On 13 October 2008, AIT signed Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with
Ethiopia's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD). The
agreement underlines providing postgraduate studies opportunities at
AIT for staff members of MoARD as part of their capacity building
initiatives. The MoA was signed during the visit of Dr.
Mandefro Nigussie, Coordinator of Regional Capacity Building
Project (RCBP), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD),
Ethiopia. H.E. Dr. Abera Deresa, Minister of MoARD,
was involved directtly with this partnership and visited the institute
on August 2008.
Above from left: Dr. Pritam
K. Shrestha, Dr. Mandefro Nigussie,
Prof. Said Irandoust, Prof. Sudip Rakshit and Mr. Tenzin
Rabgyal
This agreement includes MoARD's provision of at least five (5)
doctoral scholarships in the Agricultural Systems and Engineering
(ASE), Food Engineering and Bioprocess Technology (FEBT), Gender and
Development Studies (GDS), Natural Resources Management (NRM), and
Regional and Rural Development Planning (RRDP) field of study at School
of Environment and Resources Development (SERD).
MoARD will also select staff members to study Master’s and Doctoral
Degree programs in other fields of study across AIT's three schools:
School of Engineering and Technology (SET), School of Environment,
Resources and Development (SERD) and School of Management (SOM). To
date, five applications for the incoming semester on January 2009 are
being processed by the institute's admissions office.
Discussions on strengthening the partnership in various issues were
also explored including capacity building support and the development
of short term trainings and study tours for MOARD executives covering
areas on project planning and training for trainers. A group of AIT
faculty have also been invited to visit MoARD in the near future.
“We would like to have a number of short term trainings for our staff
focusing on simple technology,” said Dr. Nigussie. MoARD also showed
great interest in the Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management
field of study.
Dr. Nigussie mentioned that MoARD is currently on the second phase of
a rural and capacity building project with the support of World Bank
and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Within the next
three years, MoARD will support 600 scholarships for Bachelor’s degrees
for their staff inside country. An additional 400 Master’s and 120
Doctoral scholarships will also be awarded for staff to engage in study
abroad especially India, South Africa, and Thailand and England. In
Thailand, MoARD selected three universities to send their staff to
which is comprised of the Asian Institute of Technology, Kasetsart
University and Mahidol University.
“I want to see and gain first hand experiences from the universities
so that we can fill up the gap between needs in our 127 districts under
our office and availability of program in Thailand,” added Dr.
Nigussie.
AIT President Said Irandoust informed Dr. Mandefro that the AIT
team will be visiting Africa early next year to explore and strengthen
the partnership with AIT’s partner countries in Africa such as South
Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Dr. Nigussie suggested AIT to
visit the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Ministry of Capacity
Building (MoCB), and Ethiopia Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR)
in Ethiopia. He added that it might also be beneficial to explore
academic cooperation with Addis Ababa University and Alemaya
University. The AIT ERCO office will liaison with MoARD in arranging
the meeting with the above ministries. He also suggested a visit to
Botswana as it is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.
Dr. Nigussie also met with the field coordinators of SERD and
visited the laboratories. He indicated his interest in SERD's
impressive programs due to their relevance to his projects.
MoARD website: http://www.moard.gov.et/English