Presentation by Nienke Beintema at the event, “2013 AAEA & CAES Joint Annual Meeting” which took place on August 4-6, 2013 in Washington, DC. It offers AAEA members, CAES members, and other applied economists a chance to interact and learn over the course of the three day meeting.

1. 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 Beintema
ASTI program head | International Food Policy Research Institute

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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
SharesofFTEresearchers(%)
BSc MSc PhD
Source: Beintema and Stads 2011.

8. 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 Death
Resignation Transfer/leave
Sharesofdepartedresearchers(%)
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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. Recommendations
• Halt the prevailing high turnover of agricultural
scientists 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

12. THANK YOU