Far for fara july2013 16-(compr-web)

FAR International NetworkRéseau international “Formation Agricole et Rurale”

FARA, Accra - 16 July 2013

Renovating the AgriculturalTechnical and Vocational Education and Training

Systems (‘Agric-TVET’)

in Africa

Igor Besson

Document in French on: http://www.reseau-far.com

FARA, Accra - 16 July 2013 2

Content

A. The global context of Agric TVET systems in Africa(several dimensions: external and internal to the systems)

B. Two on-going nation-wide experiences of renovationof agric TVET: Cameroon and Madagascar

C. Elements on the process of renovationof Agric TVET systems in Africa

D. Presentation of FAR International Networkand How to be part of it


A. Global context of Agric TVET systems (1/4)

Structural dimension of demography and economy:• In absolute value, the rural population will not decrease• In the next 15 years (say 2013-2028), about 330 million young people

will reach 15 years of age and therefore be part of active population. This number is not only high but it is increasing on the same period (from ca 17 million born in 2013 to ca 24.5 million in 2028, say +45%)

• What opportunity for a great number of them to make a living if they do not have a job or are self-employed in rural areas?

Social (even ‘societal’) and political dimensions:• What place for the farmers in the society? To recognize farming

as a profession and a status (with Competence/Educational Standard),and not a state by default (‘farmer by birth’, thus no training needs…)• What place for the farmers being older and older and often illiterate VS. the youth basically literate but generally without land nor capital?



Qualitative dimension of TVET systems:• Everywhere it is recognised that the national systems of Agric TVET

should be reformed or renovated or restructured or redesigned…• Everywhere the situation is specific and complex• Almost everywhere the scenery of Agric TVET is changing +/- less

quickly and strongly

Quantitative dimension of TVET systems:Roughly counting, in a great number of Sub-Saharan African countries, 60% of active population is in agriculture (several millions of farmers):• Initial education (say training lasting from 1.5 to 4.0 years) generally

concerns 2,000 students (say a flow of 1,000 graduates a year)• Continuing education (short training, say 1 to 10 days) often

concerns 20,000 to 100,000 persons a year (note: in term of training days, the investment is similar : 1,000px x 250days x 2years = 100,000px x 5days)



Other characteristics of Agric TVET system:• It depends on several ministerial departments (Agriculture,

Employment and Vocational Education, Higher Education, and so on…)

• This subsystem has with very few bridges to both higher levels and overall educative system

• The farmers’ organisations (FOs) and the professionals are almost not involv-ed in the system (especially the governance and management of the system)

Current dimension of international agenda:• With Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Education for All

(EFA) ending, how will be defined post-2015 challenges?• Year 2013 is a key moment for and countries

and international institutions to orientate the future


A. Global context of Agric-TVET systems (4/4)

Therefore:

1. The challenges are huge and urgent to face!

2. Clarifications are required concerning objectivesof agricultural development (family vs. agribusiness) and

the role of education and training (initial/long vs. continuing/short)

3. Modesty is a necessity when facing such a complexity…

4. There are two on-going nation-wide experiencesof renovation in Cameroon and Madagascar


B. Two on-going national wide experiences (1/4)

Cameroon

Major elements of the renovation• Coordination of 2 sector ministries (Agric & Livestock/Fisheries) in

an integrative process with Agric TVET stakeholders and other ministries (Higher Education)

• Strengthening of regulatory frameworks and State functions• Territorial anchoring: the local actors are included in the

governance and contribute to settlement/prof. inclusion of trainees• Global and systemic approach to training in respect of socio-

professional inclusion• Professionalization of trainers and monitors• Support to about 100 training centres and agricultural schools• Pedagogy based on three-fold apprenticeship system (alternating

between training centre/selected farmers’ farm/family of the learner)



Cameroon

Major elements of the renovation (c’ed)• External funding (AFD, about €-40Million) and 10-year duration:

2008-2017• This experience is called ‘AFOP Programme’ standing for ‘national

support programme for the renovation and development of vocational training in the agric, livestock and fisheries sectors’

Some results• 42 training centres and schools renovated during the 1st phase of

the programme + 58 renovations planned during the 2nd phase• About 900 and 1,300 graduated as farmers (‘exploitant agricole’)

from training centres in 2012 and 2013Target: 3,500 graduates/year by 2016



Cameroon

Some results (c’ed)• About 600 and 1,000 graduated as farm entrepreneurs (‘entrepre-

neur agricole’) from agricultural schools in 2013 & 2014 –Target: 2,500 graduates/year by 2016

