Jean-Marcel Ribaut, Fred Okono and Ndeye Ndack Diop

Tropical Soybean for Development Workshop Meeting

28th October 2014 Washington DC, USA

Capacity Building: Gain or Drain?

GCP in brief ♦ A CGIAR Challenge Programme hosted at CIMMYT ♦ 10-year framework: 2004–2013, with 2014 as the closing year ♦ Budget: USD170 million over 11 years

♦ Major donors: BMGF, CGIAR Consortium, DFID, EC, SDC, USAID, WB

♦ Target regions: drought-prone environments ♦ Sub-Saharan Africa, South & Southeast Asia, Latin America

♦ Eighteen CGIAR mandate crops in Phase I ♦ Nine CGIAR mandate crops in Phase II

♦ Cereals: maize, rice, sorghum, wheat, ♦ Legumes: beans, chickpeas, cowpeas, groundnuts ♦ Roots and tubers: cassava

Strategic objective: To use genetic diversity and advanced plant science to improve crops for greater food security in the developing world

GCP: A broker in plant science bridging the gap between upstream and applied science

www.generationcp.org

Our discussion today:

♦ Some approaches

♦ IB–MYC: an attractive model

♦ Tackling brain-drain

♦ Access to technology

♦ Challenges

♦ Perspectives and conclusions

Some Approaches

More ‘classic’: ♦ Formal postgraduate training programmes

♦ MSc and PhD students whose fieldwork is embedded in research projects ♦ Workshops, fellowships, travel grants ♦ Train the trainers for future regionalised capacity-building sustainability ♦ Communities of practice

♦ Project-based: Rice in the Mekong; Cassava in Africa ♦ Social-media-based: IBP-hosted (both crop- and expertise-based)

Perhaps less common: ♦ CB à la carte ♦ Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course: breeding, data management, data

analysis ♦ CB along the delivery chain (scientists, technicians, station managers) ♦ Technical support for infrastructure implementation ♦ Some thoughts on whom to train

♦ Cross-generational expertise

Different Options (GCP experience)

The Approach ♦ Call for small grants (up to USD 10K) ♦ Embedded in other research activities ♦ Financial and technical support for breeders in developing countries

to access molecular marker technology ♦ Access to cost-efficient outsourced genotyping services (LGC, 32m

data points) ♦ Training in experimental design and data analysis for diversity

analyses and molecular breeding

Impact ♦ Total about 173 projects funded; 234,000 SSR data and 3,885,000

SNP data generated, representing 18 crops for teams working in 35 countries

♦ Most services on germplasm characterisation, QTL mapping, BC and marker-assisted breeding

The Genotyping Support Service

IB–MYC: an attractive model

Eastern & Southern Africa – West and Central Africa – South & Southeast Asia

YEAR 1

MB project Initiation Intro to some MB approaches

Field data analysis Mgnt of breeding data Field trial Mgnt system Trainees community

YEAR 2

Updates on tools of year1 Adv molecular analysis

Genotypic data Mgnt system Marker–trait associations

Tools for MTA Trainees community

YEAR 3

Updates on tools of year1s&2 Configurable workflow

Genetic diversity analysis Association mapping

Partner specific projects Trainees community

WUR team, DM CoP & other technical trainers

Specific training: Local level

Specific Language Different level:

Technicians

Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course (IB–MYC)

ESA WCA SSEA

It is required that trainees successfully complete the following assignments:

♦ Data management: The trainees must be able to properly identify and curate their own germplasm in the database, generate a fieldbook, save the phenotyping data to the database and use the tablet for data collection (field or lab)

♦ Statistics: The trainees choose a completed experiment for which they have data, and write a report including details such as the design used, physical layout, type of analysis applied and the conclusions

♦ Molecular breeding: The trainees write a brief plan of their project. If the work is in progress, they must include what steps have been completed and the planned next steps. Use IBP tools to carry out their MB projects.

Trainee evaluation: quality assignment to stay on board

IB–MYC trainees 2012 170 breeders; 10 crops; 31 countries

Trainees are tomorrow’s partners ♦ Training not only about knowledge per se!

