Training and capacity building in Southern Africa

IRD’s service dedicated to capacity building aims to promote the acquisition of such skills by the researchers, research teams and administrators of partner institutions. Its action follows a progressive approach and is based on a series of complementary programs. Three focal areas are developed, with different programs grouped together in each of them:

• Supporting individual training in research sectors,
• Promoting the formation of research teams and reinforcing their skills, autonomy and competitiveness in an international environment,
• Favouring the institutional development of the research environment in the South and its integration in the global research world.

Involvement in academic teaching

South Africa

• Within the framework of the ICEMASA lab, specialists lectures and tutorials in Physical Oceanography, Fisheries Oceanography, Plankton ecology in the 2 Marine/Ocean Masters of the University of Cape Town (~100 h per year since 2009)
• Within the framework of the ICEMASA lab, specialized schools and workshops in Ocean sciences (regional modeling, wave modeling, data quality control…), at the University of Cape Town
• Submission of an Erasmus+ project to develop a joint Masters in Ocean Sciences
• Training on scientific research writing: Mastering the research process in water related issues, from 4 to 6 September 2019, in Pretoria. Trainer: Vincent Chaplot, IRD LOCEAN. Funding: Water Research Commission
• Training: How to get your work published?, on 18 September 2019, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Pietermaritzburg. Trainer: Vincent Chaplot, IRD LOCEAN.

Zimbabwe

The main objective of the CAZCOM project is to strengthen the capacity of Zimbabwe for the surveillance and control of animal and zoonotic diseases of importance. Scientists from IRD, CIRAD and CNRS involved in this project will therefore focus on:

• Developing technical training in molecular biology for the staff of the project partners (University, Departments of the Ministry of Agriculture) but also in the private sector (veterinary and medical analysis laboratories);
• Developing Master level training modules in partnership with the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Zimbabwe and the Faculties of Biology of other universities;
• Updating existing masters' curricula of the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Zimbabwe in epidemiology, control of vector diseases and pathology.

Student's cosupervision

Capacity building is an important need in South Africa and more generally in Southern Africa or on the whole African Continent.
The identification of training activity by research is still ongoing by the IRD-CNRS-Cirad joint office in South Africa. The statistics below are hence likely incomplete.
Since 2008, IRD and Cirad Scientists co-supervised with their South African counterparts at least 46 PhD (24 female, 22 male). Among these 12 are South African, 26 are from Southern Africa, and 33 from Africa.
Over the same period, IRD and Cirad Scientists co-supervised with their South African counterparts at least 64 Master students (31 female, 33 male) including 26 South African, 37 students from Southern Africa and 42 students from Africa.