Fostering Human Capital in Agricultural R&D: Challenges and Opportunities for Small African...
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Transcript of Fostering Human Capital in Agricultural R&D: Challenges and Opportunities for Small African...
AAEA Conference Session “Human Capital Needs of a Modernizing Agriculture: Challenges and Possible Solutions”
Washington, D.C.| August 6, 2013
Fostering Human Capital in Agricultural R&D
Challenges and Opportunities for Small African Countries
Nienke BeintemaASTI program head | International Food Policy Research Institute
Context / Outline
• Human resources remain one of the more serious constraints facing African agricultural R&D, and situation may become more severe
• Focus of presentation:
General researcher trends
Current challenges
New developments
Recommendations
Builds on previous datasets and analysis (new update available in 1-2 months)
Long-term human capacity trends (1971-2011)
Drivers of 2001-008 growth
Source: Beintema and Stads 2011.
• Overall, human capacity in public agricultural R&D increased by about 20 percent during 2001-08
Challenge: Fragmentation (2008)
Indicators 33 African countries Brazil China India* US
Number of public agricultural research agencies 353 130 1,105 167 51
Number of public agricultural researchers (FTEs) 10,965 4,633 ±70,000 11,217 9,965
Average researchers per agency 31 36 63 67 195
Share of researchers with PhD degrees 30% 75% <30% 86% 100
Source: Updated from Flaherty 2011.
Notes: Data for India is for 2009 and PhD degree share includes only ICAR institutes.
Challenge: Small-country issue (1)
• Most small countries are characterized by low research capacity, low investment, and vulnerability to funding volatility
• Population: Under 10 million
• Capacity: Under 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) agricultural researchers
• Investment: Under 10 million PPP dollars in agricultural research
• For example, Cape Verde, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritania, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Togo
Source: Adapted from Flaherty 2011.
Challenge: Small-country issue (2)
• Small countries have diverse institutional actors
• Consolidation into one organization is often not advisable
• Narrowing the scope of national research is difficult given policy demands and changes in the agricultural and natural resource sectors
• The smaller the system, the more complex the functions it will perform
• Many countries will never be able to afford comprehensive research systems
Source: Adapted from Flaherty 2011 and USAID 2013.
Challenge: Decreasing qualifications
• Shares of BSc-qualified staff have increased in some countries since 2000
24% 27%
47% 43%
29% 30%
0
20
40
60
80
100
2001 2008
Shar
es o
f FTE
res
earc
her
s (%
)
BSc MSc PhD
Source: Beintema and Stads 2011.
Capacity challenge: High staff turnover
• Staff departures and an aging pool of well-qualified researchers remain major areas of concern for many countries
0
20
40
60
80
100
ISRA Senegal KARI Kenya ZARI Zambia
Retirement DeathResignation Transfer/leave
Shar
eso
f dep
arte
d r
esea
rch
ers
(%)
BSc MSc PhD
ARC, South Africa 39.9 40.8 48.5 43.4
ISRA, Senegal — 55.7 47.3 49.6
KARI, Kenya 41.6 45.1 49.5 45.1
ZARI, Zambia 36.4 42.0 50.0 39.7
NARI
Degree
Total
Average age of researchers, 2010
Source: Sene et al 2011.
Challenge: Limited training opportunities
• During 1970s and 1980s, many countries received considerable donor support for staff training abroad but by the late 1990s, many donors had cut/eliminated funding for training
• SSA universities have been facing a number of constraints such as increased workloads, which has affected quality of teaching and student supervision
• Large influx of young less-qualified researchers combined with staff turnover has strained the capacity of institutions to provide adequate mentoring by senior researchers
But there are some positive developments
• Growth in private universities has created new training opportunities
• Changes in governance have facilitated greater autonomy for universities and allowed tuition fees to be adjusted
• Students have pressured universities to improve the quality of the training provided
• Donor organizations have acknowledged the importance of capacity strengthening and increased funding
• A wide number of successful regional initiatives and platforms have been established
Recommendations
• Halt the prevailing high turnover of agriculturalscientists through a series of measures
• Strengthen institutional capacity to create an enabling environment
• Focus on capacity building that facilitate adaptation of existing technologies from elsewhere
• Increase financial support by governments and donor organizations
• Develop innovative training methods
• Scale up existing training initiatives/networks
• Strengthen partnerships within Africa, South-South, and with the CGIAR