Within the context of the further scaling up of the Science Agenda, the Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP), a development platform and think tank in Northern Nigeria, will partner with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in strategic areas of agricultural research and capacity development. During a courtesy visit on FARA’s Executive Director, Dr Yemi Akinbamijo, ARDP’s convener, Dr. Usman Bugaje expressed the think tank’s commitment to consolidating the gains of the ARDP-FARA partnership which began in 2018. It would be recalled that the Holistic Empowerment for Livelihoods Program (HELP) strategy was launched by FARA in partnership with ARDP in Kaduna in August 2018, during a capacity development workshop supported by the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and Jigawa State Government of Nigeria. HELP is a holistic model driven by global partnership for strengthening strategic human capital formation, Agricultural Knowledge & Innovation System (AKIS) and Agripreneurship to deliver livelihood by leveraging on South-South & Triangular Cooperation (SSTC).
In the context of HELP, ARDP will be mobilizing its partners, including governors, universities, research institutes and private sector, to leverage on FARA’s network of experts, initiatives and tools. In particular, ARDP will galvanize key partners to take advantage of the capacity development opportunities offered by FARA’s Agricultural Research and Innovation for Africa (ARIFA) initiative, which aims to train at least 5,000 Africans in the context of the SSTC. The Brazilian complement of ARIFA will be launched on the 12th of November 2019 on the margins of the 7th Brazil-Africa Forum. Under this scheme, FARA will be supporting a cohort of 181 fellows to pursue Master’s degrees and short training courses in Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Brazil beginning in 2020.