The Joint Facility for Electives (JFE) is an intensive three-four months graduate training programme for elective courses in Economics, which is conducted by the AERC annually at a residential facility or virtually, to serve both the Collaborative Master’s Programme (CMAP) and the Collaborative PhD Programme (CPP) in consecutive or concurrent sessions. The JFE programme presents high quality elective curriculum courses that are generally beyond the capacity or existing demand of the individual participating universities. The curriculum for each of the JFE elective fields is regularly reviewed and updated by teams of international experts or subject specialists to ensure that it remains current and in line with global standards. The essence of the JFE is to ensure that the Master’s and PhD programmes’ high standards are maintained, as well as to bring students and faculty together in a mutually-enriching environment that not only opens up life-long networking opportunities, but also facilitates pooling of human and other resources in a cost-effective and efficient manner. As the executing agency, the AERC is responsible for all resource mobilization, logistical and contractual arrangements for the JFE, for and on behalf of the network of the collaborating universities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Even after a quarter century of existence, the JFE has not lost its lustre, and it continues to be highly rated among training initiatives on the African continent and beyond. The depth of coverage, quality of the learning materials and delivery by highly skilled, internationally recruited faculty, makes the JFE a trailblazer in human capacity building. It also differentiates CMAP and CPP products from all others in the region and elsewhere in the world. It is no wonder then, that the JFE is recognized by faculty, graduates and independent evaluators as the single, most important contributor to the distinctiveness and high quality of the CMAP and CPP degrees. The programme is intensive and fast-paced, with a distinctive focus on quality in academic teaching that helps to produce a cadre of highly qualified graduates who are absorbed in academic, research or policy-making positions in public and private sectors in their home countries. The diversity of lecturers, the conducive learning environment and the supportive networking between students, faculty members and the AERC Secretariat result in a uniquely powerful learning experience. 

To date, the JFE has produced over 2,700 CMAP and 280 CPP alumni, with the requisite capacity and competencies to conduct economic policy research and graduate training at an advanced level. Over 1,000 of these alumni are engaged in relevant, research and policy-making institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, while many of them have been retained in academia, mainly in the AERC network universities. Moreover, between thirty and fifty percent of the JFE faculty in any given year are CMAP and/or CPP alumni, a poignant indication that the AERC graduate programmes have come of age. (insert link to alumni testimonials, both JFE faculty and students)

The JFE offers a rich menu of world-class elective courses at both Masters and PhD levels. These courses are regularly updated and bench-marked against leading international programmes world-wide. The courses are taught in a two-semester system for each elective field. To date, a total of twenty-three courses have been developed in the following elective fields. A few of these courses are now ably offered by network universities, having developed adequate capacity to do so over the years.

CMAP  CPP
  1. Agricultural Economics
  2. Econometrics Theory and Practice
  3. Environmental Economics
  4. Financial Economics 
  5. Game Theory and Information Economics
  6. Health Economics
  7. Industrial Economics
  8. International Economics 
  9. Labour Economics 
  10. Managerial Economics
  11. Monetary Theory and Practice
  12. Public Sector Economics
    1. Agricultural Economics
    2. Development Economics
    3. Econometrics
    4. Environmental Economics 
    5. Financial Economics
    6. Health Economics
    7. International Economics 
    8. Labour Economics
    9. Monetary Economics
    10. Public Sector Economics
  • Research Methods and Computer Applications (Non-Elective)

Transition to Digital Learning

From its inception, the JFE was strictly a residential programme, relying on face-to-face delivery of lectures at a campus in Nairobi. The inaugural class of JFE, comprising 58 students, was run in 1993 at the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Leadership Centre, located in the scenic suburb of Karen on the outskirts of Nairobi. The programme continued to be run annually at the same venue until 2010, when the JFE got a new home  at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies (KSMS), located in the Ruaraka area on the outskirts of Nairobi, about 15 kilometres from the city centre.  This remained the JFE venue until 2019.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a re-think in the way the JFE would be delivered henceforth, owing to the unprecedented disruption to learning in most of the CMAP and CPP network institutions in 2020.  The attendant restrictions on international travel and large-scale physical interaction meant that it was no longer possible to hold a residential JFE in Nairobi as had previously been the practice. Furthermore, there was need to broaden reach and enhance cost-effectiveness for long-term sustainability of the AERC training programme. Consequently, the AERC swiftly shifted to a virtual or online JFE. To facilitate online learning, the AERC commissioned teams of international experts, drawn from AERC network and other reputable institutions around the world, to develop teaching materials for the JFE elective fields. This was done in two phases, the first being completed by mid-2020 and prioritizing the electives to be offered in the inaugural virtual JFE, and the second by March 2021, incorporating all JFE elective courses as well as the core fields of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Quantitative Methods that are typically taught at the respective universities as a prerequisite to admission into the JFE. The entire process was undertaken with a lot of rigour, with leading external reviewers providing objective, expert input and international benchmarking. 

