Zambia Officiates the Pre-Launch of the 22nd RUFORUM Annual General Meeting 2026
14th May 2026, Zambia: “Translating higher agricultural education, innovation, and research into action for Africa’s agricultural transformation and development”, is the official theme for the 2026 Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture’s (RUFORUM) Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was affirmed at a pre-launch event hosted by Copperbelt University (CBU) in Kitwe.
Education and agricultural stakeholders alike filled the room to garner insights and share ideas on how to collectively accelerate the immense potential of Higher Agricultural Education (HAE) to bolster Africa’s shared development agenda at the continents leading HAE convening – the RUFORUM AGM. The presence and oration from senior leaders including, the Ministry of Education’s Permanent Secretary for Educational Services Dr. Kelvin Mambwe, CBU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Imasiku Nyambe, the University of Zambia (UNZA) Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mundia Muya, UNZA Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation Prof. Trywell Kalusopa, and RUFORUM’s Executive Secretary Prof. Patrick Okori – provided valuable national and regional perspectives on the broader role of HAE in leading the continents development agenda. Their contributions and commitments advance RUFORUM’s objective to deliver on the vision of vibrant, transformative universities catalyzing sustainable, inclusive agricultural development to feed and create prosperity for Africa.
Officiating at the pre-launch event on behalf of the Minister of Education, the Permanent Secretary for Educational Services, Dr Kelvin Mambwe, affirmed that Zambia’s decision to host the 2026 AGM reflects the country’s proactive stance to advance and forge strategic national, regional and continental alliances in agricultural science, research, and training. He also noted Zambia’s readiness to sign the RUFORUM Charter[1].
Dr Kelvin Mambwe, the Permanent Secretary for Educational Services at the Ministry of Education
[1] The RUFORUM Charter is an official, binding treaty that provides recognition and operational status to RUFORUM in countries hosting RUFORUM Member universities. The Charter grants the organization international status making it easier to coordinate educational and agricultural development initiatives across the continent.
RUFORUM’s Executive Secretary Prof. Patrick Okori commended the Government of Zambia and the RUFORUM member universities in Zambia for their leadership in hosting the 2026 AGM. He provided statistics that evoked urgency for Africa’s collaborative efforts toward agricultural transformation. He noted, “Africa imports food worth USD 110 Billion, a three-fold increase from previous estimates due to sluggish agri-industrial growth and low productivity among other factors.”
Moreover, more than 30% of the food produced in Sub-Saharan Africa is lost annually to poor post-harvest management, valued at over US$4 billion. For Zambia, post-harvest losses are up to 40%, and for fresh foods, they can reach 60%.
He further added, “While unemployment has reduced to under 9.6%, Zambia’s employment-to-population ratio – a metric measuring the proportion of a country’s workforce employed out of the total employable population is 58.3% in general, but 44% for young people in particular. These metrics show higher unemployment for younger people. Yet Africa’s higher education sector, especially its youth, hold promise for the continent’s development, being critical for the non-farm employment necessary to deliver Africa’s 2030 US$ 1 Trillion market goal.”
Prof. Patrick Okori, RUFORUM’s Executive Secretary
In October 2025, the African Union launched the Decade for Accelerated Action for the Transformation of Education and Skills in Africa (2025-2034). This strategic document along with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP-Kampala Declaration 2026-2035 ) are essential for unlocking opportunities for Africa’s young population, and its agricultural sector in the journey to achieving Agenda 2063, the Africa We Want.
Among the outcomes of RUFORUM’s 21st AGM, hosted in Gaborone, Botswana, in 2025, is the pledge by African universities to intensify efforts towards transforming higher education by leveraging science, technology and innovation, as well as their intellectual, infrastructural, and social capital, to underpin the production of graduates and the science solutions capable of driving Africa’s development in the 21st century. These ambitions must be strategically executed to underpin:
- Transformative education whose content and delivery is contextual, relevant, digitally enabled, and aligned with labour market needs;
- Reforms that accelerate the transition toward 4th-generation universities, which integrate teaching, research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and community impact;
- Accelerate impact of artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital tools on the world of work and integrate digital literacy, data science, and emerging technologies into teaching and research; and,
- Actions that support and growth and transformation of agriculture, Africa’s most strategic sector to unlock widespread development opportunity for the continent.
This is why the AGM is so important!
RUFORUM’s footprint in Zambia has strengthened significantly following the inclusion of its member universities: the University of Zambia (2006), Copperbelt University (2014), Mulungushi University (2019), and Kapasa Makasa University (2021). RUFORUM has made strides that align closely with Zambia’s agricultural education agenda. Some noteworthy contributions include;
- Research and Capacity Building: RUFORUM has mobilized grants through strategic partnerships to support research on iron-dense drought-resistant mung beans, bacteriophage cocktails for aquaculture diseases, bio-fortified beans, and aflatoxin management along maize and groundnut value chains.
- Human Capital Development: RUFORUM has supported the training and graduation of 15 PhD and 30 Master’s students, as well as staff and student academic mobility, and the quality assurance of graduate programmes at it’s member universities.
