wfn.org | UMNS# 019-Africa University partners with Chevron, Angolan university

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Africa University partners with Chevron, Angolan university

Jan. 12, 2006

NOTE: Photographs are available.

By Lara Langlois and Andra Stevens*

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - United Methodist-related Africa University is
joining forces with Chevron Corp. in an initiative to help with the
reconstruction and development of Angola.

The $1 million capacity-strengthening effort focuses on revitalizing a
once-thriving agricultural zone, Huambo Province in Central Angola, by
encouraging entrepreneurship to boost incomes and improve livelihoods.
Its nucleus is Agostinho Neto University, Angola's oldest and largest
higher-education institution, and that school's Faculty of Agricultural
Sciences, based in Huambo.

Beginning in February or March, Africa University will offer
professional training for students and staff of Agostinho Neto
University's Faculty of Agricultural Science.  Africa University will
also help its Angolan counterpart establish English language instruction
centers and livestock and crop production units in Angola.

"Each year, we see the dream of this institution coming into fuller
realization," said Rukudzo Murapa, Africa University's vice chancellor.
"This project is a huge challenge for Africa University. ... It goes to
the heart of what this institution is all about: looking for skills gaps
wherever they are on the continent, offering relevant training, research
and service, and equipping African communities to prosper. That's what
we're set to do in Angola."

Chevron brought the two universities together. Officials exchanged
visits last fall, and talks began around replicating successful Africa
University programs and projects - including English as Second Language
training as well as mushroom, dairy and poultry production - at the
Huambo campus.

According to Mamadou Beye, project coordinator for Chevron's Angola
Partnership Initiative, management from the Angolan school toured
several universities in America and Europe before opting for Africa
University.

"The decision to partner with Africa University was based on the quality
of the university, the quality of its staff, the integrity, and the
ingenuity the staff is using to make every dollar highly productive,"
Beye said.

Chevron is underwriting the collaboration between the two institutions.
The effort is part of the company's ongoing Angola Partnership
Initiative, launched in November 2002. It has raised more than US$50
million in public and private financing, with US$25 million from Chevron
alone. The initiative aims to build Angola's human capacity so that
communities enjoy greater economic stability and improved quality of
life.

Three years after the end of a lengthy civil war, Angola is poised to
exploit its rich potential, but it faces critical challenges. The
revitalization effort centered at Agostinho Neto University represents
much of the nation's struggle in microcosm.

The school's Faculty of Agricultural Sciences shut down operations in
1992 due to the ravages of war and only reopened in May 2003.
Bullet-ridden and roofless buildings are still the norm. At night,
students can be seen coming out of buildings to study by the light of
street lamps.

A formerly prosperous 2,000-hectare university farm, with its impressive
glass greenhouses, is significantly underused.

Nonetheless, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences' potential for
contributing to prosperity in Huambo is evident, says Ernest Muzorewa,
who led an Africa University assessment team on a visit to the project
site last November.

Arable land is abundant, and before Angola's 27-year civil war, the area
was considered the country's breadbasket. The climate supports a range
of commercial crops, and the people display "a spirit to achieve,"
according to members of the Africa University assessment team.

But war drove local farmers from the fields. Three-quarters of the
province's population fled in search of refuge. The agriculture that
once fed wealth in Huambo died because of landmines and displacement.

Africa University can provide what the school lacks: access to highly
developed and successful agricultural operations, first-rate training of
technical staff, as well as programs that will teach the most essential
English skills to students.

A twofold approach is envisioned for the agriculture-related training.
First, staff and students from operations in Huambo will get field
exposure in Zimbabwe. Then they will "learn by doing" in new production
units that Africa University will assist the Faculty of Agricultural
Sciences at Huambo in setting up and managing over the course of the
next two years.

In a country where the main investors are Western, English-language
skills enhance job opportunities. Africa University will begin offering
English as a Second Language courses for Faculty of Agricultural
Sciences graduates and others in February, first in Huambo and later in
Angola's capital, Luanda.

"If this partnership succeeds, Angolan professionals will emerge from
its various activities better equipped to meet the new and evolving
needs of their nation," said Jennifer Muzamindo, coordinator of the
English Unit in Africa University's Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences and a member of the assessment team that visited the Huambo
university.

Expertise to deliver collaborative activities will be drawn from across
Africa University's academic units. Crucial input will come from the
agriculture faculty and Africa University's Entrepreneurial Business
Development Centre, set up with assistance from Kalamazoo (Mich.)
College in the United States. In addition, roles have been identified
for the business school, peace and governance institute, and humanities
faculty.

Chevron expects to see tangible improvement in the overall capacity and
capability of Africa University and Agostinho Neto University as well as
enhanced knowledge, skills and experience for students and staff through
cross-cultural learning, research, exchange and attachment programs.

"I believe that this public private partnership can yield tremendous
benefit and make the South-South cooperation even more meaningful and
Africa Renaissance more tangible," Beye said.

United Methodist-related Africa University is a pan-African institution
based in Mutare. It offers undergraduate and post-graduate training in
agriculture, business, education, health sciences, humanities and social
sciences, peace, leadership and governance and theology. Launched as the
first private university in Zimbabwe in 1992, it has a student body of
more than 1,200 students from 16 African countries.

*Langlois is volunteer staff and Stevens is director of the Information
& Public Affairs Office at United Methodist-related Africa University.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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