Universities worldwide are charged with the mandate of training human resources who are the next generation of leaders and policy makers, researchers and innovations, and entrepreneurs. They conduct research, produce knowledge and innovate to solve societal challenges and provide policy guidance. While universities have continuously provided such support at their national level, there is a recognition that alliances and partnerships are important in the higher education sector. The world has become a global village, connected either physically by fast means of transportation or virtually through social media platforms, professional research network platforms, among others. Therefore, labour force, technologies and innovations easily find themselves across oceans and seas, which was not the case 30 to 50 years ago. The need for knowledge, technologies, labour force, infrastructure and other resources sharing become even more important in times of emergencies such as the COVID-19 Pandemic. Because of the functionality of networks and effective sharing of resources, countries have been able to mitigate the “would be worse” consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Context:

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) recognizes that for universities in Africa to confront the challenges that Africa faces especially in agriculture, the most important sector in the continent, partnership with other university networks is vital. African universities will benefit from the vast experience of countries and continents where universities have played a critical role in driving technology and innovation for social transformation and economic growth. Partnerships and alliances among universities across the globe would reduce reinventing approaches by adaptation of what has worked elsewhere. With this in mind, RUFORUM organized a global partnership for higher agricultural education and research on 2nd December, 2019 in Cape Coast, Ghana which explored different approaches to training agricultural graduates and production of impact oriented technologies and innovations. Models for higher agricultural education across the globe were explored, with a selection of those, which could be adapted to Africa’s context. However, it emerged that there was a need for a functional way of engagement across continents in agricultural higher education and research to operationalize the adaptation of emerging best practices across the continents and maximize positive outcomes of alliances and partnerships.

This report covers points of action and emerging issues from Webinar 13 organized by RUFORUM on Global university partnerships for addressing emerging development challenges held on 7th October, 2020.

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