Eighteen food systems leaders from Malawi and Tanzania were awarded certificates in the Advanced Leadership Programme for Africa’s Food Security and Sustainability upon graduating from the AGRA-led Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture’s (CALA) Advanced Leadership Programme in Lilongwe, Malawi
The leaders completed a 16-month training, designed to equip them with the practical leadership skills for effective implementation of national agriculture programmes prioritised in their respective countries. This was the third and final of three regional graduation ceremonies scheduled for CALA’s inaugural cohort of 80 delegates who were competitively selected from eight countries – Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria – for the 16-month programme last year.
"I am delighted by the delegates’ deployment of environmentally friendly practices, tools and techniques to solve for food systems challenges,” said Solomon Gyan Ansah, Director of Crops Services in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, during the first graduation ceremony held on 30 November 2022, in Accra, Ghana.
The second graduation ceremony for 32 delegates from Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Uganda was held on 7 December 2022, in Nairobi, Kenya, and was presided over by Philip Kello Harsama, Principal Secretary in the State Department for Crop Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
The last of the three scheduled graduation ceremonies was held in Lilongwe, Malawi on 24 January 2022 for 18 delegates, and was presided over by Rodwell Mzonde, Director of Planning Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Malawi. During the ceremony, the delegates presented results of their Action Learning Projects, a unique aspect of CALA’s leadership training. In Tanzania this included reducing poultry mortality rates by promoting cluster production systems and enhancing small-holders sesame farmers’ access to formal market channels in the southern regions of Tanzania. Malawi delegates also worked on facilitating the creation of structured markets in the honey value chain and improving the Legume Value Chain through an Assessment of the Legumes Platform operations in Malawi.
“One can’t be a leader in the agriculture sector unless they understand how the sector works. There is need for continuous sharing of ideas and support within the sector. CALA has empowered you as leaders to influence change and move the agriculture sector forward,” said AGRA’s President Agnes Kalibata.
The graduates join a growing continental network of leaders who have distinguished themselves advancing national food security goals.
For more information, visit: https://cala.agra.org/programme/cala-advanced-leadership-programme/
