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The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) has launched the Collaborative Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) and Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE). The programme is rolled out annually in collaboration with the University of Pretoria, Republic of South Africa. The event which was officiated on a virtual platform by  Prof. Victor Murinde, the AERC Executive Director, took place on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

A total of 123 students are participating in the programme this year and the composition is  53 (43%) women. It is important to note that 70 of the 123 students from the seven (7) CMAAE-accredited departments will be attending the face-to-face session of the SFSE at the University of Pretoria (UP) beginning October 2024, alongside the (17) students who are drawn from the UP, the co-hosting institution. The remaining 37 students will attend the SFSE online from their home universities.  

The students are from the following CMAAE network universities: Egerton University, Kenya; University of Eswatini; Haramaya University, Ethiopia; Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Malawi; Makerere University, Uganda; University of Nairobi, Kenya; University of Pretoria, South Africa; Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania; Stellenbosch University in South Africa; and University of Zimbabwe.

These students are drawn from 17 African countries, namely: Botswana, Burundi, Djibouti, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Thirteen (13) Lecturers/Professors have been competitively recruited to teach the 13 elective courses being offered in this year’s SFSE.

While addressing the gathering, Prof. Murinde said “I note that this is the 19th Session of the annual CMAAE Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives, having had the first one in 2006. I thank the University of Pretoria for tirelessly hosting the physical SFSE from 2006-2019 and co-hosting the virtual SFSE with the AERC from 2020 to 2022, during the COVID 19 pandemic.”

He added that “in the post-COVID era, a new chapter of blended or hybrid delivery of the SFSE commenced in 2023, combining both virtual and face-to-face modalities. This too was co-hosted by AERC and the University of Pretoria and is being implemented again in 2024. We view this as the optimal delivery mechanism for our academic programmes, going forward.” 

This year, the purely virtual component runs between August and September, while the face-to-face/online SFSE session runs between October and November 2024.

Prof. Murinde also informed the students that the AERC will share more information with them on plans to partner with Mastercard and other institutions over the course of ten years to offer a total of 1000 scholarships in support for PhD academic programmes across Africa. The overarching aim of this programme is to foster empowerment among young individuals to evolve into transformative leaders capable of making contributions to both national and regional development endeavors. The scholarships will carter for 70% female students to compensate for their dwindling numbers. 

Briefing students about formal affiliation to AERC, Prof. Murinde said that plans are underway to institutionalize association so that all stakeholders are integrated. The AERC will have categories of membership including Affiliate (PhD and Master’s); Associate (Post Doctoral); Fellows (Resource Persons and those holding senior positions); as well as Emeritus Fellows (Retired Resource Persons). All the network members in the various categories will have an opportunity to identify with AERC in one way or another so they can have a skin in the game. 

During the launch of the SFSE 2024, the AERC seized the opportunity to recognize academic excellence and awarded the CMAAE Academic Advisory Board prizes to the best performing students. This happens every year. In this regard, the institution recognized the three (3) best performers in the 2023 SFSE as follows:

1. The Best Student: Mr. Moitlamo Ookeditse Mpinda, Egerton University
2. First Runners-up: Mr. Garai McDonald, University of Pretoria
3. Second Runners-up: Mr. Hanco Marais, University of Pretoria

The AERC Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives is a programme for centralized offering of a menu of elective courses to master’s students from CMAAE participating universities by internationally sourced visiting lecturers for an intensive duration of 3-4 months. The teaching of elective courses is delivered on a virtual platform through live or synchronous lectures via the Zoom platform and AERC’s Learning Management System (LMS), complemented by the AERC eLibrary and MyLoft where textbooks, reference journal articles and lecture materials/notes are easily accessible, and lecture recordings are made available for asynchronous access to lessons by students.