FARA is the apex organization for agricultural research for development in Africa. The FARA Secretariat is the lead institution for Pillar IV of NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which encompasses agricultural research and technology dissemination and adoption. FARA works closely with sub-regional organizations (SROs) and national agricultural research and extension systems to ensure effective implementation of CAADP activities. FARA is seeking to recruit a qualified individual to join its team as Social Media Intern.

Interview with Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba, from Zimbabwe, who works at the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) where she coordinates the Youth in Agriculture project. She also manages the Women Accessing Realigned Markets (WARM) project designed to strengthen the capacity of women farmers to influence agricultural policy development in Southern Africa.

"With a greater focus on value chains in recent years, there are now far more opportunities for young people to find rewarding careers in the food and farming sector. However, governments need to formulate policies that capitalise on the energy and entrepreneurship of the youth to successfully attract them to the sector."

CTA’s web2.0 training programme has sparked enormous interest across ACP countries. Organisations and individuals have shown themselves hungry to learn about social tools and platforms which can support their collaborative work, and how social media can be adapted to their particular contexts and needs. But which groups are the most enthusiastic adopters of web2.0 tools, and what impact does that adoption have, in terms of personal development, institutional changes, and new opportunities for beneficiaries in the context of development?

Up to 200 people from Africa are being recruited to participate in the first Annual Africa Youth Assembly. The goal is to ensure that at least two young people from every African country are represented at this event, all with direct experience in youth-led development, so their valuable perspectives and realities provide a new paradigm for Africa’s development.

About 25 young professionals, youth champions from ACP countries and partners from international organizations working on Youth in Agriculture and Rural Development were brought together by the CTA from 14th to 16th November 2012 in Wageningen, The Netherlands, to participate in its Strategic Youth Stakeholder Workshop.

The first part of the workshop consisted of different panels, whereby the objective was to learn from the partners.  To open the day, CTA presented key elements of its 2011-2015 Strategic Plan.

We are pleased to announce the names of the 15 finalists for the YoBloCo Awards – individual category, resulting from the voting process that took place from 5 to 31 December 2011. During this period, for the individual category, we received a total of 2214 votes, from 2080 people (voting for two blogs was possible) and more than 600 comments for the institutional category. This is a great outcome, and we would like to thank voters and everyone again for your support and your interest in this initiative.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), in collaboration with FARA, Yam-Pukri, CAFAN, AYF, ANAFE, SPC/PAFPNET is organizing the Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloCo Awards). This contest is launched in the framework of the ARDYIS initiative which aims to raise youth awareness and improve their capacity on agricultural and rural development issues in ACP countries using  Information Technology.

A Full Tuition Fee Scholarship is available for a student from Africa for the MSc in Crop Improvement at the School of Biosciences. You can apply for this scholarship if you - are a national of (or permanently domiciled in) Africa and - are classed as an overseas student for fee purposes and - already hold an offer to start a full-time Masters degree programme for the MSc in Crop Improvement at Nottingham in 2011.The closing date for applications is 6th April 2011.

For more information
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/internationaloffice/offer-holders/scholarships/msc-crop-imp-duke-portland-dev-sol.aspx