Notwithstanding some teething challenges, mainly related to power and Internet connectivity, online CMAP-CPP JFE has been successfully implemented, paving the way for subsequent sessions of the JFE to be delivered either fully virtually or in a blended manner, combining face-to-face and online modes of delivery.

The Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE)

The Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE) is an annual convergence of the Collaborative Masters in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) programme students from the eight accredited universities at a centralized facility to jointly undertake elective courses. 

During the third semester covering four months (August – November), students from all the accredited universities converge at the SFSE to undertake foundation and elective courses by visiting professors drawn from all over the world. The CMAAE programme offers upto 20 elective courses under four specialization areas. The wide range of areas of specialization and the large number of elective courses on offer allows students access to electives that would not be available in their host universities, thus achieving economies of scale- no single university can mount such a wide range of specialization options and elective courses.

Each student is expected to take one foundation course in his/her chosen field of specialization from the following four areas: Agribusiness Management, Agricultural and Rural Development, Agricultural Policy and Trade and Environmental and Natural Resource Management. In addition, a student takes one common course and at least one elective course in the specific cluster or area of specialization. A fourth course can be taken from any of the other specialization areas. The approved CMAAE elective courses from which selections are made are listed below.

Foundation Course  Common Courses  Elective Courses 
Specialization/ Cluster A: Agribusiness Management 
Agribusiness Management  Agricultural Finance and Risk Management  Agricultural Project Planning and Management 
Operations Research in Agribusiness Management Agribusiness Marketing Management 
Agribusiness Supply Chain Management 
Cluster B: Agricultural and Rural Development 
Agricultural and Rural Development  Agricultural Marketing and Price Analysis  Agricultural Project Planning and Management 
Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and Small Enterprise Development  Farming Systems and Sustainable Livelihood Analysis 
Gender and Economic Development 
   Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis 
Cluster C: Environemental and Natural Resource Management 
Environmental Valuation and Policy  Natural Resource Economics and Management 

  

  

 Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis  
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics 
Economics of Climate Change 
Cluster D: Agricultural Policy and Trade 
Agricultural Policy Analysis  Agricultural Marketing and Price Analysis  Agricultural Project Planning and Management 
International Agricultural Trade and Policy  Food Security and Nutrition Policy Analysis 
   Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis 
   Agricultural Science and Technology Policy Analysis

History of the SFSE and Emerging Trends

The first cohort of students of the CMAAE was admitted to the then 5 accredited universities in 2005. Following the CMAAE programme structure, they undertook their core courses in the host universities in 2005 and converged at the Shared Facility for Specialization and Electives (SFSE) at the University of Pretoria to undertake their elective courses in 2006. 

Since then, and until 2019, the University of Pretoria has consistently been evaluated as the best venue to host the face-to-face SFSE. However, since the advent of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020, the AERC, in collaboration with the University of Pretoria has run the SFSE virtually via a combination of the AERC Moodle Learning Management System AERC e-Learning Platform (aercafrica.org) and the University of Pretoria ClickUP Blackboard system and related accessories including the AERC eLibrary. 

The SFSE enrollment has also steadily grown from 46 in 2006 to a high of 117 in 2020 due largely to the removal of the capping of SFSE students to 10 per participating university. This was made possible by the online delivery of courses. On gender, the composition of the SFSE has remainde at an average of 37% female over the years with a high of 44% in 2011 and a low of 22% in 2007.

Distribution of Students by Gender at the SFSE: 2006 to 2021

Cohort of Students Totals Male Female % Female
2020/2021 101 66 35 35%
2019/2020 117 67 50 43%
2018/2019 100 62 38 38%
2017/2018 85 51 34 40%
2016/2017 81 49 32 40%
2015/2016  82 54 28 35%
2014/2015  85 46 39 46%
2013/2014  82 47 35 43%
2012/ 2013 68 43 25 37%
2011/2012 85 55 30 35%
2010/2011 91 51 40 44%
2009/2010 67 42 25 37%
2008/2009 78 54 24 30.1%
2007/2008 53 31 22 42.3%
2006/2007 46 36 10 21.74%
2005/2006 56 39 17 30.36%

 

Since 2012, the CMAAE Academic Advisory Board established an academic board award to the best performing SFSE student every year which comprises of a plaque, a certificate of achievement and a cash token. An interesting observation is that seven out of the 9 best performing students (77.7%) are female. It was only in 2016 and 2017 when the best performing students were male from Egerton University and the univesity of nairobi, respectively (see table).

 Best Performing Students, SFSE 2012-2020

SFSE Year Name  Nationality Gender University
2020 Martha Cheptoek Cherukut Ugandan F Makerere
2019 Devinia Princess Akinyi Kenyan F Egerton
2018 Sankhulani Linda Atupele Malawian F Pretoria
2017 Kanyenji George Magambo Kenyan M Nairobi
2016 Wallace Thoya Baya Kenyan M Egerton
2015 Mahlathi Siphokuhle South African F Pretoria
2014 Asha Nalunga  Ugandan F Makerere
2013 Sithole Nokphiwa Lamie Eswatini F Egerton
2012 Kumwenda Doreen Malawian F LUANAR

 

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