Strengthening AET Leaders in Guinea

In the fall of 2013, Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteers worked with the USAID/Guinea Agriculture Education and Market Improvement Program (AEMIP) and faculty from the Institut Supérieur Agronomique Valéry Giscard d’Estaing de Faranah (ISAVF) to conduct an institutional assessment of ISAVF and to develop an action plan outlining important interventions to enable ISAVF to emerge as a center of excellence in agriculture education and training (AET).

A year later, ISAVF was able to put what they learned during the assessment process into practice, taking the lead to conduct institutional assessments and develop five-year action plans for four agricultural schools across the country. ISAVF selected four faculty to undertake the assessments as volunteers, working with the AEMIP Deputy Program Director, F2F Country Director, and a representative from the Ministry of Technical Education and Professional Training.

This process allowed ISAVF to build internal capacity and also expand its role as a leader and a partner in the collective efforts to strengthen AET in Guinea.

“The participation of ISAVF in the institutional evaluation of four agricultural technical schools allowed ISAVF faculty to develop important skills in institutional evaluations while strengthening understanding and partnership across agricultural education institutions.”   –Sara Bialo Diallo, Director General, ISAV/F  

The action plans for each of the four institutions were developed to address similar standards of governance, training, partnership, infrastructure, and gender integration that were identified in ISAVF’s own institutional evaluation and action plan. A similar evaluation process and action plan means that ISAVF can continue to play an influential role in institutional capacity building of these four institutions, as ISAVF itself continues to strengthen.

F2F is now supporting each of the participating AET organizations as they move forward with their action plans. We look forward to continuing to work with each of them!

[Want to help these organizations implement their action plans? — Check out www.winrock.org/opportunities for a list of open volunteer assignments!]