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Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Grow African Agriculture – with a Gendered Perspective

This World Bank study explores the importance of agricultural education and training (AET) in Africa, emphasizing the gender perspective, challenges, and opportunities. It presents strategies to enhance AET effectiveness, integrating gender equality and modernizing curricula to drive agricultural innovation and sustainability.

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Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Grow African Agriculture – with a Gendered Perspective

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  1. Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Grow African Agriculture – with a Gendered Perspective A World Bank Regional Study of Agricultural Education and Training William Saint (HD Africa) and Eija Pehu (ARD, Anchor)

  2. Overview • Why agricultural education and training (AET) are important? • AET trends and current status. • AET from a gender perspective • What should be done? • Lessons from around the globe.

  3. Why is AET important? • Human capital formation for agriculture. • Promotes knowledge intensive agriculture • Raises agricultural productivity and competitiveness: • for economic growth • for poverty reduction • for release of farm labor for other economic activities • Realizes the potential of women in agriculture

  4. 1990 – 2004: Neglect of AET • ODA to African agriculture down 63%. • ODA to African agricultural education down 49% as share of agric aid. • A smaller piece of a smaller pie. • World Bank: USD 1.4 m yearly for AET in sub-Saharan Africa, 2000 – 2006. • Governments tended to follow donor priorities.

  5. A legacy of neglect: • Agric researchers declined in half of SSA. • Less than one in four holds a PhD. • Declining agric enrollments. • Staffing shortages. • Outdated AET curricula. • Deteriorated labs and facilities. • Women are underrepresented as students, instructors, extension agents and researchers • Agricultural innovation processes are hardly ever targeted to female users.

  6. Why gender perspective? • Gender bias • Women play multiple roles in agriculture; account for more than half of agricultural output in SSA • But - women have continuously received a less-than-proportionate share of investment in agriculture • Example: women farmers receive only 5% percent share of extension services • Gender perspective for both equity and efficiency • Udry et al. (1995): farm productivity is increased when women receive the same advisory services as men (by 22%)

  7. Curriculum for agriculture • Contains very few courses on issues such as household nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene – critical areas household welfare • Provides a few gender-specific career tracks for female students entering public service. • Little effort is made to use AET and female AET graduates as a means of effecting change in rural livelihoods through gender-specific impact pathways (IFPRI 2007)

  8. An era of opportunity? • NEPAD – FAAP – BASIC (2002) • World Bank’s Reaching the Rural Poor Strategy, (2003) • Inter Academy Council Report (2004) • Commission for Africa (2005) • Rebound in foreign assistance to agriculture: • NEPAD: 10% of GDP for agriculture • USAID: Agric higher education initiative • World Bank: Africa Action Plan, World Development Report 2008 • Gates and Rockefeller: $1 billion/5 years • Numerous AET innovations are emerging. • Increasing number of gender-responsive initiatives

  9. Post-secondary agricultural education and training What should be done?

  10. 1. Framework: Bring AET into the agricultural innovation system • Support professional networks; reduce institutional isolation and fragmentation. • Coordinate the goals and programs of agriculture and education. • Create communication channels with researchers, producers, employers. • Assign human capital responsibilities to AET institutions. • Diversity improves innovation – be inclusive

  11. This has been done with success: • BRAZIL: Problem-oriented research centers linked to local postgraduate programmes and international centers. • MALAYSIA: Linked agricultural research with universities, private sector, and international centers.

  12. 2. Modernize curricula & mainstream gender • Increase applied learning • Problem-oriented; interdisciplinary • Agriculture is more than production: • Marketing • Rural finance • Post-harvest storage & processing • Agribusiness • Natural resource management • Rural institutions and organization • All have a gender dimension

  13. This has been done with success: • Brazil, Chile, China, Malaysia. • In Africa: • Makerere • Sokoine • KwaZulu-Natal • Jomo Kenyatta • Mauritius • Benin - Songhai agricultural training center in Porto Novo • 65-70 percent of its graduates settle into agriculture. • Locally owned and privately managed. • Has a capacity of 225 boarding places, offers training in small-scale farming, farm management and agricultural teaching. • About 20 percent of the trainees are women and 60 percent of the trainees come from rural areas. • The instruction favors application: more than 75 percent of time devoted to practical subjects. • Innovations in the training include creation of a business center of agricultural products, a soybean marketing chain, and organization of a credit program to help trainees establish themselves after training

  14. 3. Build up national MSc programmes • Choose subject areas that advance national goals and labor market needs. • Tailor content in response to local conditions. • Strengthen applied research. • Recruit women students. • Goal: all MSc training takes place in SSA within 10 – 12 years.

  15. This has been done with success: • In Brazil, new MSc programmes in agric sciences boosted agric research output. • In Chile, from 1965–95, world class PhD programmes established. • In Malaysia, 34% of agricultural researchers are now women.

  16. 4. Lay the foundation for PhD programmes • Tropical agriculture is disappearing in the North. • Staff shortages: Train 1000 PhDs in 15 years. • Overseas initially, then in the region. • Use cost-effective sites; regional approaches. • Plan for re-entry and staff retention. • Competitive research funds • Performance incentives • Career ladders; continuing professional development • Career planning and leadership training for women • Collaborate and coordinate among countries, e.g., RUFORUM PhD progammes. • Promote long-term donor consortia.

  17. This has been done with success: • Massive staff development campaigns have worked • Brazil trained 1200 agricultural postgraduates overseas in 1970s. • India trained 1000 agricultural scientists abroad in 1960s and 1970s. • Thailand trained 15,000 graduates in USA, 1950-85 • Training abroad can have high return rates, e.g., Agric Dev Council – 91% of 532; USAID CRSPs – 85% of 97.

  18. (5) Gender-responsive actions • Supply-side • Targeted recruitment policies, affirmative action initiatives, academic enrichment programs, gender-responsive curriculum, and earmarked scholarships could be used to boost female enrollments. • Demand-side • Demand for women agriculturists also needs to be stimulated through programs to recruit many more women into agricultural extension and research programs

  19. Supply side - This has been done with success: • Being piloted in Malawi • Sensitizing curricula • Aggressive recruitment policies • Provision of adequate accommodation for female students • Quota systems • Recruitment of more women lecturers • Monitoring dropout records by gender • Introducing anti-sexual harassment policies • Gender mainstreaming in the agricultural professions • Winrock International - 37 women scholars for BS & MS; 15 scholars had completed their degrees as of 2004 • African Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment (AWLAE) based in Wageningen University; and currently supports 20 women PhD students • Female Scholarship Initiative, initiated by Makerere University in Uganda and funded by the Carnegie Corporation; provides full scholarships of USD 1,200 each to 19 women of limited income to pursue studies in agriculture • RUFORUM has adopted a similar approach within Eastern and Southern Africa, awarding 40 percent of its 170 postgraduate fellowships to women.

  20. Demand-side Initiatives - This has been done with success: • Rockefeller fellowships for enhancing the Careers of East African Women Scientists funded by Rockefeller and Syngenta Foundations and administered by the CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program • Normal E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program funded by USAID for African Women in Science and managed by FARA and CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program. • The new Strengthening Capacity for Agricultural Research and Development in Africa (SCARDA) program recently launched by FARA to buttress African national agricultural research systems includes the objective of raising the proportion of women researchers within these systems to 33 percent by 2012.

  21. To conclude.. • Unique opportunity to support AET – and mainstream gender • Advocacy with international agencies and national governments • Scaling out of gender-responsive interventions and programs • Donor coordination for lasting results

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