Recoda Academy

Graduate Course

RECODA Academy targets to provide trainings in rural economic development facilitation skills so that other stakeholders establish and/or implement RIPAT minded projects. This is professional improvement opportunities to graduates to get proven skills and practices for poverty reduction, food security and environmental conservation to small scale farmers through community mobilization, sensitization, counseling, and capacity building to utilize available resources and opportunities for livelihoods improvements leading to self-reliance.

It is frustrating to a family which has spent most of their resources to educate their children who though graduated well but cannot tap abundant opportunities and secure reliable employment. One of the best ways to resolve such a problem is to prepare a unique tailor made courses for the final year students and graduates which among other things; will aim at sparking their consciousness and comprehend untapped potentials and help them become social entrepreneur.Lack of employment to graduates which is fundamentally the result of lack of competences (experience) and options will be broken and enable them to have a connection between acquired theory and practical orientation in joint RIPAT project implemented by World Vision Tanzania (WVT) and/or RECODA and other selected projects / programs

Course objectives.

Capacity building in practical skills to final year students and graduates from courses related with agricultural and Rural/community development so that they can be confident social-entrepreneur able for self employment and facilitators of economic development projects geared towards the improvement of livelihoods and resilience to small scale farmers.

Specific objectives

  • Extension related skills – Technology transfer (RIPAT)
  • Research and development related skills
  • Consultancy and advocacy related skills
  • Social entrepreneur related skills
  • Report writing and presentation related skills

Field Visits, Best Practices, Success Stories, Video Documentaries, Case Studies And Practical Sessions Shall Be Given Upper Considerations.

Required qualification for the graduates

  • Fresh University graduates (<5yrs since they graduated) from the course related with agriculture or rural/community development; those without any working experience are encouraged to apply.
  • Interest to work with rural communities at grassroots levels but also able to interact with professionals
  • Excellent communication skills in both English and Kiswahili language
  • Self-motivated, able to endure hardships and creative with strong problem solving skills.

Some Training Methodology

The key strategy is show how one can make farming attractive in terms of high returns per unit area and under reduced drudgery! Also exposing various experience from RIPAT projects will be drawn which have shown once farming has been established as a paying-off business, e.g. through banana production, OFSP, poultry, pig etc; anybody (women as well as men and even youths) become more interested in farming. It will be demonstrated on how such a transformation normally undertaken collectively; whereby RIPAT groups are an essential entry point, as help to self-help pave the pathways (spreading) of the technologies while good returns/profit become a driving force (demand driven). A well documented RIPAT step by step extension manual (Vesterager et al., 2013 – www.ripat.org) will be followed; with reference to the already established joint RECODA&WV Model/strategies and terminologies i.e.

Topics which are covered include

  • Introduction and important definitions in rural economic development
  • Community mobilization, sensitization and capacity building
  • Bridging technical gap.
  • Principles of carryout consultancies and facilitation skills
  • Conservation Agriculture and drought cycle management
  • Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
  • Project cycle management (PCM)
  • Imitating RIPAT approaches
  • Entrepreneurship skills and marketing agricultural produce

Extension Courses

To equip them with rural economic development facilitation skills so that they establish and/or implement RIPAT likeminded projects

RECODA has facilitated these courses:

Compassion International

Graduates from Sokoine University

World Vision Tanzania

Faraja Seminary and various organizations

Various ongoing RIPAT projects

Meru and Karatu district councils

Training Opportunities

The following training opportunities are offered at the RA department

  • Community mobilization, sensitization and capacity building – including group formation and development
  • Bridging technical gap – molding the innovation to suit different locality for ensured adoption and diffusion through respectively group/FFS plots, help to self help /solidarity chain andgood returns (market and profit) acts as entry point, pathways of the innovation and driving forces.
  • Conservation Agriculture and drought cycle management
  • Project cycle management (PCM)
  • Imitating RIPAT approaches – best practices, case studies, success stories, field visits and video documentaries
  • Social-entrepreneurship skills and marketing agricultural produces
  • Community savings and loans associations (VSLA).