Prof. Sir Gordon Conway, a former President of the Rockefeller Foundation and a world-renowned advocate of food security has paid a day’s visit to the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) of the University of Ghana.
Sir Gordon, who is also a former Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department for International Development (DFID), UK, was instrumental in establishing the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He was accompanied by Dr. Aboubacar Toure and Dr. K. Makinde, Programme Officers of AGRA. The purpose of the visit, in Dr. Makinde’s words, was for Sir Gordon to “connect to WACCI and its students” and have first hand information of the Centre.
At a meeting with the management, administrative Staff and associate faculty of the Centre, Prof. Eric Danquah, Director of WACCI, expressed delight at Sir Gordon’s visit. In a presentation, Prof. Danquah walked Sir Conway through the genesis of WACCI which he described as a “model institution”. He said WACCI was inaugurated in 2008 to train a critical mass of plant breeders to accelerate a Green Revolution in West and Central Africa. Prof. Danquah highlighted that plant breeders for Africa must be trained in Africa, on African problems. Prof. Danquah said that while the 40 students being funded by AGRA are all expected to graduate by 2016, an additional 15 students, to be admitted from January 2013 under a WACCI Phase II programme will graduate by 2019. He expressed the need for additional funding to strengthen and expand WACCI as a sub-regional Centre of Excellence. Prof. Danquah called on Sir Gordon to be a “voice” for WACCI in its efforts to diversify sources of funding. He mentioned the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the DFID as potential donors.
In his response, Sir Gordon said he was impressed about WACCI’s innovative use of Visiting Scientists in its programme through modular teaching to train a new generation of plant breeders for the sub-region. Sir Conway said the training of Anglophones and Francophones was very important in the context of knowledge sharing and exchange of genetic resources in plant breeding. He called on the students to activate that networking process while at WACCI. Concerning funding, Sir Conway said his visit was to see AGRA’s programmes and support fund-raising efforts. He said he would share his report with donor institutions such as the World Bank, USAID, DFID, and other donors. He called on WACCI to educate more potential donors about its training programmes and funding needs. Sir Gordon donated three copies of his latest book, “Science and Innovation for Development”, co-authored by Prof. Jeff Waage, to WACCI.
The class captain of the fourth cohort of students, Ms. Perpetua Okoro, described the WACCI programme as a “total, interactive package” and called on Sir Gordon to support its efforts to diversify sources of funding.
Prof. Danquah thanked Sir Gordon for the visit and accompanied him on a tour of facilities at WACCI. Present at the meeting were Professors Jonathan Ayertey, Essie Blay, Frank Kumaga and Kwadwo Asante, and Dr. Charles The, Dr. Martin Yeboah, Dr. Edmund Darkwa and Dr. Naalamle Amissah, as well as the administrative staff and the fourth cohort of students at WACCI. At a reception after the meeting, Sir Gordon held discussions with the Provost of the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, University of Ghana, Prof. S.K. Offei.
Sir Prof. Gordon Conway is the founder of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, UK. He is currently Chair in International Development at the Centre.
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