Strengthening education for agricultural development in Rwanda

MSM is consortium partner in the Strengthening Education for Agricultural Development (SEAD) Project aimed at enhanced sustainable food security in Rwanda. The project is designed to improve education and training, research and community services, value chain management and land and water management.

Beneficiary institutions include University of Rwanda (UR), INES Ruhengeri University of Applied Science and a number of TVET polytechnic institutions. Coordination on the Rwandan site is done by CESB (Capacity Development and Employment Services Board). The international consortium providing capacity development services is led by Mott McDonald. Other partners in the consortium are TU Delft, Q-Point, Delphy, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Science, SNV Rwanda and Stellenbosch University from South-Africa. The SEAD project falls under the Netherlands Initiative for Capacity Development in Higher Education 2 (NICHE 2) program.

The project will assist with the development of strong ties between the beneficiary institutes and the private sector with an increased focus on entrepreneurship and inclusiveness. The Rwandan partners will be adequately equipped to meet the needs of students, farmers, farmer (support) organizations, and agribusiness and agro-service companies. More specifically, the project will focus on four agricultural value chains in Rwanda: poultry, diary, horticulture and Irish potato. A central concept in the project is the development of Service, Training and Innovation Centers (STIC) aimed at strengthening the agricultural value chains and sectors by means of knowledge production and knowledge exchange for and with stakeholders from the educational sector, the private sector and the government sector.

The MSM contribution in the projects focuses on three capacity development areas. As far as the STIC’s are concerned MSM is involved in conceptualizing these organizations and in applied research, innovation and outreach capacity development. Furthermore, in the field of leadership and management MSM will engage in needs assessment, development and delivery of custom made programs and in exploring options for the Master of Management in Education. Also, MSM will play a major role in setting up a research program to assess the impact of the capacity development interventions project towards various groups of beneficiaries.