Windhoek, Namibia – The Transforming African Agricultural Universities to Meaningfully Contribute to Africa’s Growth and Development – TAGDev 2.0 2024 University Project Coordinators’ Immersion Workshop and Launching was held in Windhoek, Namibia from 06 to 12 August 2024.
The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) secretariat organized the immersion and cooperation event, in collaboration with the MasterCard Foundation and the government of the Republic of Namibia. The main purpose of the TAGDev 2.0 immersion workshop is to enhance convergence among participants by enabling a common understanding of the implementation requirements, work methodologies, streams and models and performance and evaluation indicators for accountability. The workshop involved a series of co-creation events, workshops, and training comprising people from the MasterCard Foundation, RUFORUM, the private sector, and representations from several African Universities.
The co-creation workshop was conducted for 15 projects selected under the TAGDev 0.2 project. Haramaya University’s proposal titled “Agri-food Systems and Entrepreneurship Development in Horticulture Value Chains (fruit and vegetable) in Ethiopia” is one of the proposals selected and invited for the co-creation and immersion event. This project will be jointly implemented by a consortium of partners and collaborators from the public and private sectors and community-based organizations, TVETs, farmer’s organizations, NGOs, and other value chain actors. The project is a 5-year project which will be implemented from 30 July 2024 – June 30, 2029.
Haramaya University is the lead implementing institution in this initiative with two other RUFORUM member Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from Ethiopia (Wollo University and Mekelle University). The project was developed by a team of researchers comprising Dr. Getachew Shambel (Project PI and Incubation lead at HU), Dr. Jemal Yousuf (High-level Project advisor and member), Dr. Muluken Gezahegn (Co-PI), and Prof. Jeylan Wolyie Hussein (Co-PI). Members from partner Higher education institutions include Dr. Awol Seid (project focal person from Wollo Univerity) and Dr. Zenebe Abraha (project focal person from Mekelle University).
The joint TAGDev 2.0 program, led by HU and its partners, aims to enhance agricultural production, employment, food and nutrition security, and climate resilience among smallholder farmers, women, and youth in Ethiopia. This will be achieved by fostering inclusive local innovation and agripreneurship development along the fruit and vegetable agri-food value chain in Ethiopia. The expected impact of the project includes: skilling over 1900 out-of-school youth, creating over 42 enterprises, enabling 420 jobs, and planting over 100, 000 multi-purpose tree species covering over 20 acres of land.
The project also envisages to reach over 40,000 indirect beneficiaries. To ensure inclusiveness, a total of 1358, 400 and 182 participants will be young women, IDPs and returnees, and youth with disability, respectively. Likewise, from the total youth and women targeted directly (i.e., 1940 participants), 485 will be university graduates with skills but not in employment; 485 will be skilled TVET graduates; 388 will be drop-outs; 194 will be secondary level graduates; 194 will be those who have never completed secondary school; and 194 will be those youth who have no formal education backgrounds. The program will also involve training postgraduate students who will work with farmers and participate in on-farm research on problems jointly identified by the students, smallholder farmers, and the project staff.
Picture: Objectives and target impact of the new TAGDev 2.0 project at HU
During the event, Dr. Getachew, the PI for the TAGDev-0.2 project, delivered two presentations: one at the inception and co-creation workshop, and another to the TAGDev 2.0 Project Partnerships Council at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek, Namibia. Dr. Jemal Yousuf, president of Haramaya University, RUFORUM board member, and member of the Partnership Council for the TAGDev 2.0 project, was in attendance.
The Transforming African Agricultural Universities to Meaningfully Contribute to Africa’s Growth and Development (TAGDev 2.0) project is a USD 100 million collaborative project to be implemented by the MasterCard Foundation in partnership with the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agricultural and Life Sciences (GCHERA), and 12 African universities.
TAGDev 2.0 is a 10-year program (2023-2033) that aims to strengthen universities and TVET institutions to better serve communities by skilling and empowering Africa’s young people and their institutions to drive the inclusive, equitable and climate-resilient transformation of agriculture and agrifood systems. This goal will contribute to three strategic outcomes: Expanded equal work opportunities for young women and men in the agricultural sector; Improved climate adaptive agricultural production and productivity; and Strengthened quality of higher agricultural education outcomes in training, research and innovation.
