CORAF/WECARD explores areas of collaboration with IITA
A call has been made for the establishment of potential avenues from which national centers could gain from the rich basket of capacity building programs and technologies at IITA. Abdou Tenkouano, the Executive Director of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), an IITA alumnus, made the call on 10 August, during his official visit to IITA-Ibadan.
DG Nteranya Sanginga leads the meeting with CORAF Executive Director Abdou Tenkano.
Tenkouano said his visit aimed to express the intentions of CORAF/WECARD to initiate a collaborative intervention for national centers under the auspices of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) in partnership with IITA.
“IITA is recognized as a key player in Africa’s agricultural advancement and consistently plays a major role in helping to generate employment, as well as deploying world-class agricultural technologies…CORAF is interested in partnering with IITA to tap from its rich international expertise and using such to empower national centers,” Tenkouano said.
Sheu Salau, an Agricultural Economist representating the World Bank at the event, bemoaned the inability of national systems to tap from IITA’s rich knowledge reserve, calling on a concerted approach to transform information delivery and knowledge sharing for beneficiaries.
“Some transformation in the way science, technology and innovation are deployed to end users is needed…the World Bank acknowledges the need to strengthen its collaboration with IITA in the areas of evidence-based knowledge as this largely informs how programs are designed,” Salau noted.
IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga welcomed the partnership proposal, noting that the crisis situation in many subregions in Africa makes the proposal timely. He further emphasized
that countries need to be assured that intervention packages will provide the needed solutions to identified problems.
“Countries will need to see results. In the long run, it is not about how countries are engaged but how to convince them that what is being done is necessary…let us be aggressive, work together to design a plan that will take into account all the ideas discussed with a clear outcome,” said DG Sanginga.
The team also went on a tour of IITA facilities and interacted with the IITA Youth Agripreneurs. The activities and achievements of the young men and women under the platform impressed the visitors. In parting, Salau concluded that “the approach IITA is using in youth development is the best and therefore should be scaled up”.
