Outreach Planning Meeting held March 19 & 20, 2012

As part of third year implementation of the Outreach Project, RUFORUM organised a  two-day planning and review meeting to co-design and pilot an experiential learning model with stakeholders for enhancing the impact of university research and training, particularly at postgraduate level, at participating universities[1]. More specifically, the meeting discussed opportunities and challenges for integrating experiential learning and entrepreneurship into specific courses and programmes at the three universities.

The meeting was building on the field gap analysis/ institutional analysis undertaken during year one of the project that identified gaps and opportunities for integrating experiential learning into courses and departments training, research and outreach programmes and the comparative analysis of good practice in integrating experiential learning into universities curriculum. During the meeting, the project also drew lessons (experiences and challenges) from an EDULINK project “Strengthening University Capacity for Rural Innovation Processes (SUCAPRI)” that had just closed and Earth University in Costa Rica. The meeting was held at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda from 19th-20th March 2012 and it was attended by both European and African partners among other stakeholders from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Private Sector.   The two day meeting employed group and plenary discussions as a platform for joint project review and planning. The presentations on the field gap analysis, the Earth University model and an overview of the outreach project (Annex IV) in addition to group presentations provided more insights for the group discussions and enriched roundtable discussions; in addition to guest presenters (Gerard den Ouden-Programme Management Unit ACP S&T).  

During the plenary, the participants highlighted some of the challenges in implementing student centered learning. Some of the issues raised included:

• In the outreach model that was presented by Richard Hawkins, participants felt that strategic research was a missing component that should be included.
• There was need for institutions to clearly identify which aspects from ongoing projects were relevant to Experiential Learning(EL) rather than generalising
• Participants also observed that EL is currently restricted to classroom. They suggested that EL should extend beyond teachers and classrooms if mindsets were to be changed to involve institutions. For example, the institutions should have a strategy to enhance EL in addition to providing teaching space.
• Participants also wanted to know how to turn the technical aspects of their curricula experiential including values and requested RUFORUM to spearhead the process
• There was need to devise a mechanism for consolidating all experiences in a given university to out scale best practices to inform institutional change
• From SUCAPRI experiences, it was found necessary to organise a workshop to document EL best practices to develop a manual together with the School of Education or a Quality Assurance manual on EL to be used as an tool for improvement
• It was necessary to define what skills were needed for academic staff to facilitate Experiential learning as this was not presented during the presentations
• There were concerns about how to make University-Industry (private sector) linkages mutually beneficial
• Participants suggested that RUFORUM takes the lead in the development of an Experiential Learning manual to serve as a reference materials in its consortia universities

For more information please contact the RUFORUM Secretariat on secretariat@ruforum.org

OUTREACH Project Result Areas

Result Area One

Engagement of multi-stakeholders (farmers, industry, extension and universities), communities of practice to improve student experiential learning and strengthen specific value chain opportunities for farmers facilitated

Result Area two

The training, research and outreach programs reviewed and opportunities for integration of experiential learning into the curriculum identified and designed by the university faculty, extension and industry.

Result Area three

An integrated set of industry responsive, competency-based materials, toolkits, modules, and training manuals co-created by university faculty and industry representatives to meet the experiential learning requirements of the specified courses and curriculum.

Result Area four

A set of integrated, industry responsive, experiential, value chain based training, research and outreach programmes piloted over year 2 and 3.

Partner Roles and Responsibilities

During an Action Steering Committee Meeting the following were agreed as the roles of the different project stakeholders and implementers:

RUFORUM as the Lead Implementer:

1. Be responsible for the overall management of the OUTREACH project, through its existing governance and management structures;
2. Provide the required financial resources to Partner institutions in accordance with the approved work plans and budget, subject to receipt of funds from EU and other sources;
3. Appoint a project leader for linking with partners and others in implementation of OUTREACH activities;
4. Coordinate and approve reports submitted by partners;
5. Facilitate and coordinate activities of the OUTREACH Action Steering Committee (ASC) including annual planning and review meetings;
6. Promote activities of OUTREACH and link OUTREACH to other related activities, where particularly for synergies in scope and scale;
7. In consultations with partners, identify and appoint other service providers necessary for implementation of OUTREACH activities, in line with EC regulations;
8. Mobilise additional resources in support of OUTREACH activities;
9. Monitor implementation of OUTREACH activities by Partner institutions and any others contracted to implement OUTREACH activities;
10. Arrange for audit of OUTREACH finances;
11. Facilitate lesson sharing with partners and other actors and the formation of “community of practice” to support OUTREACH objectives;
12. In consultation with WUR, and other partners oversee development of tools, methods and approaches, including e-learning resources to support strengthening of experiential learning in the Partner Universities;
13. Oversee the development of knowledge and communication products on experiential learning;
14. Report to ACP, RUFORUM Board, partners and other key stakeholders on OUTREACH activities

OUTREACH Project Team Leader at RUFORUM Secretariat

1. General project management and coordination
2. Setting up Monitoring & Evaluation and learning systems;
3. Coordinate Annual planning meetings and audit;
4. Coordinating all international Action meetings;
5. Lobby with university management for mainstreaming experiential learning in curriculum;
6. Represent RUFORUM in project consultative, planning and working meetings including the Inception Planning Meetings, visits to universities and other places;
   