♦ It promotes the development of a true CoP, with a strong team spirit: after 3 courses of 2 weeks each, they know each other well!

♦ Establish the basis for sustainable adoption of the technology

♦ Trainees become: ♦ Trainers (knowledge dissemination)

♦ Mentors (helping others)

♦ Champions (testimony)

♦ Ambassadors (promotion)

Needs to be adjusted to crop cycle, every six months?

IB–MYC is a good model for implementation at the regional level

Avoiding brain-drain

1990 2000 Total African labour force (in thousands) 227,338 298,112 Total African skilled labour (in thousands) 5,842 11,896 Percentage of skilled labour to total labour force 3% 4% Total emigrants from Africa (in thousands) 2,911 4,497 Skilled emigrants from Africa (in thousands) 652 1,388 Percentage of skilled emigrants to total immigrants 22% 31% % of skilled immigrants to the total skilled labour force 10.0 % 10.4 %

10 of Africa’s 53 countries have lost more than 35% of their tertiary-educated labour force, suffering massive brain-drain:

Cape Verde 68% Gambia 63% Seychelles 56% Mauritius 56% Sierra Leone 53% Ghana 47% Mozambique 45% Liberia 45% Kenya 38% Uganda 36%

Emigration rates for skilled people from Africa

Extracted from Marfouk, A. 2007, ‘The African brain-drain: Scope and determinants’ https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/13586/1/dul- 0071.pdf

♦ Public sector losing staff to the private sector and international institutions in-country : ♦ Better terms of service ♦ Better facilities and other work resources ♦ Opportunity to directly benefit from work results, e.g. commecialised

varieties ♦ Opportunities for international work in overseas branches

♦ Developing nations losing scientists to the developed world ♦ All of the above! ♦ Opportunities for cutting-edge science ♦ Opportunities for personal recognition – e.g. publications in journals ♦ Opportunities for interaction with ‘professional heavy-weights’ ♦ Opportunities for continuing education, professional development

Brain-drain is inevitable, so long as a disequilibrium exists between the public and private sectors, and between developing and developed countries. Can only be mitigated, not eliminated.

The situation: Brain-drain at 2 Levels

♦ Employment policy measures ♦ Enhanced terms of service, including increased salaries ♦ Contracts requiring minimum periods of service post-training

♦ Creative alternatives ♦ Negotiated ‘circular migration’ which would also bring new skills and

knowledge – professional exchange programmes ♦ Policies to attract native professionals working overseas –

controversial!

♦ Potential institutional measures ♦ Improved facilities ♦ Capacity to do and participate in exciting projects ♦ Partnerships with institutions overseas with tangible benefits to staff

♦ Mid-term strategic changes ♦ Greater investment in agricultural research directly through NARS ♦ Accelerated national economic development – ‘reverse brain-drain’ ♦ Home-country training to replace those that leave

Mitigating brain-drain

CB Goes with Access to Technology: the Integrated Breeding Platform

Experience

IBP’s overall objective

To improve the efficiency of plant-breeding programmes in developing countries by enabling

plant breeders to access modern breeding technologies, services, breeding materials and

related information in a centralised, integrated and practical manner

IBP encourages collaborations and the formation of multifunctional teams to accelerate creation and delivery of new varieties to improve food security

www.integratedbreeding.net

GIS

Historical data

(CGIAR/NARS)

Crop Ontology

Crop info

Phenotyping DB

Breeding Services

Geno/Pheno

Genotyping DB

BMS

Predictive markers Crop Simple traits

Atlas

Capacity building

E-learning

Communities of Practice

Social network

Forum Problem solving

Professional and Technical Support Service: Central team and Regional Hubs

Protocols

Access to germplasm and genetic resources

Manuals Tutorials

DM good practice policy

DB Breeding information Services Info/Knowledge

Courses

IBP: components and products

Dissemination of knowledge using IBP ♦ Develop a self-contained manual and tutorials for IBP tools

♦ Tutorial to be embedded in the tools, each step linked to video, related e-learning material, quiz, case studies

♦ Provide access to relevant learning material: ♦ Support material in an e-learning format (PBTN – UNL

http://passel.unl.edu/communities/ibp)

