HED Semi-Annual Progress Report for AHEED (April_2009)

Forming of Administrative Council  PI met with members of AUT and MOA to discuss formation of administrative committee  Members should include representative stakeholders from higher e

Higher Education for Development

Knowledge, Partnerships, Results

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Institutional Partnerships Program

Semi-Annual Progress Report

Due April 30, 2009

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INTRODUCTION

The information partnerships provide create the basis of HED’s partnership results disseminated to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the higher education community USAID will use this information

to report development results to the U.S Congress Your contribution of information is critical to Congress’

understanding of development and the future funding of such programs

 Both the U.S and host country partners should be involved in the writing of this report, whenever possible It is the U.S institution’s responsibility to submit this report by the due date to HED.

 Carefully review the attached Glossary of Terms for key definitions to assist you in completing the report accurately Hyperlinks are available for some terms.

Partnership Title: AHEED: Albania-Hawaii Higher Education and Economic Development Partnership: Increasing

Institutional Capacity in Agricultural Economics

Development Area/Sector of Focus: Agriculture/Agribusiness/Animal Science; Economic Growth & Trade

U.S Partner Institution(s): University of Hawaii at Manoa

U.S Partnership Director(s):

Name: Dr Catherine Chan-Halbrendt

Telephone: 01-808-956-2626

E-mail: chanhalb@hawaii.edu

Host Country(ies): Albania

Host Country Partner Institution(s): Agricultural University of Tirana (AUT)

Host Country Partnership Director(s):

Name: Dr Engjell Skreli

Telephone: 00355 6840 38941

E-mail: ishpp@yahoo.com

Partnership Web Site (if any): http://manoa.hawaii.edu/ctahr/aheed

The U.S institutional partner is required to enter information about all training activities for host country nationals that take place in the United States, the host country, or a third country into USAID’s TraiNet system The results of these progress reports will be compared with data the partnership has entered into TraiNet For more information regarding TraiNet, please contact the USAID TraiNet/VCS helpdesk (703) 527-4340 or jvisa@devis.com.

Please mail or e-mail the completed report and any attachments to your primary contact at:

Higher Education for Development

1 Dupont Circle, NW, Room 1B30

Washington, DC 20036-1193

N.B This is a new address

OVERVIEW OF PARTNERSHIP REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

I QUALITATIVE PROGRAM INFORMATION FOR OCTOBER 1, 2008 – MARCH 31, 2009

1 Describe in bullet form the major activities for this partnership during the past 6 months

(10/1/08-3/31/09)

2 For each of the above activities, describe the results and/or outcomes for each activity; answer in

bullet form if appropriate

If helpful, instead of answering questions 1 and 2, you may use the following chart for reporting the activities and outcomes associated with specific partnership objectives Please feel free to insert additional lines as needed

PLEASE SEE TABLE BELOW

ACTIVITY Process Results OUTCOME

1 Forming of

Administrative

Council

 PI met with members of AUT and MOA to discuss formation of

administrative committee

 Members should include representative

stakeholders from higher education, extension and farm organizations to represent them

 Tentative list of members and terms of reference (list of responsibilities for the administrative

committee) was proposed

 Finalized the list of members and the terms of reference for the

administrative committee

 Formed on December 12, 2008

 Members are: two AUT faculty (Bahri Musabelliu, Dean of FEA and Engjell Skreli, faculty of FEA), two MOA employees (Tatiana Dishnica, Director of the Department of Extension Service, Research and Ag Information in MOA and Irfan Tarrelli, MOA) and Dr Chan-Halbrendt (PI for AHEED project)

 Dean Bahri Musabelliu was elected head of administrative committee

 Committee terms of reference was created

 Committee monitors progress of AHEED

 Convened twice to discuss project progress

 Project on-track

2 Assess

curriculum,

courses, facilities,

research

equipment, faculty,

graduate program

criteria to identify

needs for

curriculum reform

 FEA Masters program courses gathered, reviewed, and compared

to courses from renowned

US universities such as Purdue, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Kansas State University, Penn State University and Texas A&M

 FEA currently developing

a state-of-the-art MS II program that is a system

of 3+2+1 which refers to

3 years in First Level

 Proposal submitted to Ministry of Education for a new FEA M.Sc.II program that

includes 4 new tracks

 4 tracks are: Enterprise Management, Agricultural Economics and Policy, Financial Management and Rural Development

