On the occasion of the visit of a Wageningen UR mission to Ethiopia (17-20 January 2009), the Wageningen Alumni Office, jointly with Wageningen International and the Office of the Netherlands’ Agricultural Counsellor in Ethiopia, organised a reception and dinner party at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa on January 18, 2008.
Some 60 Wageningen Alumni, from Wageningen University, the Van Hall/Larenstein University of Professional Education and from IAC/CD&IC) met with the seven Mission Members and invited guests. The latter included the Netherlands’ Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. Alfons Hennekens and other key staff members of the Embassy, as well as representatives of the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and the Universities of Addis Ababa, Jimma, Mekelle and Haramaya). Also present were the Regional Representative of FAO and Netherlands’ entrepreneurs working in the agricultural sector in Ethiopia.
In November 2007 a high-level Ethiopian Agricultural Mission paid a visit to Wageningen UR with the aim to initiate a structural collaboration programme. Following a number of preparatory meetings in 2008, a return visit was now paid by Wageningen UR in January 2009. On the invitation of the Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, a number of potential collaboration areas were discussed, including Seed Supply Systems, Horticulture, Oilseeds, Natural Resource Management and Soil Fertility, Policy Advice and Capacity Development. This was done in a workshop at EIAR Headquarters on January 20. Representatives from four Ethiopian Universities (Univ of Addis Ababa, Mekelle, Jimma and Haramaya) took part in this workshop.
The outcome will form the basis for an MoU between Wageningen UR, EIAR and, initially, the four Universities concerned for long-term collaboration in agricultural research and capacity development. Some background information on the thematic areas of the collaboration programme is geven here.