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

THANK YOU