 New tracks require 4 Cores I courses, 2 Core

II courses, 2 Elective courses and thesis research

 4 Core I courses: Applied Economics for Business Management, Research

Methodology, Application of Quantitative Analysis and Seminar in Economics and Agriculture

 New M.Sc.II curriculum and courses proposal submitted

 New core courses to be taught in Project Year 2

& 3 by US instructors with a paired FEA Faculty

 Plan for teaching of Core

I and Core II courses in Fall 2009 and Spring 2010

ACTIVITY Process Results OUTCOME

Diploma + 2 years in Second Level Diploma +

1 year in a masters program

 Core II courses: 2 required courses and they are different for each track

 2 elective courses: chosen from a list of courses specific for each track

 Thesis research required for all 4 tracks

3 Coordinate a

discussion with

FEA faculty,

private sector and

relevant business

leaders and MOA

to discuss areas

where FEA’s

graduate program

needs

strengthening;

Prepared and

conducted baseline

surveys; collect

data on

partnership’s

impact on program

delivery

 A meeting was held and surveys conducted to determine input on what FEA needs strengthening

 FEA faculty and students, MOA, and potential employers interviewed and/or surveyed

Faculty discussions

 Pointed towards a restructured curriculum;

focusing more on management and agricultural economics with added direction

in rural develoment and financial management

Students self-survey results:

 Learning outcomes: Rated higher for knowledge and comprehension gain with 3.81 and 3.89 out of possible 5, respectively;

average on analysis (3.14), synthesis (3.31) and evaluation (3.37); and lower for the application of learned material (2.41)

 Human resource training: Rating for work ethics (4.22), management skills (4.22) and human relations(4.07) rate high, followed by communication (3.84) and global

perspectives (3.57)

 Ratings for skills in terms of real world experiences specifically recognizing career opportunities and performing technical and managerial duties is about average (3.42) along with computer (3.29) and leadership (3.22) skills

 Analytical skills, specifically determining a solution to a problem and using scientific methods for investigations, were rated at average (3.49)

Employers rating on graduate work prepareness

 Ranked communication skills, work ethics, management, problem solving/analytical

 Plan to submit survey results to Administrative Committee in the

Summer 2009 for discussion, strategic planning and

implementation

ACTIVITY Process Results OUTCOME

skills and leadership skills high on their list

of important skills (4.00 and higher)

 Students need to improve on communication (2.80), analytical (2.20), and quantitative (2.20) skills

 Recommended experience based learning as needed for better job preparedness (3.43 out

of a possible 4)

4 Prepare

workshops on grant

writing

 Conducted a grant writing workshop in December 2008

 Workshop was advertised widely in locations such

as extension offices, the university, USAID and to the general public

 The grant writing workshop covered preparation, writing, and submission tips for grant writing and also on logic model/framework

 Completed a grant writing workshop

 47 people participated

 53% of the participants were females and the workshop included people from MOA, FEA, business community and the public

 76% considered the workshop a valuable learning experience for them

 About 60% believed that they would be able

to use what they have learned

 66% wrote that the workshop stimulated their learning

Initiated talk about conducting contracted research with the Albania Agricultural

Competitiveness Project

5 Identifying

research topics

(Priority Setting)

 In December 2008, conducted priority setting workshops

 Advertised to FEA faculty

& students, MOA, business sector and to the general public

 2nd workshop conducted

at the request of MOA

 Presented a systematic approach to

identifying/prioritizing research topics based on a specified goal and

 Conducted workshop on priority setting

 34 on the first day and 28 on the second day for a total of 62 attendees

 Prioritization setting had an average of 32%

female participation for both workshops

 Prioritizing survey was conducted at the end

of the workshop to find out from the participants what the important commodities were to research on Combined survey Results

 Ranked the criteria starting with the most important as being marketability, increase profit, efficiency, export and then

maintaining natural resources

 This prioritized list of commodities will be presented to the advisory committee and extension

to determine the particular issues of these commodities that has to

be researched

ACTIVITY Process Results OUTCOME

criteria

 Demonstrated the approach in an two-step activity: identify a goal and list of criteria for evaluating selected commodities

 Approach used the Analytical Hierarchy Program (AHP) to prioritize the important commodities for research

 Commodities prioritized for research with olives as the most important followed by tomatoes, sheep, potatoes, maize and then wheat

