The JFE offers a rich menu of world-class elective courses at both Masters and PhD levels. These courses are regularly updated and bench-marked against leading international programmes world-wide. The courses are taught in a two-semester system for each elective field. To date, a total of twenty-three courses have been developed in the following elective fields. A few of these courses are now ably offered by network universities, having developed adequate capacity to do so over the years.

Transition to Digital Learning

From its inception, the JFE was strictly a residential programme, relying on face-to-face delivery of lectures at a campus in Nairobi. The inaugural class of JFE, comprising 58 students, was run in 1993 at the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Leadership Centre, located in the scenic suburb of Karen on the outskirts of Nairobi. The programme continued to be run annually at the same venue until 2010, when the JFE got a new home  at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies (KSMS), located in the Ruaraka area on the outskirts of Nairobi, about 15 kilometres from the city centre.  This remained the JFE venue until 2019.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a re-think in the way the JFE would be delivered henceforth, owing to the unprecedented disruption to learning in most of the CMAP and CPP network institutions in 2020.  The attendant restrictions on international travel and large-scale physical interaction meant that it was no longer possible to hold a residential JFE in Nairobi as had previously been the practice. Furthermore, there was need to broaden reach and enhance cost-effectiveness for long-term sustainability of the AERC training programme. Consequently, the AERC swiftly shifted to a virtual or online JFE. To facilitate online learning, the AERC commissioned teams of international experts, drawn from AERC network and other reputable institutions around the world, to develop teaching materials for the JFE elective fields. This was done in two phases, the first being completed by mid-2020 and prioritizing the electives to be offered in the inaugural virtual JFE, and the second by March 2021, incorporating all JFE elective courses as well as the core fields of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Quantitative Methods that are typically taught at the respective universities as a prerequisite to admission into the JFE. The entire process was undertaken with a lot of rigour, with leading external reviewers providing objective, expert input and international benchmarking. 

Notwithstanding some teething challenges, mainly related to power and Internet connectivity, online CMAP-CPP JFE has been successfully implemented, paving the way for subsequent sessions of the JFE to be delivered either fully virtually or in a blended manner, combining face-to-face and online modes of delivery.

The Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE)

The Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE) is an annual convergence of the Collaborative Masters in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) programme students from the eight accredited universities at a centralized facility to jointly undertake elective courses. 

During the third semester covering four months (August – November), students from all the accredited universities converge at the SFSE to undertake foundation and elective courses by visiting professors drawn from all over the world. The CMAAE programme offers upto 20 elective courses under four specialization areas. The wide range of areas of specialization and the large number of elective courses on offer allows students access to electives that would not be available in their host universities, thus achieving economies of scale- no single university can mount such a wide range of specialization options and elective courses.

Each student is expected to take one foundation course in his/her chosen field of specialization from the following four areas: Agribusiness Management, Agricultural and Rural Development, Agricultural Policy and Trade and Environmental and Natural Resource Management. In addition, a student takes one common course and at least one elective course in the specific cluster or area of specialization. A fourth course can be taken from any of the other specialization areas. The approved CMAAE elective courses from which selections are made are listed below.

History of the SFSE and Emerging Trends

The first cohort of students of the CMAAE was admitted to the then 5 accredited universities in 2005. Following the CMAAE programme structure, they undertook their core courses in the host universities in 2005 and converged at the Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE) at the University of Pretoria to undertake their elective courses in 2006. 

Since then, and until 2019, the University of Pretoria has consistently been evaluated as the best venue to host the face-to-face SFSE. However, since the advent of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020, the AERC, in collaboration with the University of Pretoria has run the SFSE virtually via a combination of the AERC Moodle Learning Management System AERC e-Learning Platform (aercafrica.org) and the University of Pretoria ClickUP Blackboard system and related accessories including the AERC eLibrary. 

The SFSE enrollment has also steadily grown from 46 in 2006 to a high of 117 in 2020 due largely to the removal of the capping of SFSE students to 10 per participating university. This was made possible by the online delivery of courses. On gender, the composition of the SFSE has remainde at an average of 37% female over the years with a high of 44% in 2011 and a low of 22% in 2007.

Distribution of Students by Gender at the SFSE: 2006 to 2021

Cohort of Students	Totals	Male	Female	% Female
2020/2021	101	66	35	35%
2019/2020	117	67	50	43%
2018/2019	100	62	38	38%
2017/2018	85	51	34	40%
2016/2017	81	49	32	40%
2015/2016	82	54	28	35%
2014/2015	85	46	39	46%
2013/2014	82	47	35	43%
2012/ 2013	68	43	25	37%
2011/2012	85	55	30	35%
2010/2011	91	51	40	44%
2009/2010	67	42	25	37%
2008/2009	78	54	24	30.1%
2007/2008	53	31	22	42.3%
2006/2007	46	36	10	21.74%
2005/2006	56	39	17	30.36%

 

Since 2012, the CMAAE Academic Advisory Board established an academic board award to the best performing SFSE student every year which comprises of a plaque, a certificate of achievement and a cash token. An interesting observation is that seven out of the 9 best performing students (77.7%) are female. It was only in 2016 and 2017 when the best performing students were male from Egerton University and the univesity of nairobi, respectively (see table).

 Best Performing Students, SFSE 2012-2020