The Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) Ghana has successfully signed a letter of cooperation with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) for domestication, data population and local management of the eCapacities platform.
The eCapacities platform will foster online collaborative and interactive engagement by African organizations on agribusiness, investment, human capital, and production data to promote policy design, targeted investments and monitoring and evaluation of growth in the agricultural sector based on the aspirations of the post-Malabo Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) Roadmap and Strategy; and the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A).
The primary objective of the eCapacities platform is to contribute to Level 3 of the post-Malabo CAADP Results Framework on strengthening systemic capacity for effective execution and delivery of results, specifically through enhanced knowledge support and skills development for agriculture through improved science & technology (S&T), education and training, peer learning, analytical capacity, and strategic thinking. The eCapacities platform will help countries to better engage with stakeholders and partners to foster strategic human capital formation in agriculture.
To achieve this in Ghana, FARA as part of the agreement has trained the working group of YPARD Ghana to equip them with the needed knowledge and understanding of the eCapacities platform. YPARD Ghana has the responsibility of linking institutions, organizations and graduate seekers to the platform for interaction.
For training providers like universities and tertiary agricultural colleges which serve as supply organizations of competences to workplaces, the eCapacities platform will serve as a tool to review the skills sets requested by workplaces, monitor the industry demand for specific agricultural skills in order to inform curriculum review and new course design, and promote competency-based training and learning.
The platform can be effectively used to promote knowledge products by faculty members, i.e. innovations, patents and publications; promote collaborative research engagements; track incoming and in-house students as well as graduates or alumni.
For workplaces like government agencies directly involved in the agricultural sector (ministries, research institutes); regulatory agencies (i.e. national science and technology agencies, commission for higher education); agro-industrial entities; NGOs and civil societies focusing on agriculture; farmers and farmer-based organizations; and other value chain actors, the eCapacities platform provides an end-to-end recruitment and selection tool, profiles of graduates in their region who have the relevant skills, and an inventory of the needs/problems experienced within the organization which will help inform the kinds of research being undertaken.
It also provides an inventoried existing human resource endowment of the organization in terms of age, qualifications, gender and other performance details which inform human resource planning and targeted capacity development.
For YPARD members who are mostly students and graduates/alumni, the eCapacities platform will provide the platform to browse, apply and access work, scholarship and fellowship opportunities; identify career paths based on market demand for specific skills.
It will also facilitate connection with mentors and peers to promote career progression and personal growth; facilitate industrial attachments or internship placements; and validation of competencies and skills.
Picture credit: eCapacities