6 Develop

improved standards

and departmental

guidelines for

relevant graduate

research so

graduates

successfully enter

reputable Ph.D

programs and

national workforce

 Faculty of FEA and administrative committee are developing guidelines for research

 Expected output of this process will be research projects in progress, research papers and experiences gained by the students and faculty

Expected outcome would be high quality graduates students

7 Begin planning

for annual

agricultural

economics

symposium to

highlight research

accomplishments

 In December 2008, discussed organizing of

an April conference to showcase research work

by faculty and students

 Planned an April conference organized by AUT and cosponsored by AHEED was set in motion

 Workshop was advertised and submission of

abstracts accepted

 Conference to be held on April 15th, 2009

 Title: “Farm efficiency and vertical integration of supply channels and their roles

to increasing competitiveness”

 Attendance is expected to be 150 participants

 Expected outcome would

be to improve FEA reputation in research relevancy and quality

 Inaugural conference will pave the way to future sustainable annual conferences to showcase relevant research of FEA

ACTIVITY Process Results OUTCOME

8 Encourage

faculty to submit

research outputs to

international

conferences

 Members of the faculty &

students of FEA and MOA had conducted research work

 With encouragement and assistance from Dr Chan-Halbrendt, 2 paper presentations, 2 poster presentations, 1 symposium session and 1 selected paper for an FAO sponsored workshop had been submitted to the IAMA conference to be held at Budapest, Hungary in June 2009

 IAMA is the global premier academic conference for agribusiness, agricultural policies and other food chain related topics

All presentations are competitively selected

Acceptance rate is about 75%

 2 paper presentations, “Assessing quality and safety of food & beverage products: An analysis of agribusiness enterprises in Tirana District/Albania” and “Competitiveness of Albanian agriculture: Value chain study for fruits and vegetable sector in Fier region”

 2 poster presentations:“Assessing the comparative advantage of olive oil production in Albania” and “identifying some key indicators benchmarks

(competitive benchmark) helping meat processors in Albania improving their management decisions”

 Symposium discussion entitled “Market oriented strategies to revitalize Albania’s agricultural industry”

 Symposium discussion will cover the value chain study fo vegetable and fruits,

assessment of the comparative advantages of olive oil, role of extesion and the role of cooperatives

 Selected paper “Value chain structure and governance changes medicinal and aromatic plants in Albania-Implications for poverty reduction and rural development” will be present at the FAO-IAMA workshop

 4 faculty and 4 students,

1 extension director and

1 industry person submitted papers and were accepted at the IAMA conference

ACTIVITY Process Results OUTCOME

9 Assess

Agricultural

Technology

Transfer Centers

(ATTC) for

relevancy,

constraints and

needs to become

full functioning

Centers to support

the Agricultural

Information

Centers and to

assist clients and

community

 Dr Halina Zaleski, an Extension Specialist at the University of Hawaii, assessed needs of extension and farmers in Albania on September 2008

Recommendations:

 Train farmers to operate successful farms through better business management skills

 Focus training on subsistence farms

 Increase KASH involvement in consulting

on beneficial services such as research &

extension for farmers

 Extension needs more localized information and lower reliance on foreign pamphlets

 MOA needs to have better utilization of data collected from representative farms

 MOA/AUT needs to develop a mechanism

to fund research at the university

 Create a system for feedback from users to researchers to provide input regarding results

 Recommendations to be presented to the advisory committee, AUT and MOA

10 Develop skills

on how to create

good plan of work

using logic

framework

evaluation and

impact analysis

 Framework was presented

to FEA faculty and Students via workshop

 Logical framework for planning presented  Expected outcome would

be a good plan of work

11 Communication

& dissemination of

the project

 Design logo, powerpoint template and acquire website address

 Logo created

 Website address acquired

 Internet access at AUT received

 Power point template developed for all presentations and communications

 Increasing awareness of AHEED led to AAC requesting possible assistance in their research needs

 received additional funding from USAID to build an internet

infrastructure for AUT

 Having an internet access greatly enhanced AUT Faculty’s resources for research

3 How are the above activities and outcomes reported in questions 1 and 2 benefiting and/or helping to strengthen the capacity of the host country higher education institution(s)?