• Short training (3 days in average) to 7,000 farmers a year

Main challenge of AFOP-phase 2• The professional establishment and integration in farming sectors

of those who have been trained (to concentrate means on it, no intake in 2012, so no graduation in 2014)

• The annual objectives of education and training (3,500 farmers and 2,500 farm entrepreneurs) may be decrease from 1 batch every year to 1 every 2 years if the training budget is transferred to professional establishment and integration of the graduates



Madagascar

Major elements of the renovation• To implement the ‘National Strategy of Rural and Agric Training’

(SNFAR) validated by Govt Council in 2012, with views of: coordinating the renovation of Agric TVET, especially the private

education and training sector which is particularly numerous and innovative.

clarifying the roles of the various stakeholders working in this sector• The principal publics being targeted for education and training are

young people in rural areas, farmers’ leaders, agric managers and technicians.

• External funding (IFAD with from other funding agencies):about $-64Million and also 10-years duration: 2012-2022

• Name of the national programme: FORMAPROD, ‘Programme for Professional Training and Improvement of Productivity in Farming’


C. Elements from a 2012 FAR Workshop (1/7)

About the Workshop

• It was co-organised by FAR international and FAR Cameroon Networks in Yaoundé in November 2012 with about 100 participants from 15 countries.

• The thematic was ‘The process of creation and implementation of technical and vocational agricultural and rural educational and training systems’ (so called Agric & Rural TVET).

• The comparative analysis of procedures that need to be carried out for the reconstruction or renovation of the Agric & Rural TVET systems comprised representatives from Ministries and Farmers’ Organisations (FOs) from 12 Francophone African countries.



Thirteen elements to take into consideration in a globalapproach to renovate a national Agric & Rural TVET system

1. There is one or several systems of Agric & Rural TVET in all countries without exception.

2. The size of the Agric & Rural TVET systems is very variable,but rather small for initial TVET (few thousands students at the maximum) and with a relative part of private sector also very variable.

3. The levels of education and training are similar everywhere:(i) post-primary + lower secondary: producers, basic farm workers…(ii) upper secondary: qualified and specialised workers, technicians…(iii) post-secondary + terciary: higher technicians, agric engineers, agronomists, vets…

But the flux is rather unbalanced in favour of higher education.



4. The Agric & Rural TVET systems seldom depend on one ministry alone but the ministry in charge of Agriculture is generally leading. There is a almost systematic repartition between Agriculture and Higher Education The Ministry of Livestock is often distinct to that of Agriculture. Inter-ministries coordination exists everywhere.

5. Beside the State, the stakeholders such as Farmers’ Organisations (FOs) should be important everywhere but they are not.

6. The coordination should go beyond ministries for including FOs, employers, local authorities, professionals in education and training sector, etc.



7. All countries have national agricultural development projects or programmes where capacity building is a component but rarely the objective of the project or programme (exceptions: Cameroon and Madagascar).

8. Demand and needs for the renovation of Agric & Rural TVET national systems are obviously variable.For instance, it can be limited to human resources strengthening in quality and in number, with or without emphasis on producers’ level; it can also be a restructuration or ‘re-designing’; at last, a global renovation is sometimes planned.

9. The social construction of training demand on one hand and the training needs assessment on the other are huge difficulties in all countries, therefore being constraints often without existing relevant responses.



10. The conditions needed to initiate a processus of renovation are also variable: Dialogue and concertation between stakeholders Elaboration of an overall institutional and sectoral framework Elaboration of a legal and regulatory framework Elaboration of a socio-technical and pedagogical framework.

11. Two difficulties exist wherever the challenge is renovating the Agric-Rural TVET systems: the absence or weakness of political will of governments AND the lack of committment of stakeholders, especially FOs.



12. Levers identified to launch a dynamic of change relate to both previously defined conditions and difficulties; for instance: creating a consultative framework (national network or platform type) between the stakeholders of Agric-Rural TVET system in a country accompanying action plans of these national networks or platforms having greater involvement of farmers, employers and professionals in agricutural sector as well families of learners organising system to support establishment in farming and professional integration of the graduates.

13. The steps to start the process of renovating the Agric-Rural TVET systems are always the same: to assess the situation (inventory, capitalization of experiences, mapping of existing competences…) to identify stakeholders at the different relevant scales to create of a kind of task force that will define its action plan to find funding and implement activities with support according to the needs (sharing tools, methods but also reflexions, capacity building…)



As a conclusion of this comparative analysis:1° We observe that the steps defined during the workshop to start

renovation are relatively simple and operational steps2° This tends to confirm the current priority of FAR Network in favour

of the emergence of multi-stakeholders platforms for exchanges and concertation on Agric-Rural TVET.

