ERESA Work Plan

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ERESA Logframe

The updated ERESA Logframe is available and can be downloaded from here.

ERESA Project Activities

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ERESA Inception Workshop Report

The ERESA Inception workshop was held from the 23rd to the 25th of February 2009 at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel at Entebbe, Uganda. The inception workshop report can be downloaded from here.

ERESA Project Brochure

A comprehensive brochure for the ERESA project has been developed. You can download it from here.

ERESA Project Progress Report

The ERESA Progress report for the first six months was submitted to the ACP Secretariat and can be downloaded from here.

MSc In Research Methods Planning Workshop

This workshop was held from the 9th to the 13th of March 2009 at the African Institute for Capacity Development,Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. The report of this planning workshop can be downloaded from here.

RUFORUM / IFS Scientific Data Management Training for Young Women Scientists in Southern and Eastern African Countries

RUFORUM and IFS (International Foundation for Science) jointly ran a Scientific Data Management training course for Young Women Scientists in Southern and Eastern African
Countries.This course is one of the outputs for the ERESA project and it was held at Entebbe, Uganda from the 28th September to 06th October 2009. The course report can be downloaded from here.

About the ERESA Project

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ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Higher Education - Project 9ACP RPR 118 #9

Enhancing Research Capacity and Skills in Eastern and Southern Africa (ERESA)

This action augments the many efforts that are on-going in Africa to revitalise agriculture to support economic recovery and help the continent achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which is being implemented through the Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP), especially targets enhancing agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption by developing capacities of African National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES). To address the limited capacity to generate the needed innovations for policy analysis, to inform and influence policy and to build competencies to realign research for development (R4D) to cope with change, research methods capacity enhancement is needed. The action is a response by universities in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) to pool their efforts to build capacity for agricultural research and enhance relevance of universities by producing market demanded products in terms of skilled human resource, technologies and processes.

The overall goal of this action is to enhance the capacity of universities in ESA to contribute effectively to development and socioeconomic transformation of society by building, sustaining and strengthening regional capacity for impact oriented research for development. The main expected outputs are: a core group of professionals able to effectively engage in impact-oriented R4D; approaches for integrating, cross-disciplinary R4D skills; and action research at multi-scale levels. Specifically the action aims to:

1. Improve teaching and research skills in universities and National Agricultural Research Systems (NARES) for relevance and impact on rural livelihoods, and
2. Build a core of research methodology specialists to support innovation processes, including policy formulation.

Target Groups

The target groups in this action are the teaching staff of higher learning institutions and NARES and post-graduate students. The final beneficiaries are the wider farming community and users of research innovations. Policy makers at national and local levels will benefit from access to evidence-based policy information, sound project monitoring, and widening access to participatory research methods. User friendly methodologies will be promoted to ensure and facilitate the flow of reliable and improved livelihood options.

Result Areas

There are 4 primary result areas in this action:

Result Area 1: Partnerships and institutional arrangements to support quality training established, developed and strengthened through: (1) short courses to enhance research skills of academic staff and scientists in NARES; and (2) increased inter-institutional networking. The activities are led by RUFORUM

Result Area 2: Modules, approaches and tools for capacity development, in the area of research methodology developed, tested, verified and shared in order to: (1) strengthen the capacity of universities to deliver market-oriented programmes and deliver market demanded courses to enhance research skills of practitioners; and (2) produce research scientists with a solid foundation in research. The activities are lead by SSC-UoR.

Result Area 3: Regional and national capacities for enhancing research quality developed, strengthened and institutionalised by: (1) launching a postgraduate training programme in Research Methodology at JKUAT built on a strong foundation of theoretical and practical norms and standards geared towards meeting the current developmental concerns; and (2) conducting a series of Research Methodology short courses and mentoring to university lecturers and NARES scientists, and selected graduate students. The activities are lead by JKUAT.

Result Area 4: Knowledge management and communication systems for joint learning, sharing and scaling up established, developed and promoted to enhance post graduate student training and teacher exchange. Activities will include: a) holding learning platforms to share lessons and experiences; b) production of communication products; c) outcome/impact assessment; and d) planning for a follow-up phase. The activities are lead by RUFORUM.

General Activities:

Developing modalities to support quality training and providing opportunity for students’ attachments to on-going R4D activities;

Developing teaching modules, tools and approaches for supporting training of graduate students and up-grading research skills of academic staff and NARES scientists;

Actual training of the graduate students, academic staff and NARES scientists;

and Establishing and promoting effective knowledge management and communication systems to enhance training, joint learning, csharing and scaling up and out

Project Coordinator

Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) – Kampala

Partners

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) – Kenya
University of Zambia (UNZA) – Zambia
University of Malawi (UNIMA) – Malawi
Makerere University (MAK) - Uganda
Statistical Service Centre (SSC), Reading University– UK

Associate Partners

Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)

Project Duration
36 Months

EU-Co-funding
EUR 495,905.00

Total Budget
EUR 583,418.00

Contact
Prof. Adipala Ekwamu
Regional Co-ordinator
Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM),
Tel: +256 414535939
Fax: +256 414543153

E-mail: secretariat@ruforum.org

Enhancing Research Capacity & Skills

ERESA Work Plan

ERESA Project Activities

About the ERESA Project