3.1 Formed administrative and advisory committees

- Enhance transparency and stakeholders’ inclusiveness in decision making

- Build capacity in monitoring and evaluation of project implementation and priority setting 3.2 Assessed M.Sc.II degree evaluation

- Bring AUT/FEA program to world standards

- Graduates will be competitive on the local and world market

- Graduates will be more prepared to deal with real world problems 3.3 Discussion meeting with stakeholders for strengthening FEA’s graduate program

- Graduates will be trained in skills appropriately to address societal problems

- Faculty will gain knowledge from feedback to revise their curriculum and syllabi 3.4 Conducted grant writing workshop

- Enhance writing skills and grant writing acumen so faculty and students get more external

monetary resources to conduct their work

3.5 Conducted baseline surveys

- Increase capacity to conduct surveys and receive information to develop better and relevant

curriculum, programs, courses and student advising

3.6 Conducted grant writing and prioritization setting workshops

- Increase capacity through introducing tools that would assist in acquiring research funding for

relevant programs or prioritized areas to research The latter will satisfy taxpayers and government for supporting higher education

3.7 Developed improved standards and departmental guidelines for relevant graduate research

- Enhancing a higher educational system that have consistent, quality research which will raise

the opportunity for faculty to advance and graduates to enter into prestigious PhD programs or workforce

3.8 Planned annual conference to showcase research work

- Raise the awareness of the public as to the contributions of AUT/FEA in producing quality

graduates and conducting useful research for policy decisions

- Enhance communication skills of faculty and students

- Enhance networking opportunities to collaborate 3.9 Planned research presentation in international conferences

- Increase awareness and knowledge of AUT/FEA faculty and students on the standards of the

world and receive first class feedback on their research endeavors

- Enhance english skills for IAMA conference participants

- Enhance capacity through opportunities of working with other scientists with similar interests

- Networking with the rest of the world for collaboration and scholarly exchanges 3.10 Assessed Agricultural Technology Transfer Centers (ATTC)

- Enhance faculty ability to conduct relevant research based on the needs of the ATTC

- Improve quality of students with better ATTCs to do internships 3.11 Conducted workshop on plan of work using logic framework evaluation and impact analysis

- Enhance faculty, staff and students in developing better plan of work and at the same time

assessing the progress and implementation of projects and programs 3.12 Disseminating information on AHEED project

- Faculty and students not directly involve with the project have the opportunity to participate in

the activities of the project to enhance their capacity to deliver their job responsibilities such as teaching, research and outreach

- Raise awareness of USAID’s activities for world development

4 How are the above activities and outcomes from this partnership benefiting and/or helping to

strengthen the capacity of the host country community?

4.1 Formed administrative and advisory committees

- These committees include community members such that their participation will enhance their

capacity to contribute effectively and have a stake in the decisions being made

- Those community members involved are getting experience in running committees and work

effectively on committees 4.2 Assessed M.Sc.II degree evaluation

- Community will have a stronger workforce that are highly trained with appropriate skills 4.3 Conducted meeting with stakeholders for strengthening FEA’s graduate program

- Raise awareness of community as to their role in shaping a quality program that addresses

research problems for solving societal/community issues

4.4 Conducted grant writing workshop

- Community members participated will be able to write better grants and be successful to get

needed resources for community development and/or with the funds to contract faculty to work on issues of high priority of the community

4.5 Conducted baseline surveys

- Community members learn how to develop and conduct surveys to gauge the preferences of

particular policies that affects them

4.6 Conducted grant writing and prioritization setting workshops

- Community would benefit from the results of the researched work that faculty and students are

successful in getting the grants to work on

- Gained capacity on how to prioritize their community projects

4.7 Developed improved standards and departmental guidelines for relevant graduate research

- Community will have better solutions for their problems as they will have quality faculty and

students working to solve the problems 4.8 Planned annual conference to showcase research work

- Access to information for the community from research work done by the faculty and students

- Community expands their network with the University faculty and students for future

opportunities to collaborate 4.9 Planned research presentation in international conferences

- Provide quality information on Albania and its community to the world and visa versa

4.10 Assessed Agricultural Technology Transfer Centers (ATTC)

- This will benefit the community by assisting in the process of providing full functioning,

relevant centers that can give support and assistance to community members

4.11 Conducted workshop on plan of work using logic framework evaluation and impact analysis

- This will benefit the community by providing good plan of work that provide results and

impacts from the research work that is deemed necessary by the community members 4.12 Disseminating information on AHEED project

- Community remains aware of the progress and contribution that the U.S funded project is

providing

- Community can assist in providing match making opportunities with other organizations to

work together and not duplicating efforts