Consultancy to prepare and launch a Call for Proposals for the SADC ICART Regional Training Programme

In the SADC region national research facilities that are capable of carrying out demand driven agricultural research are generally limited and the availability of trained research and extension staff inadequate. To facilitate the enhancement of regional agriculture research and training capacities, the SADC Member States developed a regional programme called ICART (the Implementation and Co-ordination of Agricultural Research & Training in the SADC Region). This programme is implemented by the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate (FANR) of the SADC Secretariat and is financed from the 9^th European Development Fund (EDF).

At the time this assignment was commissioned the ICART project had been experiencing a number of delays in launching project activities and to overcome some of the constraints the Regional Authorising Officer (RAO) for the EDF requested the European Commission to assist in the identification and recruitment of consultants to assist in the preparation of a Call for Proposals for the implementation of the SADC ICART Regional Training Programme.

In this respect the specific objective of the assignment was to assist the SADC Secretariat in establishing the ICART regional training programme (regional scholarship fund and development of teaching material) within the framework of the ICART project. This intervention led to the identification of entities for the management of the scholarship fund and the development of teaching material.