Building capacity of people and institutions to respond to the arthropod-related development needs of Africa has been a major commitment of icipe since its establishment, and the centre has a proud tradition and an excellent reputation as an incubator of some of Africa’s best young scientists. Building the capacity of people and institutions is achieved through:
- High-level training at postgraduate and postdoctoral levels to develop African scientific expertise and leadership;
- Institutional development by nurturing and strengthening of African research and development organisations and institutions;
- Dissemination of technologies to national agricultural and health research and extension systems through training.
Capacity building is deeply integrated into icipe’s R&D programmes. These span the whole continuum from basic strategic research to technology development and validation, and ultimately community-based adaptation and adoption. Hence, icipe's capacity building objectives at all levels are achieved as the Centre undertakes its core research work in fulfillment of its mandate.
A key focus of CB&ID is the training of a critical mass of young researchers from Africa in arthropod-related sciences at MSc, PhD and postdoctoral levels, through the African Regional Postgraduate Programme in Insect Science (ARPPIS), the Dissertation Research Internship Programme (DRIP) and the Postdoctoral Fellowship (PDF) programmes. This focus reflects icipe’s and NEPAD’s CAADP principles of building capacity to enable national and sub-regional R&D innovation systems to undertake their own R&D programmes and deliver on-the-ground impacts for Africa. icipe’s connection with graduates continues well after their formal training, by fostering cooperation and networking with its alumni for personal and institutional capacity strengthening.
icipe’s capacity building programme extends beyond the more formal science education. For many years, it has supported training and capacity building for those who facilitate the adaptation and adoption of new technologies. Capacity building is most commonly targeted towards the use of pest and disease vector control technologies through both public and private extension service providers, by providing training directly to farmers. The formal training programmes for adoption address issues across icipe’s four themes and training is mostly designed and delivered with national partners as an integral part of icipe’s portfolio of research. For example, icipe’s Plant Health Theme has contributed to improving nutrition and food security with a number of new technologies, and, as with other themes, the technologies are always developed with national, regional and international research partners and in consultation with farmers and rural communities to ensure an innovation is not only effective, but is also affordable by the end user, such as resource-poor smallholder farmers.
Donors: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); Department for International Development (DFID), UK; The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD); The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).