Fostering Human Resources

Aiming to build its economy on the foundations of agriculture, Kenya requested Japan’s assistance to establish an institution of higher education for agricultural studies. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) responded with the help of universities in Japan by setting up an official development aid project to establish such an institution. The school started out as a college, then became an agricultural university and, in 1994, a composite university for both agriculture and technology. It held a grand 20th anniversary celebration in March this year.

The influential Kenyan broadcasting station, NTV, reports on the university’s history, roles and prospects. This program presents an example of human resource development as a case of international cooperation.

Unlike many African countries, Kenya does not have rich mineral resources. Except for some arid areas, however, it does possess rich soils and a long farming tradition. After independence, Kenya placed farming at the heart of national development and requested Japan’s help in nurturing the needed human resources. The aims were to produce a wide range of products, introduce efficient, modern farming methods and sell those products internationally as the country’s main industry.

Japan sent experts chiefly from Kyoto and other universities and helped in various ways to set up the educational institute. The comprehensive curriculum, teaching methods etc. of the new college were geared to nurturing new farming businesses that would fit local needs and with the vision, also, of enabling the college to grow into a full university in the course of time.

It has now been 20 years since that college eventually became the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and today its graduates are active in many fields of Kenyan farming. They have truly become leaders of Kenyan agriculture and industry.

The official development assistance has also performed a leading role in promoting joint ventures etc. with Japanese private sector corporations.

In these 20 years, JKUAT has become a core university for the African continent as a whole. Now, in close association with JICA, it is also aiming to serve as a center of African innovation suited to African needs.

The program provides a case study for considering the methods of human resource development as a particularly long-term category of international cooperation, perceiving that history and prospects through the eyes of the local media, and observing it as an example of international contribution by Japan.