The fact is there are now three types of member countries inFAR International Network:

countries where a platform is functional: Madagascar with FARMADA since 2010, FARCAM Cameroon and RAFARGUI in Guinea with RAFARGUI since 2013; countries where the platform is to be revitalised: Côte d'Ivoire with FAR-CI created in 2007 and Senegal with FAR-SEN in 2009; countries where the platform is to be created: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and the three countries of Maghreb.


A framework for sharing information and acting in favour of TVET Systems for

agricultural and rural populations:

FAR Network

(Réseau international“Formation Agricole

et Rurale”

FARA, Accra - 16 July 2013

Withfinancialsupport

from:

D. Brief presentation of FAR Network (1/9)


The FAR Network was set up in 2006following a workshop in Ouagadougou in 2005

on “Mass vocational training in rural areas:how to define a national policy”

... support and boost reflection on mass training in rural areas,

in the framework of national policiesfor agricultural and rural development ...through the sharing of information and

the creation of links among the stakeholders.

Its objective is to ...



To carry out research, and to produce and disseminate information

To facilitate the creation of links among those involved in renovating systems of TVET in agriculture

To contribute to have agricultural TVET on international agenda and to anchor it in national/regional policies

To boost the skills of its membersin order to develop a potential for expertise


The 4 objectives:


8 countries in 2006: Benin, Burkina Faso,Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire,Madagascar, Mali and Senegal

12 countries in 2008 with Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Guinea

Formal adhesion of France with a “FAR France” network in 2012

Other countries from 2013 onwards: Togo

!!! Willingness to expend out of Francophone Africa !!!

Contacts in Central America and Asia (Yemen, Vietnam, Cambodia)

Countries-members of FAR Network



D. Organization of the FAR Network (5/9)

General Assembly (association since 2012):

with representativesof 13 countries/national

platforms on FAR:Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Guinea, Madagascar,

Mali, Morocco, Senegaland Tunisia

ElectionBoard of the Association

(3 members for 3 years)

Implementation of ADEX.FAR Programme (M€ 1.5- over a 4 year-period 2010-2013)With activities such as:

• Meeting, Studies, Missions and Workshops• A Newsletter (2 pages in French) regularly sent out to 1,200 persons from about 40

countries• Website (about 30,000 visits per year)

Executive Committee/Secretariat(3 persons and subcontracting)

Imple-ment-ation


D. Regular activities of FAR Network (6/9)

WEBSITE: http://www.reseau-far.com

THEMATICINTELLIGENCE

BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

ON-LINE LIBRARYhttp://www.agropolis.fr/formation/formations-agricoles-rurales-

bibliotheque.php

STUDIES STUDENT THESES

MEETINGSFORUMS

VIDEOCONFERENCES

WORKSHOP AND TRAINING ACTIVITIES

PUBLICATIONS


D. Main activities/Perspectives for 2013-15 (7/9)

According to the general purposes of Association:

• To impulse a dynamic of renovation and/or adaptation of TVET systems for rural population in accordance with the economic and social demand in FAR Network member countries

• To develop expertise that can be mobilised on TVET systems• To operates independently

A central line of action:Supporting the emergence and development national platforms

for dialogue-concertation-negociation on TVET Systemsfor agricultural and rural populations


D. Main activities/Perspectives for 2013-15 (8/9)

Which revolves around two axial frames:

(I) Strengthening the operational capacityof FAR National Platforms:

With activities planned such as:• Training of Platforms Coordinators (facilitation, advocacy, etc.)• Training of young managers/executives in TVET system engineering

(II) Establish a Service and Expertise Open Space on TVET Systems for agricultural and rural populationsSuch a Centre is planned to be an organisation for accessing ressources (documents, videos, tools, training…) and offering services (experiences, expertises, contacts, visits…). The key-word of the activity is ‘individualised response’ to persons or institutions asking questions on and willing to set up/lead/ coordonate/evaluate… part or whole of a TVET system


D. How to be part of FAR Network (9/9)

No prerequisite…

Just ask to subscribe to FAR Newsletter

… but two levels of participation:

At individual level:

At countrylevel:

Prepare -and ask to be accompanied!- to:1. Organize concertation

between main stakeholders in FAR(government and ministerial departments,

farmers/professionals’ organisations, local/territorial authorities, learners and their parents, training centres and schools, etc.)

2. Draw a shared vision on development of agriculture

and the role of FAR in it3. Inventory the existing capacities

(“cartography of competencies”)


Thank you for your attention!

Contact: [email protected]

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