Challenges and opportunities for regional capacity building for sustainable natural resource management and agricultural productivity under changing climate: A case of South Sudan

The East African region has an agricultural led economy and its population depends on natural resources for their livelihoods and development. Agricultural productivity and natural resources are however increasingly facing threats from the variable and changing climates, which is likely to negatively impact on development. In addition the countries of East African region are contending with a range of common development challenges notably natural resource degradation, decreasing agricultural productivity, rapid population growth and high poverty levels. These challenges have undermined efforts of governments to reduce poverty and improve human welfare. One of the key impediments to finding solutions to the above challenges is lack of sufficient human capacity with the right skills and mind-set to address national development challenges. Higher institutions of learning in East Africa are expected to contribute to the generation of solutions to obviate these challenges through supplying knowledgeable and multi-skilled graduates as well as providing evidence-based options to support formulation of interventions and friendly policies for accelerating national development. Most of the universities in East Africa are going through transformations geared at one major goal of responding innovatively to the national challenges and needs. Unfortunately, to be involved, the universities have to build their capacities in critical areas especially natural resource management and sustainable agriculture. In recognition of this fact, three universities in the south (University of Juba, Addis Ababa University and Makerere University) and one from the north (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) developed a project entitled “Regional Capacity Building for Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Agricultural Productivity under Changing Climate” (CAPSNAC). Recognising that the new state of South Sudan was in great need of capacity building as it was recovering from over two decades of conflict, and that the University of Juba had lost 50% of its staff to Sudan during the transition, the projects puts emphasis on University of Juba. This project, which is supported by NORAD, aims at taking advantage of the combined strength of the four universities to build human capacity of University of Juba in South Sudan. The goal of this regionally focused project is to increase the relevance of southern universities in addressing national and regional development challenges in environment, natural resource management and climate change, with special attention in the project given to the University of Juba. The overall goal is to enable the partner institutions to provide innovative teaching, learning, research and outreach services that are responsive to the needs of their clientele. This paper shares the achievements, challenges and opportunities of implementing a collaborative regional capacity building program in natural resource management and agricultural productivity. It also compares the CAPSNAC model with other models in the region used in regional capacity building programs and proposes “dos and don’ts” in regional capacity building programs.