprised of universities, agro-businesses and agricultural research institutions • Will be evaluated by an independent Grants Review Committee • Will be approved by the Programme Committee of FARA’s Executive Board assisted by selected resource persons

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Competitive grant applications Objectives • To engage agro-businesses and agricultural research institutions in supporting universities develop contextually appropriate education programmes at universities for BSc and MSc, based on: • modernised curricula and taking full advantage of e-learning and webbased teaching resources • more research programmes in collaboration with farmers and agro-business • increased use of research at farms and in agro-business • greater contributions by universities, research institutes and private enterprises to African agricultural development.

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Competitive grant applications Overall criteria • The overriding criterion is that the grant proposal must be based on a sound agro-business model that will sustainably create employment, or mitigate climate change or improve water utilization and conservation or a combination of these and which will benefit from exploiting different assets of the three parties. Other the criteria will include: • university interest in engaging with agro-business and agricultural research in revising their curricula • university commitment to teaching business and systems skills and preparedness to engage in partnerships to produce entrepreneurs and innovators

Realising the Potential of Africa’s YouthLinking university education, research and business in sustainable agriculture Competitive grant applications Overall criteria • university policies supporting the engagement of faculty and students in business ventures • university support for other universities and colleges through the development of open access teaching and training resources stemming from the proposed collaboration • university policy will allow the agro-business partner to keep full control of the venture for the model to be commercialized • agro-business interest in acquiring university assistance in problem solving in marketing, policy and technical issues • agro-business interest in influencing the type and quality of graduate that the universities produce

Thank you To get bi-monthly news on African agriculture research for development visit www.fara-africa.org

Realising the Potential of Africa’s Youth: Linking university education, research and business in sustainable agricult