♦ Create ready-to-use modules with related training materials and quizzes, customisable depending on the audience

♦ Curriculum for breeders with BMS as the means of implementation

♦ One-stop user access to: ♦ Academic courses, tutorials, manuals

♦ Tools and services to put the knowledge in practice

♦ Social networks of peers (question–answer, advice forum)

Integrated approach: learning as you go

Main objectives: ♦ Develop the tools to make the adoption of BMS by

Soybean breeders possible: ♦ Establish a soybean database (done) ♦ Establish a crop ontology (done) ♦ Establish a FieldBook template (done) ♦ Facilitate a soybean Community of Practice (emerging)

♦ Support BMS implementation in African teams ♦ Build a project database with germplasm and phenotyping data ♦ Train African partners on using the BMS ♦ Provide the team with electronic data-capture devices ♦ Provide technical/professional support to the team to facilitate

and accelerate BMS adoption

Bringing soybeans on board: The USAID SIL project

IITA is a regional hub for BMS

Soybean trait dictionary for BMS fieldbook

81 breeding traits with methods & scales Each term has a unique identifier Each term has a definition Each measurement method has a description

and a scale

A list of most frequently measured traits by breeders in Africa, with input from other breeding communities (e.g. CG Center, NARS, US Universities and private sector)

Challenges

Postgraduate training ♦ MSc Level

♦ Gates Initiative: MSc Training in Cultivar Development (ISU, KNUST, Makerere University, UKZN)

♦ PhD level ♦ African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) ♦ West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) ♦ Plant Breeding Knowledge Alliance (European initiative, under development)

Continuing education ♦ Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course (IB–MYC) ♦ African Plant Breeding Academy ♦ One Agriculture–One Science: A Global Education Consortium ♦ Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) a G20/FAO initiative ♦ Capacity.org: an UNDP initiative ♦ Joint FAO/IAEA Programme etc.

Many, (too many?) initiatives….

♦ F2F versus on-line/remote teaching? ♦ An open question…..

♦ Inside or outside of the research framework? ♦ Definitely in, based on the GCP experience, but supported by transparent

trainee-selection processes

♦ Where to invest: Human resources vs infrastructure and/or access to technology? ♦ Really a case by case answer

♦ Courses: Free or fees? ♦ Free is not good, at least some contribution should be requested

♦ How to maximise investments? ♦ One size doesn’t fit all, but no need for individual ‘shirts’ and team colours

♦ How to promote true partnership? ♦ Mix of competitive vs commissioned projects, build on champions

♦ How to promote leadership transfer ♦ Not everybody necessarily wants to become a leader…

Issues around CB

♦ Technology development is the easier part of the equation! ♦ Changing people’s behaviour is the real challenge ♦ Most people are reluctant or resistant to change ♦ Even where there are clear and demonstrable benefits from

making a change, this alone is not sufficient incentive ♦ Most changes can be implemented only by:

♦ Strong bottom-up demand ♦ Mandatory top-down decision

♦ The establishment of reliable, preferably locally based, support services is critical for adoption

♦ Enforcement and implementation ♦ Big difference between the private and public sector

Disconnect between CB and technology adoption

Central Support Team: Managers plus specialists

DB/DM BMS CB

Breeding

BMS Sustainable Support Service

BMS Adoption: 3 teams Customized and punctual support

Conclusions

Take-home message ♦ CB conducted in an isolated mode away from research is of little value ♦ Autodidactic approach through e-learning material is expanding and

represents a sustainable way for knowledge dissemination ♦ Today the relevance of CB on technology per se, and even data

analysis, is decreasing – outsourcing to specialist service providers ♦ Rather, CB should focus on strategic approaches, adoption of good

practice, data interpretation and problem-solving ♦ CB must link with access to modern technologies, tools and services

to put knowledge into practice ♦ Brain-drain is reduced if scientists can conduct exciting research and

be part of international effort ♦ The community-networking element is also key to retain skilled people ♦ There is a clear need to optimise and maximise CB in developing

countries through better coordination of ongoing efforts!

In this context the learning-by-doing concept appears to be a promising and sustainable approach!

Thank you! Thank you!