AgroParisTech in Africa: a renewed commitment
December 02 2024At the end of October and in mid-November, two AgroParisTech delegations, led by Laurent Buisson, Managing Director, and Marine Godaux, Director of International and European Relations, visited Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Morocco respectively. In line with AgroParisTech’s international strategy for 2030 and its 2022-2026 objectives and performance contract, these visits were an opportunity to build and strengthen academic relations, in both training and research, with key partners in the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. These cooperative ventures open up new opportunities for long-term mobility for AgroParisTech students and attract new international student profiles to our courses.
Renewed cooperation with Africa
AgroParisTech has for many years maintained strong links with a large number of African countries, thanks to the school’s focus on specific themes.
For example, the school :
- has held a double engineering degree with the Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT) since 2015 ;
- has been participating in the Agreenmob coordinated recruitment program with Senegalese partners as part of Agreenium since 2019;
- many of its students do internships there;
- hosts doctoral students and researchers through partnerships;
- some of our teaching and research staff give lectures at partner institutions (most recently at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nairobi, by Stéphanie Baumberger, in conjunction with the Global Bioeconomy Summit)
- a number of research projects are carried out jointly.
More specifically, entities such as the Water For All Chair, which has a profoundly pan-African vocation and held its most recent scientific meetings in Ghana, or the tripartite agreement to prepare the setting up of an Engineering complex at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, are all projects emblematic of AgroParisTech’s commitment. The establishment is also an associate member of the TSARA initiative (Transforming Food Systems and Agriculture through Research in Partnership with Africa). Teams such as the UFR Développement Agricole (Agricultural Development Research Unit), which receives support from the AFD for its work, carry out a wide range of training and research activities with African partners. However, it appears that institutional links need to be strengthened. AgroParisTech therefore intends to remedy this situation by setting up a number of reinforced cooperative ventures, paying particular attention to the reciprocity of exchanges and the need to integrate a research dimension into these partnerships.
AgroParisTech in Morocco
Mission carried out from October 28 to 31, 2024, AgroParisTech side: Marine Godaux, Safia Médiène (professor - SIAFEE), Alexandre Péry , director of research, innovation and technology transfer, and Sébastien Saint-Jean (lecturer - SIAFEE).
Background and objectives :
- strengthen relations with Morocco, a French-speaking country with a very high academic level;
- develop collaboration with the Université Polytechnique Mohammed VI (also known as UM6P), a new university player in Africa;
- relaunch relations with the Institut agronomique et vétérinaire Hassan II (IAV), following the signature of a framework agreement in 2024 and in the context of the preparation of a double-diploma agreement.
A visit to UM6P’s Ben Guerir campus led to the signing of a framework agreement in the presence of Bruno Gérard, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Among the many short- and medium-term avenues for collaboration discussed were the setting up of cotutelles (one is already underway with URD ABI), research projects - including in multiparty frameworks, student mobility (notably for research internships or joint fieldwork), as well as continuing education and innovation initiatives.
The visit to the IAV in Rabat is an opportunity to forge new links, particularly with the Agronomy Sector, and to consider extending the double-diploma agreement to new Master’s courses and the engineering curriculum. Opportunities for student mobility in both directions were also discussed, as were the setting up of cotutelles and joint responses to calls for proposals.
In line with the concomitant strengthening of France-Morocco diplomatic relations, this mission laid the foundations for a strengthened collaboration between AgroParisTech and Moroccan institutions, with promising prospects for the future.
AgroParisTech in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
Mission carried out from November 11 to 16 in the presence of Laurent Buisson, General Manager, and Jean-Antoine Faby, Director of the Water for All Chair.
Background and objectives:
- Build on pre-existing links, via the Water for All Chair and beyond, with these two countries to create broader partnerships offering a wide variety of possible activities (double-diploma, student mobility, integration into European projects, theses, etc.);
- strengthen ties with local stakeholders, such as meetings with ministries and embassies, and with local companies that can offer internships to our students, like the visit to the Touton chocolate factory in Accra (Ghana’s largest cocoa bean processing plant), the meeting with the Ivorian MEDEF, or the organization, for the first time, of an international DG-Alumni meeting, which took place in Abidjan on November 13. The latter was a great success, and will serve as a model for the organization of similar meetings in the future.
KNUST visit to Ghana
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is home to 85,000 students. It is one of Ghana’s leading universities, with numerous international partnerships. The university is one of the World Bank’s initiatives for the development of science and engineering in Africa. AgroParisTech collaborates with this institution within the framework of the NKABOM and FSPI NYANSAPO projects, supported by the French Embassy and managed by the Water for All Chair. The Chair’s 2024 scientific meetings were also organized in partnership with the RWESCK (Regional Center of Excellence for Water and Sanitation in Kumasi). KNUST is also an associate partner of our Erasmus Mundus FIPDes master’s program, with the aim of becoming a full partner and offering a Ghanaian specialization by 2026. Last but not least, KNUST was one of the first foreign universities to visit our new campus, scheduled to pay us a visit in autumn 2022.
The delegation was received at the highest level during this visit, in particular by the Vice-Chancellor and various Colleges. The shared wish is to amplify these collaborations and exchanges between the two establishments.
The INPHB visit to Côte d’Ivoire
The Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB) comprises engineering and business schools, and is a major technology hub in West Africa. Within this cluster, the Ecole Supérieure d’Agronomie in Yamoussoukro is AgroParisTech’s natural partner.
Since 2019, nine students from INP-HB have been enrolled in the engineering program.
The aim is to build on the existing wealth of these exchanges by signing a double-diploma agreement and opening up new mobility opportunities for AgroParisTech students. Other avenues of development were also discussed in the field of waste recovery. Finally, exchanges have also recently been initiated in the field of bio-based cosmetics.
The aim of this mission was to further consolidate the links between AgroParisTech and its African partners, while promoting student mobility, the creation of double degrees and research collaboration. The emphasis is on reciprocal partnerships and the attractiveness of international programs for students from both continents.