“We train young people to fly on their own”, icipe DG at AFS Forum 2025 in Dakar
How can Africa harness the power of its youthful population to drive research, science, and innovation for a food-secure future?
This question took centre stage during the Africa Food Systems (AFS) Summit held in Senegal two weeks ago, where a special roundtable researchers’ forum explored the theme: “Education of Young Scientists: Attracting Youth to Research, Science, and Innovation.”
Recognizing Africa’s vibrant youth as the continent’s greatest asset, the forum zeroed in on practical strategies to engage young people in research, science, technology, and innovation (RSTI) — the very engines needed to transform Africa’s food systems and secure its future.
The forum explored concrete and actionable strategies to effectively draw young talent into the agri-food sector’s RSTI landscape.
A stand out panel discussions was on creating enabling environments, with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Director General Dr Abdou Tenkouano joining other distinguished panelists including; Mr Maram Kaire, Director, Senegalese Spatial Agency, Dr Jean Luc Chotte, Director of Research, Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and Dr Ginya Truitt Nakata, Global Director – Agriculture and Food Systems Policy, The Nature Conservancy.
Dr Tenkouano emphasized on the need to focus on the human dimension of attracting young people to science ‘breeding the minds to feed Africa’ and urged others to adopt the icipe model, a research centre that is deeply engaged in education and firmly rooted in development focus on the human dimension of attracting young people to science.
“icipe is a research centre that is fully immersed into education and has a foot in development. We have laboratories that have some of the latest equipment thanks to support from our donors. Next thing is to attract who is going to do the work – young Africans pursuing MSc or PhD,” Dr Tenkouano stated.
Dr Tenkouano highlighted that while icipe does not award degrees, it hosts students from various universities who undertake their research work at the centre, achieving an impressive 96% completion rate, with degrees conferred by their home institutions. He mentioned that at any given time there are about 150- 180 students at icipe.
“Then we also train them on how to raise funds so that when they graduate they are able to fly on their own – a model led by the African Ministers of Education – started by Senegal, Rwanda and Ethiopia – Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET). It has a programme called Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (Rsif),” he explained.
Dr Tenkouana cited the example of PASET Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (Rsif) which is managed by icipe. He explained that PASET Rsif is a model led by African Ministers of Education, initiated by Senegal, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Through Rsif, the initiative pools resources from partners such as the World Bank, Korea, and the EU, who together contribute about 53% of the funding, with the rest coming from 9 African governments – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senega and other development partners.
Rsif provides high-quality doctoral training and research opportunities at competitively selected African universities, fostering partnerships with international institutions to enhance research and innovation capacities.
On his part, Mr Kaire spoke on policy and governance and the need for coherent science, technology and innovation policies well aligned with the development priorities in health and food security. He also stated that the regulatory framework also needs to be favourable to protect IP and encourage experimenting.
He mentioned that Agence spatiale – put in place the infrastructure, Space Valley (like Silicon Valley). “It also includes – They also need laboratories already starting from high school level, maker space etc. Astronomy and astrophysics are areas of urgence.
Dr Jean Luc Chotte, Director of Research, Institute of Research for Development (IRD) shared examples of 50 post-doctoral scholarships in collaboration with research institutions.
Dr Ginya Truitt Nakata, Global Director – Agriculture and Food Systems Policy, The Nature Conservancy gave four points for enabling environment as policy alignment, funding with purpose, infrastructure, and access – as well as laboratories and finally collaboration where youth should be treated as today’s innovators not tomorrows.
Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Panel Member, Malabo Montpellier & Managing Director, Africa, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT who moderated the panel noted importance of the pipeline, strategic long-term investment, creation of opportunities and supporting local capacity through international partnerships.