- Support for Young Innovators: In 2016 and 2022, RUFORUM helped mobilize seed grants for young innovators, some of the supported initiatives include:
- Light Up Bio Project: Led by Zambian innovator Mwaka Malaika Sichintu, this renewable energy initiative was supported by RUFORUM. It generates off-grid power and organic fertilizer for rural farming communities using locally available agricultural waste
- HappyFarmer: Founded by Moonga Chowe , a recognized agritech innovator and winner of the RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition (2019), this initiative focuses on empowering rural farmers through sustainable agriculture and digital solutions.
Young participants at the RUFORUM AGM Pre-launch event
These commendable strides reinforce the power and potential that can be realized when young people are supported and empowered. RUFORUM therefore remains committed to expanding and deepening its footprint in Zambia in line with the AGM theme. In this spirit, the pre-launch event also featured youth participants who were given an opportunity to share their perspectives during a panel discussion and through poetry performances, reflecting their aspirations and contributions toward agricultural transformation.
The 22nd RUFORUM AGM is scheduled to take place from 30th November to 4th December 2026 in Livingstone, Zambia.
Poem by: Gilbert Siwale, Abigail Chisenga, Iness Royalty Mwansa and Levy Muchindu
From knowledge to action
Africa rising through its youth
We are the seeds of tomorrow, planted in today,
Rooted in knowledge… but growing a new way.
GILBERT
They told us Africa is hungry.
They told us our hands are too small.
They said young people are tomorrow—
Never today. Never the call.
But we have sat in dusty classrooms
While the rain fell on empty land.
We have watched our mothers in the soil
With no seed, no tool, no helping hand.
[Group – strong, together]
Give us labs! Give us land!
Give us the mic—let us take a stand!
[Solo]
We will turn every lecture into bread,
Every thesis into fields well-fed.
We will code the rain, map the sun,
Show the world what youth have done!
[Call & Response]
Solo: And if they call us too loud, too green, too rough—
Group (echo): Too loud! Too green! Too rough!
Solo: We wear that stigma as a badge: enough!
Group: Enough!
[Build – Solo → Group joins]
Solo: Enough of waiting. Enough of tears.
Group joins:
All: We are the harvest of the coming years.
We are not waiting.
We are now.
We are the hand, the seed, the plough.
RUFORUM—rise. Take a bow.
ABIGAIL
Maybe it’s us
The thinkers, the doers, the bold and the new.
The bridge between what is…..and what we can do
“Nifwe bene tulefwaya ukutwala panshi amano !”
Translation: It’s us who must take knowledge to the ground
We are the link between science and soil
Turning research to harvest and effort to toilet
Because honestly PowerPoint slides don’t grow maize
They don’t feel the sun or edure dusty days
They don’t measure the rain
They don’t fight pest
It’s the hands in the earth and minds that adapt
It’s learning, then doing it – not leaving it trapped.
MISS LOYALTY
They told us of a continent so fertile, and so wide,
Yet hunger still lives where abundance should reside.
We saw the fields and yet empty plates remained,
We saw the sun and yet farmers prayed for rain.
In lecture rooms we sat, just chasing the grade,
Cramming all night just to pass, not trying to create.
Group discussions? One talks, the rest just acts and pretend,
“Ati we agree!” but ninshi we’re lost in the end.
We passed every test… but still had to ask:
Is this knowledge… or just another task?
Bushe ifyo tulefunda, tulechita nshi nafyo?
What are we really doing with what we know?
Because knowledge must move from mind to the land,
From theory to action that’s how we stand.
Higher education is a seed but a seed must be sown,
Not framed on a wall or left there alone.
Because PowerPoint slides don’t grow maize,
And a GPA won’t feed a family for days.
So next time they ask, “What’s your plan?”
We won’t say
All : “Let me check my notes again.
We’ll say i have learnt it before let’s do it again
LEVY
They said growth is numbers
Four point three percent, they claimed.
But we know
Growth is a farmer who feeds a nation
A student who dares to question…
A researcher who turns data into destiny.
A billion dreams…
Breathing at once,Yet dreams alone do not transform nations
It is knowledge applied, Innovation ignited
Education that does not sit on shelves, But walks into fields
Builds enterprise, Feeds communities.
So this is the moment and the time is now,
Not later, not someday but we are here to make the vow.
To turn every lesson into something real,
Not just “copy and paste” but something we will feel.
From classrooms to communities, we are ready to take the lead,
Turning knowledge to action—planting the seed.
All :This is our call …
To rise beyond classrooms without purpose
To build universities that do not just teach
But transform.
Where research becomes action.
Where ideas become industries.
Where graduates do not seek jobs
But create them.
Because agriculture is not just survival
It is power, It is dignity.
It is the heartbeat of poverty’s defeat.
And in this room
Sit the architects of that future.
Scholars. Patrick
Leaders. Gilbart
Dreamers. Abigail
Doers. Loyalty
All :This is not just a meeting
It is a movement.
A movement to turn knowledge into nourishment
Innovation into income…
And education into emancipation.
Let this be the moment
Where partnerships are forged…
Where ideas find courage…
Where Africa decides
That its future…
Will not be imported.
It will be grown.
So let us rise
With purpose in our voices…
Fire in our vision…
And action in our hands.
Because the seeds we plant today
Will feed generations.
All : And history will remember
That here…
In this gathering…
Africa did not wait
Africa began.
Ruforum rise
And take a stance
The end…..