   
   • Develop a project-wide activity schedule including the schedules developed by other partners in all result areas;
   • Coordinate M&E, including consultation visits to participating universities and baselines, situation analysis/needs assessments
   • Facilitate and coordinate internal support and communication from RUFORUM to the project partners and associate partners;
   • In consultation with partners, write and submit interim, annual and final project reports to be submitted to ACP-EDULINK
   • Spearhead additional resource mobilization plans
   • Design with partners, update and communicate project budgets and workplans.
7. Lobby with national governments and other bodies for policy support;
8. Supporting the transfer of experience to other RUFORUM member universities and widely through Associate Partners’ platforms;
9. Linking to other related Actions; and,
10. Reporting to ACP Secretariat

Action Steering Committee

1. Oversee and advise on the overall implementation of the project;
2. Communicate, publicise and advocate for the project and its activities regionally and internationally;
3. Assist and work with the Team Leader at RUFORUM Secretariat to meet the objectives of the project;
4. Design strategies for resource mobilization and advocacy for OUTREACH;
5. Oversee annual participatory review and evaluation of the project and produce guidelines for lesson sharing and feedback learning;
6. Meet regularly (electronically and face-to-face) to plan for implementation, budget allocation and review of project activities;
7. Participate in the peer review of project reports, training modules, reports from consultants and service providers and proposals by consultants/service providers
8. Contribute to the development of criteria for selection of participants for the training workshops;
9. Contribute to the development of criteria for selection of service providers and consultants;
10. Organize with RUFORUM Secretariat the regional sharing of experiences.

Makerere University, Moi Universities and Bunda College of Agriculture will:

1. Participate in the Inception Planning Meeting and contribute to the development of a synergized project implementation plan;
2. Participate in the design of the experiential programs;
3. Participate in curriculum review and reform;
4. Implement experiential learning programmes;
5. Documentation of lessons learnt;
6. Participate in development of OLRS and other communication products;
7. Lead national lesson sharing;
8. Assist in setting up alumni and resource person network;
9. Mainstream experiential learning in curriculum;
10. Pilot the Community Action Research Programme (CARP); and,
11. Serve in the Action Steering Committee

Wageningen University and Research Centre

Wageningen will have the following roles and responsibilities.

1. Together with staff from RUFORUM, Makerere University, Moi University and Bunda College of Agriculture, oversee the development of experiential learning programmes for the engagement of universities;
2. Together with the stakeholders identify institutional gaps and bottle necks to implementing the experiential learning;
3. Documentation of project lessons;
4. Help set-up quality control system training courses;
5. Support capacity building of university staff in experiential learning programmes;
6. Serve in the Action Steering Committee.

Associate Partners

The main associate partners in the action are the Forum for Agricultural

Research in Africa (FARA), the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services

(AFAAS) and National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). These institutions

will, jointly with RUFORUM Secretariat and other partners:

1. Participate in Annual planning meetings and lesson learning sessions;
2. Undertake advocacy for the Action;
3. Provide expert advice related to their mandate areas of operation;
4. Link Action to other related activities;
5. Support resource mobilization.

PROJECT PROGRESS

University Researchers “buy-in” on engaging community and wider stakeholders in their Action Research projects

Under the auspices of the Outreach Project, a Call for Proposals was issued to provide a vehicle for the Project to engage with communities in action research. 31 applications were received. RUFORUM received co-funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the new initiative. Three successful project proposals were identified however, they required further strengthening ondifferent community engagement principles and strategies. A community action research meeting was thus held on the 16th and 17th June 2010.
The three project teams (from MOI and Makerere University and Bunda College of Agriculture) attended the meeting, where a selection of experts and resource persons provided hands-on exercises on strategies such as the Innovations Approach, Value-Chain Analysis, Community empowerment and Action Research. At the end of this meeting each team had identified different steps for integrating the innovations and community empowerment principles into their proposals.

Project Inception Meeting

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) launched three new ACP-S&T Projects during a 3-day workshop at Entebbe, Uganda on the 10th to the 12th of February 2010.These new  projects are part of the many innovative efforts aimed at realizing the RUFORUM dream.

The overall objective of the inception meeting was to design detailed implementation plans for the three projects. Specifically the inception meeting facilitated the following:

   1. Familiarization of partners and other stakeholders on the projects
   2. Design of comprehensive project management procedures including the specific roles of partner institutions
   3. Development of project work plans and detailed budget allocation
   4. Development of comprehensive implementation plans with project milestones,
   5. Design of project M&E frameworks and performance management plans
   6. Identification of synergies between the three projects and other related projects


OUTREACH PROJECT
Title: "Shifting from Outreach to Engagement: transforming Universities response to current development trends in agricultural research and training in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa"

Overall Objective of the Outreach Project

Contribute to sustainable food security and incomes in the ECSA region and accelerate achievement of the MDGs

Specific Objective of the Outreach Project

Facilitate the creation of responsive university programmes (research, education and outreach) that deliver competent graduates to support farmers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) establish sustainable agro-food value chains

Partners to the Outreach Project

    * RUFORUM
    * Moi University, Kenya
    * Makerere University, Uganda
    * University of Malawi, Malawi
    * Wageningen University and Research Centre, Netherlands