Professor Elvis Asare Bediako (Dean School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast), Professor Livingstone Sam Amoah (Provost, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast), Appiah Kwaku Boateng (Executive Director of 4-H Ghana) and John Romo (Director of Programs in West Africa, AgriCorps) at memorandum of understanding signing. Photo: AgriCorps.

Every international development project that works on human and institutional capacity development tries to plant seeds of change. The USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation for Agricultural Training and Education (InnovATE) project has recently seen one of its seeds grow into increased agricultural educational opportunities for youth in Ghana and Liberia through a found partnership with AgriCorps.

RUFORUM Side Event—The Seed Sown

The proverbial sowing of the seed was a side event at the Biennial Conference of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in South Africa in October 2016. The event was titled, “Positive Youth Development and Experiential Learning in University Outreach.” InnovATE brought together 4-H and university leaders from Ghana, Liberia, Senegal and Tanzania. The presentations emphasized opportunities for university faculty members to provide agricultural technical guidance and experiential learning programs for community engagement of rural youth by 4-H. Continue reading >